Nirvana - Spank Thru / Sliver (Rarities 1988-1990)

Nirvana recorded plenty of material during all of their career, and a hell lot of it ended up on various compilations, single B-sides and EPs. In an attempt to gather together all their officialy released stray tracks from their different line-ups, I compiled several albums that could work as companion discs that fill the gaps between their three official LPs. Here are the first two, that round up the Chad Channing years (from 1988 to 1990).

SPANK THRU

01. Aero Zeppelin
02. Spank Thru
03. Mexican Seafood
04. Big Cheese
05. If You Must
06. Downer
07. Love Buzz (Single Mix) (Robbie Van Leeuwen) [Shocking Blue cover]
08. Hairspray Queen
09. Beeswax
10. Pen Cap Chew
11. Big Long Now
12. Blandest [Hidden Track]

I called this one Spank Thru, as it is, according to Cobain, the "very first Nirvana song". It gathers all the Bleach-era outtakes and Nirvana's earliest studio recordings. I used the Love Buzz single cover, being the first official Nirvana artwork, and working quite well aesthetically with the music.

"Aero Zeppelin", "Mexican Seafood", "If You Must", "Downer", "Hairspray Queen", "Beeswax" and "Pen Cap Chew" are all taken from the very first Nirvana recording session. Recorded on January 23rd, 1988 and featuring drummer Dale Crover (who first played as bass player in the embryonic Nirvana project Fecal Matter, and then became The Melvins' drummer) along with Cobain on guitar and Novoselic on bass.

Almost all of the session was officialy released on various albums: "Aero Zeppelin", "Mexican Seafood", "Downer", "Hairspray Queen" and "Beeswax" were released on Incesticide in 1992. Two other were released in 1989 on the Bleach LP ("Floyd The Barber" and "Paper Cuts"), and out of the three remaining three tracks ("Pen Cap Chew", "If You Must" and "Spank Thru"), two ended up on the archival project With The Lights Out while the last one ("Spank Thru") still remains unreleased to this day.

The version of "Spank Thru" featured here was recorded during the Bleach sessions, along with the outtakes "Big Cheese", "Blandest" and "Love Buzz" (presented here in its original 7-inch single mix, that features a short extract of Cobain's "Montage of Heck" sound collage at the beginning).
"Spank Thru" was released on the SubPop compilation SubPop 200 in December 1988 and "Big Cheese" was released as the B-Side to the "Love Buzz" single in November 1988 in lieu of "Blandest" which was first considered (the only existing version of this song being a cassette copy of the acetate, as the multitracks for the song were recorded over -in this case to record the new version of "Spank Thru"). "Big Long Now" was pulled off of Bleach at the last minute by Cobain, only to be released four years later on Incesticide. All these songs feature new drummer Chad Channing.

SLIVER

01. Dive
02. Sliver

03. Stain
04. Been A Son
05. Here She Comes Now (Lou Reed/John Cale/Sterling Morrison)
06. Pay To Play (Sub Pop Version)
07. Token Eastern Song
08. In Bloom (Sub Pop Version)
09. Do You Love Me? (Bob Ezrin/Paul Stanley/Kim Fowley)

The Jury sessions:

10. Down In The Dark (Mark Lanegan)
11. Where Did You Sleep Last Night? (Leadbelly)
12. They Hung Him On A Cross (Leadbelly)
13. Ain't It A Shame (Leadbelly)

I based this one on the first side of the Incesticide LP, and just filled it up with the remaining tracks from the various 1989/1990 sessions. It bridges nicely the Bleach era to Nevermind and rounds up Chad Channing's last contributions for Nirvana.

"Do You Love Me?", a Kiss cover, was recorded during spring 1989 as the band was comissioned to record a song for the Kiss tribute album Hard To Believe: A Kiss Covers Compilation. Nothing but a funny noise rock attempt, it helps knowing the band was "tanked up on red wine" and only listened once to a recording of the original song on their way to the studio session...

"Been A Son"/"Stain" were released on the Blew EP in December 1989. They were recorded, along with the track "Token Eastern Song" in September 1989, that last one remaining unreleased until its inclusion in With The Lights Out.

"Dive", "Pay To Play" (an early version of "Stay Away"), "In Bloom" and "Here She Comes Now" were recorded in April 1990 in an attempt to record a second album for the Sub Pop label.
"Dive" was released as the B-Side to "Sliver" (recorded in July 1990 with drummer Dan Peters) while "Here She Comes Now", a Velvet Underground cover, was released on Heaven & Hell: A Tribute to The Velvet Underground in 1990. "Pay To Play" was released on DGC Rarities Vol.1 in 1994 and "In Bloom" on the VHS Sub Pop Video Network, Program 1 in 1991. These last two were re-recorded with Dave Grohl for the Nevermind LP.

The Jury Sessions:

In August 1989, Cobain and Novoselic teamed up with The Screaming Trees' Mark Lanegan (vocals) and Mark Pickerel (drums), "trying to create a modern day version of Cream or Led Zeppelin". Cobain and Lanegan both brought cassettes of their favourite Leadbelly songs to practice and "branch out from there". A finished album never materialised (Ain't THAT a shame?) but some songs ended up being released on Mark Lanegan's first solo album The Winding Sheet: "Where Did You Sleep Last Night?" and "Down In The Dark" (which was recorded later (January 1990) and only features Cobain on backing vocals with Lanegan's band) while the other two -featuring Cobain on lead vocals, appeared on Nirvana's With The Lights Out.

Addendum: Another rare curio from the time that I chose not to include, is Cobain's contribution to the october 1990 sessions for the Extra Capsular Extraction EP, from Sub Pop drone doom band Earth; providing backing vocal and lead vocals on "Divine and Bright":

ॐ