Thanks so much for this video! I am grateful I t autoplayed, as I had the exact same experience; being a hard rock/metal guy and not loving the winds of change 🦂 when grunge took over…but the power of Alice In Chains and Soundgarden was undeniable in my life!
@@gregortbachAlice in Chains is probably my favorite 90s bands and Sound Garden was a close second. I still listen to them regularly to this day. Absolute legendary bands.
Nirvana were the reason I picked up a guitar, and Kurt really made playing the guitar seem like an accessible and attainable goal with how simple he kept things. 15 year-old me will always remember coming home from school in April 1994, flipping on MTV and getting absolutely gutted by the news. RIP Kurt.
I was born 2002, I got bullied alot in high school and at that time the only peace I got was jamming to Nirvana in my room or music practise room and running until i ate shit with shin splints lol. I discovered AIC in Janurary 2021 and I can without a doubt their music saved me I was in a dark place at the time.
Same as me when I was 3 to like 7 my godmother used to play nirvana a d then when I was 15 I found nirvana again on kerrang. I was blown away by slts music video then a week later I bought nevermind, in utero and incesticide . My godmother got me unplugged and that was great. I never owned bleach I got a friend copy it
Dude, I totally get it. I'm 42 and Nirvana was definitely that band that changed so much in my life. I was a struggling guitarist listening to Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, and Lynyrd Skynyrd and Nirvana showed me that I didn't need to be a guitar virtuoso to be great at music. That band taught me a lot about how to sing play rhythm guitar simultaneously which opened up a whole new world for me in music and I think that Nirvana was very influential for that time.
I still remember listening to Teen Spirit the first time. Our drummer had a bought a copy a week after it was released. He insisted we listen to it and we had an awakening. 4 months later I was at their gig in Canberra, Australia. The fashion element of the grunge scene never really shocked anyone because there was all ready a sub-culture of Australians that wore grunge clothing anyway, know as Bogans, Westies or Booners.
Yeah, plus Kurt looked a bit like a surfer or skater so wouldn't have looked out of place in many parts of Australia. I had classmates who looked like him before anyone knew who Nirvana were.
a suicidal chap at highschool in our town went up with a shotgun and threatened to kill himself in front of everyone the day Cobain died. He never did and I think was put away for some time for that stunt. Guy really did act like he was Cobain in real life tried to dress and look like him . Was very bizarre. HE couldn't play a lick of music.
That was cobains real influence. Bunch of white kids taking him too seriously and staring at their shoes for 2 years. Death made him a legend when right before his death music was starting to move away from them. In utero wasnt well liked like revisionist say today and Pearl Jam, stp were bigger bands April of 94. Super unknown came out in march and was the best grunge record of the era. Nirvana wasn’t original but they found a way to sell 80s college/alt music to kids my age who weren’t aware of it yet
Alice in Chains always gets lumped in with Grunge, but they always sounded more metal to me. Facelift, to me, sounds like Guns-N-Roses, but heavy. A lot of Jerry's riffs are super heavy sounding.
Those first two AIC records, to me, have always felt like a bridge from the late-stage “sleaze” hair bands such as GnR and Skid Row to the alternative rock era.
yeah they're not really grunge. I mostly listen to jar of flies which is a bluesy alternative rock album, nothing grunge about it at all except maybe some of layne's vocals.
If I remember it right Lane Staley was singing in a hair metal band when he was asked to front AIC. There’s a photo out there in the either of him at prom with the big blown out hair style. i.pinimg.com/originals/15/0f/ce/150fcefc27d345859191b413e5aaa941.jpg
I didnt back then, but at that stage, I was 'only' into bands like Carcass, napalm death, pestilence, death. About the 'slowest'/softest, was Voivod or Godflesh (so, not very 'slow' or 'soft'). Now is a different story!
I asked a metal guy, back in 1995, why don't you guys like the album Dirt? He said it's just too much. Too much into the horse type. Because they all like Face-lift.
AIC was Metal. They were of the Doom-ish / Stoner type (especially 'Dirt'). To me, AIC also had glimpses of funk metal too on Facelift (Sunshine). They always get inaccurately lumped in with Grunge.
I saw Skold a few months back, he played Living Without You and I couldn't believe it. I was probably the only person in that club who knew the song and definitely the only one who saw him do it with Shotgun. Everything he does is just solid to to bottom. The best Manson record since portrait was all him, all his solo stuff & even Not My God.
That was a cute little story about your young feelings about Kurt looking like some inconvenient person in your class. It was really enjoyable to hear about your experience of that time and the music around that time and your first hearing of Nirvana songs and things like that. I can sort of “remember “ things too when I hear people talking about those times and so it’s very special to share memories. Also I appreciate you sharing what it’s like to have students bring in music lesson requests with music that is so .. well, different now.
I remember that I read a raving review of "Nevermind" in the german Metal Hammer before the album took off 🙂 and after listening my first thought was "This is NOT Metal"
I can see it. There is totally a change in the air when Slayer takes the stage... it's a really eerie vibe, and the crowd just turns into a bunch of wild, feral animals.
It's such a weird coincidence that you mentioned 93X playing It's the End of the World on loop for days because just earlier today I ended up on the wiki for stunting which is what it's called when radio stations foreshadow a format change by doing something radical with their playlist and playing the same song repeatedly is one of the most common forms of stunting.
93.7 The Edge days…then came ROCK 100.3 FM….then 93X came back around 1998 or so. Edgefest/Xfest in the late 1990s and early 2000s were untouchable. Great times.
In the Omaha area, we had a radio station called The Edge in, I think 1998 that played it over and over again for a few days straight. I remember talking it over with friends at school, wondering what was going to happen, and it changed to a different name and format too.
I still have my ticket for the Nirvana concert I was looking forward to in early 1994 - a concert that, for obvious reasons, was cancelled. I could have returned it to get my money back, but I kept it instead. I also have this memory of visiting a record store to buy In Utero at its release, and instead of buying just a cd copy (vinyl was, of course, really uncool at the time), both me and my friend chose to buy it on vinyl as well because "who knows what will happen with this band". It definitely didn't take long for something pretty significant to happen. Thirty years later and I still haven't removed the plastic wrapping from that vinyl. Its such a weird memory having that discussion with my friend and choosing to spend a lot more money than we had initially planned simply because Kurt was such an impossible person to predict. It was almost as if we knew something awful was going to happen to him. Interesting mention of Shotgun Messiah too. Really cool band, and Harry Cody sure knew his way around that guitar. I still regret selling the Second Coming cd (along with my copy of the debut album) a long time ago. I do have mp3's of the songs somewhere but it's just not the same for me. Maybe I'll have to go looking for that physical disc sometime.
I wonder if you'd heard Jane's Addiction (Been Caught Stealing) or Faith No More (Epic). They're seen as an important precursor for alt rock explosion in 91 before Nirvana, just like you heard Alice in Chains.
Yeah the later 80's alt rock was great but it was really just one offs at the time. Later I'd go on to get WAY into FNM as well as Mr. Bungle but just like Living Colour I was like cool song! The difference is that I saw AIC live with those metal bands that I really felt the chasm. I did end up seeing Faith No More live opening for Met and GnR though. That was wild..
Janes addiction rocks that first album nothing’s shocking dropped in 1988 and it a excellent album…been caught is on the 2nd album ritual de habitual 1990.
Yeah, the '89-'92 era Faith No More had a big influence on me. They were popular here in Australia. Janes Addiction not so much, but Been Caught Stealing got some airplay. I was also big on Living Colour at the time, though only really because my uncle came back from Los Angeles with a few cassettes recorded from KROQ FM. Hearing American radio for the first time was interesting.
