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Today marks the 20th anniversary of the suicide of Kurt Cobain......for me this was a gut-wrenching experience, honestly, as I suffering from one of my periodic bouts of depression at the time, anyway, and was a huge fan of Nirvana.....the music of Nirvana was VERY important to my feelings about music itself....during the 1980's, I had basically given up on rock n roll....there WAS, of course, plenty of good stuff released in the 80's, but the trend was no question downwards, in opinion, after the punk/new wave/metal/glitter excellence of the 1970's....anyway, "Nevermind" in 1991 changed all that, making me realize that it WAS still possible for great rock music to be made, and of course, after opening my mind up a little bit, I realized that not only were Nirvana a truly GREAT band, but also, so were Pearl Jam and Soundgarden and Green Day and Hole and Smashing Pumpkins and so many more....a musical rebirth for a 30 year old who (thought he) knew everything to know about music and the directions it can take.
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Anyway Nirvana remain one of my favorite listening experiences to this day....since I've been doing this blog, I really haven't done much with them, at all, mostly because I have so very MUCH material, 500-600 discs worth, that I really don't know how to approach it.....I had thought of, as I said the other day, dedicating the whole month to posting Nirvana boots, demos, rarities, but, I'm not going to.....it would betray the concept of versatility that defines why I think many who enjoy the blog do so.....I will do another post or two on Nirvana yet this month, really still don't know how to approach it, 500 discs is a WHOLE lot, but let's see what we can do here......
Well, how about ten discs today? I would think that the six disc "Outcesticide" set is likely the most well known of all the many Nirvana rarities sets, but perhaps also the most comprehensive, even theough as a listening experience, the "everything but the kitchen sink" approach is sometimes a little overwhelming, although perhaps not as much as trying to cull through 500 discs and select ten of them to post.....as well, more than one edition of "Outcesticide" exist, actually quite different ones, which makes footnoting from where the material comes nearly impossible....I would have a hell of a time getting ALL of these uploaded AND having to reference from which demo session, which live performance, which radio broadcast, that all of these tracks came from, Wikipedia lists a SOMEWHAT different track listing as the ones I have here, so the the track lists below are simply the song titles.......Disc I, "A Tribute To Kurt Cobain", has a couple of versions of "Sappy" which was a great song they performed live often, version of The Velvet Underground's "Here She Comes Now" and Kiss'"Do You Love Me"......also Courtney Love's rambling eulogy.
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Disc II, "The Needle and the Damage Done" has them covering the Who, the Doors, and also a version of "Smells Like Teen Spirit" that features Flea of the Red Hot Chili Peppers on trumpet(!)..
Disc III "The Final Solution" features a lot of poor quality audience recordings, "Teen Spirit" recorded at MTV Studios, and a version of "Dumb" with Melora Creager on cello. Disc IV "The Rape of the Vaults", continues with a mix of both audience and soundboard live tunes....Disc V "Disintegration", has another mix of strange cover material, The Cars, Boston, and also one that I really enjoy, a version of Hole's "Asking For It" on which Kurt contributes a very eerie background vocal which were mixed out, apparently, before the final version that appeared on "Live Through This", a favorite track mine, in listening to it now, Kurt's vocal is positively chilling.....Disc VI "It's Better to Burn Out That To Fade Away", is not even listed on the Wikipedia page, or on most other sites I looked at, but MINE has 6 discs, for sure, and doesn't sound any worse than the other five discs, hell, I don't know, I have ANOTHER "Outcesticide" set with four discs, which is VERY different from this one, maybe we'll get to that one next time.....
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Let's also add "The Demo Tapes 1988-1990", obviously pre-Nevermind stuff, a lot of the stuff on "Bleach" appears here in rough versions, there are also early versions of "In Bloom", "Breed", and "Stay Away" which eventually, of course, wound up on "Nevermind".
