did nirvana tour in utero

Inside The Making Of Nirvana’s In Utero: “When Courtney Love turned up it affected things. It was stressful for Kurt…”

Dave grohl, krist novoselic and producer steve albini recall the making of nirvana’s final studio album, in utero..

Convinced they’d compromised their punk ethics with the glossy Nevermind, Nirvana resolved to make their third album a stripped-back, no-frills affair – whether their record company liked it or not. Cue an intense 10-day recording session with their hardcore hero Steve Albini at the controls, and an LP that would alarm the band’s label and cause a rift between band and producer. Read on for the curious story of IN UTERO, the group’s final studio album.

BRENT SIGMETH WAS SURE of three things as he turned up at Pachyderm Recording Studio for the first day in his new job. First, he knew that none other than Steve Albini was booked to come in. Second, he knew that Steve Albini was coming in to record a band called The Simon Ritchie Bluegrass Ensemble.

Right away, this sounded curious. Who the hell were The Simon Ritchie Bluegrass Ensemble? Brent had certainly never heard of them. Although Albini had recorded at Pachyderm before, it was to make albums with established artists of some renown, notably The Wedding Present and P.J. Harvey . Situated 40 miles south-east of Minneapolis, surrounded by woods and with only the ‘town’ of Cannon Falls (population: 3,400) by way of local civilisation, Pachyderm is an isolated residential studio, offering clients comfort and privacy. Distractions in the immediate neighbourhood are few; bands go there to get away from the irregularity of their ‘normal’ lives, to get a job done. Although not the most expensive example of such a facility, it was way beyond the means of most of the bands Albini worked with, recordings which usually took place at his home studio in Chicago.

All this, and the fact that ‘Simon Ritchie’ was actually the real name of Sid Vicious, led Brent and his colleague Bill Satler to conclude that if Albini was bringing in a band requiring a pseudonym, then this was not just any band. Whoever it turned out to be, Sigmeth was sure of a third thing: that one of his chores on his first day as house engineer at Pachyderm Recording Studio was to drive to Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport, collect the mystery outfit and take them to what would be their home and workplace for the next fortnight. He was not expecting a group of bluegrass musicians.

Midway through February 1993, thick snow lay on the ground in Cannon Falls. Minnesota winters are notoriously harsh, with temperatures struggling to rise above double digits below freezing. So when an articulated truck loaded with band gear arrived that evening, it was unable to negotiate the final hill up to the studio. When Brent and Bill, the outgoing engineer, took a four-wheel drive van to help out, the true identity of Pachyderm’s latest clients became known: Nirvana.

“And then I had to go to the airport to pick them up,” says Brent. “On my first day at work! Which was kinda wacky. I was supposed to hold up a sign that said ‘The Simon Ritchie Bluegrass Ensemble’. Which I didn’t! I just waved at them. Kurt and Krist were coming through and I said, I’m your ride. They figured it out.”

When Brent Sigmeth started work at Pachyderm he was fresh out of engineering school and looking for a job. Having grown up in Cannon Falls, it seemed common sense to approach Jim Nickel, Pachyderm’s owner, and see if he’d give this local boy a shot. Nickel hired him, and Brent was still settling into his new home when his illustrious housemates arrived.

“So there I was, this person pretending that he wasn’t a bit star-struck and confused about how Nirvana showed up in his living room almost unannounced!” he laughs. “It seems surreal now, ’cos it was the first thing I was involved with here. It was definitely really super-inspiring that as an engineer I got to see Steve Albini work. He’s brilliant. I think it’s his overall grasp on the engineering tools he works with. He knows what he’s using and he knows what he’s doing, he’s very intelligent about it. He’s all about sonic integrity, which I appreciate. I think him and Nirvana was a really cool union of creative people.”

Few now would dispute Sigmeth’s assessment. In Utero was then and remains today an awesome piece of work. As well as a torrid personal treatise from a troubled but fearless artist, it also presents some of the most graphic rock ensemble performances ever committed to record. At the time, however, and at each stage of its genesis, the third Nirvana album was an object of often fierce, sometimes bewildering contention. Much of this centred upon two factors: the phenomenal commercial success of Nirvana’s second album, and the subsequent decision to make its successor with Steve Albini.

Of course, had Nevermind not disrupted the weft and weave of popular music so fundamentally, their teaming up with Albini would hardly have been worthy of mention. Slightly but significantly older than the band, Albini recognised them as people and knew the cultural milieu from which they had sprung. His years playing and touring with Big Black and Rapeman made him a contemporary of Sonic Youth, considered the model for independent bands operating with integrity on a major label. Nirvana signed to Geffen’s DGC imprint in early 1991 largely because Sonic Youth had done so two years previously. Nirvana’s managers were also Sonic Youth’s managers. Success, inasmuch as Nirvana had bothered to conceive of it, would be to sell as many records as Sonic Youth.

Or maybe the Pixies. On completion of Nirvana’s first UK tour shortly before the end of 1989, Kurt Cobain told this writer that his favourite album of the decade was “definitely Surfer Rosa by the Pixies”. The record had been produced by Steve Albini. In April the following year, Nirvana were making the long journey from Seattle to Madison, Wisconsin for their first recording session with Butch Vig, who would eventually produce Nevermind. On the van stereo was Surfer Rosa. Krist Novoselic remembers the scene vividly.

“We were somewhere like Montana or North Dakota. Chad was driving, I was in the passenger seat, and Kurt was sitting in this chair in the back that was higher up than the others. He’s sat there, like he was in a throne (laughs), gripping the elbow rests, and then he lifts up his finger, like an edict, and he goes, ‘This shall be the snare sound we shall have!’ And then the tyre blew out. Pow! I guess it was kind of a fulfilment of that edict.”

In particular, Kurt was drawn to how Albini managed to convey the natural acoustics of a rock band playing together in a room. Which was absolutely not how Nirvana were represented on Nevermind. With its double-tracked vocals, drum samples and radio-friendly gloss, Nevermind was a synthetic impression of what Nirvana really were, as much a tribute to the work of mixer Andy Wallace as anything the band actually played.

IT'S INTENSELY BEAUTIFUL BUT AT THE SAME SIME IT'S VERY DARK AND ABRASIVE. WHEREAS NEVERMIND WAS KIND OF LIKE A BUBBLEGUM RECORD. Krist Novoselic

“I know Kurt liked the way Nevermind sounded,” says Novoselic. “That was just a reaction, a reaction to a lot of things. It was kind of a reaction to get Albini. We didn’t wanna be sell-outs and Albini is known for having integrity. It just seemed like it made sense, going back to our roots instead of just making another really slick album. The material on the record, too, was dark. It’s a dark record. It’s intensely beautiful but at the same time it’s very dark and abrasive. Whereas Nevermind was kind of like a bubblegum record.”

ONCE NIRVANA HAD DECIDED that their third album would not be a retread of their breathtakingly popular second, then Steve Albini was the perfect choice of producer. For a start, he famously disavows the notion that he ‘produces’ records at all. Instead, he strives to ‘record’ bands the way they sound, taking pride in doing a good, professional job. Whether or not he likes the band’s music is secondary; an irrelevance, even.

Nirvana had always recognised the value of gesture politics: working with Albini was a single-digit salute to the forces of commerce, to whom they had sold their soul and then watched it commodified like a zesty new brand of processed cheese.

“After Nevermind, we had the power,” Dave Grohl told Q writer Phil Sutcliffe. “Our A&R man at the time, Gary Gersh, was freaking out. I said, Gary, man, don’t be so afraid, the record will turn out great. He said, ‘Oh, I’m not afraid, go ahead, bring me back the best you can do.’ It was like, ‘Go and have your fun, then we’ll get another producer and make the real album.’”

“I don’t think they were behind it!” laughs Novoselic. “But we’d sold enough records to do whatever the hell we wanted.”

The week before he got a phone call from Kurt Cobain asking him whether he might be interested in making a record with Nirvana, Albini had been moved to write a letter to one of the British music weeklies denying a story alleging that he already was. Months of unfounded speculation that his name was on the producer’s chair for the new Nirvana album had, he claims, cost Albini work among his underground peers.

“I started seeing stuff in the fanzines that I was above working with the small bands, that I had ‘sold out’, that I had done this horrible thing. And at that point, I hadn’t even spoken to the band. I had never spoken to them! I think I did get a drunken phone call from Kurt one night while he was on tour, maybe a year prior, but he didn’t identify himself…”

Once he did get the invitation from Cobain, Albini had to excuse himself and embark upon a little homework. “As absurd as it sounds, at the time I wasn’t that familiar with Nirvana’s music. Y’know, I had heard it at other people’s houses. I couldn’t count myself a fan at that point and I didn’t think particularly that they were the best of the bands of that generation and of that geographic/temporal nexus. I picked up their other records and listened to them. It didn’t really change my impression. Their weakest album is obviously Nevermind. It’s also the least representative of the band as I knew them. As their friends described them, that record was the least like they were.

“I GOT A DRUNKEN PHONE CALL FROM KURT ONE NIGHT WHILE HE WAS ON TOUR, MAYBE A YEAR PRIOR, BUT HE DIDN’T IDENTIFY HIMSELF.” STEVE ALBINI

“There was a strange intensity to all their records, and there was a sort of subtle perversion to almost everything that came out of Kurt’s mouth that I liked. And Dave Grohl is an absolute monster of a drummer, so it’s hard to imagine a record with him drumming on that wouldn’t at least be fun to listen to.”

Thus brimming with enthusiasm, Albini spoke once more to Cobain. He suggested he write up a proposal of how they might make a record together, what the good and bad approaches would be. Even at this preliminary stage, Albini showed his hand unambiguously: virtually everything he suggested was the diametric opposite to how Nevermind was recorded. They would work quickly and efficiently, the way Nirvana would have worked when left to their own devices in the early days. The record company wouldn’t like this, of course, but then in Steve Albini’s vision of how to make the next Nirvana album the record company wasn’t part of the equation. They weren’t even going to be paying for it.

“Let the band be in charge of everything… I was suggesting they make the record themselves, using their own money. I’d give them whatever assistance I could, but I wasn’t going to get particularly involved with the music, I wasn’t going to be making musical suggestions. It would be my standard job.”

The band agreed. They would go to Minnesota for a self-imposed deadline of two weeks and make a record with Steve Albini. Recording costs: $24,000. Much wrangling then ensued between Albini and Gold Mountain Entertainment, Nirvana’s management company, about how much he was going to be paid. Gold Mountain suggested a form of royalty arrangement, whereby Albini would recoup a percentage of every copy of the record sold. Although this meant he could earn around $500,000, Albini refused – “I’m disgusted by that concept, and that’s an absurd amount of money.” Instead, he proposed a one-off flat fee of $100,000 up front.

