From the Muddy Banks of the Wishkah

Rip It Up, Issue 230, 1 October 1996, Page 4

From the Muddy Banks of the Wishkah

Nirvana started as a live band, don’t all bands?

We played around for two years before the release of Bleach in June, 1989. At the time live shows were our bread and butter (this being prior to the release of Nevermind in September of 1991). We’d hit the road for months at a time... coming back with one or two grand... to be split three ways. In those days, that was about as much success as we thought possible. The earliest performances on this album are brought to you courtesy of a sound board cassette recording of a December 1989 show at London’s Astoria. ‘Breed’ (then called ‘lmodium’) and ‘Polly’ (the big rock version) are taken from this show, the last date of a European tour supporting fellow Sub Poppers, Tad. Early in 1991, the band signed with Geffen Records and acquired professional management. D.I.Y fell by the wayside. Nevermind was recorded in the spring of 1991, following summer tours with Dinosaur Jr. and The

Jesus Lizard. Nevermind was released in the fall. Immediately following the release, we went on a tour headlining small venues that culminated with a Halloween home coming show at Seattle’s Paramount theatre. This show was filmed and recorded onto multitrack... yielding the version of ‘Negative Creep’ used in compiling this record. Two days later the band left for another European tour. ‘School’, ‘Been a Son’, ‘Lithium’ and ‘Blew’ were all taken from a show at the Paradiso in Amsterdam, Netherlands, on November 25, 1991. The show was filmed and recorded on multi-track for Dutch TV. ‘Spank Thru’, this version having been recorded on November 19, 1991, in Rome, was actually the first Nirvana song. While we were touring Europe, Nevermind was becoming all the rage back home. Though we were kept informed of the momentum, being so far away kept us pretty oblivious to the ►

TUPAC DIES IN GANGSTA TRAP After leaving the Las Vegas Mike Tyson fight, September 7, rapper Tupac Shakur (25) in a BMW driven by Death Row label boss Suge Knight (31), was fatally shot at traffic lights, by two men who jumped out of a white Cadillac. Four bullets hit Shakur, he was hospitalised in a coma with massive chest wounds. Knight who had a minor bullet wound, took four days to agree to be. interviewed by the investigating police. At the time, Knight and Shakur were travelling in a car convoy of 10 people. It is thought that the East Coast vs. West Coast feud between rappers was behind the attack. Dr Dre recently left the Death Row label to found his own Aftermath label to distance himself from Death Row’s gangsta rap macho bullshit and to promote unity between the Coasts. “Live by the gun, die by the gun,” read New York street art, Sept 13, the night Tupac Shakur died. SMASHING PUMPKINS DEFEND DUMPING /■ Billy Corgan explained to press at the MTV Awards that the band had put up with drummer Jimmy Chamberlain’s heroin use for a long time. Corgan said, “There were two overdoses prior... the first one involved Jimmy, the second one involved both of them. We had a long comical talk where they told us, “No, it will never happen again. and we are really sorry, we realise we are destroying our lives here’. Jonathan [Melvoin] is, like, ‘I have a baby and wife and responsibilities and I’m so grateful for the opportunity’. And Jimmy is, like, ‘Yeah, I have so much to lose and we’re really sorry’.” Corgan said of those who criticise the Pumpkins for sacking Chamberlain, “They didn’t sit with him on a bus at four in the morning where he called us all sorts of names. They didn’t have him not turn up at a recording session, then have to worry if he was dead; and you’d hear reports — “Oh yeah; he went to the REM concert’. They didn’t live through all this.” =_ _ , ■ REM SBO MILLION DEAL & ROAD MOVIE REM have re-signed to the Warner Bros label for an SBO million, five album deal, despite bids for the band from Sony, Capitol and Dream Works. Industry speculation suggested the band would follow former Warner Bros executives to the new Dream Works label. Instead REM, after an August 20 & 21 meeting in Athens, sent their adviser Bertis Downs to Los Angeles for a day meeting with Warners. A few days later the band sent a telegram to the label’s conference reading, “We’ve always said we’ll only do this as long as it’s still fun and right now it feels like we’re just getting started, so let’s keep going.”.. Peter Buck, had earlier told NME that the three things that the band wanted from their new deal were: “Complete artistic freedom so we can hang ourselves. Ownership of the masters. And a very large boat load of money.”

REM will release the 90 minute Road Movie on video. The Peter Care directed concert documentary captures 19 songs shot in Atlanta on the final three nights of their world tour

MORE AEROSMITH BLUES The mega-selling rock band are up to their usual recording studio antics. They’ve fired their manager ofl2 years Tim Collins, fired their longtime A&R man John Kalodner (and since rehired him) and let their studiobound, in-demand producer Glen (Alanis Morissette) Ballard move on to other projects. The band are now recording more tracks with producer Kevin Shirley. Singer Steven Tyler did an extensive interview with Rolling Stone magazine to refute ex-manager Collins’ accusation that members of the band have not “totally chosen sobriety.” The band recently checked into Steps, a California drug-rehabilitation programme for 11 days, but it appears that damage being repaired by the group therapy was the fractured relationship between Tyler and the rest of the band.

