Daily Jam - Oh the Guilt

Here's an awesome, kind of obscure Nirvana track from a split 7" the band released with The Jesus Lizard back in 1993.  Listen to "Oh the Guilt" below, our Daily Jam.

Chat Pile

Oklahoma hardcore punk/black metal/screamo band hybrid dropped a new 7" on Friday that i missed out on whilst working all weekend.  The A-side is a beast and the B-side is a cover of an old Nirvana song.  Check out both "Masks" and the "Sifting" cover below and download them here from Sub Pop (the vinyl is already sold out).

Daily Jam - Bambi Slaughter

Here's Diiv, from back with they were still Dive, covering an obscure Nirvana demo, from back when they were called Fecal Matter."  Listen to "Bambi Slaughter" below, our Daily Jam.

Daily Jam - Big Long Now

I had a pretty cool weekend, starting with a visit to Houston and the historic River Oaks Theater to see a holiday horror double feature of "Silent Night, Deadly Night" (1984) and "Black X-Mas" (2006) hosted by none other than Joe Bob Briggs.  I also got to revisit one of my favorite Houston area craft breweries, eat some excellent sushi with the in-laws, and then meet actor David Howard Thornton (AKA Art The Clown) back in Austin at the annual Horror for the Holidays event and market.  A Texas victory over Georgia would have been the nice little bow to tie it all together, but alas, that part was not to be.  Hope you all enjoyed your weekends as well.  Here's Nirvana with "Big Long Now," our Daily Jam.

Daily Jam - I Hate Myself and Want to Die

“Runny nose and runny yolk…”

It does not seem like Nirvana are quite the cultural apex that they used to be considered. When I was in junior high and Nevermind came out, music journos and deejays alike hailed them as a kind of second coming, Kurt Cobain the patron saint of rock music, his music and lyrics a new testament of…whatever. The praise was immense, and admittedly maybe a little much. While the band certainly did make the kind of waves in the industry that dictated popular tastes, spawned the major label signing of a million underground acts, and impacted the culture at large, all the more measurable now a quarter of a century later, music writers are prone to hyperbole. And at 13, I ate every bit of that up.

“Even if you have a cold still…”

It all just feels lesser now. In hindsight, they weren’t Elvis or The Beatles or anything quite so world shattering as all that. They just felt like it to me at the time, though I am still an Uber-fan. I just don’t think kids really give a shit about Nirvana now the way I felt about The Rolling Stones or Led Zeppelin when I was young. It’s like the divide is getting larger. Or, I just keep getting older.

“You can cough on me again…”

I could keep bemoaning my age or bluster about youth being wasted on the young or more nonsense like that, but I’m not going to. They’re proving to be far better than we ever were anyway. Instead I’m going to listen to Nirvana’s “I Hate Myself and Want to Die,” an awesome jam that for some reason got relegated to The Beavis and Butt-head Experience for release, though it did eventually land as a B-side on the “Pennyroyal Tea” single too. It’s one of my favorites from the band, one of the last things they released, and it garnered up its far share of controversy with the title and Cobain’s imminent demise. But it all just feels like a goof. A noisy, feedback-laden goof. I need more of that kind of thing.

“I still haven’t had my fulfill…”

Listen below, our Daily Jam.

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.

Softcult

Canadian duo Softcult make a mix of shoegaze, dreampop, and grunge, or as they call it, "music for mall goths."  New EP "See You in the Dark" is out now.  Get it here and listen to the moody, dreamy "Spoiled" below.

Bonus jam: here's a wonderful cover of Nirvana's "Frances Farmer Will Have Her Revenge on Seattle" the duo recorded last year.

Daily Jam - Marigold

I've said it before, but Nirvana is one of those bands whose B-sides and demos and rarities are better than most other bands' singles and main output.  Here's the Dave Grohl fronted "Marigold," our Daily Jam.

Daily Jam - Love Buzz

If anyone out there ever wants to give me an original Sub Pop Singles pressing of Nirvana's "Love Buzz," i will gladly accept.  Here's the band covering Shocking Blue.  Listen below, our Daily Jam.

Daily Jam - Floyd the Barber

Here's an early classic Nirvana track to start our week off to.  Listen to "Floyd the Barber" below, our Daily Jam.

3rd Secret

I've got to admit that i wasn't expecting to hear music from a Seattle grunge supergroup this week, but here we are.  The band is 3rd Secret, and it boasts a lineup of Krist Novoselic (Nirvana), Kim Thayil (Soundgarden), and Matt Cameron (Soundgarden / Pearl Jam), which is then rounded out by Bubba Dupree (Void), Jennifer Johnson, and Jillian Raye.  The self-titled album pulls from Zeppelin, blues, grunge, and folk, and in some ways feels like a time capsule, but a good one.  Check out "I Choose Me" below and download the album here.

Daily Jam - Tourette's

In days of yore when i used to make cassette mixtapes, i'd often find myself with an extra minute or two of unused space that i could either leave blank or stick just part of a song on.  Most of the time i'd just use the minute and a half blast of Nirvana's "Tourette's" instead, sometimes on both sides of the same tape.  Check it out below, our Daily Jam.

