LiveNIRVANA.com > Sessions History > Studio Sessions > February 12–26, 1993 - Pachyderm Recording Studio, Cannon Falls, MN, US

LIVE NIRVANA SESSIONS HISTORY:
February 12–26, 1993 - Pachyderm Recording Studio, Cannon Falls, MN, US

Artist

• NIRVANA
  • Cobain, Kurt (vocals, guitar)
  • Grohl, Dave (drums)
  • Novoselic, Krist (bass)
• Schaley, Kera (cello)

Crew

• Albini, Steve (producer, engineer)
• Sigmeth, Brent (assistant)
• Weston, Bob (engineer)

Set

• [O] Scentless Apprentice
• [O] Milk It
• [O] Sappy
• [O] Very Ape
• [U] Pennyroyal Tea (instrumental)
• [O] Radio Friendly Unit Shifter
• [O] Frances Farmer Will Have Her Revenge On Seattle
• [O] Moist Vagina
• [O] tourette's
• [X] Heart-Shaped Box (instrumental)
• [X] All Apologies (instrumental)
• [O] All Apologies
• [O] I Hate Myself And Want To Die
• [X] Rape Me (instrumental)
• [O] Rape Me
• [O] Serve The Servants
• [O] Dumb
• [X] Dave Solo (instrumental; Grohl on all instruments)
• [X] Marigold (instrumental; Grohl on drums and guitar, Novoselic on bass)
• [X] Marigold (instrumental; Grohl on drums and guitar, Novoselic on bass)
• [O] Marigold (Grohl on vocals, drums and guitar, Novoselic on bass)
• [X] Lullaby (instrumental)
• [O] Pennyroyal Tea
• [X] Heart-Shaped Box (instrumental)
• [O] Heart-Shaped Box

Format

• Audio: 2-inch 24-track analog magnetic tape (session tape)

Best available sources

Source	Quality	Complete	Runtime	Lowest Gen	Tracks Featured	Notes
SBD #1	10.0	No	0:08:27	Official CD (In Utero, MFSL Gold CD, catalog#: UDCD 690)	• Heart-Shaped Box • All Apologies	Mixed by Scott Litt, May 1993. Mastered by Mobile Fidelity Sound Labs.
SBD #2	10.0	No	0:03:36	Official CD (In Utero, K-Mart version)	• Pennyroyal Tea	Mixed by Scott Litt, November 1993.
SBD #3a	10.0	No	0:32:45	Official CD (In Utero, MFSL Gold CD, catalog#: UDCD 690)	• Serve The Servants • Scentless Apprentice • Rape Me • Frances Farmer Will Have Her Revenge On Seattle • Dumb • Very Ape • Milk It • Pennyroyal Tea • Radio Friendly Unit Shifter • tourette's	Mixed by Steve Albini, 1993. Mastered by Mobile Fidelity Sound Labs.
SBD #3b	10.0	No	TBC	Official 12" (In Utero, Universal "Back To Black" (EU), 180g vinyl)	• Serve The Servants • Scentless Apprentice • Heart-Shaped Box • Rape Me • Frances Farmer Will Have Her Revenge On Seattle • Dumb • Very Ape • Milk It • Pennyroyal Tea • Radio Friendly Unit Shifter • tourette's • All Apologies	Mixed by Steve Albini, 1993.
SBD #3c	7.5	No	0:54:30	ANA(X)>FLAC	• Rape Me • Scentless Apprentice • Heart-Shaped Box • Milk It • Dumb • Radio Friendly Unit Shifter • Very Ape • Pennyroyal Tea • Frances Farmer Will Have Her Revenge On Seattle • tourette's • Serve The Servants • All Apologies • Moist Vagina • Marigold • Sappy • I Hate Myself And Want To Die	Mixed by Steve Albini, 1993. Marigold features some pre-song ambient noises not found on other sources.
SBD #3d	10.0	No	0:06:25	Official CD (Heart-Shaped Box)	• Milk It • Marigold	Mixed by Steve Albini, 1993.
SBD #3e	10.0	No	0:06:20	Official CD (All Apologies)	• Rape Me • Moist Vagina	Mixed by Steve Albini, 1993.
SBD #3f	10.0	No	0:02:46	Official CD (Various Artists - The Beavis And Butt-Head Experience)	• I Hate Myself And Want To Die	Mixed by Steve Albini, 1993.
SBD #3g	10.0	No	0:03:24	Official CD (Various Artists - No Alternative)	• Sappy	Mixed by Steve Albini, 1993. Sappy appears under the title Verse Chorus Verse. Sappy is less complete here than on SBD #3h, but is considered to be of superior sound quality.
SBD #3h	9.9	No	0:05:58	Official CD (With The Lights Out)	• Marigold • Sappy	Mixed by Steve Albini, 1993. Sappy is more complete here than on SBD #3g, but is considered to be of inferior sound quality.
SBD #3i	9.5	No	TBC	Official CS (In Utero, Promo CS, catalog#: GEF/C-24607)	• Serve The Servants • Scentless Apprentice • Rape Me • Frances Farmer Will Have Her Revenge On Seattle • Dumb • Very Ape • Milk It • Pennyroyal Tea • Radio Friendly Unit Shifter • tourette's • I Hate Myself And Want To Die	Mixed by Steve Albini, 1993. tourette's appears as Tourrets, Pennyroyal Tea appears as Penny Royal Tea. I Hate Myself And Want To Die features pre-song banter and ambient noises not found on other releases.
SBD #4	9.5	No	0:27:38	ANA(X)>DAT(X)>CDR(2)>FLAC	• Rape Me • Milk It • Heart-Shaped Box • Scentless Apprentice • Frances Farmer Will Have Revenge On Seattle • Marigold • Dumb • All Apologies	Rough mixes by Steve Albini, 1993. Frances Farmer Will Have Revenge On Seattle cuts out and Marigold cuts in.
SBD #5	10.0	No	TBC	REEL(M)>WAV (48kHz, 16-bit, mono)	• Sappy ×24 • Very Ape ×24 • Pennyroyal Tea (instrumental) ×24 • Moist Vagina ×24	Multi-tracks, covering basic tracks, as well as guitar and vocal overdubs. Each 24th track is a live track with audible scratch vocal. This source features pre-song banter and ambient noises not found on other sources. Very Ape appears as New Wave, Pennyroyal Tea (instrumental) appears as Loser and Moist Vagina appears as Marijuana. Moist Vagina cuts out.
SBD #6a	TBC	No	TBC	Official Video Game DLC (Guitar Hero: World Tour)	• Sappy • Very Ape	Stem mix by Universal Mastering, 2007.
SBD #6b	TBC	No	TBC	Official Video Game DLC (Rock Band 3)	• Heart-Shaped Box • Rape Me • All Apologies	Stem mixes by Universal Mastering, 2007.

