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Album Reviews Song Reviews Concert Reviews, Dates, etc News, Interviews, Misc etc
list of bands on this site

 

 

 

Lots of Nirvana News, Never Heard Before Song With Courtney Love, Never Heard Before Kurt Solo Album and More - UNWEAKEST

Misc. News - 4.25.12

nirvana live show download cambridge mass 1990 stop the weakness

Recently we came across a lot of cool Nirvana stuff both we, and most everyone else in the world, never knew about. A lot of it comes from Eric Erlandson, guitarist from Hole who has a new book out entitled Letters to Kurt, and Patty Schemel, drummer from Hole who has a new documentary out entitled Hit So Hard, but we also found a cool Howard Stern interview with Dave Grohl that discusses Kurt a lot.

First up we have this never seen before footage of an unreleased song from Schemel's film. Before you get really exstatic, the quality sucks, and it is just Kurt and Courtney messing around at their house (I think). That being said, it is cool if you are a big Nirvana fan. It's called Stinking of You and I just found out that the full movie, Hit So Hard, is On Demand...so we (you) will have to check that out:

Next up Eric Erlandson went on the record stating that Kurt recorded demos for a full solo album that he said would be Kurt's White Album. Now most everyone knew Kurt was working with Michael Stipe at the time of his death, and many people knew he was going in a new direction, but what that direction was and if anything was ever worked remained somewhat of a mystery. Erlandson told NME that, "[Kurt] was headed in a direction that was really cool. It would have been his 'White Album'. That's really what he was going towards, a solo album but working with different people." He said that only 3 people have probably ever heard these demos and he thinks it would be a shame if that is the way it remained....but he has no control over it. Check out the full article in the above link. Pretty f-ing cool for any Nirvana fan.

Lasly, here is a Dave Grohl interview with Howard Stern from back in 2011. It was a long interview and we are posting the section that focuses primarily on Kurt. Again, very interesting stuff and Stern, per usual, asks pretty intense and personal questions about the future of the band, the impact of Kurt's death, working with Kurt, Courtney Love and....well, yeah, you have to check it out:

 

 

Black Friday Record Store Day - Nirvana, RHCP, Pantera

Albums / NIRVANA - 11.28.11

nirvana nevermind singles collection black friday record store day back stop the weakness vinylnirvana nevermind singles collection black friday record store day back stop the weakness vinyl

We have had a lot of Nirvana on here recently, and this will probably top it off for a little while. Record Store Day has been doing a Black Friday day for the past year or so and I went over and checked it out while at my parents house for Thanksgiving. I didn't remember this store, Johnny's in Darien, CT, ever having vinyl but I was driving through the town and saw people lined up. They had an incredible selection, even better than most of the stores in NY and they still had a ton of stuff from years past. Definitely worth getting out to this store if you are in the NY area. I was even able to pick up the Slayer 7" from 3 years ago or so.

red hot chili peppers blood sugar sex magik black friday record store day stop the weakness vinylSo what do we have here - the Nevermind Singles Collection, Blood Sugar Sex Magik and the Cowboys from Hell Demos. The Nevermind Singles Collection is really just something to purchase as a collectors item. If you are a big Nirvana fan you probably have all of these songs already, but the 10" records and the full packaging was cool enough to pick it up for $60. The Blood Sugar Sex Magik is very cool, though it cost $35. It is 2 red LPs that were cut from the original analog masters. Sounds great. Lastly, I couldn't find this last Record Store Day, but they had it at Johnny's so I grabbed it - the demos from Cowboys from Hell that Pantera released on vinyl last April. Cool pick up for sure if you like the album. All these are 180 gram vinyl.

So yeah, this was a pleasant surprise as I thought I was going to miss out on the day completely. Also there were a bunch of younger kids in line and picking up records which was kind of cool to see as it is usually just older record geeks at RSD.

pantera cowboys from hell vinyl demos record store day release stop the weakness

Nirvana Live Cambridge, MA 1990 - Stream/Download

Misc. Download - 11.3.11

nirvana live show download cambridge mass 1990 stop the weakness

People may have seen this, but it's worth reposting here. Big Nirvana week, so we figured this would go right along. This show was posted by Duane Bruce of WFNX...not sure what WFNX is, but I am guessing it is a Boston station. This show is from 1990 in Cambridge, Mass, and has Chad Channing on drums as Dave Grohl didn't come til later. A few songs from Nevermind but mainly this is pre-Nevermind material.