“That seemed to satisfy everybody,” says Albini. “I think at that point there were still people who were sort of justifying their jobs by being suspicious of me. Saying, ‘Well, we don’t want to waste a lot of time and money with this guy if it doesn’t work out.’ People oblivious to the notion that I have never worked on a record where it didn’t work out. I am not a cantankerous freak where my peccadilloes might upset the applecart and stop progress on the record…

“The record company was not going to be involved in the record from a production standpoint, and they were paying lip service as though that were a good idea, but it was obvious that made everybody feel very uncomfortable. It was obvious they had a Plan B folder somewhere.”

Given Nirvana A&R man Gary Gersh’s aforementioned comments to Dave Grohl, this seems very likely. Albini added a clause to his financial proposal to Gold Mountain, stating that if anything he recorded with Nirvana was to be altered subsequently, then he preferred to do it himself.

“So, that was it. We went to Minnesota. Twelve days later, we had a record.”

AFTER DRIVING FROM THE airport with Brent Sigmeth, Kurt Cobain, Dave Grohl and Krist Novoselic arrived at Pachyderm to be greeted by Albini, his studio maintenance technician Robert S. (Bob) Weston IV, Carter Nicole Launt, a macrobiotic chef who happened to be dating Weston at the time and whose job it was to cater to the diverse culinary needs of the workers… and Launt’s dog, Z. Only these seven people were present for the entirety of the session. At the behest of the band, no one from Geffen or Gold Mountain visited at any point.

Work on the making of In Utero started in earnest on Valentine’s Day 1993. The three band members set up their equipment, then began recording the basic tracks. The set-up was the same for each song, except for the faster, more aggressive songs like Tourette’s and Very Ape, where the drums were recorded in a kitchenette adjacent to the main recording space, which was found to have its own natural reverb. Brent Sigmeth remembers watching intently as Grohl’s drum kit was painstakingly mic’ed up; indeed, it was Albini’s knowledge of microphone technique which most impressed Cobain. He estimated 30 were used for the drums alone.

For most of his guitar parts Cobain used a cheap guitar which, according to Albini, looked like it came from a pawn shop. On one song he played a rare allaluminium guitar called a Veleno, originally made popular in the ’70s by Grand Funk Railroad, which Albini had brought along specially. Albini ascribes the strained, distorted guitar sounds on In Utero to a Fender Quad Reverb amp of which Cobain was particularly fond, in which three of the four power tubes were either broken or missing. Generally, however, Albini doesn’t recall recording Nirvana any differently from any other band.

“On every record there are a few little things that somebody asks you to do that you have to figure out. At the end of Rape Me, there was meant to be this really extreme vocal… (pause). Ah, I can’t remember which song it was. I think it was the Milkmaid song, or whatever it’s called [Milk It], the vocal had to sound more crazy than it had up to that point. So I had to find a way to make the vocal leap forward at the end. Those are things you solve at the moment.

“But there were no magic tricks. There was no, Well, we wrapped the microphone in foil and put it in a bucket of sand! (Laughs) Whenever anybody involved in making a record tells you stuff like that he’s either feeding you a line, or if they actually went to that much trouble to do something like that they probably didn’t know what the hell they were doing. Making records is a very straightforward process, it’s not black magic. You put up a microphone and listen to what it sounds like. If it doesn’t sound good you put up another one.”

“I think I’m going to puke…” Kurt Cobain’s Last Photo Session

THE AVERAGE DAY AT Pachyderm began at around 10am, when everyone got up and hung around the house eating breakfast. At noon, the band and engineers would make their way down to the studio where they would work until evening. Meanwhile, Carter Nicole Launt would prepare lunch, which would be delivered to the studio mid-afternoon, then dinner, which was a big family-style affair around a table. Launt remembers each member of the band had particular food requirements.

“Krist was a vegan,” she says, “so no dairy and no meat. Kurt, he had a little erratic schedule of eating. He liked frozen pizza and he would get up in the middle of the night and make himself something. Dave was kind of the all-American eater. Nothing too strange!”

After dinner, there might be some TV action. Late evening it was back to the studio, until midnight or maybe 1am. Aside from one weekend trip to Minneapolis to see local hardcore grotesques the Cows and a couple of forays to the local mall – Kurt’s visit, to buy a present for Z the dog, caused some consternation among the youth of Cannon Falls – the band never left the studio/house complex, and never wavered from their daily routine.

Albini and Weston estimate that basic track recording took four, maybe five days, then a couple of days overdubbing and five days mixing. That the album was completed slightly ahead of the two-week deadline is tribute not only to Albini’s work ethic but to the provision for the job in hand made Shutterstock by Nirvana. “They knew the material, they’d figured out all the little details,” says Steve. “I don’t know how quickly the songs were worked up, but they certainly weren’t sitting down in the hallway trying to come up with more words or whatever. They were as prepared as any band I’ve ever worked with.”

“We just focused intensely on rehearsing,” recalls Novoselic. “That’s the thing that we did best. Just got in the rehearsal room and knuckled down. We had the songs down tight. So we showed up in Cannon Falls, we set up our gear and we started playing. We tracked almost all the songs in the first two days. Some of the songs, I think over half of the songs, we did first take. We knew that Albini didn’t wanna deal with some bigtime rock band or have to coddle some half-assed musicians. So, we knew how to rock! We’d been rockin’ for years, we had our licks down. I remember Albini standing there by the tape machine with his arms folded, bobbing his head and we would just pop ’em out one after the other. ‘Well, that sounded good. Let’s do this song.’ The record was recorded really fast.”

For most of the songs, Kurt’s lyrics were finalised only on the day of recording. Not in the hallway: more likely in his head. Once, he sent Carter Nicole to the local grocery to buy some cherry-flavoured lozenges to soothe his sore throat. These became the “cherry-flavoured antacids” mentioned in Pennyroyal Tea. He subsequently claimed in an interview with Dutch magazine Oor that “only half the compositions were ready. The rest originated from messing around in the studio.”

Nirvana’s “messing around” on In Utero puts the hard graft of most other groups into cruel perspective. That they were able to conjure such potent material under such circumstances and then render it with such trenchant conviction reaffirmed how precious this band really was. A two-day demo session with Jack Endino in Seattle the previous October had been a half-hearted affair – unsurprising, given that Cobain and Courtney Love were embroiled in a battle for custody of their two-month-old daughter Frances Bean – with Kurt singing on only one of the six songs recorded (Rape Me) and a reportedly tense atmosphere prevailing.

The Pachyderm session, by contrast, was characterised by dedication to the music and much camaraderie, notably between the band and their producer. Practical jokes were a speciality: prank phone calls to, among others, Evan Dando, Gene Simmons and Eddie Vedder, as well as indoor pyrotechnics…

“We had this Isopropyl alcohol in the studio to clean tape heads with,” remembers Brent Sigmeth. “Steve was taking a nap one day in the lounge. Dave took this alcohol and poured it on his baseball cap and walked into the lounge, lit his head on fire and went, ‘Steve! My head’s on fire!’ Steve woke up and looked at him with his flaming head, frowned and just went back to sleep. We still have the remains of the hat here somewhere.”

“It was the easiest recording we’ve ever done, hands down,” Cobain later told Nirvana biographer Michael Azerrad. “I thought we would eventually get on each other’s nerves and end up screaming at each other. I was prepared to have to live with this person who was supposedly a sexist jerk, but he was surprisingly helpful and friendly and easy to get along with.” Krist Novoselic: “The guy’s a sweetheart! He’s a totally mellow dude. Steve’s from Montana!”

From his perspective, Albini says he tried to strike a balance between respectable professionalism and sympathy in his day-to-day interaction with the band. “They were the same sort of people as me. I admired and respected them. I never tried to be intimately friendly with any of them. They had been subjected to a million fleas jumping out from the bushes at ’em. People wanting something from them, people wanting to be a part of their show. The least I could do was to give them the courtesy of having them being in control of our relationship. I didn’t try and get too inquisitive into Kurt’s life. As much as I grew to admire and respect them, I didn’t want them to feel like I was another one of these fuckers trying to latch onto their rocket.”

“WHEN COURTNEY LOVE TURNED UP IT DID AFFECT THINGS. I THINK IT WAS STRESSFUL FOR KURT. SHE WAS CONFRONTATIONAL WITH PEOPLE THERE.” CARTER NICOLE LAUNT

THE ARRIVAL OF COURTNEY Love a week into proceedings disrupted the harmonious atmosphere. Albini, having previously described Love as a “psycho hose-beast”, will not be drawn on the subject (“I don’t have anything to say about her”).

“It did affect things, definitely,” says Carter Nicole Launt. “I think it was stressful for Kurt. I think she put a lot of pressure on him and wasn’t always as approving of the way the songs were. She was very critical of his work, and actually was kind of confrontational with people there. Yeah, it definitely was stressful. I just think it made people uncomfortable, to bring a lot of their personal things into the public arena. We were strangers, basically, to them. It made him uncomfortable.”

But by the time of the final playback, nothing could dampen an ecstatic mood. Wine and cigars were the order of the evening.

Albini: “Everybody was really happy. There was this really serious, really congratulatory sense of accomplishment. I thought they did a great job. I’ve been asked repeatedly if Kurt was on drugs while I was there.

And I’ve been around people who use dope a lot, and on the one hand I know how they behave and on the other hand I know how deceptive they can be. And my best estimate was that no, he wasn’t, he was being very productive. That was a period of his life where he was very focused. He was focused on making this record and he didn’t want to let the other guys in the band down. He was committed to the task. He was as sober – and I use that adjective to mean serious – as anybody I’ve ever worked with in the studio.”

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THUS NIRVANA LEFT MINNESOTA happy and satisfied. It wasn’t to last. One or two weeks after the Pachyderm session had finished, Cobain called Albini to tell him that Nirvana’s A&R man hated the album. “He said, ‘It sounds like crap, there’s way too much effect on the drums, you can’t hear the vocals,’” Cobain later told The Stud Brothers in Melody Maker. “He didn’t think the songwriting was up to par. And having your A&R say that is kind of like having your father or stepfather telling you to take out the trash.”

Gary Gersh wasn’t alone. The band’s management were hardly enamoured with what they’d been handed. Nonetheless, Cobain stressed to Albini that the band were determined the album should be released as it was. “I know for a while there was a reactionary element to our mindset back then,” Novoselic recalls. “I know for a while I felt like we shouldn’t touch it as a point of principle. But that’s not very rational. That stuff clouds your judgment.”

Albini: “The next thing that happened was that I got a call from a journalist in Chicago saying that Geffen’s publicity department had gotten in touch with him and off the record had told him that the new Nirvana record was awful and that it was all my fault. That it was unreleasable and that I had fucked up, and what did I have to say about that? What I said was that Nirvana made the record they wanted to make and the record company could stick it up their ass… I believe actually that he got a call from Gary Gersh – Gary Gersh was saying this to anyone who would listen, ’cos I was hearing it from a number of different sources.