Notes

Booking in under the alias, The Simon Ritchie Bluegrass Ensemble (Simon Ritchie being Sid Vicious's real name), NIRVANA entered Pachyderm Recording Studio the second week of February to record their new album—the hotly anticipated follow-up to Nevermind—with rock maverick Steve Albini. (1)

Pachyderm—an isolated residential studio, located in the boondocks of Minnesota, 35 miles south of the Twin Cities—was founded by Eric S. Anderson, Mark Walk and Jim Nickel as a recording resort. It comprises a 2,500 square-foot recording studio and a 5,000 square-foot guest house, all set in a 50 acre private forest with trout streams and walking trails. (2) It was felt that the studio's remote rural location would help focus minds and cut down on outside distractions. We were isolated, recalls Novoselic. For two weeks, we were in this house, cooped up in the middle of nowhere, like a gulag. There was snow outside, we couldn't go anywhere. We just worked. (3)

Long before the band had even approached Albini about the recording, rumors were abounding that he had got the job. Albini eventually sent a disclaimer to the British music press refuting the allegations, only to get the call from NIRVANA's management a few days later. (1) Months of unfounded speculation tying Albini to the new NIRVANA album had apparently cost him work among his underground peers. I started seeing stuff in the fanzines that I was above working with the small bands, that I had sold out, that I had done this horrible thing. And at that point, I hadn't even spoken to the band. I had never spoken to them! (4)

Though the band sensed Geffen were unhappy with their choice of producer, they had sufficient clout to record with whomever they wanted. The attraction of Albini, as opposed to other big name producers, was that he would simply record them as they sounded. I've always respected him as a producer, mainly, probably solely, because of the Pixies record and the Breeders record, Cobain explained. (5) That sound is as close to the sound that I hear in my head that I've ever found, so I just had to do it. (1) Albini himself famously disavows the notion that he produces records at all—he gets sounds rather than arrangements. (1)