Here is what Duane Bruce has said about the show, "60 people in attendence on a Thursday night. Kurt had long brown hair and was all flanneled up. Krist was his usual silly self and Chad Channing was on drums. Kurt handed me a t-shirt as we headed for the stage. I read the back of it as I introduced them...."

And with that, here is the stream and below is the setlist:

01 Live Set by Duane Bruce  

 

School

Floyd The Barber

Love Buzz [Shocking Blue cover]

Dive

Scoff

About A Girl

Spank Thru

Breed

In Bloom

Big Cheese

Molly's Lips [Vaselines cover]

Been A Son

Stain

RECORDING ENDS HERE, BUT SUPPOSEDLY THESE SONGS CAME AFTER

Negative Creep

Blew

Stay Away

Nirvana Nevermind 20th Anniversary Edition CD/DVD Set, Especially the Devonshire Mixes - Pretty F-ing Unweak

Albums - 10.28.11

nirvana nevermind 20th anniversary cd dvd setunweak stop the weakness

 

Alright, I already did a review of the vinyl collection so I won't get down to the details as much here. This set is sick though and I really wish that the two were combined - if this had all the vinyl with all the cds/dvds and super packaging it would be incredible. Still this one tops the vinyl which makes sense as it is the limited edition version, hand numbered at 10,000 copies.

So what do we have here that the vinyl doesn't - a 60 page hardcover book, a cd and dvd of the 1991 Halloween show, and the full Devonshire Mixes, which are the mixes that proceeded the final copies. The dvd is sick. Really incredible and right up there with the Reading show that was released a year or 2 ago. If you remember the Lithium video, which is also included on the dvd, that contains a lot of video from this show. Also on the DVD from the With the Lights Out boxset you got to see the Jesus Doesn't Want Me For a Sunbeam performed at this show....so hopefully those give you a good idea of what you are getting into.

Next up is the Devonshire mixes: these are rough mixes done by producer Butch Vig when he recorded the album (it was ultimately mixed by Andy Wallace). This is where music geekery comes in as most people who either aren't audiophile obsessive or who don't do mixing of their own won't give a fuck or notice anything different. If you are in one of those groups though, it is pretty cool. It is a rougher version of nevermind. Not as polished even though the double tracked vocals are still there. It almost makes you wonder if these guys would have been as big had it not gotten the full polish job that it did. You know how most songs are mixed for various types of radio stations to appeal to the listeners of each? Well labels do/did that. Barely noticeable stuff, but if you pay attention closely you can see how different somethings are and how they stand out. This isn't drastic but it is definitely something cool to check out if you know this album inside and out and are into mixing etc.

nirvana nevermind 20th anniversary cd dvd set track list stop the weakness

 

 

Then just for the hell of it I decided to post some pictures of the Nirvana cd collection from way back when dropping $30 on a bootleg was worth it (though sometimes I think it still is):

nirvana cd booklet collection bootlegs unhappy all acoustically on a plain etc stop the weaknessnirvana cd collection bootlegs dressed for success fecal matter out of the blue stop the weakness

Nirvana Nevermind 20th Anniversary Edition on Vinyl - Eh, Unweak but nothing spectacular

Albums - 10.17.11

nirvana nevermind 20th anniversary vinyl unweak stop the weakness

 

Alright, so this collection is pretty sweet, but it could be better. I remember being a little annoyed when the Bleach deluxe edition came out and it was the album plus a full show, as I wished they'd put out demos or something. Fact of the matter is, they have released a lot of demos and if you are a Nirvana nerd, you have probably heard so many unreleased tracks. There are some new ones here and the Boombox recordings are cool (Teen Spirit, Verse Chorus Verse, Territorial Pissings, Lounge Act, Come As You Are, Old Age, Something in the Way, On a Plain), and though I am making it seem slightly lackluster, that is probably due to the fact that I also ordered the Super Deluxe edition which comes with 4 CDs (which is available would have been issued on 8 LPs) and a DVD. The vinyl version shown here is the same as the 2 CD deluxe version.