“The word was out that I had fucked up this Nirvana record. And I don’t know if that was being done specifically to embarrass me or if it was being done just to put pressure on the band. I really don’t know what the rationale was.”

Greg Kot’s article in the April 19 issue of the Chicago Tribune, headlined ‘Record Label Finds Little Bliss In Nirvana’s Latest’, was seized on by other titles, from Village Voice and Rolling Stone upwards. In the meantime, Kurt Cobain had again called Albini, this time to tell him that the band were having second thoughts and were thinking of remixing some tracks. Steve feared that the band’s insecurities were being manipulated by their label. Worse, it seemed he was being set up as the villain of the piece, the inveterate noise guru who’d ruined the next Nirvana album. Albini called Kurt to say he didn’t think that he could improve on the Pachyderm mixes.

Albini: “Then Krist called me and said, ‘Y’know, it just doesn’t sound as good as it did in Minnesota.’ And I reiterated that I felt like we’d gotten the full monty, I felt like we’d gotten everything we could out of the master that we could when we were in Minnesota. And that I was still of the opinion we shouldn’t tamper with it.”

“GEFFEN HAD TOLD THE JOURNALIST THAT THE NEW NIRVANA ALBUM WAS AWFUL AND IT WAS ALL MY FAULT. THAT IT WAS UNRELEASABLE AND I’D FUCKED UP.” STEVE ALBINI

The band, however, was becoming increasingly glum about the Pachyderm recordings. They were determined to remix two songs – All Apologies and Heart-Shaped Box. And if Albini didn’t think he could improve upon his own recordings, he would clearly take a dim view of anyone else trying. Especially if one of those people happened to be, say, Andy Wallace, who had remixed Nevermind. In the end, he acceded to the wishes of the band, and gave them his blessing to “tinker around” with his recording. Krist Novoselic now says he feels the band simply didn’t have enough time to reflect properly on what they had recorded at Pachyderm.

“That was the thing with Steve, it felt like once the record was done it was completely done. That’s when the record label kinda stepped in and said, ‘Hey…!’ We had a confrontation about the situation. Maybe I shoulda spoke up at the time. I think it’s a great-sounding record. It’s a highly artistic record. I don’t know who else could have produced it except Albini.

“But,” he laughs, “you know why we had to remix Heart-Shaped Box? You should hear the original version of that song, the guitar solo has this effect on it, it just sabotages the whole song. Steve and Kurt were colluding! I would go to Kurt, Why are you sabotaging this beautiful song by putting this hideous abortion in the centre of it? He’d be like, ‘Well, I think it sounds cool.’ I don’t even remember what their arguments were. Some statement against commercial radio or something, the popular mainstream aesthetic… I dunno! I guess I finally got my way. Scott Litt was an opportunity to change things.”

By the time Nirvana had repaired to Bad Animals studio in Seattle with R.E.M. producer Scott Litt in early May, the reverberations caused by Kot’s article were seismic. Newsweek ran a fullpage story on Geffen’s alleged infringement of Nirvana’s artistic control, backing the essence of the piece. Geffen issued a press release quoting Kurt as saying, “There has been no pressure from our record label to change the tracks we did with Albini. We have 100 per cent control of our music. The band felt the vocals were not loud enough on a few of the tracks. We want to change that.”

Nirvana wrote a letter in response to the Newsweek article, criticising writer Jeff Giles on the grounds that he “ridiculed our relationship with our label based on totally erroneous information.” The letter was subsequently reprinted as a full-page advertisement in Billboard. In the Geffen press release, meanwhile, company president Ed Rosenblatt stated: “As I have assured the members of Nirvana and their management all along, we will release whatever record the band delivers to us.”

Which, in the end, they did. The version of In Utero that finally went into the shops on September 21, 1993 was exactly what Nirvana delivered to Geffen, exactly what the band wanted people to hear. The album was as recorded in Minnesota with Steve Albini, save for the two remixed tracks – both of which were released as singles – and a remastering session at which, in the assessment of Bob Weston, the band hoped to “change the overall sound of the album. The stereo doesn’t sound as wide. The guitar has been flattened out a bit. On the original mixes the guitar would just leap out.

“But,” adds Weston, “even with the changes that were made it’s a great record. The songs are great and the recording is great and the performances are great. And besides, it’s their record. If they wanted to remix a few songs and do a lot in the mastering, that’s their prerogative. All that matters when you make a record is that the band is happy with the final result.”

These are sentiments with which Albini concurs, though he feels that the final mastering was “overbearing. For my own personal satisfaction, because I worked on that record and felt close to it, I felt like it sounded better before any tinkering was done. When they sent me a copy I put it on and instantly I was disappointed in the mastering.”

Yet it was as much the media brouhaha over the mooted remix of the album which soured his relations with the band, during a period when both parties should have been basking in the glow of a good job well done. In interviews around the release of In Utero, Kurt Cobain repeatedly stated the shitstorm had all been Albini’s fault, that he had no reason to be so paranoid. But as Kurt himself once sang: “Just because you’re paranoid/Don’t mean they’re not after you…”

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GREG KOT, FOR ONE, feels Albini has been hard done by. Like all good journalists, to this day he continues to honour the confidentiality of his sources who told him off the record that Steve Albini had made an “unreleasable” album.

“But I will say that it was several people in the Geffen hierarchy, including highly placed people,” avers Kot. “Not publicists. There were people involved who would know the inner workings of Nirvana. The problem is that nobody wanted to go on the record. It was more people spouting off, and I thought, How much of this is real? In order to run a story I needed to have somebody on the record who would comment on this, who would talk about what kind of pressure was on the band at the time. And, of course, I called Steve.

“My impression when I talked to Steve was that he was aware that the band was under some kind of pressure from the label and he was able to confirm basically everything that I had been told by people within the label. That’s pretty much it.”

Novoselic, meanwhile, has nothing but warm regard for the album which, eight years after it was created, represents Nirvana’s unwanted epitaph, as well as the band’s towering artistic peak.

“Y’know man, it’s my favourite Nirvana record, and I’ll you why – there was a lot of stuff going on with the band, externally and internally, there was a lot of pressures. But when we walked through that door we left all that stuff outside the door. We just played music, we worked together really well, we were laughing, we were concentrating, we were open. And that really shows on the record. We didn’t mess around. Nobody got bombed, everybody was focused and clear-headed. I’m really proud of it, it’s a beautiful record. Sometimes the lyrics on In Utero are really creepy. I listen to ’em now and it’s like – why didn’t I hear that back then?”

It may have been Nevermind that broke the mould, but it is In Utero that curates the soul of Nirvana. And along with Dave, Krist and Kurt, it was Steve Albini who made it what it is. Small wonder that today the producer who insists he is nothing of the kind, is left with mixed emotions about the affair.

“It was just the ugliest side of the record business,” he reflects. “All these people trying their hardest to manipulate every situation, and just chewing up people in the process. It was fucking hideous. It was really disgusting to me. And I think everyone involved in that, I can’t understand how they can live with themselves. So I haven’t listened to that record a whole lot. If I think about it, I think about it fondly. I really enjoyed meeting the band, I have a lot of respect for them as people and musicians. I’m really proud of the job that I did – with the reservation the band and I are probably the only people who have genuinely heard the work I did!

“Not long ago, I was asked to play it for somebody who was in the studio and wanted to hear it, for some reference to something. So I played bits of it, and it brought me back. It brought back the whole experience. I really enjoyed working on the record. I’m really sad Kurt’s gone. And I would do it again.”

This feature appears in MOJO's new deluxe Nirvana special, Nirvana Come As You Are 1987-1994. More info and to order a copy HERE .

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30 Years Ago: Nirvana Shakes Everything Up With ‘In Utero’

When Nirvana went into the studio to record their third — and ultimately final — studio album, In Utero, they were aiming for a major departure from their first two albums.

Instead, they landed a giant hit with a record that melded the sonic pieces of those previous two LPs.

Back in 1989, when they released their debut album, Bleach , the musical mainstream wasn't ready for the swirling guitars, massive chunks of distortion, hard-hitting drums and screamed-out slacker-pop songs penned by frontman Kurt Cobain .

Sure, Jane’s Addiction , early gatekeepers of alternative nation, released the seminal Nothing’s Shocking a year earlier in 1988, but the seeds of the revolution were not yet sown.

Why Nirvana Changed Producers

The first notable thing about the album is its producer. Given the success of Nevermind , it would have made sense for Nirvana to again enlist Butch Vig. But Cobain, Krist Novoselic and Dave Grohl went a less obvious, and less commercial, route by tapping the controversial Steve Albini.

A former member of noise bands Big Black and Rapeman, Albini had manned the boards on the Pixies ' 1988 debut Surfer Rosa , and as Cobain and the gang looked to widen their sound and broaden their scope by scaling things back, Albini seemed like the perfect man for the job.

Nirvana was also looking for a way out of the grunge gutter. In Utero , like Bleach , was going to be something the world wasn't ready to hear. Except this time, the world was ready, and no matter what the band delivered, post- Nevermind it probably would have sold a million copies.

Still, In Utero wasn't particularly groundbreaking. Louder, yes, but if Nirvana were going for something truly out there, they got only partway there.

If you listen to Bleach and Nevermind back to back, you can hear the chrysalis of In Utero 's sonic attack. It’s as if the band and Albini had ripped the earlier albums to shreds and pieced them back together into one Frankenstein monster, taking the least accessible aspects of the first album and wedding them to the behemoth hooks Vig helped craft on Nevermind .

Listen to Nirvana's 'All Apologies'

How Nirvana Was Still Evolving

In Utero differs from its predecessors in a couple of key ways: There are fewer effects and more raw guitars, which dropped the low E down to a D – a technique that became a hallmark of grunge and the era. In Utero also features some odd time signatures ("Milk It," "Radio Friendly Unit Shifter"), screaming speed-metal ("Tourette’s") and even a cello ("Dumb," "All Apologies").

Cobain's deeper, darker lyrics take on the twisted pull of love and sexual violence ("Rape Me") to film ("Frances Farmer Takes Her Revenge on Seattle" was partially inspired by a 1978 biography about the doomed actress).

READ MORE: Nirvana Songs That Are Better Than ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit

Also notable are the listenable "Heart-Shaped Box," "Rape Me" and closer "All Apologies." Cobain had a knack for writing pop songs that sound inspired by ’60s garage rock and British Invasion. They included simple structures (verse-chorus-verse) and sometimes a bridge; plus, they could be easily digested by a mass audience. The catchy songs sold In Utero to the masses, while the noisier, artsier songs were there to represent the band’s growth – and perhaps to lure in fringe fans caught up in the punk, metal and hardcore scenes.

Even as the band tried to break new ground and possibly even put off casual fans with a harder, less straightforward album, In Utero was a major critical and financial success. It topped both the U.S. and U.K. charts, and the singles "Heart-Shaped Box" and "All Apologies" reached No. 1 on Billboard’s Alternative Songs chart.