A letter was sent to Tyler by the other band members, stating, “Unless you make big changes and get the help you need, we don’t want to be in the band with you.” Joe Perry has defended Tyler, in regards to unusual behavior in Miami. “Steven was being full of Steven,” said Perry. “He wears his eccentricities on his sleeve.” Perry said of the band’s letter, “It had nothing to do with drugs.” And concerning the visit to Steps, “It was part of our ongoing process of staying together." Steven Tyler told Rolling Stone that he was fed up with former manager Tim Collins’ public anti-drug crusading and his use of the band as “recovered” role models. “It’s called Alcoholics Anonymous,” said Tyler. DAVID BYRNE vs. HEADS The former Talking Heads mainman, David Byrne is taking legal action against the other three bandmembers for recording under the name “Heads”. Their new album is cheekily entitled No Talking Just Head, after a song on the album sung by Debbie Harry. Other guest vocalists include Gordon Gano, Shaun Ryder, Michael Hutchence and Ed Kowalczyk. Byrne’s suit accuses the Heads of, “Wrongful use in commerce of false designations of origin, [and] false descriptions and dilution of a protectible trademark in violation of the Lanham Trademark Act of 1946.” GARAGELAND PLAY PARIS FESTIVAL As part of their UK and European tour, Garageland will play the Les Inrockuptibles rock festival in Paris, France, on November 11. Also on the bill are Tricky, Neneh Cherry, and Mazzy Star. Garageland were asked to perform at the concert by French music journalist Jean-Daniel Beauvallet, when he attended Flying Nun’s 15th Anniversary celebrations in March. 11 MUSICIANS IN ENTERTAINERS TOP 40 USA business magazine Forbes has estimated the incomes of the current big earners in entertainment. The musicians listed in the Entertainers Top 40 and their estimated 1995/96 USAS earnings (and overall ranking in brackets) are: . 1. The Beatles $l3O million (3). 2. Michael Jackson S9O million (4). 3. Rolling Stones $77 million (5). 4. Eagles $75 million (6). 5. Garth Brooks ssl million (13). 6. Andrew Lloyd Webber SSO million (14) 7. R.E.M. $44 million (20). 8. Luciano Pavarotti $36 million (28). . 9. Kiss $35 million (29). ’ 10. Mariah Carey $32 million (33). 11. Metallica S2B million (38).

PRINCE INTERVIEW IN FORBES The man who never gives interviews and who now wants to be known as “The Artist” decided to reveal his business plan to USA business magazine Forbes and he’s as unquoteable as ever. Prince has left Warners and in the short term he plans to release independently a 3-CD, 36 song set Emancipation and embark on a global tour in 1997. Prince told Forbes, “I polled kids on the Internet and no one said they would pay less than SSO for a new 3-CD set.” When questioned about his prolific output which upset Warners, Prince replied, “My music wants to do what it wants to do, and I just want to get out of its way. I want the biggest shelf in the record store — the most titles. I know they’re not all going to sell, but I know somebody’s going to buy at least one of each.”

NIRVANA CONTINUED FROM PREVIOUS PAGE extent of what was happening. We ended the year with a brief West Coast tour. The bill included Pearl Jam and Nirvana, and was headlined by the Red Hot Chili Peppers. The second show of this tour was on December 28, 1991, at the Del Mar Fairgrounds (just outside San Diego). For whatever reason, our set was particularly aggressive that night — ‘Drain You’, ‘Aneurysm’ and ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ were all taken from this recording. Early in 1992 the band toured Australia and Japan. Later in the summer we travelled to Europe to make up some Scandinavian shows we had to cancel on the previous tour. The touring highlight of the year, however, was a headlining slot on England’s Reading Festival. I have

to say that hearing tens of thousands of people sing along with ‘Lithium’ was a very cool moment in the band. We were having fun playing and decided to stretch the set out a bit — enter ‘Tourette’s’, a song which had been around a few years (and eventually found it’s way onto In Utero.) Following the release of In Utero in 1993, we once again hit the road. Using left over props from the ‘Heart-Shaped Box’ video shoot as set dressing (our first foray into the world of stage props), we concentrated on working up a set that spanned the band’s entire career and gave the audience a longer show than we had done on past tours. In that we were playing the ‘big’ halls on this tour, it was felt that we needed to bring along a ‘big’ sound... ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Pat Smear.

‘Scentless Apprentice’ was filmed and recorded by MTV for their 1993 New Year’s special... recorded at a show at a pier in Seattle. ‘HeartShaped Box’ comes from a sound board DAT recording from a show at The Forum in Los Angeles in December 1993. We took ‘Milk It’ from a sound board recording from the Seattle Center Arena. ‘Silver’ is taken from a board tape from the Springfield Civic Center (in Massachusetts). In presenting this record, we hope the ultimate allure of Nirvana (and especially Kurt), as well as the passion we had — and have — for the music we made is once again brought to the forefront. Let all the analysis fall away like yellow, aged newsprint. Crank this record up and realise the bliss, power and passion... total Nirvana.

KRIST NOVOSELIC