nirvana nevermind 20th anniversary vinyl gatefold unweak stop the weakness

 

For those of you that don't know what's on here, I suggest just going to wikipedia and checking it out (CLICK HERE FOR THE LINK), but here is a quick rundown of what you've got: the original album, B-sides, recordings from the original Smart Sessions when the band still had Chad Channing and were not yet signed to DGC, boombox rehearsal recordings, and BBC sessions.

nirvana nevermind 20th anniversary vinyl unweak stop the weakness

 

Then just for the hell of it I decided to post some more pictures of Nirvana vinyl...not everything but most of the good stuff:

nirvana bbc sessions yellow vinyl stop the weaknessnirvana bbc sessions yellow vinyl stop the weakness

nirvana greatest hits vinyl stop the weaknessnirvana greatest hits vinyl stop the weakness

nirvana incesticide blue vinyl stop the weaknessnirvana incesticide blue vinyl cover vinyl stop the weakness

nirvana in utero clear vinyl stop the weaknessnirvana in utero clear vinyl original pressing stop the weakness cover

nirvana unplugged black vinyl cover stop the weaknessnirvana unplugged black vinyl back cover stop the weakness

nirvana muddy banks of the wishkah vinyl stop the weaknessnirvana muddy banks vinyl back cover unweak stop the weakness

Artists Talk About Kurt Cobain

Unweak Music - 4.29.11

 

 

 

 

Fender Japan Released Some Ill Guitars - Mutant Mustangs, Kurt Cobain Signatures, Hollow Body Jaguars and Jazzmasters and Others

Videos / Unweak Music - 4.12.11

fender jaguar vintage japanese releases stop the weaknessFender has released some ill guitars recently. Check out these videos. The first one, for the Pawn Shop series guitars, is in english and is pretty sick. These guitars are just mutant versions of their popular guitars, Strat/Tele combos, mutant Mustang with humbuckers. Pretty sweet. The next are in Japanese, but the guitars speak for themselves. Check them out:

 

 

 

sucks but this is the only video I can find of the Kurt Cobain signature Jaguar Fender Japan is making. This was/is always my favorite guitar. I badly wish I could try this guitar out, but you can only get Fender Japan guitars online except for a select few that they are allowed to sell in stores over here. oh well:

 

The Story of How Kurt Cobain Was Almost Killed in Dallas, Tx

Misc. Music - 1.17.11

nirvana kurt almost gets killed in texasAlright, so if you have watched the DVD that comes with the Nirvana box set, With the Lights Out, you have probably seen this. Even if you haven't watched that DVD you may have seen this clip as it's pretty infamous. Kurt hits the bouncer in the head with his guitar and the bouncer goes after Kurt trying to kick his ass. Anyway, I did some research and found out this guy I know used to work at the club, Trees, where this all went down. Here you go, check out what he had to say:

Bleach was a special, like "in" kind of secret for a little while, in Deep Ellum. We had our own hard rock scene going, so when Seattle was really taking off, we kept it a little on the peripheral. That being said... like I said... Bleach was this little face melting nugget with a few folk who coveted such things.

The band I was working for had some ins and outs with record folks, as they were being scouted. Due to this, one of the ins was acquiring a promo cassette of Nevermind. I remember going over to the guitar player's house, to load up the van for a gig that night. The bass player, who was the big schmoozer, and therefore the one with the "ins", was like, "Oh shit... guess what I got today? You gotta hear this.", and he put on Nevermind.

It is no exaggeration that the very moment the first chords of 'Teen Spirit' came through and the drums came in that we were all like, "Holy fuck... here it is... this is THE shit we've been waiting for." We listened to the whole thing through... fucking speechless. Then, we listened to it again. We were late for soundcheck.

The following days, weeks, months... hell, year, I would wind up playing that tape/cd at least once a day. For that time and place, Nevermind was a revelation, a confirmation, an inspiration... total fucking Godhead? Sure, why not?

