Nirvana was formed in Seattle Washington in 1989 with the debut of their album Bleach. Originally, they met each other in Aberdeen Washington but didn’t make their debut until the release of their album in Seattle. Their sound can only be described as Grunge music or Indie-Grunge music. The group met two years prior and underwent several band name changes before settling on Nirvana. The other names for the band included The Stiff Woodies and Skid Row. Also before playing in these bands Cobain performed in the group Fecal Matter.

The band originally consisted of Cobain and Novaselic and featured other musicians in their line up before finding Dave Grohl to be their permanent sticks man. Other musicians for the group included Aaron Burkhart, Dan Peters and Chad Channing. Before to playing for Nirvana Grohl played for the band Scream.

Ahhh Bleach, the first ever Nirvana album. Songs on this album include such hits as “School”, “Love Buzz”, “Negative Creep”, “About a Girl” and “Floyd the Barber”. “Love Buzz” is a cover of a song wrote by Shocking Blues that the band decided would be one of many cover songs performed by Nirvana.

Bleach is such a good album. The sound of the album was unlike any other of the time and the band quickly began to grow an underground following in at local colleges around Seattle where the band enjoyed the beginning of their success.

I don’t know, Nirvana has always had the sound that is hard to describe, its raw and edgy and definitely has a message to it, somewhere. The cool thing about Nirvana is all their music sounds different. It has a bunch of different feels to it and can only be called original.

I mean, I’ve listened to a lot of Nirvana and learned most of their songs by heart, they are one of those bands that always bring you back to them. I love listening to countless hours upon hours of music from this band.  

Their next album was called Silver/Dive. This album is extremely rare and hard to find and featured Peters on drums for the group. Little is known about this rare album and attempts to track down information about this album have proven to be sketchy at best.

1991, turned the world on it’s side with with release of the immortal Nevermind album. This album changed the world of music forever and everyone should own this album. Songs included on this record breaking album include “In Bloom”, “Lithium”, “Breed”, “Polly”, “Smells Like Teen Spirit” and “Territorial Pissings”.

Where do I begin on how to talk about Nevermind? This album changed my life forever. Playing covers in my parents garage for countless hours at a time with my friends and fellow band-mates. It’s not that Nirvana is easy to play and only contain a mix of power chords and wild solos, no, that would be far to simple. They only used the music as a base for their expression. The real talent came when front man Kurt Cobain opened his mouth on the mic, then the magic happened.

Their sound was so gritty and raw, almost angry but dangerously subtle and relaxed. It’s the kind of sound that makes you just want to flip people off and keep on rocking. The pure energy of this band is what made them who they were. They will always be remembered for the way they put together such simple riffs into such a workable format, bursting at the seems with creative inspiration.

In 1992, Incesticide was released, containing  various collections of B-sides and some new material. Songs include “Been a Son”, “Son of a Gun”, “Mexican Seafood”, “Aero Zeppelin”, “Silver”, “Dive”, and “Molly’s Lips”. This album is pretty decent but not one of my personal favorites. I am still a big fan however.

Next up is the In Utero album which is the band’s 5th album but generally considered to be the third album from the band. This album was another smash success for the band and features the hits “Heart Shaped Box”, “Pennyroyal Tea”, “Dumb”, “Rape Me”, “Tourette’s” and “All Apologies”. Pat Smear is also added to the line up this year as a second guitarist. I have to say that this is one of my favorite albums ever. The songs are catchy and deep and addicting to the ear. The rhythm and beat of the songs just grab your attention and get your heart pumping.

If you haven’t really heard a lot of Nirvana and just have seen their videos, my advice is to pick up Nevermind and In Utero and maybe Bleach if you still like what you hear, then try out Incesticide if you are a die-hard fan.