Slang Editorial :: Never Underestimate The Value Of A Holla'

Thursday, January 07, 2010
Been A Fan

This is, I believe, the first and probably last time I will ever write about Nirvana:

For the past month I have been overcome by yet another one of my biannual Nirvana swoons, whereby I read an article about an upcoming Nirvana release and suddenly dive back into their catalog, wondering whether I might fall in love with Kurt & Co all over again. In 2002, it was the release of "You Know You're Right"; 2004, the With The Lights Out box set; 2006, Live! Tonight! Sold Out! re-release; and now this year, the Live at Reading release. It always happens.

Like many men my age, I loved the shit out of Nirvana in the early to mid 90s, listening obsessively to their four studio records, and then MTV Unplugged, and then (far less so) the '96 live record From the Muddy Banks of the Wishkah. But also like many kids of that age, I was mostly interested in the hits, and so what got perhaps the most plays of all was a homemade tape I made compiling the singles/best from Nevermind, In Utero, and Incesticide, plus and "About a Girl" and "Love Buzz" from Bleach (ie, a variation of this). Despite the at-the-end-of-the-day greatness, Nirvana were a band that spent a lot of time pumping out non-poppy sonic sludge, and this meant that a lot of tunes were frequently passed over by me during the band's '91-'95 heyday (though I loved the shit out of the uncharacteristically tuneful Unplugged)

Of course, as I grew older, the way I heard music changed and eventually a more developed and nuanced sense of taste and patience led me back to many of the tunes I'd previously overlooked, namely the snarly In Utero, the second--non-singles--halves of Nevermind and Incesticide (my feelings on Bleach though are still more or less the same).

The first point I really remember reconnecting with Nirvana in an adult-fashion was my freshman year of college, almost immediately after getting there that fall. I had at that point had been getting heavily into indie rock for the few years prior and was no longer really giving much time to anything I'd cared about musically between ages 10-14. Nothing new Nirvana-related was released at the time, but this was in the heyday of Napster and I remember that a boy down the hall from me would blast a bootleg called Outcestide featuring lots of Nirvana I'd never even heard before$$$. At the time I generally had a policy of disavowing bootlegs for their shitty sound quality and the fact that a band may not have intended for people to hear the material~~~, Outcesticide, hearing Cobain screaming through my hall made me pick up his records and get into them all over again. I gave each of them many spins, but rising above it all was both the joy and sadness of finally understanding the shining moment that is In Utero, far and away the best thing Nirvana ever put to record.

The tunes on In Utero are an astonishing mix of melody and rage like almost nothing else. Beginning with opener "Serve The Servants", the searing guitar wails of which are like the broken bit nails of bloodied fingers screeching down a chalk board--ie, magical aurality that resonates intense terror deep within one's gutheart. In Utero is a record that pummels and rarely relents; even mid-record quiet moment "Dumb" feels like a welcome*** and a momentary two and a half minute breather between devastation. When some people are down and out, they want to drown themselves in seas of blunt-force sound ala thrash or Merzbow or whatever, but when I'm on the mental shitter I want more than ever to hear my rage led by the voice of someone who understands me and feels my pain and truly there are few other records I can think of that I so significantly connect with in these kinds of moments than In Utero.

From there In Utero stayed in my general disc rotation, but the rest of the catalog drifted away for the next couple years until late 2002 when the much ballyhooed "You Know You're Right" leaked to the internet and suddenly, for the first time since '96^^^a best of featuring nothing else new--bad feelings muted because once again I was connected with the great records I'd forgotten.

In 2003, I began for the first time in almost ten years to care about rap music again and my thoughts went elsewhere, returning Nirvana to its place on the backburner again until Christmas 2004 when, finally, my prayers were answered and the longcoming Nirvana box With The Lights Out was released. I did not immediately pick it up though and was stunned after seeing review after review panning it as a disappointment. Bewildered, I finally got the set and discovered that my fears were confirmed--that there was in fact almost no "secret gold" to speak of.