Two negatives about it, though. One, we had Mudhoney at the club... and oh shit did I love the Mudhoney. As they're loading in, I'm standing in the parking lot talking to a friend and she says something like, "Omg, have you heard the new Nirvana... WOW!", and right at that moment Mark Arm is walking by the van and turns and says something like, "The new Nirvana? It's shit. Total garbage. Fuckin' radio pop.", shakes his head and goes on in the club. So... the unofficial mayor of Seattle rock or whatever the fuck, hated that record... or... maybe he was just jealous. But I remember that as a little bit of a sting, that one of my rock heroes was declaring this masterpiece to be "shit".

The other downer was the Trees show. First off, that show shouldn't have been there in the first place. Trees was way too god damn small. I understood that the show was booked before Nevermind came out... but fuck... they really should have moved that gig. Oversold, hot and sweaty, a security team freaked out and aggressive towards the crowd, a crew pissed off at Kurt's weirdness (some would say asshole-ishness)... all led to complete chaos.

Kurt was really pissed off at the mix on stage or something or other. I had heard he had some troubles at soundcheck and was just a moody pissed off guy in general. Anyway, at some point in the show, he took a guitar and smashed it into the monitor board side-stage. This, obviously, pissed off the monitor man, and subsequently the big security guy (who is friends with the monitor man) who would later become infamous. A few songs later, Kurt lept into the crowd with his guitar and crowd surfed a little. Turner (the big security guy), who was a metal singer and extreme bad-ass had his hands full keeping kids off the stage. As Kurt was trying to get back on stage, the big security guy was pushing waves of kids back like an oncoming tsunami, and pushed Kurt back into the crows. Kurt got pissed about this and hit at the guy's head with the butt of his guitar. Whoops. Turner is over 6' tall, he was the singer for bands called Sedition and Talon, he has skull tattoos running from his shoulder to his forehead... you don't fuck with this guy. So... Turner hit Kurt. Show stops, band mates run over, separate the two before any more damage is done, things are calmed, and the show goes on. (This is all available on the youtubes [below] if you've never seen it.)

At the end of the show, Kurt is hustled out to a cab, while Turner is on the warpath, looking to kill Kurt. He hears about the cab thing, runs outside, picks up a brick, and hurls it through the cab's back window as it speeds away. My girlfriend and I walk out of Trees a little later and run into the Turner... and instead of finding him fuming and angry, we encounter him instead demonically smiling, and he says something like, "Good thing they did that... I was gonna kill that little piece of shit.".

And that is the story of when Kurt Cobain was almost killed in Dallas, TX.

The end.

 

So there you have it. I thought that was pretty good. You can also read an interview with Turner where he discusses the incident here.

Patti Smith - Cover of Smells Like Teen Spirit

Unweak Music - 12.15.10

This is interesting. Patti Smith covering Nirvana. The instrumentation is cool. It is hard to judge a cover of this song as it is probably the biggest most famous song of my life time. Therefore it's hard to judge the goodness of it, but the fact that it's Patti Smith makes it easier to accept. Regardless, it is cool:

Nirvana Cover Comparison

Videos - 11.3.10

nirvana coversNirvana often talked about and promoted their more underground and obscure influences. This is shown through their selection of covers over their career, many of which people did not know were covers. Kurt even recorded a demo full of Leadbelly tunes, in addition to playing In the Pines (Where Did You Sleep Last Night?) live frequently. The best example of this is their Unplugged performance where almost half the songs they played were covers (Man Who Sold the World, Jesus Don't Want Me for a Sunbeam, Oh Me, Plateau, Lake of Fire, Where Did You Sleep Last Night?). Incesticide is another good example with a Devo cover (Turnaround) and a few Vaselines covers (Son of a Gun, Molly's Lips).

There are a bunch more than what we have here and I will do a follow up post, but here is a good start. Nirvana covers vs. their originals. Check out the video page for post.

