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Nirvana · S4 E6
Incesticide
A compilation of B-sides, demos, and radio sessions released in December 1992 to keep the bootleggers at bay. The liner notes are a letter from Kurt telling homophobes, racists, and sexists to stop buying Nirvana's records. The album goes platinum anyway. Kurt does not know whether to laugh or scream
Record stores across America, December 14, 1992. While every other band on earth would kill for a follow-up to a number-one album, Nirvana releases a lo-fi compilation of B-sides, BBC sessions, and Sub Pop singles, and calls it Incesticide.
"Monkey Gone to Heaven," Pixies, official music video (1989). The band Kurt Cobain said he was "basically trying to rip off." The Pixies invented the quiet-loud-quiet dynamic that became Nirvana's signature, and you can hear it raw and unfiltered on every early recording that made it onto Incesticide. This is the blueprint.
The Anti-Album
Incesticide is not a proper album. It is a time capsule: fifteen tracks pulled from BBC radio sessions, compilation appearances, Sub Pop singles, and demo tapes spanning 1988 to 1991. Most major label bands would bury this material. Kurt wants you to hear it, partly to beat the bootleggers, partly to remind you where Nirvana came from.
Sources
Michael Azerrad, "Come As You Are: The Story of Nirvana," Doubleday, 1993
Incesticide, Nirvana, DGC Records, liner notes, 1992
“I was basically trying to rip off the Pixies. I have to admit it. When I heard the Pixies for the first time, I connected with that band so heavily I should have been in that band, or at least a Pixies cover band.”
— Kurt Cobain, from David Fricke, "Kurt Cobain: The Rolling Stone Interview," Rolling Stone, January 27, 1994
Monkey Gone to Heaven, Pixies (1989)
"Monkey Gone to Heaven" is the Pixies at their most anthemic: a song about ecological collapse and biblical numerology that somehow works as a three-minute pop song. Black Francis screams "God is seven" over Kim Deal's bassline and a string section that producer Gil Norton pushed for, knowing it went against everything the band usually stood for. Listen for the quiet-loud structure that Kurt borrowed wholesale. The verse is restrained, almost whispered. The chorus explodes. This is the architecture of "Smells Like Teen Spirit," of "In Bloom," of nearly everything Nirvana ever recorded. On Incesticide, you hear the band still learning to build these rooms, and the Pixies' fingerprints are everywhere.
Sources
Pixies, Doolittle liner notes, 4AD/Elektra, 1989
Michael Azerrad, "Come As You Are: The Story of Nirvana," Doubleday, 1993
TAP TO REVEAL: Who painted the Incesticide album cover?
The Tracklist
The song selection tells its own story. Three Vaselines covers show who Kurt listened to when nobody was watching. BBC sessions recorded for John Peel and Mark Goodier capture the band at their most raw and unrehearsed. Early singles like "Dive" and "Sliver" document the months between Bleach and Nevermind, when the sound was evolving faster than any label could keep up.
Sources
Incesticide, Nirvana, DGC Records, liner notes, 1992
Incesticide: The Numbers
Stain, Nirvana (1989)
Originally released on the Blew EP in 1989 and collected on Incesticide three years later. "Stain" is Nirvana at their most aggressive pre-Nevermind: fast, distorted, and completely uninterested in radio play. The song captures the exact sound that Incesticide preserves, a band too loud for college radio and too weird for MTV, caught in the moment before the world caught up.
Stain, Nirvana (1989)
Kurt's lyrics are a blur of self-loathing and defiance, delivered so fast the words nearly dissolve into pure sound. The chorus hammers a single syllable over and over, turning language into percussion. This is songwriting as demolition.
How many cover songs by The Vaselines appear on Incesticide?
Nirvana is done playing nice. Next season: a recording studio in rural Minnesota, the most confrontational producer in America, and an album designed to make the record label scream.
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