Guns and Roses drew first blood on Glam,then Grunge came in with the finishing blow.Cant say I was sad to see the Hairspray glam movement disappear.Shit was lame as a three legged dog.
nirvana was the reason i started playing guitar and starting a band, seeing how cool the live at paramount show looked on youtube, i was in awe from them, i love their music so much rest in peace kurt
107.7 FM in Seattle changed from top 40 to alt rock exactly at that time so Soundgarden and Nirvana were all over it in the beginning. (They did TV theme songs for a couple weeks straight just before the changeover). I had gotten into metal a few years earlier and Nirvana was different but it still rocked so I loved them from the start. I remember exactly where i was when I heard Kurt died too. I was playing guitar in a band and we were rehearsing in the other guitarist's parents' house and his cousin who was staying with them came into the garage and he just heard the news on MTV and told us. We said a prayer together and finished practice. Lot of grief in school that week. Such great music though, at least we still have it.
I distinctly remember going to school the day we found out Cobain had died and, just like you said, the mood was really somber. Nobody was yelling and lauging, no fooling around. Everybody was really subdued. When I got back home later that day I mentioned it to my mother and she said it reminded her of how her generation reacted when Lennon died back in 1980 when she was a bit older than me and she was in college instead of high school.
I was born in the 80's, and all of this music - Rock, Hard Rock, Metal & Thrash, Grunge, it was all played on my local radio station and it was all called "Rock", so I (we, actually - my friends etc) all never really considered the differences until much, much later and owned all of the albums by every one of these bands and were fans of all of them.
I was already (theoretically) an "adult" when grunge hit the scene. I never got into Nirvana, despised Pearl Jam, accepted Stone Temple Pilots, I did like Alice In Chains and Soundgarden. The older I get, the more I like The Foo Fighters.
Foo Fighters?! I mean to each their own but that is some low grade pop rock derivative sludge IMO. Sorry don't take it personal, I was a huge nirvana fan and was in shock when grohl went that direction.
@@wordup897 I don't really listen to the Foo Fighters either but one time Everlong played on the radio while I was driving on the highway and it brought a tear to my eye. Great song for committing moving violations
I was always interested in learning guitar but it was when Nirvana hit the scene that's when I actually got a guitar and all I did was learn Nirvana riffs at the beginning. I don't listen to them much these days, but will always appreciate the music they created.
As a metalhead of the 80’s I recall my friend told me about this band nirvana (back then if it wasn’t metal I wasn’t listening😄)…I threw the cassette in the deck and it lasted about 5 blocks….it went out the window. I’m still not a fan of that music but they sure did have a following
8:45 Mike, your ability to be vulnerable in your videos is honest and humbling. Also, your insight here is spot on: "he forced us to look at music in a different way and you can't deny that all of the sudden people were focusing a lot more on song writing than being flashy" ... that is "Grunge" in a nutshell. To me it was just hard rock with more emphasis on writing songs with great melodies than 40 second guitar solos surrounded by bar chords and songs with adolescent lyrics about pies and "girls girls girls". Don't get me wrong, I grew up on heavy metal and cut my teeth playing lead guitar in hard rock bands, but I call it like I see it. Another great video, Mike!
Hey man awesome video! Love the shoutouts to Slaughter, my band recently opened for them in Illinois and hearing them play Fly to the Angels on the same stage I was just on was an awesome experience!
I hung out with Layne for about 30 min by the back stage entrance at Clash of the Titans in Omaha. He was skating around with the same Alva board I had. I complemented him on his taste in skate gear & he came sat by me and chatted me up. He still had dreads & I didn't know who he was at first. Then he asked me what I thought of the first band and it clicked. He was a genuinely nice dude. Way nicer than Dave Muff-Stain, that's for sure. After that experience I never bought another Megadeth CD, but I bought every AiC album.
I did the same thing with Chester Bennington. I loved Linkin Park as a kid, but as I got older and got more into folk rock and classic rock i was less interested in modern commercial rock. then he died and it really put things in perspective. I felt guilty for doing the same thing. RIP to Kurt Cobain and Chester Bennington.
It is interesting to hear someone your age say grunge bands sounded so completely different. As someone who grew up in the 60s and 70s, it sounded super familiar. My late 80s I had kind of rejected metal and was playing covers of Louie Louie (more in the vein of Iggy Pop’s version) Gloria, Twist and Shout, Born to Be Wild, a All Day and All of the Night, God Save the Queen, Garageland, Clash City Rockers, Sweet Jane and People Who Died. Grunge seemed like a natural progression.
I wasn’t born yet when either Kurt or Layne died but I will always be big fans of them. Amazing songwriters. Layne is also a classically trained singer and has an amazing voice, so I have infinite respect for him
I first encountered Smells Like Teen Spirit on Canada's Much Music TV, I actually recorded it too my VCR, (still have the tape today) At the time I never could of imagined "Smells" becoming this ground breaking hit, much like The Beatles Love Me Do was in the early 1960's.
I am convinced that grunge (the ultimate flash in the pan music fad) was forced on the public as a way for the labels to get rid of the glam bands they had signed way too many of back in the 80s. Hip hop is about to go through the same thing too, because signs are that genre is getting stale and the labels having too many of those acts signed. The evidence that it was forced: after Grunge went away by 96, what happened? metal was back, just in a different form. Like you, I lived through that and saw it first hand.
I have a similar story about first hearing Nirvana. I grew up in Portland and did early some college in Portland before transferring. Fun fact: Kurt died wearing a Tom Peterson watch. Tom Peterson was a staple on Portland television. He had a chain of stores selling furniture, electronics, appliances. You don't get more Portland than Tom Peterson (and Gloria's, too!) in the 70s and 80s. I remember hearing Teen Spirit for the first time on the radio in my car as well. I was driving to school and it made an impact because at the time it really was that different, you nailed it when you talked about that. I also didn't know the band name at the time. It wasn't until I saw the video and it turns out I had actually seen them live before, it had to have been when Bleach was out. It was at a club called Satyricon. Supposedly, that's where Kurt met Courtney. I don't know if there is any truth to it or it is urban legend but in the early 90s it became Satyricon's claim to fame. Anyway, I thought Nirvana was awful live. They were sloppy and not really in what can be a good punk way, but more in what seemed to be an unrehearsed/unprepared way. Maybe that's what they were going for, but I don't think they pulled it off well. I don't remember the live tone being that good, either, more the opposite. I saw them again later at a club called Pine Street Theater, which later became La Luna, that was really the best club in town at that time, IMO. Still were a bit sloppy. Saw them again on the In Utero tour at an armory of all places and they were much better. Never even heard of bands being booked in that venue before Nirvana. Ironically I also saw their city-mates Soundgarden in that armory. Nirvana could have played a much bigger place at that point, I was really surprised that's where they were booked.
I was working as a maintenance tech at a private resort in Key Largo Fl. when I heard Kurt was found dead on local radio. I was in my early 20s so I was very into the scene. I remember this like 9/11 and the day Dime Bag died.
The solo is actually really good, very memorable! As much as I love shredding heavy and power metal I also appreciate foundational music. Ramones "I wanna be sedated" solo is literally just one repeated note, and even that is memorable.
I came to Nirvana from a solid The Rolling Stones background, and loved it immediately. Saw them live once too in 1992. I never really liked the metal or guitar solos. Here in Finland we had a band called Hassisen Kone which was huge here in the eighties, and Nirvana sounded bit like that, only with more distortion and more rage. Nevermind-album sounded very produced and refined sonically when it came out, but in a good way. Kurt's voice was really impressive.
My roommate played Nevermind for about 6 months. I hated it...or at the very least never cared for it. One day I came home from work and just pressed play on the CD player and sat down. Listened to it from beginning to end and by the end something had changed. I dont know what it was to this day but I was changed forever.
Love your videos and honesty, Mike. I was the exact same when I was that age. I can't really explain what makes your videos so compelling. They just seem from the heart.
I was a huge Nirvana fan at the time. Them and GNR were my favorites. I used to sleep with the radio on and that morning the news came through that he killed himself and it woke me up from my sleep. And I just remember feeling disappointed in him. I know he had his demons, but I almost didn't even feel bad for him cause we all kinda realized he wasn't ok. I was just apathetic. I've been more emotionally affected by Chris Cornell taking his own life, cause you figure he made it that long, had his life where he wanted it and all that. Just seemed sadder. We may have lived through a golden age of music, but it was really volatile emotionally. Favorite bands breaking up, dying. Strange times indeed.