Some might argue Nirvana’s MTV Unplugged in New York , recorded in November 1993, is actually the band’s farewell statement. In Utero was their final album of new material, however, so in that sense, it was their goodbye to the world. Just listen to the final song, "All Apologies." Then and now, it signaled an end.

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Tracklisting

1. Serve The Servants
2. Scentless Apprentice
3. Heart Shaped Box
5. Frances Farmer Will Have Her Revenge On Seattle
7. Very Ape
9. Pennyroyal Tea
10. Radio Friendly Unit Shifter
11. Tourette's
12. All Apologies

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Produced in Minnesota by Steve Albini, the album helped change the course of 90s rock.

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Nirvana 'In Utero' artwork - Courtesy: UMG

An album that helped to shape the direction of rock music in the 1990s was released on September 21, 1993. Nirvana ’s In Utero , produced in a Minnesota studio by Steve Albini, went straight to the top of the UK countdown the following week, unseating Meat Loaf ‘s Bat Out Of Hell II in the process. It did the same in America with first-week sales of 180,000, replacing country king Garth Brooks’ In Pieces album at the top as it stormed towards quintuple platinum status in the US.

In Utero had a huge act to follow as the successor to Nirvana’s 1991 breakthrough Nevermind , which was ten-times platinum in America and would spend an aggregate of five years on the chart there. But the new record, which contained the singles “Heart-Shaped Box,” “All Apologies,” and “Pennyroyal Tea,” went on to worldwide sales of some 15 million copies.

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Nirvana - Heart-Shaped Box (Official Music Video)

With the album release imminent, Cobain told The Observer what an influence British bands had had in his musical upbringing, from the gothic element in Nirvana inspired by Joy Division to the punk energy of the Sex Pistols . While still a child, he read reports of their US tour. “I’d just fantasize about how amazing it would be to hear this music and be part of it,” he said. “But I was 11; I couldn’t. When I finally heard American punk groups like Flipper and Black Flag, I was completely blown away. I found my calling.

‘Fast, with a lot of distortion’

“There were so many things going on at once, because it expressed the way I felt socially, politically, emotionally. I cut my hair, and started trying to play my own style of punk rock and guitar: fast, with a lot of distortion.”

Listen to the best of Nirvana on Apple Music and Spotify.

What Nirvana’s fans couldn’t have known about In Utero was that they were buying the band’s final album. Little more than six months after its release, Cobain passed away at the age of 27, Nirvana’s three-album legacy was set in stone and their album sales would climb to 75 million units and rising.

Pre-order the 30th anniversary multi-format reissues of In Utero , which are released on October 27, 2023.

September 30, 2020 at 2:09 pm

I appreciate you writing ‘passed away’, a lot of articles and interviewers just say ‘died’ or ‘death’ which personally sounds harsher and less respectful but this is the first article I’ve read where ‘passed away’ is used; a very beautiful article to read, thanks 🙂

December 4, 2020 at 4:03 am

i love nirvana thank you for saying ‘passing away’best band ever

February 7, 2021 at 3:03 am

My Great-grand father, Rex Rose, was the old man on the cross. He was in the last stages of cancer and actually started hemorrhaging on the cross and had to be rushed to the ER where he later passed away. I was told by my grandfather that it freaked out some of the band members because of the lyrics about cancer. I thought fans might find that interesting.

March 14, 2021 at 3:49 am

I love the music and the band, but “Passing away” is a gross euphemism for blowing your brains out

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LiveNIRVANA.com
Concert Chronology

LIVE NIRVANA Concert Chronology 1993

This section is concerned with live performances given in public by Kurt Cobain/at least two other members of NIRVANA. For information on musical performances undertaken in private, such as rehearsals, recording sessions and radio shows, please see the Live Nirvana Sessions History .

1993 Show Statistics

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Nirvana ‘In Utero’ 30th Anniversary Deluxe Edition Due Next Month, With 53 Unreleased Tracks

By Jem Aswad

Executive Editor, Music

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Nirvana ’s third and final album, “In Utero,” is often overlooked because it basically marked the beginning of the end of the band — Kurt Cobain died less than eight months after it was released.

While not the kind of celebratory, culture-shifting album that its predecessor, “Nevermind,” was, it’s still a glorious piece of vulnerable, rebellious rock music that includes some of Cobain’s best-ever songs. A forthcoming 30th anniversary edition, due from Universal on Oct. 27, collects all of the album’s songs and outtakes along with two full concerts from the tour in support of the album, bringing together 72 tracks — with 53 of them unreleased.

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The physical Super Deluxe Edition box sets also includes a removable front-cover acrylic panel with the album’s trademark angel; a 48-page hardcover book with unreleased photos; a 20-page newly designed fanzine; a Los Angeles tour poster lithograph by hot rod artist Coop; replicas of the 1993 record store promo Angel mobile, three gig fliers, two ticket stubs for Los Angeles and Seattle, an All-Access tour laminate, and four cloth sticky tour backstage passes: Press, Photo, After Show, and Local Crew.

Available exclusively at online stores at uDiscovermusic.com and SoundofVinyl.com and limited to 3000 units worldwide, fans who buy either Super Deluxe Edition will receive a Nirvana acrylic stand to display their angel-on-acrylic panel included in both boxset configurations.

LP 1 IN UTERO Original Album Remastered

1. Serve The Servants 2. Scentless Apprentice 3. Heart-Shaped Box 4. Rape Me 5. Frances Farmer Will Have Her Revenge On Seattle 6. Dumb

1. Very Ape 2. Milk It 3. Pennyroyal Tea 4. Radio Friendly Unit Shifter 5. tourette’s 6. All Apologies

LP 2: BONUS TRACKS & B-SIDES Remastered

1. Gallons Of Rubbing Alcohol Flow Through The Strip 2. Marigold 3. Sappy 4. Moist Vagina 5. I Hate Myself And Want To Die

BONUS LIVE 1993/1994

1. Serve The Servants (Live in Rome)* 2. Scentless Apprentice (Live in Rome)* 3. Heart-Shaped Box (Live in Rome)* 4. Very Ape (Live in Rome)* 5. Milk It (Live in Springfield)* 6. tourette’s (Live in New York)*

LP 3-5 LIVE IN LOS ANGELES Great Western Forum – December 30, 1993

1. Radio Friendly Unit Shifter* 2. Drain You* 3. Breed* 4. Serve The Servants*

1. Come As You Are* 2. Smells Like Teen Spirit* 3. Sliver* 4. Dumb*

1. In Bloom* 2. About A Girl* 3. Lithium* 4. Pennyroyal Tea*

1. School* 2. Polly* 3. Frances Farmer Will Have Her Revenge On Seattle* 4. Rape Me* 5. Territorial Pissings*

1. Jesus Doesn’t Want Me For A Sunbeam* 2. The Man Who Sold The World* 3. All Apologies* 4. On A Plain*

1. Heart-Shaped Box 2. Blew* 3. Feedback Jam*

LP 6-8 LIVE IN SEATTLE Seattle Center Arena – January 7, 1994

1. School* 2. Polly* 3. Frances Farmer Will Have Her Revenge On Seattle* 4. Milk It 5. Rape Me*

1. Territorial Pissings* 2. Jesus Doesn’t Want Me For A Sunbeam* 3. The Man Who Sold The World* 4. All Apologies*

1. On A Plain* 2. Scentless Apprentice* 3. Heart-Shaped Box* 4. Blew*

* Previously unreleased

IN UTERO: 30 TH ANNIVERSARY (5-CD SUPER DELUXE)

The 5CD Super Deluxe features the album + 5 B-sides & bonus tracks newly remastered from 96kHz 24-bit transfers of the original analog master tapes, 2 complete concerts from Los Angeles ’93 & Seattle ‘94 plus 6 bonus live songs from the tour – 72 total tracks – 53 unreleased tracks. Bonus items: an angel-on-acrylic panel; 48-pg book with unreleased photos; new 20-pg fanzine; LA gig poster litho; 2 ticket stubs; replicas of the promo angel mobile, 3 gig flyers, all-access tour laminate & 4 backstage passes.

CD 1 IN UTERO Original Album Remastered

1. Serve The Servants 2. Scentless Apprentice 3. Heart-Shaped Box 4. Rape Me 5. Frances Farmer Will Have Her Revenge On Seattle 6. Dumb 7. Very Ape 8. Milk It 9. Pennyroyal Tea 10. Radio Friendly Unit Shifter 11. tourette’s 12. All Apologies

BONUS TRACKS & B-SIDES Remastered

CD 2 & 3 LIVE IN LOS ANGELES Great Western Forum – December 30, 1993

CD 3 1. School* 2. Polly* 3. Frances Farmer Will Have Her Revenge On Seattle* 4. Rape Me* 5. Territorial Pissings* 6. Jesus Doesn’t Want Me For A Sunbeam* 7. The Man Who Sold The World* 8. All Apologies* 9. On A Plain* 10. Heart-Shaped Box 11. Blew* 12. Feedback Jam*

CD 4 & 5 LIVE IN SEATTLE Seattle Center Arena – January 7, 1994

1. School* 2. Polly* 3. Frances Farmer Will Haver Her Revenge On Seattle* 4. Milk It 5. Rape Me* 6. Territorial Pissings* 7. Jesus Doesn’t Want Me For A Sunbeam* 8. The Man Who Sold The World* 9. All Apologies* 10. On A Plain* 11. Scentless Apprentice* 12. Heart-Shaped Box* 13. Blew*

14. Serve The Servants (Live in Rome)* 15. Scentless Apprentice (Live in Rome)* 16. Heart-Shaped Box (Live in Rome)* 17. Very Ape (Live in Rome)* 18. Milk It (Live in Springfield)* 19. tourette’s (Live in New York)*

IN UTERO: 30 TH ANNIVERSARY (2-cd deluxe edition)

The 2CD Deluxe Edition features the album newly remastered from 96kHz 24-bit transfers of the original analog master tapes plus 14 previously unreleased live tracks from the ‘93/’94 In Utero tour. Each song on In Utero is represented with a live performance from Los Angeles, Springfield, Rome, New York & Seattle plus two cover songs widely played throughout the tour: The Vaselines’ “Jesus Doesn’t Want Me For A Sunbeam” & David Bowie’s “The Man Who Sold The World.” Housed in a softpak with newly designed 20-pg booklet.

