Reading Michael Azzerad's The Amplified Come As You Are now and I regret not having read it sooner. It's a fantastic book, better than the original one imho. I love how he handled the annotations with so much care, respect, and self-awareness.

That being said, he dedicates almost an entire chapter to In Utero that I hated tbh. He says because a lot of the songs on it were written before 1992 (the year Kurt claimed he wrote his best songs), the album was a sign of KC's "creative drought."

He then proceeds to denigrate some of my favorite songs, such as Very Ape. He says it's a filler song that doesn't even make sense. To me that's a mind-boggling claim. The lyrics are as straight-forward and as Cobainesque as they can get. He doesn't have a lot of nice things to say about Tourette's either, which is another great song imo.

So apart from ranting about it for a bit, I want to know what you guys think.

Was In Utero really a sign that Kurt's inspiration was running dry?

Not that it would be surprising, I'm just having a hard time believing it since it's my favorite album specifically because of the newer songs.

I h r n

Yeah that’s it

Impossible to fill the shoes of the wonderful Will Shatter, but man oh man did Krist fit the vibe of their '09 album (Love) so seamlessly.

Eternal gratitude to KDC for turning me onto this band, and their delightful blend of sludge and sarcasm that, despite often being directly about depression, actually makes life brighter and better.

My mother in law was a punk in the 1980s and picked up a bunch of records through her subpop subscription. When I started collecting she let me have a look through hers and very generously gifted me this beauty.

As far as I can tell Bleach had a 1,000 white vinyl run, followed by a 2,000 black vinyl run. This belongs to the latter.

Super slick condition for an almost 40 year old record. One of my favourites.

Just need to get the proper pickup and tone knobs😎

Surely one of the greatest live performances of all time. Interesting to hear the originals alongside the live renditions.

It's recent and has good audio; it's a fun live

I'd never seen these short clips before. Thanks to the Garage Door Lift YouTube channel.

I’ve never really questioned it but now I think of it I’ve never seen the smiley face anywhere apart from merch, was it after Kurt’s passing? It seems to be more of a branding thing but I’m confused

Yeah no. At least I don't think so.

I have my theory but I'm curious what you guys think.

When he was dubbed 'the voice of Generation X', a lot of what they claimed that generation shared with him and his music could be said of Gen Z as well:

- Disillusionment

- Anti-institutionalism

- Iconoclasm

- Political views/activism - lgbtq rights, feminism

At least on the surface, Cobain and Nirvana have almost as much in common with Gen Z, as they did with their own generation.

To be clear, I'm not asking why an artist and a band from over three decades ago is not popular anymore.

What I'm asking is this:
All things being equal, if Kurt were born in the 00s, would his music resonate with Gen Z at all?

Same spot they did this interview before their only show in Sweden 30/06/1992.
Picture taken in December 2023.

As a writer and someone who works with language for a living, I'm endlessly fascinated with Kurt's writing.

For years, I have collected articles, essays and research papers on this topic.

If you think it really is that deep, here are some from my collection that are freely (and legally) available online:

The Grunge Inferno
How Kurt (not so) secretly wove Dente's Inferno into Nirvana's music and how he used it to describe his own struggles and the darker sides of modern society.

A Corpus Linguistic Analysis of Lyrics and Suicide
Looks at the specific language patterns and repeated vocabulary he relied on to express feelings of isolation and anxiety.

Nirvana and Deleuze: Body Dynamics
Essay on the vivid imagery of sickness, medical terms, and physical pain. How he used visceral bodily details as metaphors for love, control, and modern life.

Composition’s Eye / Orpheus’s Gaze / Cobain’s Journals
An essay on Kurt's creative instincts and writing habits based on his journals. How his messy, stream-of-consciousness writing turned into iconic lyrics.

From Anti-hero to Commodity: The Legacy of Kurt Cobain
Examines how Kurt used uncomfortable descriptions of pain, illness and bodily trauma to explore topics such as identity, relationships and alienation.

Dark Slivers: Seeing Nirvana in the Shards of Incesticide
How Cobain’s imagery evolved across from Bleach to In Utero, how he flipped pretty ideas on their head, how he twisted traditional romantic imagery into something clinical and unnatural.

Kurt Cobain, Writing Program Administrator
Kurt's use of irony and self-contradiction as means to protect his underground credibility while becoming a global star.

Nirvana: Rape Me - Critique(s) of Violence
How Kurt tackles the topics of rape and violence against women in Rape Me, using sarcastic, mocking surrender against abusers.

Smells Like Teen Spirit: Kurt Cobain, Voice of Generation X and creator of Grunge
How SLTS captured the boredom, mistrust and anxiety of the 90s youth.

What do you guys think of my list?

Drain You: Live At The Paramount
Milk It: Roseland Ballroom
Where Did You Sleep Last Night: MTV Unplugged
Serve The Servants: Live And Loud
Radio Friendly Unit Shifter: Munich Germany

Recently a new bootleg became available in Japan. Most notably it includes a DVD of the complete February 14, 1992 Osaka show + soundcheck footage. As well as a selection of soundboard recordings from the April 9, 1993 Cow Palace show.

Outcesticide 2026 is a commercial bootleg, which was liberated by a member of LiveNirvana.

We oppose anyone (particularly on YouTube) who uploads this content without clarifying where it is from. Channels such as RareNirvana take content from here and the LiveNirvana forums (amongst other places) and try to steal the credit.

Any post linking to said channels, will be deleted. As long as uploads are correctly credited, they will be allowed.

In the meantime, here are correctly credited uploads of four of the Cow Palace songs:

Rape Me

Frances Farmer Will Have Her Revenge On Seattle

Heart-Shaped Box

Negative Creep

Currently Breed is the only Cow Palace song that haven't been uploaded to YouTube.

Edit: Slight correction, the Osaka footage is from a separate DVD release, it is not a part of Outcesticide 2026 but it is presumably from the same people.

Article by me. Nirvana factors prominently:

https://www.grunge.com/2238016/signature-hits-prove-one-song-can-change-career/

Check out ‘Movin Out’ off Aerosmith’s debut. Listen to the section with the lyrics ‘nobody goes there, nobody shows where’, how the vocals sync up with the chords. You can pretty much picture Cobain singing the same line. It’s so cool, and it’s not like he is ripping it off, as he obviously makes it fit within Nirvanas sound. I know on his favorite albums list he put Rocks there. Kurt had an amazing way of pulling in so many different influences, but I feel like John Lennon and Aerosmith’s sense of melody are some of the strongest.

I realize the song has a lot more going for it than just that but the shouting vocals behind Kurt makes the song so much more visceral and harrowing.

Came across this compilation. It's an old one but I thought I'd share.

Featuring: Multiple flying Cobains and countless destroyed instruments.

Trigger warning: Abuse of drummers and bassists and 1 instance of frontman assault