Albini did not meet the band until the first day of recording, though he had spoken to Cobain beforehand about the type of album he wanted to make. Albini claims that Cobain requested, …a more atmospheric sound and slightly more ominous tone at times. (6)

Prior to embarking on the sessions, Albini was sent a tape of demos the band had recorded at Ariola BMG Ltda., Rio de Janeiro. (7) I preferred them immediately to the stuff that I had heard of Nevermind, he admits. The Nevermind album seemed very confined in its parameters. Each song had a beginning, middle, and an end, and it was all presented in a way that allowed you to hear each chunk. This new material, some of it was kind of sprawling and aimless, and I liked that, but there were still moments that were really powerful and dynamic. It just seemed like they had made a conceptual break in how they wanted to be and how they wanted to behave as a band, and what they wanted their music to sound like. (3)

Recording costs amounted to a relatively modest $24,000, plus Albini's flat fee of $100,000. The band's management had suggested a form of royalty arrangement, whereby Albini would recoup a percentage of every record sold (which would have netted him considerably more money), but he rejected the offer. I just think that taking points on an album is an immoral position—I cannot do it, I think it's almost criminal. Anyone who takes a royalty off a band's record—other than someone who actually writes music or plays on the record—is a thief. (1)

Besides the band and Albini, the only others present for the duration of the session were Brent Sigmeth (house engineer), Robert S. Weston IV (assistant engineer), Carter Nicole Launt (chef) and her dog, Z. (4) The band had insisted that no-one from Geffen or their management visit at any point. (4)

Although it was ostensibly a low-budget project, Albini revealed NIRVANA were not above typically indulged rock star behavior. The band didn't actually show up with their equipment, they had it shipped. Albini said they wanted someone to Fed Ex a boombox to them instead of just going out and buying one, and when Cobain began having trouble tuning his guitar, they wanted to fly-in their guitar tech Earnie Bailey. When you've got millions of dollars, maybe you go a little crazy and start doing stuff like that, Albini quipped. (1)

Work began in earnest on February 13, 1993. (3) The set up was the same for each song, except for the faster more abrasive ones (for example tourette's and Very Ape) where the drumming was recorded in a kitchenette adjacent to the main recording space, which was found to have its own natural reverb. (4)

According to Cobain, there were 30 microphones on the drums alone. (8) Similarly, microphones were placed everywhere in the studio. We had big old German microphones taped to the floor and the ceiling and the walls, all over the place, Cobain raved. I've been trying to get producers to do this ever since we've been recording. I don't know anything about recording, but it just seems so obvious to me that is what you need to do. I tried to get Butch Vig to do it, I tried to get Jack Endino to do it, and everyone's response was, That isn't how you record. Steve Albini proved to me on these songs, although I don't know exactly how he did it; I just knew that it had to be that way. He had to have used a bunch of microphones. It's as simple as that. Which is why live recordings of punk shows sound so good. You really get a feel of what was going on. (9)

Cobain is believed to have employed his Sunburst Univox Custom on most of the guitar parts. (10) On one song he played a rare all-aluminum guitar called a Veleno, which Albini had brought along specifically. According to Albini the strained, distorted guitar sounds came from the use of a Fender Quad Reverb amp, with three of its four power tubes broken or missing. (4) He was talking about how he had to keep it away from the technicians that they toured with because he was afraid that they were going to fix it and then the sound would go away, Albini recalls. (6)

For the most part there was no studio trickery conjured up during recording; the only special effect Albini could recall was on Milk it, The vocal had to sound more crazy than it had up to that point, so I had to find a way to make the vocal leap forward at the end. (4)

An average day would begin at 10 O'clock with breakfast. Recording would then begin at noon and would continue until the evening. Lunch would be delivered to the studio mid-afternoon, with dinner around a big table in the evening (Launt recalls that Novoselic was a vegan, Grohl an all-American eater and that Cobain had an erratic eating schedule, with a particular fondness for frozen pizza). Then perhaps some TV and back into the studio until about 12, maybe to 1am. The group did not diverge from this daily routine except for a few visits to the local mall and a weekend trip to Minneapolis to see The Cows. (4)

Albini and Weston estimate that it took four or five days to record the basic tracks, a couple of days for overdubbing and a final few days mixing. They finished slightly ahead of the 2-week deadline. (4) This is more or less consistent with other sources for this information: Gillian Gaar commented that the band booked the studio for 14 days, but according to Albini only used 12. (7) Michael Azerrad gives few temporal details, aside from mentioning that the album was mixed in under a week, but notes that Cobain added another guitar track to about half the songs, then added guitar solos, and finally vocals. (1)

