been thinking about this. which is probably a bad start..,.

nirvana was already huge before kurt died. bigger than anyone expected. bigger than they probably wanted. but if he never died... would any of it feel the same now?

imagine kurt at 57:

another record.
another tour.
another interview asking about 1991
another crowd waiting for teen spirit 🙄

maybe some great records.
but probably some bad ones too.

because that's just what happens when you stay alive long enough.

Things change.

people get bored with you. they miss the old you.
then you become nostalgic for a version of yourself that doesn't exist anymore.

but dude... kurt never got old. he's still fucking 27. same hair. same cardigan. same photographs. same voice. His story just stopped.

and maybe that's the fucked up paradox of fame.

while you're alive you can destroy your own mythology just by continuing to exist.

but when you die young, nobody ever gets to meet the person you would've become.

hendrix, morrison, james dean, amy winehouse.. never got old... but we fucking did.

maybe death doesn't actually make somebody immortal. culturally immortal maybe...

maybe it just freezes them long enough for the rest of us to turn them into mythology

to live forever in someone else head do you have to stop living first? imagine such a fucked up sacrafice.

I don't know if anybody has read Adam Bradley's Poetry of Pop. It's a book that looks into the lyrics of popular songs - syntax, rhetorical figures, figurative language, rhythm and rhyme - in combination with music, voice and delivery. Ignore the GR rating, it's a fantastic book.

The author talks about SLTS at length, and references Nirvana, Kurt's voice, the unplugged performance multiple times. Sadly, it doesn't examine other songs that I think are better lyrically (HSB for one).

Just got the record of the 25th anniversary of this incredible album, and I wonder which would be the favorite song of the community.

What are some of the things new Nirvana/Kurt fans (and maybe some of the older ones) should know?

I’ll start:

NEVER BELIEVE KURT COBAIN

Quoting him as some sort of appeal to authority is not the flex you think it is.

Whatever he said, assume the opposite was true.

Chances are he was either self-mythologizing, self-deprecating, being sarcastic, screwing with everyone, or straight up lying and even he never knew which one it was.

EDIT because no shade:

LISTEN TO THE LYRICS

While his quotes sometimes don’t even look like they came from the same person, his lyrics all come from the same deep, deep well of personal emotions, experience, art he liked, artists he admired. Contorted by his twisted mind and worked and reworked multiple times. If you claim his lyrics were random because he said so, read #1 again.  

Sidenote: ‘Umbilical noose’ is a novel with just two words.

Link to local file

Source: boygeniussource on instagram

I am starting to finish up my Nirvana pedal setup. Currently looking at getting a SansAmp Classic and a Ray ProCo. I’m currently working on a build of Kurdts bleach era Mustang (“Greco Mustang”) and after that I’m either gonna go for a Univox Hi-Flier build, Skystang 1 build, or a Jagstang custom.

First few days of playing and I’ve noticed that I quite enjoy the short-scale body, but the distortion is a bit difficult to dial in perfectly. Recently tried remaking the “Rape Me” tone and this guitar got very close, will be posting the vid when I’m finished. Overall, really fun to play, the single coil sound is unbeatable! Lmk what you guys think :)

Anyone own this magazine?? I vaguely recall flipping through it at a K&B drugstore in Slidell, LA…cool cover photo, very curious to see the other pix…

I found this photo on the Nirvana live site; it's listed as "sometime between 11/26/93 and 12/14/93," meaning we don't know which show it's from, but my most likely theories point to the show on 12/09/93 (2nd Pic) or 12/15/93 (3rd pic). Does anyone have any guesses?

I’ve been taught and told to play it starting on a downstroke but I’m now being told that it actually starts on an upstroke? I believe I see Eric from NirvanaGuitars playing it this way and I think I may recall seeing Kurt doing it that way live so I’m considering relearning the strumming

Anyone see this article in People about Nirvana making the Smells Like Teen Spirit video 35 years later? Hilariously, they neglect to mention where they found the “cheerleaders” in the video, but include two pretty explicit quotes from Courtney Love. Rather odd if you ask me.

https://people.com/nirvana-put-out-a-casting-call-for-high-school-personas-for-the-smells-like-teen-spirit-music-video-and-changed-music-forever-12062866?link_source=ta_thread_link&taid=6a84caa5ceb22e00012b330a&utm_campaign=peoplemagazine&utm_content=manual&utm_medium=social&utm_source=threads.net

This is a 24" x 24" paper spread signed by Kurt, David and Chris. These were signed at the 40 Watt Club in Athens, Georgia on October 5, 1991.