I felt the same way when Nirvana was playing everywhere, I was still into metal and didn't know what was happening. But Soundgarden and Alice in Chains opened the door for me to listen to other bands like Nirvana. I taught myself guitar playing mostly Nirvana songs.
You should make a video about how it felt to live in the time where nü metal was becoming huge/mainstream. Like your first time hearing Korn or Deftones. Would absolutely love to hear that!
I've loved Nirvana since 1.st time I heard them (1.st album "Bleach") , and I love how Kurt, and others, turned the music landscape around. I always hated 80's mainstream music.
I will be sixty in October I still listen to Nirvana....but I was always and still a Metal head...I have finally brought Country into my listening past few years.... Kurt endured what many of loving people do....Sad ending though....
I hated Nirvana back in the day, too. I was about 10 in 2000 when I first got into rock/metal and playing guitar by hearing the bridge riff to Metallica's Fade To Black on the radio. I had a total boomer mindset thinking that only older music was good and any new music sucked, so all the grunge bands were terrible in my opinion. AIC grew on me in my teens, but I didn't start appreciating Nirvana probably until my 20s
Never knew you were a Minnesotan. The REM song on loop, I kind of remember it being a whole weekend thing. I lived in a small town at the time and no one knew what was going on. I always listened to the radio when I went to bed, and hearing this song on a loop has scarred me for life. Just hearing that drum into at 9:29 just gives me the heebie-jeebies.
I was 13 when Kurt Cobain departed this plane of existence. I remember my Dad being a bit sombre- he certainly wasn't a Nirvana fan but he had a decent grasp of culture and music. I wasn't exactly sad- I was just shocked. I didn't understand drug addiction or mental illness- one can't comprehend dark nights of the soul in the middle of puberty. But I really really liked Nirvana. Ozzy described Nirvana as "heavy metal meets the Beatles." That's the best description I've ever heard of Nirvana's music. The older I got the more Cobain meant to me, just like you. The music business wasn't made for super sensitive souls like him and all the other rock and roll giants that passed way too young. But he left music fans lots of spiritual and philosophical quandaries to chew on. And a helluva a lot of great songs.
"In Bloom" was the one song that really hooked me. For me I liked it but really it pointed the way to Punk for me. So Nirvana was more of a way point to other Underground music that I love. That said I really only like half of their catalog. I like their covers too.
i remember my uncles and dad playing metal and rock my whole childhood but the moment my uncle put come as you are it just felt so different and cool calm wave hit me and obviously being little i didn’t know them until during quarantine i found nirvana and put the song come as you are and a nostalgia wave hit me and never felt something like that Kurt Cobain has a special place in my heart RIP
I think we are around the same age. I probably am a little older. But I always love when you talk about when you were a young player and music lover, I relate. I grew up in the Netherlands. But we have Simular experiences in the same time. Thank you for that part of your videos. Keep it up.
I guess hating things/people for silly reasons happens to all of us. Here in Germany there is a rivalry between a Deutschrockband and some punk bands and if you are fan of either it is virtually forbidden to be fan of the other. I used to listen to the one band, then listend to the other and hated the first, but in the end i am listening to both on occasion now because f it they both make good music and is all that should matter, but it takes some time to recognize this. As for Nirvana: being just born the year after Neverminds release I am to young to have witnessed their impact and haven't delved past Teen spirit, but hey maybe it's about time.
I first heard Nirvana around 1998 from other students at school they were singing along and I thought it was annoying, then I heard it and I couldn't stand just his voice, that depressing style only Nirvana did maybe because of his voice and his style of playing guitar. Kurt just rubs me the wrong way and to this day in 2024 I still can't listen to Nirvana it's an instant station changer or skip track. I did question myself was it Grunge but not as I love Sound Garden and Pearl Jam it was just Kurt. I know millions loved and continued to love the band and I'm not saying it's bad, it's just not my cup of tea. Though I feel the iconic riff from smells like teen spirit/smells like nirvana, it's from "more like a feeling" from Boston.
Im from Minnesota and remember this time well. I also remember 93.7 the edge when it started. I also remember Edge fest. Toadies played it one of the years. When I got a little older I really got into the SCSU college station KVSC which I still love to this day. My taste in music was very informed from this era of music though. Cheers!
Awesome vid as usual Mike! Yep, no one knew the words to Teen Spirit - I remember when MTV had briefly released the video with lyrics, it was hilarious how off we all were trying to decipher them lol. "Im a skittle... I'm a bee now!"
I'm also a MN resident and your recollections are spot on. I however was never able to muster much sympathy for Cobain's demise. On a purely human level a life cut short will ALWAYS be sad. Listening to him complain about fame however didn't ring true to me. Tom Barnard (I know you know that name) summed it up for me; "Don't like fame? I hear Embers is hiring."
I was in high school when Nirvana got big. I remember hating them at that time as I was into classic metal/rock music and also play guitar so I could appreciate the talent involved in pulling off those complicated guitar runs and catchy riffs those bands would do. Took me a few years to appreciate Nirvana and other grunge/alternative bands. Almost wish there was more of that music now instead of the crap that gets popular these days.
Great video! Nirvana was the first band I actually called "my favorite band". Nowadays I'm more of a Deftones kind of guy, but Nirvana still are and will always be in an exclusive, special place of my heart. Kurt Cobain is an absolute legend ❤
I remember those days. I was in middle school. Everyone dressed like Kurt Cobain or wore a Metallica shirt. Then my family moved (just like 30 minutes away) and for whatever reason the new school i went to had an entirely different fashion. All the kids were wearing those stupid big jnco jeans and i was looked at like an alien with my chuck taylors and pants that didn't look like a dress. At that school it was like how cool you were was directly proportional to how big your jeans were. No one listened to Nirvana either (at that school) they all listened to rap.
I think Neil Young originally said “it’s better to burn out than fade away” in Hey Hey My My.. at this very moment I just realized that maybe Kurt Cobain got some inspiration from Neil Young, they both wear plaid, have stringy blond hair and are songwriter/guitar players. Whoah!
I remember seeing the band Great White playing in front of 10k people, I returned from Desert Storm and Great White was playing at a local bar. I asked what happened and someone said “Nirvana’. I honestly never cared for their music, I respect it, but it’s just not my thing.
Many of us had the same feeling about Kurt and NIrvana back then. But, we can't deny results. Dude literally affected the music scene to the point it changed, effecting even today.
I totally relate to this video. I was also a metal head at this time. The description of the Clas of the titans tour is spot on to what I experienced except in Darien Lake, NY. When I first heard Nirvana they came on the radio when I was pulling onto Blockbuster video parking lot. My girlfriend went in the store while I sat in the car listening to smells like teen spirit. So conflicted. It was so good but not complex like the songs I was used to. I felt like I wasn't allowed to like it.
Your guitar instructional video on Kurt was how I discovered your channel. I have a deep appreciation for Kurt because he wasn't a shredder. Most of my friends I played guitar with at a young age got their start from playing Nirvana songs. They were a good easy starting point and fun for jamming. I think pop music desperately needs another Kurt Cobain for all the reasons you said at the end of the video. It's guitar based music, even if it's simple. Every year I am more grateful that I got to live in the last years when rock was a dominant force in music. I wish we could have another guitar hero emerge in the modern day who appeals to non-musicians and starts another movement like Nirvana did.
Being 16 in Seattle in 91 was a blast! We would wear flannel and baggie cloths because it was warm and comfortable. Watching the Seattle scene take over was funny to us. Tourists would ask to take pictures with us because we where "real grunge people".
