Nirvana Nevermind is 20 years old today, September 24!!!
Where were you when Nevermind was released? This is an awkward confession, but I was merely a year and weeks old when this was released. I was lucky to have an awesome father who lived through the period of alternative rock. I grew up with a certain disdain for my generation's music, and my father would always tell me that "in his days, music rocked!".
So one day, when I was about 13 years old, I gave it a try.
MIND = BLOWN!
I mean it was in my father's playlist whenever he worked, but that was the first time I really paid attention to it. Man Kurt Cobain is a music god. I did some research and indeed daddy was right, Cobain/Nirvana is one of the greatest things to happen to music. Bless his soul.
I can't say much about the zeitgeist of Nirvana as it is was beyond my generation, but this much I can say, the lyrics is beautiful! It really cuts to the generational anxiety (as I can still see in my dad, especially when he goes in his existential grunge mode sometimes at age 46 now lol). the music is restrained, almost structured, yet at the same time always manages to explode at the right moments. The ebb and tide in "All Apologies" summarizes Nirvana's musical corpus - angry yet contained, violent yet deliberate. It reverberates through "Lithium", "The Man Who Sold the World" (this song! The intro solo still gives me goosebumps occasionally), "Heart Shaped Box", "Smells Like Teen Spirit", and others.
Truly, Nirvana was a once in forever event!
Where were you when it happened? Are you part of this grunge rock generation?
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Here are excerpts of this event across the internet:
imo smells like teen spirit is one of the worst nirvana songs... you should check out bleach or in utero... they're way better than nevermind, at least in my eyes. i'm not saying nevermind is bad, it's just not the best.
imo smells like teen spirit is one of the worst nirvana songs... you should check out bleach or in utero... they're way better than nevermind, at least in my eyes. i'm not saying nevermind is bad, it's just not the best.
but anyways... nirvana rocks!!
Dad? What are you doing here on TL? joking. :p I heard them all over and over, nothing beats Nevermind for me.
I have every single cd I could find. Including all the Outcesiticide ones, my favorite song is actually the last song they made "You know your right", and there is a video recording of them doing "Seasons in the Sun" with Kurt on drums and singing, Dave plays guitar I think.
Edit: Kinda sad they are releasing his Cd's like this again really....... Looks like someone needs some money -_-'. Oh and I was born the year Bleach came out (my favorite cd's are Bleach and In Utero). My grandpa lives in Aberdeen, I used to go there all the time.
Edit: Damnit the more I think about them the more i remember all the songs I liked "I Hate Myself and I want to Die" with Beavis and Butthead to start it off : )
I still have this CD in my car. In Utero is probably better though, even if nevermind brings back more memories
unplugged in NY was by far my favorite though. Nirvana was arguably better as an acoustic outfit, even if a lot of those songs were covers. Two of my favorite songs come off of there
I was seven, older guys and girls in my elementary were talking about "the best band in the world, with Croatian in it (Krist Novoselich)" and my first live memory of Nirvana was poster with Krist and Dave where they were touching each other tongues - with tongues!
Back in that days I didn't like them because Kurt seemed like spoiled brat that blaimed world for everything but in reality he had everything and he could change his own reality and world of music. With years I started to love them but I was never a fan, I just know how much they did for music. But I was always more into Pearl Jam :p
Grunge eventually evolved into really, really shitty music, but the origins of the movement remain totally asskicking and potentially lifechanging. I listened to the extra disc in the just-released deluxe edition of Nevermind today, there's a lot of great stuff in there. The "Here She Comes Now" cover was a highlight for me. The shitty-live-mix version of "Smells Like Teen Spirit" is actually better than the studio one in many ways.
On September 25 2011 03:51 Hawk wrote: Jesus shit I am OLD. FUCK.
I still have this CD in my car. In Utero is probably better though, even if nevermind brings back more memories
unplugged in NY was by far my favorite though. Nirvana was arguably better as an acoustic outfit, even if a lot of those songs were covers. Two of my favorite songs come off of there
Just wanted to say thanks for making this thread! I had forgotten that it was the anniversary of the release, and as soon as I saw this thread I had to listen to Nevermind and Unplugged. Good God, I had almost forgotten how amazing Nirvana's music is.
My sister bought it an unknown time after release but not too long since I remember listening to it in february the year after, previosly I had been into beatles and metal but Nirvana really got me sold. My sister got alot of grunge cd:s so I kinda mooched of her I guess. Oh the memories, favourite album would be Incesticide.