CD 2 LIVE 1993/1994

1. Serve The Servants (Live in Rome)* 2. Scentless Apprentice (Live in Rome)* 3. Heart-Shaped Box (Live in Rome)* 4. Rape Me (Live in Seattle)* 5. Frances Farmer Will Have Her Revenge On Seattle (Live in Seattle)* 6. Dumb (Live in Los Angeles)* 7. Very Ape (Live in Rome)* 8. Milk It (Live in Springfield)* 9. Pennyroyal Tea (Live in Los Angeles)* 10. Radio Friendly Unit Shifter (Live in Los Angeles)* 11. tourette’s (Live in New York)* 12. All Apologies (Live in Los Angeles)* 13. Jesus Doesn’t Want Me For A Sunbeam (Live in Seattle)* 14. The Man Who Sold The World (Live in Seattle)*

IN UTERO: 30 TH ANNIVERSARY (LIMITED EDITION 1LP + 10 INCH)

IN UTERO Remastered – Side A:

IN UTERO Remastered – Side B:

BONUS 10-INCH – Side A:

1. Gallons Of Rubbing Alchohol Flow Through The Strip 2. Marigold

BONUS 10-INCH – Side B:

1. Sappy 2. Moist Vagina 3. I Hate Myself And Want To Die

IN UTERO: 30 TH ANNIVERSARY (DIGITAL SUPER DELUXE)

DISC 1 IN UTERO Original Album Remastered

13. Gallons Of Rubbing Alcohol Flow Through The Strip 14. Marigold 15. Sappy 16. Moist Vagina 17. I Hate Myself And Want To Die

DISC 2 LIVE IN LOS ANGELES Great Western Forum – December 30, 1993

1. Radio Friendly Unit Shifter* 2. Drain You* 3. Breed* 4. Serve The Servants* 5. Come As You Are* 6. Smells Like Teen Spirit* 7. Sliver* 8. Dumb* 9. In Bloom* 10. About A Girl* 11. Lithium* 12. Pennyroyal Tea* 13. School* 14. Polly* 15. Frances Farmer Will Have Her Revenge On Seattle* 16. Rape Me* 17. Territorial Pissings* 18. Jesus Doesn’t Want Me For A Sunbeam* 19. The Man Who Sold The World* 20. All Apologies* 21. On A Plain* 22. Heart-Shaped Box 23. Blew* 24. Feedback Jam*

DISC 3 LIVE IN SEATTLE Seattle Center Arena – January 7, 1994

1. Radio Friendly Unit Shifter* 2. Drain You* 3. Breed* 4. Serve The Servants* 5. Come As You Are* 6. Smells Like Teen Spirit* 7. Sliver* 8. Dumb* 9. In Bloom* 10. About A Girl* 11. Lithium* 12. Pennyroyal Tea* 13. School* 14. Polly* 15. Frances Farmer Will Haver Her Revenge On Seattle* 16. Milk It 17. Rape Me* 18. Territorial Pissings* 19. Jesus Doesn’t Want Me For A Sunbeam* 20. The Man Who Sold The World* 21. All Apologies* 22. On A Plain* 23. Scentless Apprentice* 24. Heart-Shaped Box* 25. Blew*

26. Serve The Servants (Live in Rome)* 27. Scentless Apprentice (Live in Rome)* 28. Heart-Shaped Box (Live in Rome)* 29. Very Ape (Live in Rome)* 30. Milk It (Live in Springfield)* 31. tourette’s (Live in New York)*

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Nirvana’s Final Album ‘In Utero’ Gets 30th Anniversary Reissue with Two Live Albums

by Tina Benitez-Eves September 5, 2023, 6:55 pm

Originally released on September 21, 1993, Nirvana ‘s third album, In Utero , revealed the collective sonic nuances molded by Kurt Cobain , Dave Grohl , and Krist Novoselic. Produced by Steve Albini and recorded over six days at Pachyderm Studio in Cannon Falls, Minnesota, In Utero was also Nirvana’s final album before Cobain’s death nearly seven months later in 1994.

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To commemorate the 30th anniversary of the release, which was also the band’s first album to debut at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, is the addition of an expansive reissue of the album , out October 27.

The collection is available in multiple formats, including a Super Deluxe digital, limited edition 8-LP Super Deluxe, and 5-CD Super Deluxe box sets, along with 1-LP and 10” and 2-CD Deluxe editions.

Along with a newly remastered version of the album, which was sourced from the original analog stereo tapes from Bob Weston at Chicago Mastering Services with five bonus tracks and B-sides, the album also features more rarities and dozens of previously unreleased tracks.

Sets also include two full concerts recorded during the In Utero -era tour, including Live In Los Angeles from 1993, and the band’s final performance in Seattle, Live In Seattle from 1994. The live tracks were reconstructed from stereo soundboard tapes for the album by Seattle producer and engineer Jack Endino, who produced the band’s 1988 debut Bleach .

[RELATED: The Story Behind Nirvana’s ‘In Utero’ Album Cover]

The Super Deluxe box sets also feature an acrylic removable front-cover panel with the album’s iconic In Utero Angel art, along with a 48-page hardcover book with unreleased photos. Replicas of the 1993 record store promo Angel mobile; three gig fliers; two ticket stubs for Los Angeles and Seattle; an All-Access tour laminate; four cloth sticky tour backstage passes (Press, Photo, After Show, and Local Crew); a 20-page newly designed fanzine; and a Los Angeles tour poster lithograph by hot rod artist Coop are also included in the box set.

LP 1: ‘In Utero’: 30th Anniversary Super Deluxe Track Listing * Previously unreleased SIDE 1 1. “Serve The Servants” 2. “Scentless Apprentice” 3. “Heart-Shaped Box” 4. “Rape Me” 5. “Frances Farmer Will Have Her Revenge On Seattle” 6. “Dumb”

SIDE 2 1. “Very Ape” 2. “Milk It” 3. “Pennyroyal Tea” 4. “Radio Friendly Unit Shifter” 5. “Tourette’s” 6. “All Apologies”

LP 2: Bonus Tracks and B-Sides — Remastered SIDE 1 1. “Gallons Of Rubbing Alcohol Flow Through The Strip” 2. “Marigold” 3. “Sappy” 4. “Moist Vagina” 5. “I Hate Myself And Want To Die”

Bonus Live 1993/1994 SIDE 2 1. “Serve The Servants” (Live in Rome)* 2. “Scentless Apprentice” (Live in Rome)* 3. “Heart-Shaped Box” (Live in Rome)* 4. “Very Ape” (Live in Rome)* 5. “Milk It” (Live in Springfield)* 6. “Tourette’s” (Live in New York)*

LP 3-5: Live in Los Angeles (Great Western Forum – December 30, 1993 ) SIDE 1 1. “Radio Friendly Unit Shifter”* 2. “Drain You”* 3. “Breed”* 4. “Serve The Servants”*

SIDE 2 1. “Come As You Are”* 2. “Smells Like Teen Spirit”* 3. “Sliver”* 4. “Dumb”*

SIDE 3 1. “In Bloom”* 2. “About A Girl”* 3. “Lithium”* 4. “Pennyroyal Tea”*

SIDE 4 1. “School”* 2. “Polly”* 3. “Frances Farmer Will Have Her Revenge On Seattle”* 4. “Rape Me”* 5. “Territorial Pissings”*

SIDE 5 1. “Jesus Doesn’t Want Me For A Sunbeam”* 2. “The Man Who Sold The World”* 3. “All Apologies”* 4. “On A Plain”*

SIDE 6 1. “Heart-Shaped Box” 2. “Blew”* 3. “Feedback Jam”*

LP 6-8: Live in Seattle (Seattle Center Arena – January 7, 1994 ) SIDE 1 1. “Radio Friendly Unit Shifter”* 2. “Drain You”* 3. “Breed”* 4. “Serve The Servants”*

SIDE 4 1. “School”* 2. “Polly”* 3. “Frances Farmer Will Have Her Revenge On Seattle”* 4. “Milk It” 5. “Rape Me”*

SIDE 5 1. “Territorial Pissings”* 2. “Jesus Doesn’t Want Me For A Sunbeam”* 3. “The Man Who Sold The World”* 4. “All Apologies”*

SIDE 6 1. “On A Plain”* 2. “Scentless Apprentice”* 3. “Heart-Shaped Box”* 4. “Blew”*

Photo: Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic, Inc.

Review: This Is The Kit and Gruff Rhys Put All the Pieces Together

Nirvana’s ‘In Utero’ Anniversary Reissue Will Feature Over 50 Unreleased Live Recordings

By Jon Blistein

Jon Blistein

Nirvana have unearthed a trove of unreleased live recordings — including two full concerts — for a new In Utero 30th anniversary edition, set to arrive Oct. 27.

The deluxe edition of the reissue will feature 53 unreleased recordings, anchored by Live in Los Angeles , recorded in 1993, and Live in Seattle , recorded the following year and capturing the band’s final concert in their hometown. The set will feature additional live recordings pulled from shows in Rome, Springfield, and New York. Jack Endino — who produced Nirvana’s debut Bleach — oversaw the reissued live recordings, reconstructing the tracks from stereo soundboard tapes.

Along with the live recordings, the In Utero reissue will feature a remastered version of the original album by Bob Weston, who worked as an engineer alongside Steve Albini during the original In Utero sessions. Rounding out the set is a collection of five bonus tracks and b-sides from the In Utero era.

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The super deluxe edition of the In Utero reissue, with all the unreleased recordings, will be released as an eight-LP vinyl set or a five-CD set. Those will come stuffed with an assortment of ephemera, including a hardcover book featuring unreleased photos, a newly designed fanzine, a Los Angeles tour poster lithograph by the artist Coop, and even replicas of the angel mobile sent to record stores.

The In Utero reissue will also be released in a few pared-back formats, featuring the original remastered album and a selection of bonus tracks, b-sides, and live recordings. All formats are available to pre-order now.

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Nirvana’s ‘In Utero’ 30th Anniversary Remastered Collection to Feature 53 Unreleased Tracks

The collection will also have two never-before-released complete concerts

By Gil Kaufman

Gil Kaufman

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Nirvana will celebrate the 30th anniversary of the trio’s final studio album, 1993’s In Utero with a massive box set. The raw collection that solidified the band’s mix of shimmering, urgent pop songwriting (“Sever the Servant,” “Heart-Shaped Box,” “Pennyroyal Tea”) and scorched earth punk (“Scentless Apprentice,” “Rape Me,” “Milk It”), will be reissued in a number of formats on Oct. 27 with a slew of previously unreleased material.

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The album’s original 12 songs — which also include “Frances Farmer Will Have Her Revenge On Seattle,” “Dumb,” “Very Ape,” “Tourette’s” and “All Apologies” — as well as five bonus tracks and b-sides were newly remastered from the original analog master stereo tapes by Bob Weston at Chicago Mastering Services; Weston assisted In Utero engineer Steve Albini during the original sessions.

The second LP will feature five bonus tracks and b-sides: “Gallons of Rubbing Alcohol Flow Through the Strip,” “Marigold,” “Sappy,” “Moist Vagina” and “I Hate Myself and Want to Die.”