I went through pretty much the exact same thing with the whole Nirvana spew except I was in a super brutal death metal band at the time and it was a cardinal sin to listen to Nirvana and especially bands like Bon Jovi Poison etc lol, We were trying to be the next Cannibal Corpse Death Obituary etc bands like that, even Metallica was kinda wimpy to us.. lol Mainly because of James's vocals, if the vocals wasn't deep and brutal or like Chucks wicked vocals it was wimpy to us... Crazy how growing up in certain places at certain times can influence your whole outlook on music and life in general.. I grew up in a small town in NC, WE had no radio stations that played any death metal or any music stores that sold heavy music, We had to drive a couple hours to like Raleigh or Charlotte to get albums cassets cool T shirts etc, I remember my first day in the 7th grade I wore a Slayer shirt that said "Do You Want To Die" on the back with a big pentagram and I had holes in my jeans. The principal called me to his office and says before you can go back to class your mom has to bring a change of cloths, I was fricn furious and flipped out on his arse and told him to go F himself and plenty of other choice words, lol, I got suspended 3 days on my very first day, lol True story. 🤘🏻
thank you for being so real, i don't know much about you, just watched a few videos here and there but this was honestly amazing to watch as a young person.
I was in Uni when grunge hit and I just saw it as more guitar based music so I never really got what people hated so much. Maybe it was because I didn’t listen to much radio, I listened to albums so my music never went away and this new music was extra rather than instead of. I suppose it was later in the 90s when I felt that it seemed that metal had died because the new releases from my favourite bands were few and far between and generally weren’t very good.
I remember those times well, and we used to have two great hard rock stations in my area. One was 107.1 the Power Pigg, I came home from school one day and it was Channel Z which played a mix of 80s and 90s alternative music, now its just a pop station. The other was 96.5 Z Rock, one day they started playing The River by Garth Brooks for 3 days straight, then they became a country station. That was the end of having a hard rock station here and its been over 30 years now.
I remember listening to Nirvana early on thinking how much it reminded me of 60s garage rock like the Animals or Them. The songs were just so catchy and approachable not like metal at the time that was either overly technical like Metallica and Megadeth or overly cheesy like Poison type bands.
Everytime i think of Nevermind i think of my cheap, ruined belt portable cassette player randomly slowing the songs down on my Nevermind tape because i didn't have small enough rubber bands to fix it right 😂 It was one of the few cassettes i had for it.
Great mention for Shotgun Messiah! I still love "Living Without You" and "Heartbreak Blvd". They also did a GREAT cover of New York Doll's "Babylon". The guitarist was on fire. Explosive solos.
I love your honestly. Kurt was super inventive on guitar and his songwriting. From interviews he really seemed like a caring person and vert intelligent. Shame how it all ended...😢 But like ike Hendrix, he was here a short time...but he left his mark all the same....❤❤
You have a great way of story telling, I could picture every moment you described in my head, and made me feel some sort of way. Cheers mate, and RIP Kurt! :)
"Better to burn out than to fade away" was a quote on Curt's alleged suicide note that otherwise reads like a vow to leave the music industry, amd thisis a quote of a Neal Young song "Rust never sleeps" about the death of punk rocker Johnny Rotten from the sex pistols.
Cool shirt, freaking love that album! I think a a tad older than you graduated in 91, Metallica black and nirvana was blowing up huge. We did songs from both albums in bands back then. Great stuff. The burn out and fade away line is a Neil Young song called hey hey my my.
That's a beautiful story bro ❤️i was a teenager then, except i grew up in the ATL, so i was listening to a large amount of hip hop, but i was still a fan of rock too😎but when Kurt died, it's impossible to show just how sad that was then😢i never felt that way again until Tupac died😢or even 9/11😎 sometimes something so terribly unexpected happens, and its like it sucks all the oxygen out of everyone 😎i remember watching the 24 hour candle vigil they had on MTV then, and i literally kinda changed my life after that 😢😎we had it wild back in the 90s😎👍
This is so like my youth,here in the UK...into metal,saw AIC support Megadeth,blew me away....differently I was into Nirvana's Bleach and already liked Soundgarden,before the major explosion of popularity of seattle scene. Loved it. A great time in music
Out of all the Seattle bands, I only really liked AIC and Soundgarden (and still do). My first introduction to grunge was actually Pearl Jam and the Ten album, which I loved at the time, then I got Vs, liked that better, then got vitalogy and that was the begining the end for Pearl Jam for me. As for Nirvana, my first introduction to them was actually Weird Al's parody "Smells Like Nirvana", and I thought it was hilarious. And honestly I'm still not a fan of Kurt Cobain, even though he's been and influential musician.
Yeah I remember when it was announced on mtv that he had died...man I'm getting old. I think I was around 11 or 12 at the time, it was right before I really started getting heavily into music so I didn't think much of it at the time.
I also can't believe that 30 years have passed... I wasn't a fan of the whole "grunge" thing, I had just started playing about a year before and wanted guitar rock back. Of course it didn't occur to me at the time that once a style goes out of fashion it's gone forever (just look at rock today.) I was never a fan of Nirvana, and wish I had been able to get behind their stuff at the time.
I'm thankful for grunge. because it made me retreat deeper into the metal underground, instead and going to the Root Cellar when it still existed helped, too And also The Root of All Evil radio show on KFAI too. At 3:33 AM they'd play the stuff you'd never dream of hearing on the radio
I’m 62, I remember thinking when the Seattle sound and the rest hit, this is like a breath of fresh air! The hair band stuff had gotten so cookie cutter. I do like listening to it again now though! 🍻
"Just 3 people in a band making such a sound" that reminds me when I was a teen and discovered Necronomicon, that Death Metal band from Canada If you feel bad for hating Kurt Cobain, because a guy you hated looked like him, when I was a teen, at first, I hated Lux Bonteri, because he kissed Ahsoka Tano, the fictional character I loved (Star Wars characters)
What happened to Chris in his life? Where is he now?
Well he married Sioux and I think I cried but in the end everything worked out swimmingly. 🤣
Ps. I just love your vids!
@@TheArtofGuitarhaha, congrats to you both. Also, PSS. Dive bomb!! #justiceforI’vehadenough!!
Thanks so much for this video! I am grateful I t autoplayed, as I had the exact same experience; being a hard rock/metal guy and not loving the winds of change 🦂 when grunge took over…but the power of Alice In Chains and Soundgarden was undeniable in my life!
@@gregortbachAlice in Chains is probably my favorite 90s bands and Sound Garden was a close second. I still listen to them regularly to this day. Absolute legendary bands.
Nirvana were the reason I picked up a guitar, and Kurt really made playing the guitar seem like an accessible and attainable goal with how simple he kept things. 15 year-old me will always remember coming home from school in April 1994, flipping on MTV and getting absolutely gutted by the news. RIP Kurt.
Yep, same ❤
Same here as well! Got a chance to see them during In Utero tour in 1993... Unforgettable experience that I will forever cherish...
I was born 2002, I got bullied alot in high school and at that time the only peace I got was jamming to Nirvana in my room or music practise room and running until i ate shit with shin splints lol. I discovered AIC in Janurary 2021 and I can without a doubt their music saved me I was in a dark place at the time.
Same as me when I was 3 to like 7 my godmother used to play nirvana a d then when I was 15 I found nirvana again on kerrang. I was blown away by slts music video then a week later I bought nevermind, in utero and incesticide . My godmother got me unplugged and that was great. I never owned bleach I got a friend copy it
... are they also the reason why you play shitty guitar solos? It's okay to admit that you can't count 5/8 lol... just admit it dude
Dude talking about seeing one of the most legendary concerts ever so casually lol
You're not missing as much as you think you are.
@@JasonT-xp3kh how so
@earlybloomingwarmth9448 1. Many live releases are released later on.
2. They're just people. It's nothing special.
Dude making the most autistic comment so casually
Yea. How old is this guy? Seems kind young to have these memories?
Dude, I totally get it. I'm 42 and Nirvana was definitely that band that changed so much in my life. I was a struggling guitarist listening to Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, and Lynyrd Skynyrd and Nirvana showed me that I didn't need to be a guitar virtuoso to be great at music. That band taught me a lot about how to sing play rhythm guitar simultaneously which opened up a whole new world for me in music and I think that Nirvana was very influential for that time.