Sirius/XM changed their stations this weekend for an all Nirvana/Nevermind/Unplugged celebration. Hadn't listen to the full album in a few years went back and it still gives me nerd chills. Dave Grohl/Meatpuppets at their best, paired with Kurt Cobain. RIP
I always liked the sentiment that for an album filled with primitive guitar and a guy screaming about his personal problems it's such an achievement the songs are so great. It's a great album, even if I probably would have disliked it had I been 15 in 1991.
I was practicing with my high school band--we were "Vertigo Spin" at the time. We were trying to learn "Give it Away" by the Red Hot Chili Peppers. They had released "Blood Sugar Sex Magic" around the same time and "Give it Away" was their first single.
We turned the radio on while we were taking a break and our band chatter went silent..."With the lights, it's less dangerous." Needless to say, we immediately gave up trying to cover "Give it Away" in favor of screaming along with Kurt Cobain.
One of my friends had been listening to "Bleach" for awhile and he mocked us for having ignored Nirvana's earlier material.
I rarely listen to Nirvana now, but that was a huge moment in my life at a time when music meant everything to me.
Oh man, i still remember trying to convince my parents to let me buy the cassette tape. My dad also bought me a copy of Neil Young's Mirror Ball, which i foolishly gave to a friend, because he was convinced that if i was going to listen to grunge i needed to understand the roots. But i think ill have to listen to to this album for nostalgic reasons, if any, since its probably been 10+ years since i have heard it.
Let's not forget the groundbreaking mixing work done for the album by Andy Wallace. Listen to other rock albums from 1991, and you'll hear the difference.
There's lots of panning of instruments left and right, as well as 'forward'/'backward' by using wet (reverbed) and dry (original) signal. The kick and snare are dry, while the rest of the drumkit has lots of reverb. The guitars are multi-tracked whenever possible. I think he must have used a multi-band compressor as well.
If it doesn't sound special, it's because everyone uses those same techniques on albums made today. It was a trendsetting album in many ways.
Some of my favorites, they're just so raw and emotional. I was 12 when Nevermind came out, 1st cassette I ever owned. Made me realize I wasn't the only person who felt society was twisting us.
20 years and we haven't had any rock stars that measure up imo.
nirvanna is not a rock band. Megadeath is a rock band,Metallica is a rock band, Rolling Stones, Beatles, etc. born in 89 and have to live with the realization that rock and roll died before I was born. Hip Hop, Lady Gaga, euro techno dubstep electronic is interesting, but not really rock, probably not even music.
On September 25 2011 07:33 Reborn8u wrote: Some of my favorites, they're just so raw and emotional. I was 12 when Nevermind came out, 1st cassette I ever owned. Made me realize I wasn't the only person who felt society was twisting us.
20 years and we haven't had any rock stars that measure up imo.
The more I think about this the truer it seems. I'm not even a big Nirvana fan, was never much into grunge. But you can't really deny that there hasn't been any new proper rock stars come to light during the past 20 years. There's the odd dinosaur that's been around for a millienia and still not managed to die, but as far as newcomers go they are very few and far between.
Kurt Cobain if u guys haven't read his biography and some interviews, you should... there is a part that kurt cobain saids that when he was a little boy, he wanted to get a job by cleaning dog's poop, but they did not give him the job. "well, if you cant be accepted for this kind of job, what can you expect for your life?" u_u sorry, english very bad.
On September 25 2011 07:40 treekiller wrote: nirvanna is not a rock band. Megadeath is a rock band,Metallica is a rock band, Rolling Stones, Beatles, etc. born in 89 and have to live with the realization that rock and roll died before I was born. Hip Hop, Lady Gaga, euro techno dubstep electronic is interesting, but not really rock, probably not even music.
.......... Honestly your post doesn't dignify a response.
Nirvana was a band devoted to producing an epic live show, and they happened to play a type of music called "Rock". Thus the term Rock Band. Your really trying to say Megadeath is a rock band and Nirvana isn't................ Megadeath was formed in 1983 which happens to be only 6 years before Nirvana's first album. Kirk Hammet didn't even join Metallica until 1983. What is your point again? Kurt would be the same age as those guys right now if he were alive.
Your post makes my head want to explode, and not in the Jack Black good way.
On September 25 2011 01:38 Ninja [X] wrote: Nirvana Nevermind is 20 years old today, September 24!!!
