Music Debate #113: Nirvana

[Reed Rothchild | 9,588]

 

[LeatherRebel5150 | 1,056]

Of all the bands of the era, they are bottom of the list to me. 3/10

[Hammerfestus | 3,889]

Gave it a 2.  Whiny methhead sings whiny songs about how much he has to whine about — badly.  Probably could have gone lower but that’s generally reserved for your Toby Keiths and such.  Worst of the grunge bands.  

[Bearcat-Doug | 5,105]

I enjoy almost all of their songs so that's a solid 9/10 from me.

[Sumez | 2,995]

I can see why people think it's catchy, but it does absolutely nothing for me.

Also, they stole Killing Joke's awesome riff. But I guess Dave Grohl made up for that over a decade later by participating on one of the band's best albums.

Edited August 10, 2021 by Sumez

[noiseredux | 232]

I mean, I was born in 1981. It sounds hyperbolic, but "Smells Like Teen Spirit" showed up on MTV one Saturday morning, and pretty much blew my young mind, and within its few minutes pretty much shaped my ears for the rest of my life. So, yeah, 10/10 for me.

[guitarzombie | 927]

10 for me.  The band that got me into music and guitar.  Some of their harmony and chord progressions are REALLY interesting because they don't follow any typical functional harmony.  Although personally, I love mostly the obscure stuff from the early days.  Some favorites, instead of your boring "Lithiums", "Rape Me"s etc.
 

 

 

 

[a3quit4s | 4,126]

9/10 not just for their music but the impact they had on a generation and the countless amount of bands they inspired.

RIP Kurt

[captmorgandrinker | 1,650]

Solid 9.

[Reed Rothchild | 9,588]

@spacepup sighting

[spacepup | 2,412]

5 minutes ago, Reed Rothchild said:

@spacepup sighting

Haha.

I gave it a 4.  It's just not for me and never was.  I remember when they were more relevant, and it just didn't do much for me then, nor later.  Your polls specifically mention the music and not things like historical significance, so that's where my votes come from.  I would never go out of my way to listen to them.

[noiseredux | 232]

Noise's favorite band in his teens: Nirvana

Noise's favorite band in his 20's: Sonic Youth

Noise's favorite band in his 30's: Wilco

Noise's favorite band in his 40's: get off my lawn

[Pikkon | 20]

10 for me as well.

Got really into them once I started playing guitar and later on the drums.

[TDIRunner | 2,777]

Probably a 7 for me.  I would most likely have rated it higher in my early high school years. 

[AstralSoul | 503]

Love Nirvana and grunge but not my favorite grunge band. That goes to Pearl Jam. But I still think they're great and could listen to their music forever. 9/10

 

[Reed Rothchild | 9,588]

Bump

[JamesRobot | 5,837]

I believe this is my second 10 among the music debates.  I have all the albums, complete singles, box set and a couple bootlegs.  All of it's great.  Here's my favorite deep cuts from the box.

 

 

[CodysGameRoom | 2,008]

I find the biographical information about Nirvana, the formation, success, fame, suicide, future of other members, etc, way more interesting than the actual music.

[guitarzombie | 927]

36 minutes ago, CodysGameRoom said:

I find the biographical information about Nirvana, the formation, success, fame, suicide, future of other members, etc, way more interesting than the actual music.

Have you ever seen the home Kurt grew up in?  Or any of the places he had lived?  Its hard to fathom when you see that, and see the venues they were playing in early 1989, that they went from touring in a van around the US and Europe later than year, to then doing slightly bigger things, then being the biggest band in the world by Jan 92, is really kind of a culture shock.  Kurt was a complex person.  He wanted fame, but not THAT much.  I think he resented Smells Like Teen Spirit because of that and all the attention it brought.  Of course, one of the reasons for his suicide.

For fun, here's Kurt at a White Zombie show in 1987  

[mbd39 | 2,030]

8/10 for what exists. Too bad Cobain wasn't around longer to do more.

 

[captmorgandrinker | 1,650]

6 hours ago, JamesRobot said:

I believe this is my second 10 among the music debates.  I have all the albums, complete singles, box set and a couple bootlegs.  All of it's great.  

Which bootlegs do you have?   My favorites are Roma, Outcesticide II and Outcesticide IV.

Used to have more but sold a bunch off for fantastic prices.

5 hours ago, guitarzombie said:

Kurt was a complex person.  He wanted fame, but not THAT much.  I think he resented Smells Like Teen Spirit because of that and all the attention it brought.  Of course, one of the reasons for his suicide.

I thought I read something way back where he made them leave all the feedbacky parts on In Utero trying to get fans to stop liking them?

[JamesRobot | 5,837]

2 hours ago, captmorgandrinker said:

Which bootlegs do you have?   My favorites are Roma, Outcesticide II and Outcesticide IV.

Goddammit!  Just went to take stock and and they're missing.  I had kept Roma and Rare Trax+.  Missing my original Teen Spirit and Lithium singles too.  Fuck!

The singles I'm not too worried about, I do have the singles box single disc bootleg.  But that Roma was quality.  

[guitarzombie | 927]

4 hours ago, captmorgandrinker said:

I thought I read something way back where he made them leave all the feedbacky parts on In Utero trying to get fans to stop liking them?

I don't think I heard that.  I think if anything, they didn't like how polished Nevermind came out, and thought they alienated their core fanbase.  Also a lot of those songs were written in 90/91 anyway (All Apologies, Rape Me, Pennyroyal Tea, Radio Friendly Unit Shifter, Dumb).  Even Frances Farmer and tourettes were kicked around in 92.

Also not like you asked, but I actually had every unique Nirvana show at one time on CDR.  Now you can find practically anything on youtube.  One of the greatest moments of my life as a Nirvana fan (prob the greatest) is when FINALLY after 31 years to the day, the only known recording of a live version of Big Long Now surfaced on Feb 9th.  Lots of fun stuff over at livenirvana.com.

[G-type | 2,533]

huge fan

[G-type | 2,533]

On 8/13/2021 at 4:13 PM, guitarzombie said:

He wanted fame, but not THAT much.  I think he resented Smells Like Teen Spirit because of that and all the attention it brought.  Of course, one of the reasons for his suicide.

His ambition was to be somewhere near the level of Sonic Youth or the Pixies... he was hoping the extreme fame and attention would blow over.