Despite the fact that With The Lights Out is well-worth a listen and filled with recordings few have heard before, the bottom line is that it was actually tremendously short on new songs. Of the 51 songs, the vast majority were either previously released b-sides, very rough demos or pre-Bleach tunes (presenting little value to me). Leaving just four actually new, previously unreleased peak-era (90-94) songs--"Old Age", "Verse Chorus Verse", "Return of the Rat", "Do Re Mi" (only a demo but worth it). This is not to say that I'd had much exposure to many of the additional b-sides and so they were still welcome to my hears, but it meant that more than half of the box amounted to poorly recorded demos and late 80s sludge. Boo. As perhaps an unintentionally ironic homage to the past, I fashioned myself a 16 track "Condensed Version" of the set boiled down to the good new songs and b-sides plus the 3 decent sounding songs from disc one I was remotely interested in ("Pen Cap Chew", "Even In His Youth", and "Token Eastern Song"). And even this, honestly is a bit of a bummer road.

But while I'm describing this irony as coincidental, it also hits upon the fact that as great as Nirvana were in theory, they were tremendously overrated as an actual band that made records. Because, at the end of the day, they really didn't make that many records--just TWO great albums--Nevermind and In Utero, plus Unplugged, since it's basically completely different--and the rest is a tremendously mixed bag of random gems and forgetable filler. Incesticide has probably 8 or so great tracks and 7 toss-offs and, again, Bleach has two great tracks and a lot of promise. Some of the b-sides and outtakes are GREAT ("Sappy", "Verse Chorus Verse", "Old Age", "Do Re Mi", "Return of the Rat", and Dave Grohl's proto-Foo "Marigold@@@ namely), but the rest are fresher and cleaner versions of the forgettable early shit ("Curmudgeon", "Oh the Guilt", "I Hate Myself And Want to Die"). Which, at the end of the day, doesn't amount to a lot of quantity.

But... god... the highs. Honestly. The best of this fucking band is just so good, such a precious and unique combination of power, rage, His Voice and tunefulness that few have ever approached. So much so that, outside of played-everywhere-forever "Teen Spirit" I will probably never truly tire of hearing this band. And if you could come up with some kind of ratio of "never getting sick of a band" to "amount of tunes recorded" they would probably be the King Ducks.

POSTSCRIPT:

What else is there left to say about Nirvana? Well, let me say a few final things about the live releases--in particular, the new Live at Reading--and what might still be unreleased.

The Nirvana MTV Unplugged release is, of course, canonical--so great and significant that it is arguably as important as either In Utero or Nevermind. And if you like Nirvana, you've most definitely listened to it a million times all ready, so I won't say anything more about it.

From The Muddy Banks of The Wishkah, while a solid live record, was mostly significant to me upon its release for the aforementioned release of "Spank Thru" (actually Kurt's first ever song). As having always been an "album guy", I always had mixed feelings about this release and it's up-and-down sound quality--but, it is without doubt a great and worthy record, and if you could handle the lesser fidelity, it serves as a superior single disc primer to the tame 2002 best of. I should listen to Muddy Banks again, because I haven't in years since my cd was destroyed and I'm curious what i'll think about it in light of...

... Live at Reading, the newest and possibly last (for a while) release by Nirvana of any value. While having the added value of feeling like a whole rather than a compilation of odd parts, Reading outperforms Wishkah for also being more energetic, frenetic and fun. Plus it features one more dangled carrot in the form of never-before-released "The Money Will Roll Right In"--definitely forgettable "minor Nirvana", but still noteworthy in 2010 nonetheless. In fact, the only bummer road about Reading is that, like Wishkah, it too favors album cuts over b-sides (understandable, but a disappointment to crazy people nonetheless), and that the show took place in 1992, meaning that only three cuts from In Utero appear--"Tourette's", "All Apologies" and "Dumb"--and the latter two are somewhat gestational. But seriously! If you have any space in your life or heart in 2010 for Nirvana, you should really pick this record up.

And the rest? Krist Novoselic said last March that, sadly, there are no unreleased Nirvana songs left and "there aren't going to be any new Nirvana records%%%." Outcesticide and Chosen Rejects collections. A lot of the best material on both of these five and four disc sets has since been released on With The Lights Out, but have fun with the rest if you really gotta.