Where were you when Nevermind was released? This is an awkward confession, but I was merely a year and weeks old when this was released. I was lucky to have an awesome father who lived through the period of alternative rock. I grew up with a certain disdain for my generation's music, and my father would always tell me that "in his days, music rocked!".
So one day, when I was about 13 years old, I gave it a try.
MIND = BLOWN!
I mean it was in my father's playlist whenever he worked, but that was the first time I really paid attention to it. Man Kurt Cobain is a music god. I did some research and indeed daddy was right, Cobain/Nirvana is one of the greatest things to happen to music. Bless his soul.
I can't say much about the zeitgeist of Nirvana as it is was beyond my generation, but this much I can say, the lyrics is beautiful! It really cuts to the generational anxiety (as I can still see in my dad, especially when he goes in his existential grunge mode sometimes at age 46 now lol). the music is restrained, almost structured, yet at the same time always manages to explode at the right moments. The ebb and tide in "All Apologies" summarizes Nirvana's musical corpus - angry yet contained, violent yet deliberate. It reverberates through "Lithium", "The Man Who Sold the World" (this song! The intro solo still gives me goosebumps occasionally), "Heart Shaped Box", "Smells Like Teen Spirit", and others.
Truly, Nirvana was a once in forever event!
Where were you when it happened? Are you part of this grunge rock generation?
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Here are excerpts of this event across the internet:
For everyone who loves Nirvana; there is a decent band Unwound that slightly follows apparently dead grunge trend. Commendable release: 'Leaves Turn Inside You'. A song for a proof:
Shit i miss the days man, was around 10y old or so when it came out. Cobain was my idol until i was 15, my all room was plastered with cobain's face haha.
Time to put on the earbuds at work and listen to a little Nirvana. Yes i have 3 albums of Nirvana on my phone Shit never gets old.
On September 25 2011 07:40 treekiller wrote: nirvanna is not a rock band. Megadeath is a rock band,Metallica is a rock band, Rolling Stones, Beatles, etc. born in 89 and have to live with the realization that rock and roll died before I was born. Hip Hop, Lady Gaga, euro techno dubstep electronic is interesting, but not really rock, probably not even music.
.......... Honestly your post doesn't dignify a response.
Nirvana was a band devoted to producing an epic live show, and they happened to play a type of music called "Rock". Thus the term Rock Band. Your really trying to say Megadeath is a rock band and Nirvana isn't................ Megadeath was formed in 1983 which happens to be only 6 years before Nirvana's first album. Kirk Hammet didn't even join Metallica until 1983. What is your point again? Kurt would be the same age as those guys right now if he were alive.
Your post makes my head want to explode, and not in the Jack Black good way.
It would have been better to not try to respond, but my head also wanted to explode.
On September 26 2011 17:52 Nizaris wrote: Thx for making me feel really old.
Shit i miss the days man, was around 10y old or so when it came out. Cobain was my idol until i was 15, my all room was plastered with cobain's face haha.
Time to put on the earbuds at work and listen to a little Nirvana. Yes i have 3 albums of Nirvana on my phone Shit never gets old.
Nevermind's 20th Anniversary or: How old do you feel today?
But I started listening to nirvana even at the age of 8-9 years old...
I remember everything... my brother taught me everything i know about rock music and nirvana, he was the one who got me into liking rock in the first place... today i play the guitar myself, and listen mostly to rock music..
Nirvana was and still is the core of what music means to me. Freedom. Expression of self. Art. Simplicity.
Doesn't matter how Kurt lived his life, or how troubled nirvanas past was.. what matters was and IS the fucking music, nothing else. And the music stays fresh now as it did 20 years ago.. THAT'S A TESTIMENT to GRANDEUR if I ever saw one. Timeless music is what makes it great and relateable.
Kurt had a perfect ear for rhythms, simplicity of what goes great together. ALL nirvana songs are earhangers, virtually every single one, and you can't help feel to sing along with them and identify with them.. THAT'S MUSIC TALENT YOU CAN'T BUY kids.... that's art..
And let's not even start deconstructing his talents of writing lyrical ART. To this day, I have yet to read any other artist that come even close to the brilliance of kurt's writing, even IF they are just mostly garbage and garbble thrown together from poems and what not.. they still FIT together, and that's the beauty.. they connotate meaning...
Each nirvana song can be interpreted the way YOU want, the way it makes YOU feel, and that is pure brilliance on their part, especially kurts.
I love you Kurt, Dave and Krist, And I miss you guys...