They knew the material, they'd figured out all the little details, recalls Albini. I don't know how quickly the songs were worked up, but they certainly weren't sitting down in the hallway trying to come up with more words or whatever. They were as prepared as any band I've ever worked with. (4) Novoselic concurs: We had focused intensely on rehearsing… We had the songs down tight. So we showed up in Cannon Falls, set up our gear and started playing. We tracked almost all the songs in the first two days. Some of the songs, I think over half the songs, we did first take… The record was recorded real fast. (4)

When the band weren't working, eating or sleeping, they goofed around, engaging in prank phone calls (to Evan Dando, Gene Simmons from Kiss and Eddie Vedder, among others) and indulging in some indoor pyrotechnics. (1) We had this Isopropyl alcohol in the studio to clean tape heads with, remembers Sigmeth. Steve was taking a nap one day in the lounge. Dave took this alcohol and poured it on his baseball cap and walked into the lounge, lit his head on fire and went Steve! My head is on fire! Steve woke up and looked at him with his flaming head, frowned and went back to sleep. We still have the remains of the hat here somewhere. (4)

A little over a week into recording, Courtney Love flew in with baby Frances Bean. Love's presence wasn't exactly welcomed by all. Albini has claimed that she tried to butt-in on the proceedings, but wouldn't be drawn on the details. I don't feel like embarrassing Kurt by talking about what a psycho hose-beast his wife is, he said, especially because he knows it already. (1)

It did affect things, definitely, says Carter Nicole Launt. I think it was stressful for Kurt. I think she put a lot of pressure on him and wasn't always as approving of the way the songs were. She was very critical of his work, and actually was kind of confrontational with people there. Yeah, it definitely was stressful. I just think it made people uncomfortable, to bring a lot of their personal things into the public arena. Because we were strangers, basically, to them. It made him uncomfortable. (4)

On playback, however, everyone was very happy with the results. Albini remembers the scene after the tracks had been recorded: When we played it back in the studio everyone was just giddy. I remember thinking that we had really pulled something off, like we had really made a record that was as they had imagined it in the beginning. It had a very big ominous sound, but it wasn't uncultured. It wasn't entirely ugly but it had an ugliness built into it that I thought suited the songs really well. Everyone was ecstatic when we were listening back to it on playback. (6)

Gaar enquired of Albini whether there were any further outtakes, besides the B-sides already known, to which he responded: I'm sure some of that stuff exists as master tapes, but I really don't know. It's normal for some stuff to be generated that doesn't get followed up on. (7) Following the release of With The Lights Out in 2004, at least two more outtakes, titled Dave Solo and Lullaby, are known to exist.

After Albini mixed the album, unremastered tapes were sent off to Geffen president Ed Rosenblatt, A&R executive Gary Gersh, their lawyer and the inner circle of NIRVANA's management company, Gold Mountain. (1)

Cobain recounted Gersh's reaction in an interview for Melody Maker: My A&R man called me up one night and said I don't like the record, it sounds like crap, there's way too much effect on the drums, you can't hear the vocals. He didn't think the song-writing was up to par. And having your A&R man say that is kind of like having your father or stepfather telling you to take out the trash. I was kind of hurt by it on a personal level, because I wanted him to like it, and it was surprising to hear so many negative things about it. And he wasn't alone in his opinion. A few other people—our management, our lawyers—didn't like the record either. (5)

Albini then received a call from a journalist, Greg Kot, in Chicago, who claimed that several people in the Geffen hierarchy, including high-placed people, (i.e. not obstreperous publicists), had informed him that the album was awful and unreleasable and it was his [Albini's] fault. (4) Albini suspected that Gersh had tipped off the journalist, perhaps to try to exert pressure on Cobain to remix the album. (4)

Greg Kot then published his article in the Chicago Tribune entitled Record Label Finds Little Bliss in Nirvana's Latest, the theme of which was then echoed in other magazines. (11)

Assumedly as a response to this media furore, and presumably under intense pressure from Geffen, Cobain called Albini suggesting that some of the songs perhaps ought to be remixed. Albini called Cobain back to say he did not think he could do any better than what he had already done. (1)