Daily Jam - Scentless Apprenctice

I listened to Nirvana's "In Utero" in full for the first time in a while the other day, and that thing still rips just as hard as it did when i was in the ninth grade.  Listen to "Scentless Apprentice" below, our Daily Jam.

Daily Jam - Do Re Mi

It's always interesting to hear an artist's unused bits of song detritus, be it a home demo or outtake or whatever.  And in my opinion, Nirvana has always been one of the few whose scraps are better than most other band's official output.  For your consideration, here is one of Kurt Cobain's home tape recordings of an unfinished song he was working on called tentatively titled "Do Re Mi."  Check it out below, our Daily Jam.

Thou

One of my favorite things about Louisiana sludge metal band Thou is all of their absolutely crushing covers of '90s grunge songs, tackling the likes of Soundgarden, Alice In Chains, and Pearl Jam.  But the band they seem to gravitate towards the most is Nirvana, having covered them over and over on different releases.  And now, all those covers are in one place.  Yesterday, Thou quietly released "Blessings of the Highest Order," a collection of all of their Nirvana covers.  Brutal, screeching mayhem, and i love it.  Check out "Scentless Apprentice" below and get the whole thing here from Robotic Empire.

Daily Jam - Aero Zeppelin

Kicking off the new year with some Nirvana, and one of my low key favorite songs by them.  Listen to "Aero Zeppelin" below, our Daily Jam.  And Happy New Year.

Daily Jam - Territorial Pissings

In a few hours i'll be making my way towards Washington for a long weekend of old friends and breweries.  So, i figured the next four songs on this Daily Jam thing i've been doing should come from the "big 4," if you will, of the '90s Seattle grunge explosion.  Of course i'm going to start with Nirvana.  All these years later, and they're still one of my favorites.  Here's "Territorial Pissings" from "Nevermind," your Daily Jam.

Thou - In the Pines (AKA Where Did You Sleep Last Night?)

Black Flags Over Brooklyn was heavy metal festival held earlier this year in Brooklyn.  The event was billed as an anti-fascist and anti-racist gathering for like-minded, progressive metal heads.  I wish i could have gone.  Anyway, continuing their string of being awesome, the folks behind the fest have now put together a benefit album called "Riffs for Reproductive Justice," featuring a whole slew of different artists offering up their finest metal, hardcore punk, and dark folk songs to raise money for abortion access.  Read their statement:

'Riffs for Reproductive Justice' is a new compilation of metal, hardcore, punk, and dark folk songs from a wide range of artists who have united to raise money for an extremely important cause: abortion access.

Abortion clinics across the country are being forced to close, robbing people of the ability to access crucial healthcare services. A theocratic fascist regime is working overtime to control the bodies of those who have uteruses, to force us into unwanted pregnancies, to wrest away our human rights. We cannot stand by and let this happen. All of us—people of every gender, with every kind of body—need to fight back against this horrifying attack on bodily autonomy, by any means necessary.

This compilation is just one small effort made by a few dozen people who care, who are intimately affected by this, and who love other people who are afraid of what the future will bring. There are so many other brave individuals and groups who have been putting in work around this issue for decades, and my hope here is to raise a significant amount of funds from within the metal, punk, and overall music fan communities to allow them to continue that necessary work.

100% of proceeds from this compilation will be donated to the National Network of Abortion Funds (NNAH: abortionfunds.org) and the Yellowhammer Fund (yellowhammerfund.org). Donation receipts will be posted in a Dropbox folder which will be shared with the bands and with anyone who requests access.

Say it loud, with distortion, with fucking feeling:
ABORTION IS HEALTH CARE.
HEALTH CARE IS A HUMAN RIGHT.
WE WON’T GO BACK.

This is a really important cause, and all of your dollars will help.  Plus, the compilation has some excellent artists on it, from Violet Cold to Emma Ruth Rundle to Ails, as well as the first track that caught my ear, a blistering and massive cover of Leadbelly's "In the Pines" by Louisiana sludge metal band Thou.  It basically counts as another Nirvana cover too.  Check it out below and get the whole thing here.  Do it!

Daily Jam (Covers Week) - Lithium

Closing out our "Covers Week" with one of my favorite bands covering one of my favorite songs by one of my all time favorite bands.  We even closed out my wedding reception with it.  So, here's Nirvana's "Lithium" as performed by The Polyphonic Spree, our Daily Jam.

Nevermind is 25...I am old...

Nirvana's "Nevermind" turned 25 years old yesterday, and aside from making me feel like a cranky old man, i've been feeling the kind of affinity for the band that i haven't felt since i was a teenager.  Seemingly endless articles and retrospectives have been done on the significance of "Nevermind" in regards to music and culture, but it seems a lot of the time we forget that above all else, it's really just a great rock record.  Sure, it changed the world or whatever, but when i first heard it in junior high, it changed me too.  And while i'll always be more of an "In Utero" kind of guy, "Nevermind" was the catalyst for everything that followed.

25 years later, it still sounds absolutely massive.  You should give it a listen before the weekend's over.  You should also check out this footage of a Halloween show at the Paramount in Seattle in 1991.