I'll be 43 on Tuesday
Nirvana was my favorite band
It was heartbreaking to learn my favorite rock star took his own life days before my Bday
Same..😂😂😂
I still remember listening to Teen Spirit the first time. Our drummer had a bought a copy a week after it was released. He insisted we listen to it and we had an awakening. 4 months later I was at their gig in Canberra, Australia. The fashion element of the grunge scene never really shocked anyone because there was all ready a sub-culture of Australians that wore grunge clothing anyway, know as Bogans, Westies or Booners.
Look at Suicidal Tendencies in the 80s
Yeah, plus Kurt looked a bit like a surfer or skater so wouldn't have looked out of place in many parts of Australia. I had classmates who looked like him before anyone knew who Nirvana were.
Bogans are not sub culture 😂 pfft hahaha
@icankillbugs yeah especially in Australia, it’s way too fucking hot and humid for that shit.
a suicidal chap at highschool in our town went up with a shotgun and threatened to kill himself in front of everyone the day Cobain died. He never did and I think was put away for some time for that stunt. Guy really did act like he was Cobain in real life tried to dress and look like him . Was very bizarre. HE couldn't play a lick of music.
Would love an update on that guy if possible
Woof
That was cobains real influence. Bunch of white kids taking him too seriously and staring at their shoes for 2 years. Death made him a legend when right before his death music was starting to move away from them. In utero wasnt well liked like revisionist say today and Pearl Jam, stp were bigger bands April of 94. Super unknown came out in march and was the best grunge record of the era. Nirvana wasn’t original but they found a way to sell 80s college/alt music to kids my age who weren’t aware of it yet
@@givem110in utero wasnt well liked?
bait
Alice in Chains always gets lumped in with Grunge, but they always sounded more metal to me. Facelift, to me, sounds like Guns-N-Roses, but heavy. A lot of Jerry's riffs are super heavy sounding.
Second that. Always thought they're more metal than anything else
Those first two AIC records, to me, have always felt like a bridge from the late-stage “sleaze” hair bands such as GnR and Skid Row to the alternative rock era.
yeah they're not really grunge. I mostly listen to jar of flies which is a bluesy alternative rock album, nothing grunge about it at all except maybe some of layne's vocals.
If I remember it right Lane Staley was singing in a hair metal band when he was asked to front AIC. There’s a photo out there in the either of him at prom with the big blown out hair style.
i.pinimg.com/originals/15/0f/ce/150fcefc27d345859191b413e5aaa941.jpg
Alice in Chains themselves always said they had no idea what the hell "grunge" meant and that they were a metal band lol
I don't know a metal head who didn't like Alice in Chains. They just had a fire when Layne was in the band.
I didnt back then, but at that stage, I was 'only' into bands like Carcass, napalm death, pestilence, death. About the 'slowest'/softest, was Voivod or Godflesh (so, not very 'slow' or 'soft'). Now is a different story!
I asked a metal guy, back in 1995, why don't you guys like the album Dirt? He said it's just too much. Too much into the horse type. Because they all like Face-lift.
AIC was Metal. They were of the Doom-ish / Stoner type (especially 'Dirt'). To me, AIC also had glimpses of funk metal too on Facelift (Sunshine). They always get inaccurately lumped in with Grunge.
You don't know me,but if you did I would be that guy.
They were labeled a metal band, until Dirt, and really the stupid grunge term was used.
Lots of respect for mentioning Shotgun Messiah. Band that never had enough credit especially for their last more industrial album.
I saw Skold a few months back, he played Living Without You and I couldn't believe it. I was probably the only person in that club who knew the song and definitely the only one who saw him do it with Shotgun. Everything he does is just solid to to bottom. The best Manson record since portrait was all him, all his solo stuff & even Not My God.
They were bad ass!
That was a cute little story about your young feelings about Kurt looking like some inconvenient person in your class. It was really enjoyable to hear about your experience of that time and the music around that time and your first hearing of Nirvana songs and things like that. I can sort of “remember “ things too when I hear people talking about those times and so it’s very special to share memories. Also I appreciate you sharing what it’s like to have students bring in music lesson requests with music that is so .. well, different now.
I remember that I read a raving review of "Nevermind" in the german Metal Hammer before the album took off 🙂 and after listening my first thought was "This is NOT Metal"
Indeed. Nirvana was actually heavy.
Saw Slayer in ‘86, on Reign in Blood tour. they were actually terrifying.
Haha that's awesome! I'm pretty sure that's what they were going for..
What do you mean by terrifying?
I can see it. There is totally a change in the air when Slayer takes the stage... it's a really eerie vibe, and the crowd just turns into a bunch of wild, feral animals.
@@aarivvermaprob awesome
Yeah, I think that was my first Slayer show too. They were phenomenal back then.
It's such a weird coincidence that you mentioned 93X playing It's the End of the World on loop for days because just earlier today I ended up on the wiki for stunting which is what it's called when radio stations foreshadow a format change by doing something radical with their playlist and playing the same song repeatedly is one of the most common forms of stunting.
93.7 The Edge days…then came ROCK 100.3 FM….then 93X came back around 1998 or so. Edgefest/Xfest in the late 1990s and early 2000s were untouchable. Great times.
In the Omaha area, we had a radio station called The Edge in, I think 1998 that played it over and over again for a few days straight. I remember talking it over with friends at school, wondering what was going to happen, and it changed to a different name and format too.
@@charlesrocks Actually it was X105 before changing back to 93X. Before 93x there was 'Hot Rockin' 104FM and Z-rock 980AM.
@@PeterSTIHL it was REV105
I still have my ticket for the Nirvana concert I was looking forward to in early 1994 - a concert that, for obvious reasons, was cancelled. I could have returned it to get my money back, but I kept it instead. I also have this memory of visiting a record store to buy In Utero at its release, and instead of buying just a cd copy (vinyl was, of course, really uncool at the time), both me and my friend chose to buy it on vinyl as well because "who knows what will happen with this band". It definitely didn't take long for something pretty significant to happen. Thirty years later and I still haven't removed the plastic wrapping from that vinyl. Its such a weird memory having that discussion with my friend and choosing to spend a lot more money than we had initially planned simply because Kurt was such an impossible person to predict. It was almost as if we knew something awful was going to happen to him.
Interesting mention of Shotgun Messiah too. Really cool band, and Harry Cody sure knew his way around that guitar. I still regret selling the Second Coming cd (along with my copy of the debut album) a long time ago. I do have mp3's of the songs somewhere but it's just not the same for me. Maybe I'll have to go looking for that physical disc sometime.
Bro made an apology video for Kurt 😭
I wonder if you'd heard Jane's Addiction (Been Caught Stealing) or Faith No More (Epic). They're seen as an important precursor for alt rock explosion in 91 before Nirvana, just like you heard Alice in Chains.
Yeah the later 80's alt rock was great but it was really just one offs at the time. Later I'd go on to get WAY into FNM as well as Mr. Bungle but just like Living Colour I was like cool song! The difference is that I saw AIC live with those metal bands that I really felt the chasm. I did end up seeing Faith No More live opening for Met and GnR though. That was wild..
Janes addiction rocks that first album nothing’s shocking dropped in 1988 and it a excellent album…been caught is on the 2nd album ritual de habitual 1990.
I'd add The Cult.
Yeah, the '89-'92 era Faith No More had a big influence on me. They were popular here in Australia. Janes Addiction not so much, but Been Caught Stealing got some airplay. I was also big on Living Colour at the time, though only really because my uncle came back from Los Angeles with a few cassettes recorded from KROQ FM. Hearing American radio for the first time was interesting.