Check out the track listing for the 8-LP super deluxe edition below (and the rest of the editions here ):

LP 1 IN UTERO Original Album Remastered

1. Serve The Servants 2. Scentless Apprentice 3. Heart-Shaped Box 4. Rape Me 5. Frances Farmer Will Have Her Revenge On Seattle 6. Dumb

1. Very Ape 2. Milk It 3. Pennyroyal Tea 4. Radio Friendly Unit Shifter 5. tourette’s 6. All Apologies

LP 2: BONUS TRACKS & B-SIDES Remastered

1. Gallons Of Rubbing Alcohol Flow Through The Strip 2. Marigold 3. Sappy 4. Moist Vagina 5. I Hate Myself And Want To Die

BONUS LIVE 1993/1994

LP 3-5 LIVE IN LOS ANGELES Great Western Forum – December 30, 1993

1. Radio Friendly Unit Shifter* 2. Drain You* 3. Breed* 4. Serve The Servants*

1. Come As You Are* 2. Smells Like Teen Spirit* 3. Sliver* 4. Dumb*

1. In Bloom* 2. About A Girl* 3. Lithium* 4. Pennyroyal Tea*

1. School* 2. Polly* 3. Frances Farmer Will Have Her Revenge On Seattle* 4. Rape Me* 5. Territorial Pissings*

1. Jesus Doesn’t Want Me For A Sunbeam* 2. The Man Who Sold The World* 3. All Apologies* 4. On A Plain*

1. Heart-Shaped Box 2. Blew* 3. Feedback Jam*

*previously unreleased

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Nirvana’s album ‘In Utero’ holds up after 30 years

If there was ever an argument that Kurt Cobain was a living, breathing “Twilight Zone,” episode, it’s Nirvana’s third and final album, “In Utero.” Nirvana’s singer-songwriter crafted songs that were predominantly a response to the well-produced tracks from the band’s massive breakthrough release “Nevermind,” which changed the face of music in 1991.

“Nevermind” turned Nirvana from a club band to the most popular act in the world in months, which is incredible considering the group was a pre-Internet phenomenon. Cobain was always cognizant of being labeled a sellout.

No matter how much Cobain tried to muck up his songs to make the tracks as dissonant as possible, the tunes were pop at its core. The late Cobain, who killed himself in Seattle just over a month after Nirvana’s final show in Munich, was cursed with the ability to make virtually any song catchy.

Cobain’s covers were often better than the original versions, which is incredibly uncommon. Cobain was able to make virtually any song sound good. Most other recording artist’s would sell their soul to possess such a gift but it seemed to disturb Cobain.

Tunes with the bleakest, even nihilistic lyrics that were delivered in cacophonous squalls somehow were sing-along songs. Cobain tried to muck up such “In Utero” deep tracks as “Radio Friendly Unit Shifter” and “Very Ape” but the tunes have infectious elements.

There’s an eternal debate whether “Nevermind” or “In Utero” is the better work of art. During a recent chat with Cobain’s close friend and mentor, Buzz Osbourne of the Melvins, believes “Nevermind” is the superior work since the songs are there.

However, I give the edge to “In Utero.” The songs are exceptional. “Frances Farmer Will Have Her Revenge on Seattle,” “Pennyroyal Tea” and “Heart Shaped Box” hold their own with any “Nevermind” cut.

There’s just something deeper and more revealing about the “In Utero” tracks. Cobain insisted that the songs weren’t personal but that doesn’t seem to be so considering an examination of the last two years of his life.

It’s fascinating looking back at “In Utero” since Nirvana was the rare band always ascending. However, the album might have been the band’s final act even if Cobain didn’t take his life since it appeared that the enigmatic legend indicated to friends that he wanted to move on.

Regardless of whether Nirvana continued, what is most sad is that we’ll never know what Cobain would have accomplished next. Perhaps the world of music would have moved in a different direction.

However, we’re left with an album that still stands up. There’s too many discussions comparing the production of Nirvana’s second and third albums. Butch Vig did a masterful job elevating Nirvana and the band decided to go in another direction with punk icon Steve Albini behind the board.

Two different results, which is what fans should desire since why would you want a recording artist to repeat itself?

And then there was the “In Utero” tour. I caught two shows during the autumn of ‘93. Cobain hardly said a word as he stood Bill Wyman still as he snarled his lyrics.

There was no band quite like Nirvana, who single-handedly pricked the hair-metal bubble. The urgency, passion and power are reasons the band still sounds resonant today.

Kudos to the Seattle Pop Culture Museum (https://mopop.org) for keeping the Nirvana exhibit open after closing its Pearl Jam display. I’ve visited the SPCM three times in four years and much like Nirvana’s music, looking back at the videos and memorabilia, never gets tired.

Some have dubbed “In Utero” a commercial disappointment but that’s inaccurate since more than 15 million albums sold.

The album was originally dubbed “I Hate Myself and I Want to Die.” According to Cobain, that title was a joke. Perhaps it was since Osbourne stressed that Cobain would often kid around in a dark manner.

“In Utero” was the end of a remarkable run of game-changing alternative albums dating back to 1988 with such seminal releases as Sonic Youth’s “Daydream Nation,” The Sugarcube’s “Life’s Too Good” and the Pixies’ “Doolittle.”

Few musicians’ coda is as impressive as Cobain’s “In Utero.”

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Nirvana's In Utero: Red Method's Ultimate Guide to the quintessential grungers' darkest album

26 years since its release, Nirvana's In Utero still withstands the test of time. Red Method pay tribute to the landmark album, and premiere their brutal cover of Heart Shaped Box

While Nevermind may have a reputation as being Nirvana 's seminal album, In Utero was hands down their darkest offering, and in 26 years not many bands have managed to replicate its melodic and catchy yet deeply disturbing sense of unease.

Kurt Cobain 's scathing lyrics tackle the upheaval the singer was experiencing – primely the difficulty he had adjusting to his new found fame thanks to the success of Nevermind , as well as his marriage to Courtney Love , becoming a father and other deeply personal subjects such as his relationship with his own father and it resulted in some of Nirvana's greatest works .

The album also delves into the more troublesome and repulsive areas of the human psyche with Scentless Apprentice inspired by the murderous tale of horror in Patrick Süskind’s 1985 novel Perfume: The Story Of A Murderer , the tragic treatment by Hollywood of 1930s starlet Frances Farmer, approached in the song Frances Farmer Will Have Her Revenge On Seattle, and of course the controversial anti-rape ballad, Rape Me .

To celebrate 26 years of the incredible record, UK Metallers Red Method pay tribute with a metallic tasting cover of single, Heart Shaped Box .

Check it out below:

As devoted fans of the iconic grungers, Red Method didn't want to stop there with their tribute, so we asked them to offer up their own analysis of the album, in its entirety, track by track...

1. Serve the servants

Alex Avdis (keys BV’s): "Oh man, Serve the Servants was the first track I heard on In Utero, this was a at time when an album would come out and you’d run to the record store buy it and ran home praying that the band you love so much didn’t fuck it up.

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"You have to understand that Nirvana had just changed the game with Nevermind which is a fucking classic but polished and deliberately set for success. when I pressed play on this one I knew it was something different.

"I thought, oh my god, these guys don’t give a fuck! It was messy, raw, catchy of course and just a big middle finger anti pop, pop song to kick things off, it sets the tone for the rest of the album sonically, musically and lyrically.

"I mean, the production on this album is exactly where Nirvana needed to go and it caught everyone completely off guard, what a move!

2. Scentless Apprentice

Will Myers (Bass): “This song man, Grohl is just John Bonhaming the fuck out of the drums and that chucked in with Krist ’s heavy ass bass and Kurts screaming - it’s real deal rocking out.”

3. Heart Shaped Box

Jeremy Gomez (Vocals): "This track's original title was 'Heart-Shaped Coffin' and 'Umbilical Noose', which reveals much about the dark core of this song. Since a kid I have always had a special connection deep within my heart with this song and I’ve been covering it since I was in highschool one way or another.

"There is a part in me that will always have to pay tribute to the magic of this incredible melody. The lyrics and structure are simply genius. The song is thought to be a meditation on the excesses of love, extreme happiness and brutal depression.

"The line ‘I wish I could eat your cancer when you turn black' is the most imaginative way any songwriter has said ‘I love you’ in rock history. Kurt, what an inspiration you have always been!"

David Tobin (Guitar BV): "This song needs no introduction in it's meaning. Fucking respect people or get fucked. The secondary meaning I take is to stand up against all the ugliness in the world. Rape me, beat but you will never kill me."

5. Frances Farmer Will Have Her Revenge on Seattle

David Tobin (Guitar BV): "This is hands down my favourite Nirvana song. It's so dark and brooding; the fuzz distortion on the verse is like nothing I've ever heard.

"It's about a girl in the '30s who was sent to an insane asylum and eventually raped, tortured and lobotomised for her rebellion.

"A big inspiration behind why I personally thought a Nirvana cover was fitting for Red Method. You will never kill the spirit of rebellion; it's immortalised in these tracks.

6. Dumb

Alex Avdis (keys BV’s): "I have always loved the bitter sweet vibe of this song but now days when I listen to it, it brings a smile to my face because it reminds me of a specific car ride with my mother where she said; 'Alex, I really like this African Doll song!' I thought what? She started singing African doll, African doll, African doll… I said, 'Mum, it’s I think I’m dumb!'

"hahaha I was a very young boy and my mother had me in stitches, I remember exactly where we were that moment no mater how much time passes and I remember that moment every time I hear this beautiful song.

7. Very Ape

Fred Myers (Drums): "I love Grohl’s drumming on this record. A super short pumping track that couldn’t be more nirvana! This track always reminds me of another of my favourite bands - Queens of the Stone Age .

Jeremy Gomez (Vocals): "Wow what a track such dirty, primal grooves and most importantly a tribute to the Melvins , Milk It was maybe the closest that Nirvana got to the mission goal they set themselves on In Utero in writing an album that would drive away the mainstream fans with a frenzied punk noise.

"There is a lot in this song that resonates within me as a teenager rebelling doing every thing that I was told not to do, pure self destruction and I loved every second of it. I always related to the lyrics ‘I’m my own parasite’ and felt I had a lot in common at the time when facing my own self demons as a teenager. 'Till this day this song still kicks ass!"

9. Pennyroyal Tea

Will Myers (Bass): " Pennyroyal Tea is just one of those nirvana songs - I just love that instantly classic riff and the chorus is dope as fuck”

10. Radio Friendly Unit Shifter

Fred Myers (Drums): "This song sadly couldn’t be anymore relevant today. Kurt’s beautifully messy and poetic lyrics really hit me on this track.

"The tug of war between chorus and bridge poignantly address major problems both musicians and listeners face in trying to connect and be authentic."

11. Tourette's

Quinton Lucion (lead guitar): "This song brings me back to my childhood. My very first high school band used to cover this as a closer in our set and it was always pandemonium. The crowds would lose their minds when we’d bust out this song. Pure unadulterated carnage that has stood the test of time."