Kurt Cobain Books - Heavier than Heaven - Not Weak, Cobain Unseen - Different and Really Not Weak, Who Killed Kurt Cobain? - Sort of Not Weak

Books - 4.6.10

kurt cobain books heavier than heaven who killed kurt cobain cobain unseenKurt Cobain died 16 years ago yesterday, so I thought I would throw up some of the more interesting books on him: Heavier than Heaven, Cobain Unseen (both by Charles Cross) and Who Killed Kurt Cobain? by I forget who.

There are a few other Kurt Cobain books that I own or have read, such as, The Journals, Come As You Are (which is supposed to be Nirvana focused and the one written before his death), but these three are the best, most interesting and cover the most ground. Reading these three together will paint a pretty good picture, and I will go into that a little more in a second as some fill holes others leave.

Heavier Than Heaven - This book was my favorite when I first read it. I have read it more than once and had I not read other books and information on the subject, this one would still be up there with a Stops the Weakness rating. This book gives details no one knew, and gives a story like look at Cobain's life. Courtney Love gave Charles Cross the freedom to a lot of the Cobain vault, so he really had good inside knowledge on the subject (look at the next book for proof on that). Therein lies my problem with this book. It has Courtney Love's stamp of approval on it and therefore I don't find it surprising that a lot of details would be left out of the book. Well, not only left out of the book, but Charles Cross takes it upon himself to tell the story of Kurt's final days.....his true fictional story account of his last days. This part is kind of annoying. It was interesting hearing about Kurt leaving the rehab facility and flying back to Seattle next to Duff McKagen, and well, at that point I am not sure Duff would remember what happened, but I am going to accept that part because it is interesting and cool. The rest is just sort of made up. He doesn't talk about any of the controversy regarding Kurt's death and since it reads just like the rest of the story, you are kind of led to believe that this is the truth and how it went down. I am not saying that the conspiracy theories of Who Killed Kurt Cobain? are true, but I think they are definitely noteworthy. There was some sketch stuff surrounding his death and it is just left out of Heavier than Heaven. It is disappointing because the book is pretty great until the end. I guess if the end is a collaboration between Courtney and Cross, well, you can then see how the rest of the book may leave out (big) parts, but all in all it is still a great read and presents a better picture than any book had before. That's why its good to look at the last book, because it balances it out a little bit, or too much.

Cobain Unseen - I need to take more pictures of this book tonight, because it is awesome. I don't know if you can still get this book, and if you can't get it in hardcover, don't bother. I can't imagine what a paperback version would be. This book is better than the journals, and is similar in many ways. It digs through all of Cobains stuff and puts together an interactive book basically while giving a brief biography of Kurt. It has pop out paintings that Kurt did through out his life, as well as cartoons. It has pages from his journals replicated on college lined paper, early Nirvana stickers drawn on those computer sticker sheets of paper, and a whole slew of other weird stuff. I really need to take pictures of it so you can see it. This book isn't about the read as much as it is taking a weird look at Kurt's vault and hoarding abilities. It is way less creepy to read than the Journals too.

Who Killed Kurt Cobain? - Ok, as I said before this book rounds out Heavier than Heaven nicely. I am not sure where I fit in and what I believe after reading this, but what I do know is that these guys kind of shoot themselves in the foot a little by coming across a little too conspiracy theory-y for me. I mean, that is exactly what they are doing, and the facts they present are pretty incredible, but it gets a little crazy at times you have to wonder if their sources are checked and reasonable. I mean....the bare facts alone are enough to make his death questionable and it is not really necessary to bring in outsiders who claim that Courtney hired them to kill Kurt. Though, it is interesting that a few days after El Duce claimed he was hired to kill Kurt, he was mysteriously hit by a train. Still though, the fact that Kurt and Courtney were breaking up, the fact that the band was breaking up and 99% of his suicide note reads like a letter to his fans about that, the fact that the other 1% of the note is written to Courtney and his daughter saying sorry and is written in larger, different handwriting, the fact that at her lawyers office a piece of paper fell out of Courtney's bag that looks like someone very much trying to imitate Kurt's handwriting, the fact that there are no prints on the gun, the fact that people say he had more heroin in his blood to even get the needle out of his arm let alone take it out, put it away and then shoot himself, the fact that Courtney called for an immediate cremation of his body so no proper analysis was done, and the fact that his friends say he was happier than they had ever seen him before, especially Kim Gordon stating something along the lines of, I am not saying anything that could get me in trouble, but I don't call his death a suicide.....all of those facts are interesting enough without going into the crazy theories. Ok, one or two of those things may have been taken from additional sources, such as the follow up book these guys wrote (called Love and Death, I think), but most of it is in that book. Maybe just read Love and Death because that covers all of the first book and more. It is a little brutal reading both in fact. After reading all this stuff it does make you question what happened. All of it could be a coincidence though too....and the authors do check some of their claims, like the heroin levels, and have junkies stating that anyone with a tolerance could have done what he did. Either way, whether or not they make a valid claim for his murder vs. suicide, they do present a lot of interesting facts, and a lot of facts that are omitted from Heavier than Heaven, the breakdown of Kurt and Courtney's relationship and Nirvana's demise, specifically. I pretty much spelled out all the key points of the story up there, so I will leave it at that, but there is a lot of stuff surrounding Kurt/Courtney/Nirvana that hasn't come up elsewhere.