Guns and Roses drew first blood on Glam,then Grunge came in with the finishing blow.Cant say I was sad to see the Hairspray glam movement disappear.Shit was lame as a three legged dog.
nirvana was the reason i started playing guitar and starting a band, seeing how cool the live at paramount show looked on youtube, i was in awe from them, i love their music so much rest in peace kurt
107.7 FM in Seattle changed from top 40 to alt rock exactly at that time so Soundgarden and Nirvana were all over it in the beginning. (They did TV theme songs for a couple weeks straight just before the changeover). I had gotten into metal a few years earlier and Nirvana was different but it still rocked so I loved them from the start. I remember exactly where i was when I heard Kurt died too. I was playing guitar in a band and we were rehearsing in the other guitarist's parents' house and his cousin who was staying with them came into the garage and he just heard the news on MTV and told us. We said a prayer together and finished practice. Lot of grief in school that week. Such great music though, at least we still have it.
I want to hear a station that llaya just theme songs
You are on fire Mike
This is the year!
I distinctly remember going to school the day we found out Cobain had died and, just like you said, the mood was really somber. Nobody was yelling and lauging, no fooling around. Everybody was really subdued. When I got back home later that day I mentioned it to my mother and she said it reminded her of how her generation reacted when Lennon died back in 1980 when she was a bit older than me and she was in college instead of high school.
Mike you and Rick Beatos channel are the best on the tube. I really like these style of videos. My buddy loved the super mario sound vid lol. thanks
I was born in the 80's, and all of this music - Rock, Hard Rock, Metal & Thrash, Grunge, it was all played on my local radio station and it was all called "Rock", so I (we, actually - my friends etc) all never really considered the differences until much, much later and owned all of the albums by every one of these bands and were fans of all of them.
I was already (theoretically) an "adult" when grunge hit the scene. I never got into Nirvana, despised Pearl Jam, accepted Stone Temple Pilots, I did like Alice In Chains and Soundgarden.
The older I get, the more I like The Foo Fighters.
Same. I actually prefer some post Y2K Rock to 90s. Maybe being a guitar teacher would have induced more grunge acceptance as Mike alludes...
The older I get the less I like the foo fighters lol
Foo Fighters?! I mean to each their own but that is some low grade pop rock derivative sludge IMO.
Sorry don't take it personal, I was a huge nirvana fan and was in shock when grohl went that direction.
@@wordup897 I don't really listen to the Foo Fighters either but one time Everlong played on the radio while I was driving on the highway and it brought a tear to my eye. Great song for committing moving violations
Foo Fighters started well and got progressively worse with each album as they became like some kind of upmarket Nickleback.
I was always interested in learning guitar but it was when Nirvana hit the scene that's when I actually got a guitar and all I did was learn Nirvana riffs at the beginning.
I don't listen to them much these days, but will always appreciate the music they created.
As a metalhead of the 80’s I recall my friend told me about this band nirvana (back then if it wasn’t metal I wasn’t listening😄)…I threw the cassette in the deck and it lasted about 5 blocks….it went out the window. I’m still not a fan of that music but they sure did have a following
Chris will be shocked when he sees this. all these years and he never knew...
I love that you talk about Shotgun Messiah....all 3 albums rock..in different ways
8:45 Mike, your ability to be vulnerable in your videos is honest and humbling. Also, your insight here is spot on: "he forced us to look at music in a different way and you can't deny that all of the sudden people were focusing a lot more on song writing than being flashy" ... that is "Grunge" in a nutshell. To me it was just hard rock with more emphasis on writing songs with great melodies than 40 second guitar solos surrounded by bar chords and songs with adolescent lyrics about pies and "girls girls girls". Don't get me wrong, I grew up on heavy metal and cut my teeth playing lead guitar in hard rock bands, but I call it like I see it. Another great video, Mike!
Hey man awesome video! Love the shoutouts to Slaughter, my band recently opened for them in Illinois and hearing them play Fly to the Angels on the same stage I was just on was an awesome experience!
It’s hard to believe Kurt’s been gone thirty years now , rest in peace mate ! ❤🇦🇺
I'm turning 44 this summer. I got my first guitar in 1992 or so.
You just perfectly summed up my youth as a young metalhead.
The kid in the video running around with the hi-hat is Burton C Bell from Fear Factory
I hung out with Layne for about 30 min by the back stage entrance at Clash of the Titans in Omaha. He was skating around with the same Alva board I had. I complemented him on his taste in skate gear & he came sat by me and chatted me up. He still had dreads & I didn't know who he was at first. Then he asked me what I thought of the first band and it clicked. He was a genuinely nice dude. Way nicer than Dave Muff-Stain, that's for sure. After that experience I never bought another Megadeth CD, but I bought every AiC album.
I did the same thing with Chester Bennington. I loved Linkin Park as a kid, but as I got older and got more into folk rock and classic rock i was less interested in modern commercial rock. then he died and it really put things in perspective. I felt guilty for doing the same thing. RIP to Kurt Cobain and Chester Bennington.
It is interesting to hear someone your age say grunge bands sounded so completely different. As someone who grew up in the 60s and 70s, it sounded super familiar. My late 80s I had kind of rejected metal and was playing covers of Louie Louie (more in the vein of Iggy Pop’s version) Gloria, Twist and Shout, Born to Be Wild, a All Day and All of the Night, God Save the Queen, Garageland, Clash City Rockers, Sweet Jane and People Who Died. Grunge seemed like a natural progression.
I also grew up in the 60s and 70s. I never cared for most of the hair bands in the 80s. I always loved Nirvana and all the other grunge bands.
I wasn’t born yet when either Kurt or Layne died but I will always be big fans of them. Amazing songwriters. Layne is also a classically trained singer and has an amazing voice, so I have infinite respect for him
Sweet, its great to hear people that are a little younger, still appreciate some older stuff.
Layne was clasically trained? I've never heard that..
I first encountered Smells Like Teen Spirit on Canada's Much Music TV, I actually recorded it too my VCR, (still have the tape today) At the time I never could of imagined "Smells" becoming this ground breaking hit, much like The Beatles Love Me Do was in the early 1960's.
I am convinced that grunge (the ultimate flash in the pan music fad) was forced on the public as a way for the labels to get rid of the glam bands they had signed way too many of back in the 80s. Hip hop is about to go through the same thing too, because signs are that genre is getting stale and the labels having too many of those acts signed. The evidence that it was forced: after Grunge went away by 96, what happened? metal was back, just in a different form. Like you, I lived through that and saw it first hand.
I have a similar story about first hearing Nirvana. I grew up in Portland and did early some college in Portland before transferring. Fun fact: Kurt died wearing a Tom Peterson watch. Tom Peterson was a staple on Portland television. He had a chain of stores selling furniture, electronics, appliances. You don't get more Portland than Tom Peterson (and Gloria's, too!) in the 70s and 80s.
I remember hearing Teen Spirit for the first time on the radio in my car as well. I was driving to school and it made an impact because at the time it really was that different, you nailed it when you talked about that. I also didn't know the band name at the time. It wasn't until I saw the video and it turns out I had actually seen them live before, it had to have been when Bleach was out. It was at a club called Satyricon. Supposedly, that's where Kurt met Courtney. I don't know if there is any truth to it or it is urban legend but in the early 90s it became Satyricon's claim to fame.
Anyway, I thought Nirvana was awful live. They were sloppy and not really in what can be a good punk way, but more in what seemed to be an unrehearsed/unprepared way. Maybe that's what they were going for, but I don't think they pulled it off well. I don't remember the live tone being that good, either, more the opposite.
I saw them again later at a club called Pine Street Theater, which later became La Luna, that was really the best club in town at that time, IMO. Still were a bit sloppy. Saw them again on the In Utero tour at an armory of all places and they were much better. Never even heard of bands being booked in that venue before Nirvana. Ironically I also saw their city-mates Soundgarden in that armory. Nirvana could have played a much bigger place at that point, I was really surprised that's where they were booked.
I was working as a maintenance tech at a private resort in Key Largo Fl. when I heard Kurt was found dead on local radio. I was in my early 20s so I was very into the scene. I remember this like 9/11 and the day Dime Bag died.
