Description
Australian ONLY Indie Exclusive.
- Time to go to War
- Floyd The Barber
- About A Girl
- School
- Love Buzz
- Paper Cuts
- Negative Creep
- Scoff
- Swap Meet
- Mr. Moustache
- Sifting
- Big Cheese
- Downer
Originally recorded over three sessions with producer Jack Endino at Seattle’s Reciprocal Recording Studios in December 1988 and January 1989, Bleach was released in June of ‘89 and remains unequivocally/unsurprisingly Sub Pop’s very favorite Nirvana full-length. The album initially sold 40,000 copies, but was brought into the international spotlight following the release and worldwide success of their 1991 sophomore effort, Nevermind. Subsequently Bleach went on to sell 1.7 million copies in the US alone, according to Nielsen SoundScan. This 20th Anniversary Edition has been re-mastered from the original tapes at Sterling Sound in a session overseen by producer Jack Endino.
After the release of its debut single “Love Buzz” on Sub Pop in November 1988, Nirvana practiced for two to three weeks in preparation for recording a full-length album, even though Sub Pop had only requested an EP. The main sessions for Bleach took place at Reciprocal Recording Studios in Seattle, with local producer Jack Endino.
Nirvana began recording with a five-hour session on December 24, 1988. The band recorded again on December 29–31, and on January 14 and 24.Three of the album’s songs – “Floyd the Barber”, “Paper Cuts”, and “Downer” – were recorded during a previous session at Reciprocal Studios in 1988, featuring Dale Crover on drums. Despite attempts to re-record them with new drummer Chad Channing, the band ultimately decided to remix the versions recorded with Crover for the final version of Bleach. “Big Long Now” was omitted from the album because vocalist/guitarist Kurt Cobain felt “there was already enough slow heavy stuff on Bleach, and he ‘didn’t want that song to go out'”, according to Endino. The album was edited and sequenced, but Sub Pop head Bruce Pavitt ordered that the album be completely re-sequenced. The record was further delayed for several months until Sub Pop was able to secure sufficient funds to issue it.
Lead singer Kurt Cobain felt pressured to create music for Bleach that conformed to the grunge music style favored by his record label and the contemporary Seattle music scene. The album is regarded as quite negative and bleak; Cobain claimed that most of the lyrics were written the night before recording while he was feeling “pissed off”, and that he did not regard them highly.
Endino billed the band thirty hours of recording at $606.17. Jason Everman, a guitarist who was impressed by Nirvana’s demo with Dale Crover, supplied the money. He briefly joined the group as second guitarist. Everman was credited as a guitarist on the album sleeve, and is the other guitarist on the cover of the album, even though he did not perform on the album. Bassist Krist Novoselic explained, “We just wanted to make him feel at home in the band.”