A two disc set, entitled "Very Fucking Rare", has some overlap with "Outcesticide", but also in continuing with showcasing the band's ability to cover most ANYTHING and make it sound like "their own", versions of tunes from Deep Purple, The Stooges, Lynyrd Skynyrd, and Cher.....alot of other oddball random stuff, the "Gothic Version" of "Teen Spirit", this set takes the same course as "Outcesticide" by carpet bombing material from many sources.
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"Play the Fucking Guitar, Man" is a good early live set, which includes stuff a 1989 Vienna show and one from 1990 Sacramento......again, more pre-"Nevermind" stuff that most of us (including me) never existed until "Smells Like Teen Spirit" grabbed our attention.
Geez, I feel like I haven't done ANYTHING here, really.....I'll put up some more tomorrow, I have around 300 live shows of varying quality and TONS more demo recordings and the like, I juse to stop somewhere, but it's just so difficult to properly tribute such a great and important band, especially one that is so important to me personally.......obviously I'm a "fan", but honest to God, I can't think of a SINGLE Nirvana song that I absolutely hate, well-known "All Apologies" may be my least favorite (haven't REALLY thought about it) song, and it's by no means horrible or anything.
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Gonna have to do some more tomorrow, this just isn't enough.....we'll see where I stop, but I knew this would happen. Perhaps my favorite band ever, rivaled perhaps only by Roxy Music, the Clash, and maybe Sleater-Kinney, I could honestly listen to their stuff every day and NEVER get tired of it.....thanks so much to Dave Grohl, Krist Novoselic, and especially to Kurt Cobain for their contribution to the soundtrack of MY life, as well as the lives of many others.
Rest in Peace Kurt Cobain, I'll have some more tomorrow, PLEASE SHOW SOME PATIENCE waiting for the links I may not get them all up tonight, but here for the next couple of days we are going to be hearing some Nirvana, I guess.....tomorrow, I'll try to find 8 or ten complete live shows from each of their developmental stages. If you have something you want to specifically request, please do so and theirs a good shot I may have it, so now is the time to ask. Just give me a little slack on getting all these discs upped, I have been sick for a few days and fallen behind on things, sorry....
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OUTCESTICIDE I-01 If You M/02 Downer/03 Floyd the Barber/04 Paper Cuts/05 Spank Thru/06 Beeswax/07 Pen Cap Chew/08 Blandest/09 Cracker (Polly)/10 Misery Loves Company (Seed)/11 Sad (Sappy)/12 Do You Love Me/13 Been a Son/14 Token Eastern Song/15 Opinion/16 D-7/17 Imodium (Breed)/18 Pay to Play (Stay Away)/19 Sappy/20 Here She Comes Now/21 In the Pines/22 Return of the Rat/23 Talk to Me/24 Courtney Love's Eulogy
OUTCESTICIDE II-01 Bloom/Imodium (Breed)/02 Help Me/03 Oh the Guilt/04 Smells Like Teen Spirit/05 Pennyroyal Tea/06 It's Closing Soon/07 Heart Shaped Box/08 Scentless Apprentice/09 Been a Son/10 Something In the Way/11 Negative Creep/12 In the Pines/13 Baba OReilly/14 The End/15 Lithium (Mix 6)/16 Dumb/17 Molly's Lips/18 Verse Chorus Verse/19 The Man Who Sold the World/20 Smells Like Teen Spirit