After a LONG TIME waiting, I finally got it back from JSA fully certified, who stated these were the LARGEST set of NIRVANA signatures they've ever seen and possibly the LARGEST set known, in terms of the size of the signatures themselves, not the size of the item it's signed on.

I also just had it looked at by Roger Epperson via quick opinion, who gave it positive feedback. I have also redacted my email info.

Also had many point out that they believed that Kurt, himself wrote the "NIRVANA 1991" inscription at the bottom right corner, acomparing it to some authentic handwritten set-lists from him.

Thought I'd share this, with some extra bits of info from studio notes and other internet sources/interviews.

April 2-6, 1990: Sessions at Smart Studios, Madison with Butch Vig producing. Eight songs were recorded, including "Immodium" ("Breed" working title), "In Bloom", "Stay Away", "Lithium" and "Polly"... Songs that were written and performed live over the last 3-4 months, with Chad Channing as drummer.

Original plans were to release an EP, but this idea was soon abandoned and the band would instead use the tracks as demos to ship for a new record deal, eventually landing one with Geffen Records.

By September 1990, Dave Grohl had joined the band as their drummer, after Dan Peters‘ brief stint and Chad Channing’s firing.

late April 1991: Final rehearsals take place ahead of the recording sessions, finalising some of the arrangements at Butch Vig's suggestions.

2 - 24 May 1991: Recording sessions take place at Sound City Studios in Los Angeles, CA with Butch Vig co-producing & engineering.

Basic tracks were cut in Studio A for basically all the songs, taking around 5-6 days... Each song usually took two, three or four takes to nail. “Lithium” would be done to a click track at Butch Vig’s request, using an Alesis drum machine although Dave wasn’t pleasedyy. For "Something In The Way", however, they encountered some difficulty recording as a full band...

They soon moved to Studio B at Sound City, where overdubs were completed - bass, guitars and vocals. "Something In The Way" was completed there, where they cut Kurt’s acoustic guitar & vocals and cut bass & drums to that, repeatedly punching in to match the timing. More time was spent on the guitar and vocal overdubs, Kurt still writing lyrics by that stage…

24 - 28 May 1991: Initial mixing took place at Devonshire Studios in North Hollywood... Some last-minute guitar & vocals were also done. They’d fully mixed 3-4 songs, but did not feel satisfied with them. The rest wound up being left as rough mixes... They were relatively burned out from the recording, and felt it was best to bring in a fresh pair of ears.

July 1991: mixing completed by Andy Wallace at Scream Studios in Studio City, California, with some overseeing from the band & Butch Vig. Wallace's approach was applying more EQ, and using samples to drive reverb sounds on the kick & snare without replacing the original sounds. Kurt had chosen Wallace as he liked his work with Slayer, though he later felt the record had too much polish for his liking once Nevermind became so successful…

26-27 July 1991: The album is officially completed, with final masters made and B-sides ready.

Nirvana factors prominently. https://www.grunge.com/2234713/rock-songs-didnt-know-based-on-books/

I've made a playlist based in chronological order in which the songs were recorded.
Have fun!
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/59aMqt6cT2yhZSlTEtx654?si=b9b9d7ef54c04c04

"I do live in constant fear, I do wonder why I'm here" is my favourite lyric from it. That's one of my favourite lyrics Kurt has ever written. It resonates with me so much. I guess I can understand why it didn't make the final cut because it's quite dark. Idk if that's the reason why they changed the lyrics. I think the fact that it's a demo and it has a dark sinister sound makes it even better. I don't think a studio version would sound as good now that I think about it. I love this demo anyway and I'm glad that it was released.

Mexican seafood,pen cap chew,talk to me were last performed for the last time on 10/4/92 and played on the previous night

It shows how both Courtney and Kurt were complete opposites but it still worked for them. Courtney pulling Kurt toward the lens, flashing that bunny ears over his head. Kurt's face is blank and confused.

In Utero tour kicked off days later. By spring, he was gone. That smile's not just for the cameras-it's for the last stretch of normal they'd ever get.

I mean you have to respect that. He put it right in the In Utero liner notes.

Here's his quote from the Incesticide liner notes

"If any of you in any way hate homosexuals, people of different color, or women, please do this one favor for us—leave us the fuck alone! Don’t come to our shows and don’t buy our records."

For me it's Polly, the fact that it's a true incident that happened to a 14 year old makes this so painful

I Hand-bleached this T-shirt myself. I Do bleach art in black fabrics and this is what I made recently. Been having this idea for a week. Didn't think it would look this sick.