12. All apologies

Quinton Lucion (lead guitar) : "The opening guitar riff to this is mint and the strings in the verse just adds another dimension to this song. It’s all about the little details in this one for me - all the swells, layering and harmonies.

"You can clearly hear how bands like Silverchair were influenced because of this song. The perfect ‘driving in the desert with the windows and sunroof down’ song."

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Nirvana’s ‘In Utero’: 20 Things You Didn’t Know

How prank calls to Eddie Vedder, real-life heart-shaped boxes and more played into the band’s raw 1993 masterpiece

Find out Kurt Cobain's original album title, what inspired "Heart-Shaped Box" and other trivia related to Nirvana's 'In Utero.' CHARLES J. PETERSON/THE LIFE IMAGES COLLECTION/GETTY IMAGES

In february 1993, NIRVANA made their way to the secluded Pachyderm Studios in Cannon Falls, Minnesota, to begin work on their third album. The last time they had stepped foot in a studio, they were a little known Seattle band that had just left Sub Pop for David Geffen’s DGC. Now, with a multiplatinum album that knocked Michael Jackson off the charts and turned them into one of the biggest rock bands on the planet, they were under immense pressure to follow it up. “If there was a Rock Star 101 course, I would have liked to take it,” Kurt Cobain told Rolling Stone’s David Fricke in 1993. “It might have helped me.”

Cobain had one goal in mind: to bring the band back to their punk-rock roots. Their millions of new fans may have revered Nevermind , but Cobain thought it sounded “candy-ass” and way too commercial. So he recruited esteemed engineer Steve Albini (who had recorded Pixies, the Breeders, the Jesus Lizard and other Cobain faves) and headed for the woods in rural Minnesota to create an album that had much more in common with their debut album Bleach .

The result was In Utero , 41 minutes of raw, uncompromising rock that was unlike anything else in the pop landscape. Cobain, disenchanted by his overwhelming fame and the widespread media coverage of his personal life, was ready to vent. From the opening lines of “Serve The Servants” (“Teenage angst has paid off well”) to the moving finale of “All Apologies” (“All in all is all we are”), Cobain’s bleak worldview was on full display. Many of the songs are best remembered for their gut-wrenching, stripped-back acoustic renditions on MTV Unplugged , but In Utero is treasured among hardcore fans as Nirvana in their purest form.

In honor of In Utero’s anniversary, here are 20 things you might not know about the album.

1. The original title was I Hate Myself and Want to Die. “Nothing more than a joke,” Cobain told Rolling Stone . The line, which first appeared in Cobain’s journals in mid-1992, became the working title for the follow-up to Nevermind. “I’m thought of as this pissy, complaining, freaked-out schizophrenic who wants to kill himself all the time. And I thought it was a funny title. But I knew the majority of people wouldn’t understand it.”

Fearing the title would result in the same legal trouble Judas Priest faced three years prior when two fans shot themselves , Krist Novoselic urged Cobain to rethink it. The other working title was Verse, Chorus, Verse , but Cobain finally settled on In Utero , which he took from a poem of Courtney Love’s.

2. Cobain recruited Steve Albini to help him realize the Pixies record he always wanted to make. Cobain cited Pixies’ 1988 masterpiece Surfer Rosa as a key influence while creating Nevermind , even admitting that “Smells Like Teen Spirit” was written in a deliberate attempt to rip off the Boston alternative band. “When I heard the Pixies for the first time, I connected with that band so heavily I should have been in that band — or at least in a Pixies cover band,” he told Rolling Stone . Now that Nirvana had an enormous audience and hits on the pop charts, they had creative freedom. “After Nevermind , we could do whatever we wanted,” recalled Novoselic. “Kurt wanted to make a Pixies record.”

3. Albini wasn’t a huge fan of Nirvana when he got the call. “It wasn’t the sort of stuff that appealed to me,” Albini told Gillian G. Gaar. Albini, who fronted fringe rock groups like Big Black, was skeptical of any rock band as successful as Nirvana. He also had never seen them live, and largely knew of them from MTV. Rumors were circulating for months that Albini was going to record In Utero , so he sent a fax to the band (“If this is true, I don’t know about it”) and Nirvana officially asked him to take the gig.

4. But he agreed to work on the record for a flat rate of $100,000, declining a standard deal that also would have allowed him a piece of the substantial royalties. In a detailed four-page proposal to the band, Albini laid down his ground rules, the most shocking being his refusal to accept royalties. “I think paying a royalty to a producer or engineer is ethically indefensible. I would like to be paid like a plumber: I do the job and you pay me what it’s worth,” he wrote. “There’s no way I would ever take that much money. I wouldn’t be able to sleep.” He suggested Pachyderm Studios for its isolation in the woods, claiming that recording in a city would cause distractions. He also banned visits from Geffen Records staff members, whom he called “front office bullet heads.”

5. Steve Albini made prank calls to Eddie Vedder during downtime in the studio. Albini pretended to be David Bowie producer Tony Visconti, telling him that he would gladly work with him if he left Pearl Jam and went solo. Though the feud between Nirvana and Pearl Jam was almost entirely fueled by the media, Cobain wasn’t exactly neutral in interviews. “We’ve never had a fight,” he admitted to MTV in 1993. “I just have always hated their band.” The two even goofed around at the 1992 MTV Video Music Awards. “We slow-danced underneath the stage when Eric Clapton was playing ‘Tears in Heaven,’” Vedder told Rolling Stone in 2006. “We were slow-dancing on a gym floor as though it was a seventh-grade dance.”

6. To celebrate finishing the record, the band lit their pants on fire. While listening to the final mixes, the group excitedly poured solvent onto their pant legs, making sure to extinguish the flames with beer once it got out of hand. Shenanigans like this were common in the studio. According to Dave Grohl , he also lit his hat on fire and woke up Albini in the middle of the night. “He and I got along really well, because we’re both kind of goofs,” he told NPR .

7. The entire album was recorded live in 14 days, significantly less time than it took to record Nevermind. Albini believed in working fast without over-thinking, so the band cut the album in just two weeks. “If a record takes more than a week to make, somebody’s fucking up,” he wrote in the proposal. The speed at which they recorded, combined with the raw, visceral sound and minimal production, differed greatly from Nevermind , an album that was incredibly clean and streamlined. “The major label people and a lot of fans were going to want to hear Nevermind Version 2,” producer Jack Endino told Goldmine . “And Steve, of course, would have no interest in making Nevermind Version 2.”

8. Fearing the album was too raw for a mass audience, the group ultimately allowed R.E.M. producer Scott Litt to sweeten some of the singles so they’d be more radio friendly. Torn between his punk rock impulses and a desire to maintain the millions of fans they gained from Nevermind , Cobain compromised by keeping the Albini’s work on most of the songs and allowing Litt to remix the singles for radio consumption. It was a controversial decision that caused backlash from some fans and even Albini himself. “It was totally devastating to me from a business standpoint,” he told Gaar. “Because it was officially regarded as inappropriate for bands to record with me on a mainstream level.”

9. The winged angel on the cover was a plastic model of the human anatomy used in classrooms. Cobain added the wings. Cobain became obsessed with anatomy when he got the Visible Man model toy as a child. “I guess I secretly want to be a doctor or something,” he told MuchMusic in 1993. While recording In Utero in Minneapolis, he often drove to a medical supply store inside the Mall of America to scour for models and charts. Winged mannequins served as stage props on the tour.

10. The back cover collage was assembled by Cobain in his dining room. Cobain spent days meticulously arranging plastic fetuses, intestines and a turtle shell — surrounded by carnations and lilies — on his dining room floor. This was the quintessential Cobain aesthetic: grotesque imagery meshed with beauty. He rushed photographer Charles Peterson over to capture it before the flowers began to wilt. Cobain played a mix of In Utero on a boom box while Peterson photographed. “It was difficult because I had to hover over it, and it’s not my forte to [do] a still-life shot,” he told Nirvana biographer Everett True.

11. Wal-Mart and Kmart refused to carry In Utero because of “Rape Me” and the graphic imagery on the back cover. Cobain agreed to change the title of “Rape Me” to “Waif Me,” while the back cover was softened to comply with the demands. “When I was a kid, I could only go to Wal-Mart,” he told his manager Danny Goldberg. “I want the kids to be able to get this record.”

Understandably, “Rape Me” caused other issues for the band, most notably at the 1992 MTV Video Music Awards when network executives told the band that if they played the song they’d immediately cut to commercial. Feeling challenged, Cobain played a bit of the song when they walked out and then went directly into a blazing rendition of “Lithium.”

12. “Heart-Shaped Box” was written in a closet after Courtney asked him to create a riff for one of her own songs. Cobain was playing guitar inside a walk-in closet when Love asked him to write a riff. “He did that in five minutes,” she told Rolling Stone . “Knock, knock, knock. ‘What?’ ‘Do you need that riff?’ ‘Fuck you!’ Slam.” Though Cobain kept this riff for himself, the lyrics are an ode to Love. The chorus comes from a line he once wrote to her in a note. “I am eternally grateful for your priceless opinions and advice. I am not worthy [enough] to be in the presence of you.”

13. The original song title was “Heart-Shaped Coffin.” The original lyric read “I am buried in a heart-shaped coffin for weeks” instead of “I’ve been locked inside your heart-shaped box for weeks.” Much like “I Hate Myself and Want to Die,” Cobain was warned this was too dark. The fears were justified, at least on a commercial level. Even though the video got a lot of play on MTV and the song was all over alternative radio, it never even entered the Hot 100 despite being the leadoff single from one of the most anticipated albums of the decade. It turns out not every suburban teenager wanted to sing along to lines like “I wish I could eat your cancer when you turn black” on the radio.

14. Love first gave Cobain a heart-shaped box to court him in 1990. By 1994, they had an entire collection in their home. After Cobain met Love in 1990, Love gave Dave Grohl a heart-shaped box to give to Cobain. She filled it with items that matched Cobain’s taste — a porcelain doll, dried roses and other tokens — and sprayed some of her perfume on it. As Cobain and Love’s romance blossomed, the item became a symbol of their love. It was also the one item in their home they had in common. “You had this Laura Ashley, girlie stuff Courtney liked, and next to it there would be a Colonel Sanders figurine that Kurt had collected,” Hole drummer Patty Schemel told Charles R. Cross. “A lot of this stuff had a kitschy feel, with a strong sense of humor to them.”

15. All three members received credit on “Scentless Apprentice,” an extreme rarity for the group since Cobain normally wrote the songs himself. The raging “Scentless Apprentice,” inspired by Patrick Süskind’s 1985 novel Perfume , is the only track on the studio album co-written by Cobain, Novoselic and Grohl. (On Nevermind , they shared credit on “Smells Like Teen Spirit” and its B side “Aneurysm.”) “Scentless Apprentice” was recorded in just one take. “Nobody said, ‘We should do it again,’” Grohl told Rolling Stone. “Because that was the fucking take.”