Alright, I will edit this down tonight and add some more pictures, but I am late, so this is done for now.

Them Crooked Vultures - S/T - Extremely Not Weak

Album Review - 4.5.10

them crooked vultures dave grohl nirvana self titled album real real unweak stop the weaknessI know I just bought this, and I know I have only had a few days to listen to it, and I know that is nowhere near enough time to come up with a definitive review, but I just can't get enough of this album. I feel like an idiot for not purchasing this earlier. I think I had super group hate in my blood for some reason, and this whole Josh Homme, Dave Grohl, John Paul Jones thing just seemed too good to be true...and therefore it would just be some bullshit sucking record that doesn't match up to any of their respective bands output and....well...I will stop there and just repeat that I am the one who sucks and I am an idiot. This album rocks. I guess you have to somewhat like Queens of the Stone Age in order to like this, but that is a minor thing. You don't even have to love them, just not loathe Josh Homme's voice as he is the main singer. Beyond that, well, you just have an incredible band. It really is a wonderful mix of QOTSA, Nirvana and Led Zeppelin, but at the same time something new.

The rhythm section here is really what makes the band. You may, as I thought, think that John Paul Jones is out of place. Is he too old? Is he going to fit in with the hard rocking/alternative sound of Josh Homme and Dave Grohl? Well, at first you may have that hesitation but then you think about it this way.... Led Zeppelin rocked and was really a metal band for their time. They were dark and, well, as I said, rocked really hard. Then think about that fact that John Bonham was one of Dave Grohl's big influences and he has a good amount of Bonham in his playing, and it makes more sense that they should work well together. Then add the stoner rock Josh Homme is known for, and that mixes pretty well with Led Zeppelin's psychadelic aspects...I mean, it works perfectly. Better than perfectly. He isn't out of place at all, and in fact is probably the strongest part of the band, or at least the best influence on the band. This is very reminiscent of Stewart Copeland in Oysterhead. JPJ bass work is sort of the leading part of this band. He has awesome bluesy psychadelic basslines that really drive all the songs.

At first I started off by saying that you really need to like Queens of the Stone Age because of Josh Homme's voice, but in the back of my mind I was also thinking, this is basically a Queens of the Stone Age album with Dave Grohl and JPJ in it. When you think about it though, it is almost way more of a new Led Zeppeline album with Josh Homme singing. In the end though, as I stated before, it really is just an awesome mix of the three bands coming together to form something new. It is way more melodic that QOTSA and I am going to venture to say rocks a lot harder too. I mentioned Oysterhead before, and I like that album, and it is really a good mix of incredible musicians. Whether or not you like all the members, they mix pretty well to come up with something fans of either side should like. The problem there is that there is kind of a distinctive split between Trey and Les songs. It is fine because it is more that you can just obviously tell who wrote them, and then musically they fuse together for their sound, but it is easy to pick out which songs belong to Les and which ones to Trey. Here you don't have that. It seems like a legit collaboration that was written together.