Was seven years old when it was released, didn't hear it until much later though. It's such an amazing album. Cover is brilliant, I mean a baby fresh out the womb and already being greedy, few album covers ever get near that kind of statement.
20 years already? I remember being at a family friend's house when news broke that cobain was dead. I couldn't understand why their teenage son was crying at the time, I was still a kid, now I know.
On September 26 2011 18:08 OrchidThief wrote: Was seven years old when it was released, didn't hear it until much later though. It's such an amazing album. Cover is brilliant, I mean a baby fresh out the womb and already being greedy, few album covers ever get near that kind of statement.
the cover is more then that. It's borderline "Anti semitic" since the baby is circumcised, and well that usually means he's a jew. A Jew baby going after money ? sounds pretty stereotypical. I don't think it was very well seen when it came out. pretty epic in my eyes still.
Fuck me, 20 years man. This is like when my pops records were starting to turn 20 years old, but it's happening to my music now.
Here's my take, Nirvana's going to be the last band to come from nowhere and blowup like that and change so many peoples lives almost overnight. It's impossible for music this good to stay this low now and it's also impossible for music this good to have that much success.
There's no such thing as a great record anymore, it's all about the singles not the entire work. When he died the music industry died, there's the odd trickle of great music now but for the most part it's all over.
On September 26 2011 19:15 MasterFischer wrote: We do.
It's a fucking epic song. But ALL nirvana songs are great man... you can't name me 1 fucking song, that isn't just ACE in its own right...
I know but it seems to get over shadowed so much by smells like teen spirit
Ppl who only know and love Smells like teen spirit aren't real nirvana fans to begin with anyway.. so..
just disregard them..
The media don't know shit.. they only ever quote smells like... cos that's the song that everybody knew and liked... but nivana has A TON of other songs which are leaps and bounds better..
Don't get me wrong, it's a good song, but it's overplayed too much
I was 11,heard it first of my cousin who is 3 years older than me,he bought it through the EMP store. Was in it since then.We still listen mostly to this kind of music.
God I remember when Cobain died and I sent to school the next day. Zoe and Carla were these two fucking weird chicks who just loved Cobain in this weird psycho, commit suicide with him kind of way. I used to go up to them in my jean shirt (with the sleeves rolled up, baller) and yell "HE's DEAD AND HE'S NEVER COMING BACK".
Still, they would just sit there sobbing.
Dave Grohl needs to get more credit. Drummer for Nirvana and founder of Foo Fighters. Amazing.
On September 26 2011 20:47 Manifesto7 wrote: God I remember when Cobain died and I sent to school the next day. Zoe and Carla were these two fucking weird chicks who just loved Cobain in this weird psycho, commit suicide with him kind of way. I used to go up to them in my jean shirt (with the sleeves rolled up, baller) and yell "HE's DEAD AND HE'S NEVER COMING BACK".
Still, they would just sit there sobbing.
Dave Grohl needs to get more credit. Drummer for Nirvana and founder of Foo Fighters. Amazing.
Agree.
Dave Grohl is currently the coolest guy in rock, before Kurt died.
Dave gets WAY to little credit as a drummer.. but now hes in foo fighters.. so he gets credit now
On September 26 2011 20:47 Manifesto7 wrote: God I remember when Cobain died and I sent to school the next day. Zoe and Carla were these two fucking weird chicks who just loved Cobain in this weird psycho, commit suicide with him kind of way. I used to go up to them in my jean shirt (with the sleeves rolled up, baller) and yell "HE's DEAD AND HE'S NEVER COMING BACK".
Still, they would just sit there sobbing.
Dave Grohl needs to get more credit. Drummer for Nirvana and founder of Foo Fighters. Amazing.
I'm pretty much musically retarded and i can tell that there's a huge improvement from drumming on bleach to nevermind
I really loved Nirvana at the time and I bought Nevermind, In Utero and Bleach, but that the OP praises their lyrics doesn't make sense to me. It's nothing but inside jokes and allusions to things that nobody but the band knows about. I still liked the lyrics as long as I was one of the guys that just listened, sang along but had no clue what they were about, but once I tried to really figure out what they meant and what they were about I learned that there isn't much really, at least not for outsiders.
On September 26 2011 18:08 OrchidThief wrote: Was seven years old when it was released, didn't hear it until much later though. It's such an amazing album. Cover is brilliant, I mean a baby fresh out the womb and already being greedy, few album covers ever get near that kind of statement.
the cover is more then that. It's borderline "Anti semitic" since the baby is circumcised, and well that usually means he's a jew. A Jew baby going after money ? sounds pretty stereotypical. I don't think it was very well seen when it came out. pretty epic in my eyes still.