In the early days, Cobain split the publishing evenly with his bandmates despite doing the vast majority of the songwriting. But once real money began pouring in, he insisted on a 75/25 split. He also demanded 100 percent of the credit for the lyrics. It drove a wedge between Cobain and the other two, but Cobain was unwilling to negotiate.

16. Cobain originally wanted writer William S. Burroughs to star in the video for “Heart-Shaped Box.” Cobain and Burroughs had collaborated on a spoken-word record together in 1992 titled The Priest They Called Him , but they had not yet met in person. In his journal, Cobain wrote out a detailed vision for the “Heart-Shaped Box” video with Burroughs as the star. “William and I sitting across from one another at a table (black and white),” he wrote. “Lots of blinding sun from the windows behind us holding hands staring into each other’s eyes.”

By the time he approached Burroughs, he had decided to cast him as an elderly Jesus, even offering to conceal his identity. “I realize that stories in the press regarding my drug use may make you think that this request comes from a desire to parallel our lives,” he wrote in a letter. “Let me assure you that this is not the case.” Though Burroughs declined the offer, Cobain finally got to meet his beat hero at his home in Kansas that fall. “There’s something wrong with that boy,” Burroughs told his assistant. “He frowns for no good reason.”

17. The man who got the Jesus role collapsed on set due to complications from bowel cancer. According to director Anton Corbijn, the man fell down while walking on set. No one knew he was suffering from cancer. “Something broke open. There was blood everywhere,” recalled Corbijn. An ambulance abruptly arrived on set, halting the shoot. The incident was extremely upsetting to the crew, In part because of the video’s imagery of birth, death and disease. “We didn’t work, because it was not only very sad for this man who we were so happy to work with, but also very close to some elements of the song,” said Corbijn.

18. Cobain wrote “Pennyroyal Tea” in late 1990, but he didn’t think it was strong enough for Nevermind . “Pennyroyal Tea” was one of Nirvana’s first songs to showcase the soft-loud-soft formula they became famous for. It was first written and recorded on a four-track with Dave Grohl in Cobain’s house in Olympia, Washington. It went through several permutations before its release on In Utero , including instrumental takes recorded by Jack Endino in 1992. “Pennyroyal Tea” and “Smells Like Teen Spirit” were debuted live the same night , at the O.K. Hotel in Seattle in 1991.

Though pennyroyal tea is an herbal abortifacient (“It doesn’t work, you hippie,” he wrote in his journal) Cobain claimed the song was about severe depression and sickness. He listened to Leonard Cohen as therapy, explaining the nod to the artist in the song (“Give me a Leonard Cohen afterworld”), while the lyrics “I’m on warm milk and laxatives/cherry-flavored antacids” allude to his chronic stomach pain that he self-medicated with heroin.

19. “Pennyroyal Tea” was slated to be the third single for In Utero, but was canceled after Cobain’s suicide in 1994. After Cobain’s death, the label decided to recall copies of the single, which had a B side of “I Hate Myself and Want to Die,” and destroy them. But copies had already been sent overseas and somewhere between 200 and 400 of them reached the fan community. Today they sell for hundreds of dollars on eBay, though there are numerous fakes out there. The “Pennyroyal Tea” single was re-released in 2014 for Record Store Day.

20. Cobain hoped the record would challenge the misogyny of rock & roll. Cobain wrote “Rape Me” to dramatically condemn rape and emphasize his support for women, but the song sparked immediate controversy. “Over the last few years, people have had such a hard time understanding what our message is, what we’re trying to convey, that I just decided to be as bold as possible,” he told Rolling Stone . A huge supporter of the riot grrrl movement and a fan of bands with female members like the Breeders and the Raincoats, Cobain wanted In Utero to pave the way for more female artists. “Maybe it will inspire women to pick up guitars and start bands,” Cobain told Spin in 1993. “Because it’s the only future in rock ‘n’ roll.”

From Rolling Stone US.

Krist Novoselic
kurt cobain

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As Nirvana’s final studio album prepares to turn 30, we look back at the gear that created Cobain’s rawest statement

Image: Paul Bergen/Redferns via Getty Images

In February of 1993, Nirvana departed for Pachyderm Studios in Cannon Falls, Minnesota to record what would become their final studio album. While Februarys in Minnesota can be particularly brutal, Pachyderms Studios had its perks. It was a beautiful house, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, with an indoor swimming pool, nestled in an old growth forest with a trout creek running through the very isolated property. The studio was in a detached building only a hundred feet or so from the house. The studio boasted a massive collection of vintage microphones and analog recording equipment.

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The crown jewel of the studio was a Neve 8068 console that had made quite a journey before landing at Pachyderm. It was originally installed in Electric Lady Studios in New York City in 1979 [originally built at the factory in 1978], a studio that was commissioned by Jimi Hendrix in 1968, designed by architect John Storyk and audio engineer Eddie Kramer, and was completed in 1970. John Lennon’s Double Fantasy , AC/DC’s Back in Black was mixed on that board. Van Halen recorded all their pre- Van Halen demos on it.

Later on, the console was moved to another New York Studio called The Record Plant, where it was used by a lot of other iconic artists. In fact, John Lennon was on his way home from the Record Plant when he was killed. It was this console that Nirvana would record the basic tracks for the album that would become In Utero .

As for gear, Kurt Cobain primarily used his main Fender Jaguar for electric guitar parts – this was a 1965 model that Kurt got before the recording of Nevermind . He found it through an ad in the LA Recycler . The guitar was already modified when he bought it, with an aftermarket pickguard, the on/off phase switches had been replaced with a Gibson -style 3-way switch and the pickups were swapped out for two full-sized humbuckers – a DiMarzio PAF in the neck, and the bridge, a DiMarzio Super Distortion.

The bridge pickup would be swapped out during the subsequent In Utero Tour for a Seymour Duncan JB. But for the recording, it had the two DiMarzio pickups. Kurt did have another sunburst 1960s Jaguar that also had DiMarzio pickups when he bought it, but he had them swapped out for stock Fender pickups in the Fall of 1992, to the best of our knowledge, this one was not used on In Utero .

Among the guitars sent to Minnesota for the recording session was an Ibanez Les Paul although we are unsure if this guitar was used or not. We asked Kurt’s tech Earnie Bailey if Kurt ever used a Les Paul:

“Yes, but not a Gibson-built guitar and, to the best of my knowledge, for only one performance,” he explains. “He preferred the imported copies and owned two of them. And with that, he stated that he looked like Jimmy Page when he played his, and he would not play a Les Paul out in public. He did not want to look even remotely like the iconic guitar players that he grew up listening to.”

The cherry sunburst Ibanez Les Paul Custom was a left-handed guitar that had been modified when he bought it with DiMarzio X2N pickups and two mini switches for activating the coil taps. Again, we can’t be sure that he used this guitar on the record, but it’s interesting to know that a Les Paul style guitar was in his gear arsenal at all as that is not a guitar model we typically associate with Cobain.

For the acoustic parts, Kurt used his Stella 12-string, which was strung up with five nylon strings, which were said to have never been changed for his entire career. He bought this guitar from a pawn shop in October of 1989 for $29.00 plus $2.23 in sales tax (we know this because he kept the sales receipt). This guitar was purchased the same year that Kurt collaborated with Mark Lanegan on a project that was going to become a collection of Lead Belly cover songs – it was during these sessions that they laid down the track, Where Did You Sleep Last Night which would appear on Mark Lanegan’s album The Winding Sheet .

Incidentally, Lead Belly was also well known for playing a 12-string Stella acoustic.

As for amplifiers, Kurt mainly used his Fender Twin Reverb, but there was one other amplifier that we recently learned was used on In Utero – it was a Frankensteined amplifier built by Bailey, as he recently explained to us:

“Only one of my Frankenstein amps made it into the studio with Nirvana, and it began life as an old toasted Marshall chassis with a working power transformer pulled from a dumpster,” he recalls. “In the early 80s I was playing in a band at the time called Atomic Open House that did instrumental stuff with a surf and drag guitar sound and needed a high-volume amp that wouldn’t distort. So I found a Fender Dual Showman schematic and then sent a letter to Marshall Amplifiers in England requesting a schematic to see if I could create a clean amp hybrid using both. They sent a JCM800 schematic back and that began a month’s long obsession with getting that amp to sound nothing like a Marshall and more like a tube version of the Roland Jazz Chorus.

“Fast forward a decade and Krist [Novoselic] is frequently borrowing it for a studio bass amp and it gets sent out for the recording of In Utero . Several years ago, I spoke to Steve Albini and Bob Weston who said that in addition to bass, it was also used for clean electric guitar tracks on the album.”

As for effects, Kurt used his Boss DS-2, EHX Small Clone chorus, an Electro-Harmonix Polychorus that belonged to Earnie Bailey – this was most famously used on the solo of Heart Shaped Box , an EchoFlanger, and a Tech 21 Classic SansAmp. A common misconception is that Kurt used a Rotovibe – this myth was perpetuated by a note appearing in the tablature book for In Utero but this has been contradicted by several parties.

Beyond that it was the talent, passion and creativity of the band in the studio, creating a final statement from Cobain that would remain a cultural touchstone for decades to come.

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List of Nirvana concerts
From March 1987 to March 1, 1994, Nirvana performed a variety of shows and concerts. List of live performances Early gigs. Date City Country Venue Other Performers ???, 1987: Raymond ... In Utero arena tour. Date City Country Venue Other Performers Attendance North America September 23, 1993: New York City:
In Utero
In Utero is the third and final studio album by the American rock band Nirvana, released on September 21, 1993, by DGC Records.After breaking into the mainstream with their second album, Nevermind (1991), Nirvana hired Steve Albini to record In Utero, seeking a more complex, abrasive sound that was reminiscent of their work prior to Nevermind.Although the singer and primary songwriter Kurt ...
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Live Nirvana
For information on musical performances undertaken in private, such as rehearsals, recording sessions and radio shows, please see the Live Nirvana Sessions History. Date. Location. Details. Jan 1, 1994. Compton Arena, Jackson County Fairgrounds/Expo Park Central Point, OR, United States. In Utero West Coast Tour.
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Jeremy Gomez (Vocals): "Wow what a track such dirty, primal grooves and most importantly a tribute to the Melvins, Milk It was maybe the closest that Nirvana got to the mission goal they set themselves on In Utero in writing an album that would drive away the mainstream fans with a frenzied punk noise.
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The Gear Used on Nirvana's In Utero
It was this console that Nirvana would record the basic tracks for the album that would become In Utero. As for gear, Kurt Cobain primarily used his main Fender Jaguar for electric guitar parts - this was a 1965 model that Kurt got before the recording of Nevermind. He found it through an ad in the LA Recycler.
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