The solo is actually really good, very memorable!
As much as I love shredding heavy and power metal I also appreciate foundational music.
Ramones "I wanna be sedated" solo is literally just one repeated note, and even that is memorable.
I came to Nirvana from a solid The Rolling Stones background, and loved it immediately. Saw them live once too in 1992. I never really liked the metal or guitar solos. Here in Finland we had a band called Hassisen Kone which was huge here in the eighties, and Nirvana sounded bit like that, only with more distortion and more rage. Nevermind-album sounded very produced and refined sonically when it came out, but in a good way. Kurt's voice was really impressive.
This was awesome. Great video, man!
My roommate played Nevermind for about 6 months. I hated it...or at the very least never cared for it. One day I came home from work and just pressed play on the CD player and sat down. Listened to it from beginning to end and by the end something had changed. I dont know what it was to this day but I was changed forever.
Love your videos and honesty, Mike. I was the exact same when I was that age. I can't really explain what makes your videos so compelling. They just seem from the heart.
I was a huge Nirvana fan at the time. Them and GNR were my favorites. I used to sleep with the radio on and that morning the news came through that he killed himself and it woke me up from my sleep. And I just remember feeling disappointed in him. I know he had his demons, but I almost didn't even feel bad for him cause we all kinda realized he wasn't ok. I was just apathetic. I've been more emotionally affected by Chris Cornell taking his own life, cause you figure he made it that long, had his life where he wanted it and all that. Just seemed sadder. We may have lived through a golden age of music, but it was really volatile emotionally. Favorite bands breaking up, dying. Strange times indeed.
I felt the same way when Nirvana was playing everywhere, I was still into metal and didn't know what was happening. But Soundgarden and Alice in Chains opened the door for me to listen to other bands like Nirvana. I taught myself guitar playing mostly Nirvana songs.
I love these vids, it’s cool to hear your stories
You should make a video about how it felt to live in the time where nü metal was becoming huge/mainstream. Like your first time hearing Korn or Deftones. Would absolutely love to hear that!
I've loved Nirvana since 1.st time I heard them (1.st album "Bleach") , and I love how Kurt, and others, turned the music landscape around. I always hated 80's mainstream music.
Hey Mike hope your having a great day man keep kicking ass
I will be sixty in October I still listen to Nirvana....but I was always and still a Metal head...I have finally brought Country into my listening past few years.... Kurt endured what many of loving people do....Sad ending though....
I hated Nirvana back in the day, too. I was about 10 in 2000 when I first got into rock/metal and playing guitar by hearing the bridge riff to Metallica's Fade To Black on the radio. I had a total boomer mindset thinking that only older music was good and any new music sucked, so all the grunge bands were terrible in my opinion. AIC grew on me in my teens, but I didn't start appreciating Nirvana probably until my 20s
Never knew you were a Minnesotan. The REM song on loop, I kind of remember it being a whole weekend thing. I lived in a small town at the time and no one knew what was going on. I always listened to the radio when I went to bed, and hearing this song on a loop has scarred me for life. Just hearing that drum into at 9:29 just gives me the heebie-jeebies.
I was 13 when Kurt Cobain departed this plane of existence. I remember my Dad being a bit sombre- he certainly wasn't a Nirvana fan but he had a decent grasp of culture and music. I wasn't exactly sad- I was just shocked. I didn't understand drug addiction or mental illness- one can't comprehend dark nights of the soul in the middle of puberty. But I really really liked Nirvana. Ozzy described Nirvana as "heavy metal meets the Beatles." That's the best description I've ever heard of Nirvana's music. The older I got the more Cobain meant to me, just like you. The music business wasn't made for super sensitive souls like him and all the other rock and roll giants that passed way too young. But he left music fans lots of spiritual and philosophical quandaries to chew on. And a helluva a lot of great songs.
I remember all this happening. I was going into highschool in 93. Grunge had totally taken over by then. It was a wild transition to experience.
"In Bloom" was the one song that really hooked me. For me I liked it but really it pointed the way to Punk for me. So Nirvana was more of a way point to other Underground music that I love. That said I really only like half of their catalog. I like their covers too.
i remember my uncles and dad playing metal and rock my whole childhood but the moment my uncle put come as you are it just felt so different and cool calm wave hit me and obviously being little i didn’t know them until during quarantine i found nirvana and put the song come as you are and a nostalgia wave hit me and never felt something like that Kurt Cobain has a special place in my heart RIP
I think we are around the same age. I probably am a little older. But I always love when you talk about when you were a young player and music lover, I relate. I grew up in the Netherlands. But we have Simular experiences in the same time. Thank you for that part of your videos. Keep it up.
Have you cowards listened to the brutal back-to-back tracks of Negative Creep + Paper Cuts recently!?
I'm the opposite. I always loved Kurt's songwriting style, because it showed that you didn't need to show off to write amazing songs.
I guess hating things/people for silly reasons happens to all of us. Here in Germany there is a rivalry between a Deutschrockband and some punk bands and if you are fan of either it is virtually forbidden to be fan of the other. I used to listen to the one band, then listend to the other and hated the first, but in the end i am listening to both on occasion now because f it they both make good music and is all that should matter, but it takes some time to recognize this. As for Nirvana: being just born the year after Neverminds release I am to young to have witnessed their impact and haven't delved past Teen spirit, but hey maybe it's about time.
Great video. Loved the recounting of the period and how you experienced the growth of influence. Good one
I first heard Nirvana around 1998 from other students at school they were singing along and I thought it was annoying, then I heard it and I couldn't stand just his voice, that depressing style only Nirvana did maybe because of his voice and his style of playing guitar. Kurt just rubs me the wrong way and to this day in 2024 I still can't listen to Nirvana it's an instant station changer or skip track. I did question myself was it Grunge but not as I love Sound Garden and Pearl Jam it was just Kurt. I know millions loved and continued to love the band and I'm not saying it's bad, it's just not my cup of tea.
Though I feel the iconic riff from smells like teen spirit/smells like nirvana, it's from "more like a feeling" from Boston.
Seattle sound changed rock music forever, they definitely came in and stormed the industry
Im from Minnesota and remember this time well. I also remember 93.7 the edge when it started. I also remember Edge fest. Toadies played it one of the years. When I got a little older I really got into the SCSU college station KVSC which I still love to this day. My taste in music was very informed from this era of music though. Cheers!
Awesome vid as usual Mike! Yep, no one knew the words to Teen Spirit - I remember when MTV had briefly released the video with lyrics, it was hilarious how off we all were trying to decipher them lol. "Im a skittle... I'm a bee now!"
I'm also a MN resident and your recollections are spot on. I however was never able to muster much sympathy for Cobain's demise. On a purely human level a life cut short will ALWAYS be sad. Listening to him complain about fame however didn't ring true to me. Tom Barnard (I know you know that name) summed it up for me; "Don't like fame? I hear Embers is hiring."
I was in high school when Nirvana got big. I remember hating them at that time as I was into classic metal/rock music and also play guitar so I could appreciate the talent involved in pulling off those complicated guitar runs and catchy riffs those bands would do. Took me a few years to appreciate Nirvana and other grunge/alternative bands. Almost wish there was more of that music now instead of the crap that gets popular these days.
Great video!
Nirvana was the first band I actually called "my favorite band". Nowadays I'm more of a Deftones kind of guy, but Nirvana still are and will always be in an exclusive, special place of my heart. Kurt Cobain is an absolute legend ❤
I remember those days. I was in middle school. Everyone dressed like Kurt Cobain or wore a Metallica shirt. Then my family moved (just like 30 minutes away) and for whatever reason the new school i went to had an entirely different fashion. All the kids were wearing those stupid big jnco jeans and i was looked at like an alien with my chuck taylors and pants that didn't look like a dress. At that school it was like how cool you were was directly proportional to how big your jeans were. No one listened to Nirvana either (at that school) they all listened to rap.
