LIVE NIRVANA SESSIONS HISTORY:
April 2-6, 1990 - Studio A, Smart Studios, Madison, WI, US

Artist

• NIRVANA
• Channing, Chad (drums)
• Cobain, Kurt (vocals, guitar)
• Novoselic, Krist (bass)

Crew

• Olsen, Doug (engineer)
• Vig, Butch (producer, engineer)

Set

• [O] Breed
• [O] Dive
• [O] Here She Comes Now
• [O] In Bloom
• [U] Lithium
• [O] Polly
• [U] Sappy
• [O] Stay Away

Best available sources

Notes

This session was booked with the intention of recording a second Sub Pop album. (4) After hearing Butch Vig's production on Killdozer's 12 Point Buck, Sub Pop co-founder, Jonathan Poneman, called Vig to propose that he record an album with NIRVANA. Poneman had apparently hyped the band to Vig by saying, These guys are going to be bigger than the Beatles! (4) Vig would later become famous for his production on Nevermind and the Smashing Pumpkins' Siamese Dream.

From the start of the session, Cobain remained fairly quiet, letting Novoselic do much of the talking, while Channing took direction from the other two members of the band. Novoselic took the lead in checking out Vig's punk-rock credentials, He asked me about a lot of punk records, asked if I could get this or that kind of sound, remembers Vig. They didn't want too clean or trebly; they wanted to sound real heavy. (53)

Vig contemplated how he could change the artificial recording environment to make the recordings match the live fury and intensity for which the band had become renowned. He considered several ideas before improvising a unique experiment that might accomplish his sonic goal. I put several sheets of plywood on the floor during tracking to make the room sound a little more live, he recalls. (53)

All the Smart songs were recorded using a British-made 25x16" TAC Scorpion control board, and were recorded to 16-track, 1" tape. (53)

For the most part, the band used their own equipment, with the exception of a Fender Bassman that Vig had got Cobain to use on Lithium and In Bloom. Vig adds proudly, We [also] used my Yamaha snare drum on several songs, the same one that was also used on Smashing Pumpkins' Gish. (53)

Most of the basic song arrangements were complete by the time NIRVANA arrived at Smart, though Channing says that some of them still needed work, It took a while to get going, the drummer recalls. I think at this particular session, it was slower trying to get the sounds together. Some of the songs weren't even finished. Some of them were ideas we'd run through a couple of times and then we had to go on tour. There was a feeling of hesitancy, recording some of the songs, because of the not readiness about them that Kurt had. And there was some apprehension about what songs to record. They were so different than Bleach - it was a drastic change. (53)

Whereas the band had had two weeks of rehearsal before going into the studio to record Bleach, this time they had been forced to work out most of their songs on the road, We used soundchecks and the shows themselves to work on new songs, Channing remembers. (53)

Engineer, Doug Olsen, recalls the Lithium session as being a very down day for Cobain: Kurt was in a very sour mood. He just made everyone miserable. (53)

Vig also recalls finding Cobain's demeanour somewhat disconcerting: I found immediately that he would go into these mood swings where half an hour later he would be in a corner by himself and not talking to anyone, very maniac depressive and it took me a long time to figure out how his personality went in all these different directions. (9)

I remember a couple of times just sitting around with Krist and Chad, adds Olsen. Chad seemed a nice guy, but he seemed ill at ease. There was definitely something going on between him and Kurt, where Kurt was not psyched about something... that did come to a head at one point. (53)

There were at least three different versions of Lithium created, some with different guitar tracks. (15)

Novoselic says the major difference in Lithium between the Smart sessions and the Sound City sessions was that he improvised on his bass playing at the time. I did some work on that bassline in Lithium, he notes. I enriched the bass playing at little more [at Sound City]. (53)

Novoselic notes that there was originally another bridge within In Bloom. We recorded that song, and all the other songs at Smart, on a 16-track, the bass player recalls. And when we were listening to it, after we'd recorded it, we said, Ah, this bridge isn't that hot. So Butch just took out a razor blade and cut the bridge out of the 16-track master, and then threw it in the garbage. (53)

At one point during the Smart sessions, Vig recalls, Kurt climbed behind the kit and attempted to show Chad the fills on In Bloom. Kurt wasn't a good drummer, but he got his ideas across. (53)

Channing recalls Here She Comes Now as being one of the few takes that went smoothly at Smart, I was shocked we did that one, he remembers, that was a fun song. Novoselic says that the reason the band covered the song was because they'd been asked to by an indie label. Gary from Tupelo Records called up and said he was putting out a Velvet Underground tribute record, and he wanted us to play on it. We had never played that song before [the Smart sessions] and we hardly ever played it after. We just kind of hashed it out. We did that song in one take. (53)

The rendition of Polly captured at this session was so successful that it was used on Nevermind. Vig recalls it as being the final track recorded at Smart, done late at night and really raw. (35) Polly was recorded with Kurt and Krist playing live, Vig explains. Then we went back after the guitars were finished and overdubbed vocals. Kurt sang harmonies with himself. Chad overdubbed the cymbal crashes last. (53)

Vig doubts that there were any other songs or outtakes saved: If a take wasn't a keeper, we'd just erase it and do another one. I sent the tapes to Sub Pop; there may be something else on them. And I don't know if Kurt had any other songs finished or not, cause he didn't play me anything else at the time. (1) This is consistent with Gaar's claim that the emphasis on recording quickly. (1)

The Smart log notes that Vig mixed all but one song on April 11, 12 and 13. For some reason, Vig says, I didn't mix Here She Comes Now until June 8, 1990. (53)

Many of the other songs were re-recorded for Nevermind, and often changed their titles. At the time of recording this session, Breed was known as Immodium, and Stay Away featured slightly different lyrics and was known as Pay To Play. Sappy was re-recorded in 1993, and re-titled Verse Chorus Verse, but NIRVANA experts nevertheless refer to the song as Sappy to differentiate it from another Cobain composition, which was known as Verse Chorus Verse at this point.

The Smart/Sub Pop recordings were initially planned for release in September 1990 as either an EP or a full-length album. Vig had thought that he might record a few more songs with the band to round out the proposed second album. (53)

Once Chad had departed, the two original members decided not to release the Smart sessions in an album format. Novoselic explains: We knew [the Smart session] wasn't going to be our next record at that point. (53)

Meanwhile, in Seattle, the tape became the one cassette that everyone in the city had to get a dub of. They had actually made up these demo tapes, recalls Jack Endino. They gave me the tape and it said NIRVANA on it with this little hand-made cover. There were six or seven songs, plus they had put Love Buzz on the end of it. And they were calling it a demo. In other words, they were shopping it. And Krist said, Don't tell Sub Pop I gave this to you, but this is what we're sending out to try to get a deal. They were giving it out trying to get some interest. (53)