Daily Jam - Aneurysm

Like so many people around my age, my early teenage years (and probably the middle and late ones too) were both molded and informed by Nirvana. There is practically no end to how much I was affected by Kurt Cobain and the music he made. As an impressionable 13-year old, Cobain and Nirvana weighed influence on the bands I sought out and listened to, the art I enjoyed, the clothing I wore, the politics, attitude, style, and on and on. I’ve gone through many phases in my life, several of them being music related, but the one that Nirvana began seems to have endured the longest, and continues to hold the most sway. Hell, often it still feels to me that that era of music was the absolute pinnacle of everything that was good, right, and cool. But, that’s probably just old man talk. I don’t know what you kids are into now.

I was fifteen when Cobain blew his brains out. It devastated me. As it did a lot people. I can think of no other celebrity death that affected me the way that that one did*.

When I started writing this Endless Loop column, I knew I would eventually get around to Nirvana, I just didn’t know what song. The band’s catalog is stuffed with riches, both the hits and rarities alike. They were one of those groups whose B-sides, demos, and throwaways were better than 90% of the music their contemporaries were making. And I love all of it. After some soul searching, I settled on “Aneurysm**,” the seminal closing track on 1992’s excellent B-side collection Incesticide. Everything is in this jam: the killer guitar riffs, Krist Novoselic’s thudding bass line, Dave Grohl’s bombastic drumming, and Kurt’s often unintelligible lyrics buried within his guttural howl. For any other artist, this would have been the hit single. For Nirvana, it ended up on a record label cash-in album. It’s still amazing.

There’s really nothing more I can add about Nirvana or Kurt Cobain that hasn’t already been discussed and dissected a thousand times over. There’s even a documentary on the way later this year (which looks fantastic***). So let’s just listen to the music instead.

Check it out below, our Daily Jam.

*For some reason, it really upset me when Tony Gwynn died.****

**The relative obscurity that is “I Hate Myself and I Want to Die” came in a close second.

***It was okay.

****This article was written before David Bowie died, who is probably the only celebrity death that made me openly weep.