Category Archives: Nirvana

Classic Concert, Great albums, Live, Nirvana

November 1: MTV Unplugged Live in NY by Nirvana was released in 1994

1 Comment

Nirvana unplugged in New York cover

This is not easy listening, it’s uneasy listening!

MTV Unplugged in New York is a live album by the American rock band Nirvana. It features an acoustic performance taped at Sony Music Studios in New York City on November 18, 1993 for the television series MTV Unplugged. The show was directed by Beth McCarthy and first aired on the cable television network MTV on December 14, 1993. As opposed to traditional practice on the television series, Nirvana played a set list composed of mainly lesser-known material and cover versions of songs by The Vaselines, David Bowie, Meat Puppets (during which they were joined by two members of the group onstage) and Lead Belly.

Rolling Stone ranked MTV Unplugged in New York at #311 in its list of “The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time”

The album start with About a Girl:

Continue reading November 1: MTV Unplugged Live in NY by Nirvana was released in 1994 →

Great albums, Music Calendar, Nirvana

September 24: Nirvana released “Nevermind” in 1991

1 Comment

nirvana nevermind

After years of hair-flailing sludge that achieved occasional songform on singles no normal person ever heard, Seattle finally produces some proper postpunk, aptly described by resident genius Kurt Cobain: “Verse, chorus, verse, chorus, solo, bad solo.” This is hard rock as the term was understood before metal moved in–the kind of loud, slovenly, tuneful music you think no one will ever work a change on again until the next time it happens, whereupon you wonder why there isn’t loads more. It seems so simple.
~Robert Christgau (robertchristgau.com)

Nevermind was never meant to change the world, but you can never predict when the Zeitgeist will hit, and Nirvana’s second album turned out to be the place where alternative rock crashed into the mainstream.
~Stephen Thomas Erlewine (allmusic.com)

Smells Like A Teen Spirit:

Nirvana – Nevermind – Classic Album – documentary (youtube playlist):

Continue reading September 24: Nirvana released “Nevermind” in 1991 →

Music Calendar, Nirvana

April 05: Kurt Cobain died in 1994 – Nirvana’s 10 best songs

2 Comments

Redirecting to a newer version of this post….

Kurt Cobain death 1994

April 05: Kurt Cobain died in 1994 – Nirvana’s 10 best songs

Kurt Cobain died in 1994, (April 5) he is best known as the lead singer and guitarist of the rock band Nirvana. Kurt Cobain formed Nirvana with Krist Novoselic in Aberdeen, Washington in 1985 and established it as part of the Seattle music scene, having its debut album Bleach released on the independent record label Sub Pop in 1989. After signing with major label DGC Records, the band found breakthrough success with “Smells Like Teen Spirit” from its second album Nevermind (1991). Following the success of Nevermind, Nirvana was labeled “the flagship band” of Generation X, and Cobain hailed as “the spokesman of a generation”

kurt-cobain

During the last years of his life, Cobain struggled with heroin addiction, illness and depression. He had difficulty coping with his fame and public image, and the professional and lifelong personal pressures surrounding himself and his wife, musician Courtney Love. On April 8, 1994, Kurt Cobain was found dead at his home in Seattle, the victim of a suicide by a self-inflicted shotgun wound to the head.

Since their debut, Nirvana, with Cobain as a songwriter, has sold over 25 million albums in the U.S., and over 50 million worldwide.

We, at Johannasvisions, made a list of Nirvana’s ten best songs a few months ago, I will include it here as a tribute to a great musician.

Nirvana’s 10 best songs:

10. Pennyroyal Tea (Pennyroyal Tea (Live On “Nulle Part Ailleurs”, Paris, 1994):

Continue reading April 05: Kurt Cobain died in 1994 – Nirvana’s 10 best songs →

Classic Concert, List, Live, Nirvana

30 Best live albums countdown: 21 – MTV Unplugged Live in NY – Nirvana

2 Comments

Nirvana unplugged in New York cover

This is not easy listening, it’s uneasy listening!

MTV Unplugged in New York is a live album by the American rock band Nirvana. It features an acoustic performance taped at Sony Music Studios in New York City on November 18, 1993 for the television series MTV Unplugged. The show was directed by Beth McCarthy and first aired on the cable television network MTV on December 14, 1993. As opposed to traditional practice on the television series, Nirvana played a set list composed of mainly lesser-known material and cover versions of songs by The Vaselines, David Bowie, Meat Puppets (during which they were joined by two members of the group onstage) and Lead Belly.

Rolling Stone ranked MTV Unplugged in New York at #311 in its list of “The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time”

The album start with About a Girl:

Why is Nirvana’s unplugged album so much better than any other MTV unplugged effort?

It could be the stark contrast to their normal albums or the sparse, naked arrangements that shows that Nirvana could really play. This time they didn’t hide behind a wall of grunge, they displayed their vulnerability and, man, they could be just as intense in this format.  It could also be the choice of songs, almost no hits, obscure songs were included, new and old cover versions also. It could come down to pure stage presence from a band at their peak.

It is probably all the above.

Nirvana MTV Unplugged in New York

Continue reading 30 Best live albums countdown: 21 – MTV Unplugged Live in NY – Nirvana →