Except almost everyone in the US gets Circumcised... True Story. So I don't think thats really the reason they had a circumcised baby and not an non-circumcised one, much more common in during that time, probably still.
:/ I was so sad when I found out Kurt Cobain died, even though it was like 10 years after he died, I just discovered their music and still loving it to this day<3
I grew up in Seattle, birth place of grunge music(and Nirvana), and the city has always had an appreciation for alternative rock, grunge and independent music makers. 107.7 The End is one of the best radio stations I know of featuring that kind of music. I was only a kid when the grunge scene was big, but I recently went back this last year and got some Nirvana albums. I really wish I was just a little older so I could have gotten the full experience of grunge.
Seattle Art Museum had a Kurt Cobain exhibit 2 summers ago, I had to write a short paper on it. Kurt was a very tortured individual, but as a result made some of the best music known to the alternative/grunge scene.
On September 26 2011 18:08 OrchidThief wrote: Was seven years old when it was released, didn't hear it until much later though. It's such an amazing album. Cover is brilliant, I mean a baby fresh out the womb and already being greedy, few album covers ever get near that kind of statement.
the cover is more then that. It's borderline "Anti semitic" since the baby is circumcised, and well that usually means he's a jew. A Jew baby going after money ? sounds pretty stereotypical. I don't think it was very well seen when it came out. pretty epic in my eyes still.
Except almost everyone in the US gets Circumcised... True Story. So I don't think thats really the reason they had a circumcised baby and not an non-circumcised one, much more common in during that time, probably still.
Are you actually discussing a baby boy's penis, by studying it and looking at it.. on..
A FUCKING ALBUM COVER... misunderstanding the entire message?
Pedobear is gonna get you both ! :D
get the fuck out of this thread, both of you. Right now. shooo
On September 26 2011 18:08 OrchidThief wrote: Was seven years old when it was released, didn't hear it until much later though. It's such an amazing album. Cover is brilliant, I mean a baby fresh out the womb and already being greedy, few album covers ever get near that kind of statement.
the cover is more then that. It's borderline "Anti semitic" since the baby is circumcised, and well that usually means he's a jew. A Jew baby going after money ? sounds pretty stereotypical. I don't think it was very well seen when it came out. pretty epic in my eyes still.
I think this is a gross misinterpretation. Circumcision is standard in the US because it is healthy... it's not an antisemitic message at all.
In my opinion, the best nirvana songs (performed by, if not written by) are The Man who Sold the World Lake of Fire Lithium (the 1992 live at reading version)
The entire live at reading album is just so intense. You can feel the energy in the crowd, always amazing to see captured on a CD
Heh, I smile at all of you guys who are freaking out about how old you are because you were 12 or less when Nevermind came out. Christ, I was in high school... and I remember sitting in a drafting class with my friends, and instead of doing our work we would all be huddled around a drafting table writing down and trading the chords for these songs. There was no internet then or at least no internet that anyone had reliable access to (yeah, bloody ancient times), so the only way we could trade ideas and sheet music was at school.
I was lucky enough to be around for the death of Punk, the rise of New Wave, the demise of hair bands, the birth of Grunge, the popularizing of Industrial, and how all of it came crashing down with the emergence of formulaic pop-music that is churned out (seemingly) for nothing but money. I've seen pretty much every major 90s band in concert numerous times, including Nirvana. It feels nice to look back on it all and know that I was witness to such a big cultural event (in terms of music).
Somewhere, in the middle of this mob of people, is a younger me:
(and if you've ever been to the Opera House in Toronto, you know how absolutely tiny it is... awesome).
Personally, I think the 90s was the best decade for music in a long, long time. Albums like Nevermind are certainly part of that. I absolutely love the feeling I get when I put on old music like this - and I look forward to all of you music lovers in this thread having the same experience when you're my age
I was 11, so yeah, this is my generation. Five friends pooling their allowances to buy a single electric guitar, and all learning to play on it. None of us became particularly good, but you had to be pretty hardass to pursue a passion on that age.
We sold playboys in school to get a second guitar.
We all joined the school band so we could skip PE and use the band room to rehearse after school.
The band provided us with a do not give a fuck attitude even at that age. We picked fights with high schoolers, mostly because we could run faster than them haha.
There are better albums than Nevermind, but this one changed our lives. So fuck the other albums. Belated twentieth.
EPT
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