I think Neil Young originally said “it’s better to burn out than fade away” in Hey Hey My My.. at this very moment I just realized that maybe Kurt Cobain got some inspiration from Neil Young, they both wear plaid, have stringy blond hair and are songwriter/guitar players. Whoah!
I remember seeing the band Great White playing in front of 10k people, I returned from Desert Storm and Great White was playing at a local bar. I asked what happened and someone said “Nirvana’. I honestly never cared for their music, I respect it, but it’s just not my thing.
Many of us had the same feeling about Kurt and NIrvana back then. But, we can't deny results. Dude literally affected the music scene to the point it changed, effecting even today.
I totally relate to this video. I was also a metal head at this time. The description of the Clas of the titans tour is spot on to what I experienced except in Darien Lake, NY. When I first heard Nirvana they came on the radio when I was pulling onto Blockbuster video parking lot. My girlfriend went in the store while I sat in the car listening to smells like teen spirit. So conflicted. It was so good but not complex like the songs I was used to. I felt like I wasn't allowed to like it.
Your guitar instructional video on Kurt was how I discovered your channel. I have a deep appreciation for Kurt because he wasn't a shredder. Most of my friends I played guitar with at a young age got their start from playing Nirvana songs. They were a good easy starting point and fun for jamming. I think pop music desperately needs another Kurt Cobain for all the reasons you said at the end of the video. It's guitar based music, even if it's simple. Every year I am more grateful that I got to live in the last years when rock was a dominant force in music. I wish we could have another guitar hero emerge in the modern day who appeals to non-musicians and starts another movement like Nirvana did.
Being 16 in Seattle in 91 was a blast! We would wear flannel and baggie cloths because it was warm and comfortable. Watching the Seattle scene take over was funny to us. Tourists would ask to take pictures with us because we where "real grunge people".
I went through pretty much the exact same thing with the whole Nirvana spew except I was in a super brutal death metal band at the time and it was a cardinal sin to listen to Nirvana and especially bands like Bon Jovi Poison etc lol, We were trying to be the next Cannibal Corpse Death Obituary etc bands like that, even Metallica was kinda wimpy to us.. lol Mainly because of James's vocals, if the vocals wasn't deep and brutal or like Chucks wicked vocals it was wimpy to us... Crazy how growing up in certain places at certain times can influence your whole outlook on music and life in general.. I grew up in a small town in NC, WE had no radio stations that played any death metal or any music stores that sold heavy music, We had to drive a couple hours to like Raleigh or Charlotte to get albums cassets cool T shirts etc, I remember my first day in the 7th grade I wore a Slayer shirt that said "Do You Want To Die" on the back with a big pentagram and I had holes in my jeans. The principal called me to his office and says before you can go back to class your mom has to bring a change of cloths, I was fricn furious and flipped out on his arse and told him to go F himself and plenty of other choice words, lol, I got suspended 3 days on my very first day, lol True story. 🤘🏻
I consider SOUNDGARDEN as a progressive prog rock type GEM! The variety of tunings and incredible drumming! This band will never by duplicated.
thank you for being so real, i don't know much about you, just watched a few videos here and there but this was honestly amazing to watch as a young person.
I was in Uni when grunge hit and I just saw it as more guitar based music so I never really got what people hated so much. Maybe it was because I didn’t listen to much radio, I listened to albums so my music never went away and this new music was extra rather than instead of. I suppose it was later in the 90s when I felt that it seemed that metal had died because the new releases from my favourite bands were few and far between and generally weren’t very good.
This was a really interesting video, thanks. What was your reaction to RageATM?
I remember those times well, and we used to have two great hard rock stations in my area. One was 107.1 the Power Pigg, I came home from school one day and it was Channel Z which played a mix of 80s and 90s alternative music, now its just a pop station. The other was 96.5 Z Rock, one day they started playing The River by Garth Brooks for 3 days straight, then they became a country station. That was the end of having a hard rock station here and its been over 30 years now.
I remember listening to Nirvana early on thinking how much it reminded me of 60s garage rock like the Animals or Them. The songs were just so catchy and approachable not like metal at the time that was either overly technical like Metallica and Megadeth or overly cheesy like Poison type bands.
Everytime i think of Nevermind i think of my cheap, ruined belt portable cassette player randomly slowing the songs down on my Nevermind tape because i didn't have small enough rubber bands to fix it right 😂
It was one of the few cassettes i had for it.
Great mention for Shotgun Messiah! I still love "Living Without You" and "Heartbreak Blvd". They also did a GREAT cover of New York Doll's "Babylon". The guitarist was on fire. Explosive solos.
I love your honestly. Kurt was super inventive on guitar and his songwriting. From interviews he really seemed like a caring person and vert intelligent. Shame how it all ended...😢
But like ike Hendrix, he was here a short time...but he left his mark all the same....❤❤
I was in college. Good times.
You have a great way of story telling, I could picture every moment you described in my head, and made me feel some sort of way. Cheers mate, and RIP Kurt! :)
"Better to burn out than to fade away" was a quote on Curt's alleged suicide note that otherwise reads like a vow to leave the music industry, amd thisis a quote of a Neal Young song "Rust never sleeps" about the death of punk rocker Johnny Rotten from the sex pistols.
Cool shirt, freaking love that album! I think a a tad older than you graduated in 91, Metallica black and nirvana was blowing up huge. We did songs from both albums in bands back then. Great stuff. The burn out and fade away line is a Neil Young song called hey hey my my.
That's a beautiful story bro ❤️i was a teenager then, except i grew up in the ATL, so i was listening to a large amount of hip hop, but i was still a fan of rock too😎but when Kurt died, it's impossible to show just how sad that was then😢i never felt that way again until Tupac died😢or even 9/11😎 sometimes something so terribly unexpected happens, and its like it sucks all the oxygen out of everyone 😎i remember watching the 24 hour candle vigil they had on MTV then, and i literally kinda changed my life after that 😢😎we had it wild back in the 90s😎👍
This is so like my youth,here in the UK...into metal,saw AIC support Megadeth,blew me away....differently I was into Nirvana's Bleach and already liked Soundgarden,before the major explosion of popularity of seattle scene. Loved it. A great time in music
Out of all the Seattle bands, I only really liked AIC and Soundgarden (and still do).
My first introduction to grunge was actually Pearl Jam and the Ten album, which I loved at the time, then I got Vs, liked that better, then got vitalogy and that was the begining the end for Pearl Jam for me. As for Nirvana, my first introduction to them was actually Weird Al's parody "Smells Like Nirvana", and I thought it was hilarious. And honestly I'm still not a fan of Kurt Cobain, even though he's been and influential musician.
Yeah I remember when it was announced on mtv that he had died...man I'm getting old. I think I was around 11 or 12 at the time, it was right before I really started getting heavily into music so I didn't think much of it at the time.
I also can't believe that 30 years have passed...
I wasn't a fan of the whole "grunge" thing, I had just started playing about a year before and wanted guitar rock back. Of course it didn't occur to me at the time that once a style goes out of fashion it's gone forever (just look at rock today.) I was never a fan of Nirvana, and wish I had been able to get behind their stuff at the time.
I'm thankful for grunge. because it made me retreat deeper into the metal underground, instead and going to the Root Cellar when it still existed helped, too
And also The Root of All Evil radio show on KFAI too. At 3:33 AM they'd play the stuff you'd never dream of hearing on the radio
I’m 62, I remember thinking when the Seattle sound and the rest hit, this is like a breath of fresh air! The hair band stuff had gotten so cookie cutter. I do like listening to it again now though! 🍻
I'm 58. Same for me.
"Just 3 people in a band making such a sound" that reminds me when I was a teen and discovered Necronomicon, that Death Metal band from Canada
If you feel bad for hating Kurt Cobain, because a guy you hated looked like him, when I was a teen, at first, I hated Lux Bonteri, because he kissed Ahsoka Tano, the fictional character I loved (Star Wars characters)
Around that time... I remember Helmet 'Unsung' came out as well. Another kick ass sound