POST-POSTSCRIPT

That's pretty much it. Last I leave you with a shitload of footnotes, a handful of arbitrary "Top Five" lists and five mp3s worth checking out. Of the mp3s, I'm giving you:

--two tracks from Live at Reading, including "new to you" "Money Will Roll Right In"

--"Ain't It A Shame", a weird tongue-in-cheek Leadbelly cover from 1989 that is the closest Nirvana ever got to country

--"All Apologies (demo)", from the Chosen Rejects comp, in an early, laid back form sounding almost like Ryan Adams (well, not really). Would go from curious to amazing were a) the lyrics actually written and b) the vox not buried in the sand. But it is what it is.

--"Love Buzz", a great version from largely unreleased Peel Sessions

OK.

NOTES:

$$$ -- It's entirely possible hearing these tunes and being surprised I didn't know anything about them is what first triggered my future obsessive desires to collect the fuck out of the detritus of any band that I ever truly loved.

~~~ -- Umm, yeah... seriously. It's hard for me to believe it as I type, but I remember those faux-righteous days so clearly. Things change, indeed.
*** -- "Dumb" and In Utero closer "All Apologies" are children to Nevermind quiet counterparts "Polly" and "Something In The Way", but where each of the latter two lag with energy and sag with forced "intensity", In Utero's softer moments enrapture and possess, and "All Apologies" of course doesn't even stay quiet, as it opens up and rages for its outro chorus.

^^^ -- The live record Muddy Banks of the Wishkah was released in '96 and contained the more or less unreleased track "Spank Thru", the first and only "new" Nirvana track since In Utero.

@@@ -- Curiously, you can hear an audience member shout out "Marigold" in the video version of MTV Unplugged after Kurt says "What should we play next?" Obviously this wasn't happening.

%%% -- Confirmed by the shockingly exhaustive and comprehensive available documentation of every Nirvana session (found here), which makes it clear what is and isn't left.

FIELD STUDIES

"Suggested bass and treble positions" printed in the liner notes to In Utero. I have never before or since seen a band do this.

The Five More Or Less Best "Nirvana Records" In Order Of Personal Favoritism:
1. In Utero
2. MTV Unplugged
3. Nevermind
4. Live at Reading
5. Incesticide

The Five Favorite Nirvana Songs Of Jeffrey Beaumont, In An Actual Order:
1. Serve the Servants
2. Drain You
3. All Apologies
4. Molly's Lips
5. Old Age

The Five Best Nirvana Songs You May Have Never Heard (All Of Which Are On The Box Set):
1. Old Age
2. Verse Chorus Verse
3. Sappy (formerly called "Verse Chorus Verse")

4. Do Re Mi
5. Return of the Rat (Wipers cover)

Five RandomNotes On Nirvana I Would Like to Share:
1. In Utero is by far the best Nirvana record
2. The Butch Vig production on Nevermind is total shit and makes that record sound dated in a way that the rest of their recorded music--even Bleach--doesn't.
3. "Something In The Way" would have been more effective without the strings, and possibly even just as Kurt acoustic.
4. "Drain You" is the best song from Nevermind
5. I wish this asshole had kept his shit together because he probably could have made a few more great Nirvana records

Five Nirvana Songs Available For You Now:
1. Nirvana - "Drain You", from Live at Reading

2. Nirvana - "The Money Will Roll Right in", from Live at Reading

3. Nirvana - "Ain't It A Shame", demo from Leadbelly Sessions, released on With The Lights Out

4. Nirvana - "All Apologies (demo)", bootlegged unreleased demo, from Chosen Rejects

5. Nirvana - "Love Buzz", from unreleased Peel Session 1989

Labels: heroes, loved sounds, memories, mp3, music

posted by Nihilist Loves Hate, Hates Everything at 1/07/2010 09:48:00 PM 2 comments

2 Comments:

Sarah Jane said...: Interesting opinion. I am intrigued to hear the box set now.

I wish he had kept his shit together too but it in some morbid way it feels like he had to die when he did. As his note quoted Young: ""it's better to burn out than to fade away."; 1/08/2010 10:54:00 PM
Nihilist Loves Hate, Hates Everything said...: That, I think, is the strange disconnect we allow between Romance and Humanity--that we can get caught up in the Romance of Art to see Artists as Vessels to conduct and transmit the great voltage of life... while letting go of our understanding of them as simple, mortal humans.

I can't say that it didn't seem like he lived as if he had accepted that things would end roughly and early, but I do think it's fascinating the way that we attempt to free art from the natural bondage of humanity.; 1/11/2010 02:39:00 AM