Alright, I will stop here. As I started off saying, I haven't had time to really learn the ins and outs of this album, so I don't have specific songs to point to yet. I still just put it on at the beginning and listen straight through. Therefore I will just grab some live clips of songs so you can hear what's up. There isn't a bad song so far in my mind. This is the opening track, No One Loves Me & Neither Do I, and I can't get enough of it. Grohl's beat is so awesome, and JPJ's lap steel is awesome. I mean, the instrument itself is so awesome too. I want that bad. I have never seen anything like it. This performance lacks a little bit of energy, but just a tiny bit, but the quality is way better. That song must have been the first one of the show because check out this, Gunman, and they are into it. Wow, check out Reptile live. The worst part about this band is that these guys are in other bands and a new Foo Fighters album and a new QOTSA album have both been announced. Therefore the previously announced second album from these guys will be postponed. They do have a few tourdates announced for the spring, but nothing close to NY, so there is a chance I may have to wait a while to see these guys too. That is my own fault for not getting this sooner though. Buy this album now, and go see them if you live in one of the cities they are playing so you don't make the same mistake as me. To end this, sometimes when I like something a lot off the bat like this I end up hating it later....I really hope that isn't the case here, and I really don't think it will be. That usually happens with a completey new band, and I have heard from all these guys before. One last song, Bandoliers, because I can't stop watching these videos, so I feel like I should pass them along. This takes a while to get into it, but wait, its worth it.

Nirvana Live at Reading - One of the Unweakest Nirvana Shows Around

Albums

Live at Reading Nirvana unweak to the max stop the weakness unweakIn case you haven't noticed yet, I am somewhat of a nerd collector/hoarder. And in case you can't tell from this picture, I am a Nirvana fan, and I really like this release. I used to have this bootleg when bootleg's existed and you had to find cool record stores that sold bootleg made by KTS and other bootleg companies...and you were more than happy to pay $30 for a single cd trying to compile the full outcesticide collection. Kids (or anyone else) these days don't even buy cds let alone shell out any money for a rare live show...because they are not rare and can easily be found on ye ole internet. I am a loser though. I often buy cds first and if I really like it, I will buy a vinyl copy. Buying vinyl first is a problem, unless it comes with a a free download, because records aren't all that portable.

So....Live at Reading. This is Nirvana at their all time height. I think this may be one of their best shows around. This is the infamous show where Kurt came out in a wheelchair to play off of the rumors that he was a sick junkie, with a junkie wife and a poor newborn junkie baby. He stands up only to collapse before the mic, only then to stand up and start the show. Once they start they don't stop. It is awesome. This was post Nevermind, but pre-In Utero, and they play songs from both albums and everything in between. They play some Wipers, with D-7, and Fang, with The Money Will Roll Right In. These are both awesome songs, and Nirvana played a few Wipers songs throughout their career. Pick up some Greg Sage and the Wipers when you get a chance. You won't be disappointed.

Anyway, as for this release...you can get a CD/DVD combo I believe, but I wanted everything packaged seperately. I would probably pick that up. Most importantly though I would grab the DVD. It is awesome....and sad for any fan that never got to see them. This concert is awesome. I should do, and will do, a review of the deluxe edition Bleach reissue, because that is awesome too. That is them in their prime during the Bleach era, and this is the prime of their career I'd say, though its hard to top the Unplugged show. Anyway, up until recently it was hard to get Nirvana video. You had Live! Tonight! and Sold Out!, but that too was just recently released on DVD. Then Unplugged came after, and the Nirvana boxset had a DVD, but I think this is the first official full concert release, and I have heard a lot of live Nirvana shows, and I really don't think they could have picked a better one. I think this was the biggest crowd they ever played to. It was a festival, so I guess that doesn't really count, but it is pretty cool how the three of them are enough and are big enough for 100k people. I may have just pulled that number out of my ass, but I think it is right.

I don't have the album in front of me, so I am trying to think of what the highlights are without going and looking and without having listened in a while. They play something like 23 songs and get their hits out in the first half. I think that may just be enough out of me. It's awesome. It's good enough to buy the CD, DVD, and vinyl in my book and I have listened to all three formats numerous times even after having this since I was 12.

For the hell of it check out Eugene Kelly and Kurt doing Molly's Lips at Reading the year before.