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OUTCESTICIDE III-01 Rape Me/02 Pennyroyal Tea/03 Drain You/04 Mariglod/05 Dive/06 Mr. Moustache/07 Blandest/08 Even In His Youth/09 Polly/10 Smells Like Teen Spirit/11 Serve the Servants/12 Dumb/13 Tourette's/14 Aneuryism/15 Oh the Guilt/16 Dive/17 About a Girl/18 The Money Will Roll Right In/19 Verse Chorus Verse/20 Curmudge/21 High on the Hog/22 Rawnchola/23 Beans
OUTCESTICIDE IV-01 Pennyroyal Tea/03 Spank Thru/04 Territorial Pissings/05 Smells Like Teen Spirit/06 Rape Me/07 Pay to Play/08 Scoff/09 Love Buzz/10 Floyd the Barber/11 Here She Comes Now/12 D-7/13 Drain You/14 About a Gil/15 Lithium/16 Blew/17 All Apologies/18 Radio Friendly Unit Shifter/My Sharona/19 Sappy/20 Clean Up Before She Comes/21 Black and White Blues/22 Montage of Heck, Parts 1 and 2
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OUTCESTICIDE V-01 Asking For It/02 Love Buzz/03 Verse Chorus Verse/04 Lithium/05 Rape Me/06 On a Plain/07 Stain/08 School/09 Molly's Lips/10 Aneuyrism/11 Love Buzz/12 Floyd the barber/13 Downer/14 Mexican Seafood/15 White Lace and Strange/Spank Thru/16 Suicide Samurai/18 Hairspray Queen/19 Pen Cap Chew/20 More Than a Feeling/21 My Best Friend's Girl/22 You Know You're Right
OUTCESTICIDE VI-01 School/02 Heart Shaped Box/03 Lounge Act/04 Stain/05 Blew/06 Aero Zeppelin/07 Something In the Way/08 Sappy/09 Very Ape/10 Marigold/11 Habanera/Jesus Doesn't Want Me For a Sunbeam/12 Demoliton/13 Smells Like Teen Spirit/15 Stain/16 Scoff/17 Big Cheese/19 Oh the Guilt/20 Scentless Apprentice
VERY FUCKING RARE DISC I-01 Talk To Me/02 Anorexorcist/03 Bambi Slaughter/04 Clean Up Before She Comes/05 Crisco (Rock Whore)/06 Divine and Bright/07 Down in the Dark/08 Formledehyde/09 Gothic Teen Spirt/10 Gypsies Tramps and Thieves/11 I Feel Fine/12 I Hate Myself and I Want To Die/13 Immigrant song/14 In His Hands/15 Jealousy/16 Kurt Cobain-Ultra Rare (?)
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VERY FUCKING RARE DISC II-01 Laminated Effct/02 Lithium/03 Lounge Act/04 Lovegun/05 Me and My IV/06 Moist Vagina/07 My Best Friends Girl/08 My Sharona/09 Her She Comes Now/10 I Wanna Be Your Dog/11 Formaldehyde/12 Old Age/13 My Best Friend's Girl/14 Smoke on the Water/15 Suggestion/16 Suicide Samurai/17 Sweet Emotion Jam/18 Sweet Home Alabama/19 White Lace and Strange/20 You Know You're Right (Acoustic)/21 You've Got No Right/22 Do Nuts
DEMO TAPES 1988-90-01 If You Must/02 Downer/03 Floyd the Barber/04 Paper Cuts/05 Spank Thru/06 Beeswax/07 Pen Cap Chew/08 Aero Zeppelin/09 Beeswax/10 Mexican Seafood/11 Pen Cap Chew/12 Mr Moustache/13 Blandest/14 Downer/15 Floyd the Barber/16 Paper Cuts/17 Spank Thru/18 Jam/19 Lithium/20 Sappy/21 In Bloom/22 Breed/23 Stay Away
PLAY THE FUCKING GUITAR MAN-01 Hairspray Queen/02 Love Buzz/03 Floyd the Barber/04 Dive/05 About a Girl/06 Spank Thru/07 Big Cheese/08 Sappy/09 Breed/10 Been a Son/11 Negative Creep/12 Blew/13 Vendetagainst (Fuck Up)/14 School/15 About a Girl/16 Polly/17 Molly's Lips/18 Sappy/19 Stain
Again, I appreciate your patience in my getting these links up, but I wanted to be certain, at least, to get the text portion of the post up today, on the EXACT 20 year anniversary date of Kurt's tragic end......Kurt and Nirvana deserve at least that much.
Good, spacey EP from 2007 compliments of LSD and the Search For God.....from San Francisco, perhaps NO band ever selected a more perfect moniker.....they sound EXACTLY like you'd expect....trippy, droning, hypnotic. I like it a good bit, actually....another of those "File under "Not For Everybody" efforts, but isn't that why we're all here anyway?
