Nirvana consisted of (Generally) Three members, Kurt Cobain
(Guitar and Vocals), Dave Grohl (Drums and Backing) and Krist (Chris)
Novoselic(Bass and Backing) for most of the time. But during the
making of the first album, Bleach, and a little time before and after,
Dave Grohl hadn't joined the group and instead there was Chad Channing
on Drums. He was sacked because Cobain felt he was inadequate for the band's needs. There was also an additional guitarist called Jason Everman who the band sacked beacuse they felt his musical ideas held them back. Towards the end of Nirvana's career Pat Smear played guitar with them live to back up Kurt. He appears also on the album 'Unplugged in New York'.
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Albums & Singles
The Group as Kurt, Krist and Dave made 4 Albums, the last of which
was a live recording of MTV's 'Unplugged in New York' 1994. This included several covers of songs such as David Bowie's 'The Man Who Sold The World', The Vaselines' 'Jesus Don't Want Me for a Sunbeam' and three songs by the Meat Puppets, then a little known band. These covers were given a large slice of Nirvana's interpretation making them sound very different to the originals in some cases. A cello was used and at times Krist played the accordion. The album also included songs from all Nirvana's albums and it is overall a more mellow and very appealable selection.
Another album was their first with the finalised lineup and probably the most popular, largely
because of the massively overplayed 'Smells Like Teen Spirit'. This
was 'Nevermind'1991. Apart from 'Teen Spirit' the song 'Come as you are', 'In Bloom' and 'Lithium'. There are som really great tracks on here and this is widely regarded as not only the band's most popular album but their most influential and revolutionary in bringing the underground grunge scene into the mainstream.
Several things separated Nirvana from their rivals making similar music such as 'Sonic Youth'. One was Kurt's soulful and uniquely individual style of vocals, at times screaming with huge passion, as in 'Teritorial Pissings', and at others toned down and moody, for example in 'Something in the Way' or 'Polly'. Another difference was their melodies which were woven among the rest of the music. It has been said of Nirvana that their music is "for those who would like to like 'Metallica' but can't stomach their lack of melody." In other words, not out-and-out heavy metal with crashing guitars etc. but punky enough for the metal fans. Their songs move through different moods, some remaining quiet throughout, some having loud and soft periods and others with massive energy from start to finish.
Their second and third albums were, I think, under-rated as they had
good songs on there, although they were more punky. These are
'Incesticide' 1992 and 'In Utero'1993. 'In Utero' is in my opinion Nirvana's best album in that it achieved more what Kurt wanted to do than what the public wanted him to do. It was the most grungy in that sense too. The album was to have included the song 'I Hate Myself and I Want to Die' and been named after it but the song was eventually discarded from it. The song is now only available on the album 'The Beavis and Butthead Experience' on David Geffen Records. There were several singles from the record including 'Pennyroyal Tea' and Rape Me/All Apologies (a double A-side). 'Incesticide' is the most punky and rocky album and consists largely of b-sides and other previous rarities collected and contains some original material not available before. It is still a decent sounding record, however, with one single released from it called 'Sliver'.
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When the group included Chad Channing and Jason Everman, they made 1 album,
there are quite a few tracks and they're slightly different to the later albums. This album was recorded for the legendary sum of just $606 and was the least produced and polished of all their albums: its 'Bleach'1989. Some say this was their best album because of its non-commercial purity and extra guitars. However, I disagree, as I think Chad was not as good a drummer as Dave Grohl and Kurt's music developed more along with his lyrics and melodies as his career progressed. I do however like this album and it's still pretty cool.
In 1997 a new album was released which had
some previously unreleased material, it was 'From
the Muddy Banks of the Wishkah'. This was a live album spanning the entire lifetime of the band. From early tape deck recordings by friends in cramped halls to professional high-tech recording ion the big venues this album captures the live passion of the band and their raw enthusiasm and enjoyment of their music.
Their was also a score of singles which I can't be bothered to
name...
News
It has recently emerged that the remaining members of Nirvana are to release a new box set of previously unreleased material. Dave and Krist have spent years compiling material good enough to go on it. It will include demos and rarities including Scott Litt's remix of "Pennyroyal Tea". Some of the songs were originally intended to have been released with "From the Muddy Banks of the Wishkah" (1996) on a second CD, making it a double album. Courtney Love, Kurt's widow, owns the rights to at least three demos and perhaps more. There is one called "Opinion" and another "Talk to Me". These were intended by Kurt to be released by Mark Lanegan (ex-screaming trees frontman) and Iggy Pop but never were and are now likely to appear on the forthcoming album. The last ever recorded Nirvana song has now been named "Know Your Rights".