Certainly, there is evidence that Cobain was himself having second thoughts about the recording, and was not simply following orders from above. The first time I played it at home, I knew there was something wrong, he told Melody Maker. I wasn't interested in listening to it at all, and that usually doesn't happen. I got no emotion from it, I was just numb. So for three weeks Chris and Dave and I listened to the record every night, trying to figure out what was wrong with it, and we talked about it and decided the vocals weren't loud enough, the bass was inaudible and you couldn't hear the lyrics. That was about it. (5)

Novoselic then called Albini, mentioning that he also didn't think the recording sounded as good as it had done in Minnesota. Albini reluctantly agreed to turn over the master tapes and allow someone else to tinker with them. (1)

NIRVANA remixed All Apologies and Heart-Shaped Box (recording another acoustic guitar part and backing vocals for Heart-Shaped Box) with Scott Litt at Seattle's Bad Animals studio in early May. Pennyroyal Tea was also remixed at a later date, but this remix was only released on Wal-Mart/K-Mart versions of the album and the Pennyroyal Tea single.

I'd been listening to Automatic for the People, and I really liked what Scott did with it. Novoselic explained. At the same time, there were a couple of things I didn't like on our album, so when we got the chance to take it back into the studio, I called Scott along. (12)

Novoselic spells out why he felt changes to Heart-Shaped Box were necessary: You should hear the original version of that song, the guitar solo had this effect on it, it just sabotages the whole song. Steve and Kurt were colluding! I would go to Kurt, Why are you sabotaging this beautiful song by putting this hideous abortion in the center of it? He'd be like, Well I think it sounds cool. I don't even remember what their arguments were, some statement against commercial radio or something, the popular mainstream aesthetic… I dunno! I guess I finally got my way. Scott Litt was an opportunity to change things. (4)

Newsweek then ran a story, following on from Kot's, about how the record label were forcing NIRVANA to remix the songs. (13) Geffen released a statement, quoting Cobain: There has been no pressure from our record label to change the songs we did with Albini. We have 100% control of our music. The band felt that the vocals were not loud enough on a few of the tracks. We want to change that. NIRVANA retaliated against Newsweek saying that they had gone on totally erroneous information. This letter was reprinted in Billboard as a full-page advertisement. (14) A Geffen press-release also saw Rosenblatt stress that they would release whatever the band brought them. (4)

The veracity of the above paragraph is difficult to assess: it may well be the case that the band realized that their anti-commercial stance was untenable. Love, presumably, would have been influencing Cobain to remix in a more radio-friendly direction. The pressure from Geffen (via Gersh) must also have been a decisive factor.

In Utero was then mastered at Bob Ludwig at Gateway Mastering in Portland, Maine. According to Azerrad, apart from the minor modifications to Heart-Shaped Box and All Apologies, the rest of album was left as it was recorded, and all that was done at final remastering stage was to sharpen up the bass and boost the vocals by 3 decibels. (1)

However, according to Albini, the remastering is much more obtrusive: The mastering session that was done took several days, at a studio where the mastering engineer is famous for being very manipulative of the material. A normal album mastering session is a couple of hours. So obviously they thought they should butcher it in some way to try to satisfy these people and to try to satisfy their own expectations. The dynamic range was narrowed, the stereo width was narrowed, there was a lot of mid-range boost EQ added, and the overall sound quality was softened. And the bass response was compromised to make it sound more consistent on radio and home speaker. (7)

The stereo doesn't sound as wide. The guitar has been flattened out a bit. On the original mixes the guitar would just leap out, echoes Weston. But, even with the changes that were made it's a great record. The songs are great and the recording is great and the performances are great. And besides, it's their record. If they wanted to remix a few songs and do a lot in the mastering, that's their prerogative. All that matters when you make a record is that the band is happy with the final result. (4)

The final result certainly seemed to satisfy Cobain, I actually want to promote this record, not for the sake of selling records, but because I'm more proud of this record than anything I've ever done. We've finally achieved the sound that I've been hearing in my head forever. (9)

References

1. Azerrad, Michael, 1993. Come As You Are: The Story Of Nirvana. Doubleday. ↑
2. Pachyderm Recording Studio official website, [online] Available at: http://www.pachydermstudio.com. ↑
3. Gaar, Gillian G., 2006. In Utero. Continuum 33 1/3. ↑
4. Cameron, Keith, 2001. This Is Pop, MOJO, [online] Available at: http://www.livenirvana.com/sessions/reading/mojo90.php. ↑
5. The Stud Brothers, 1993. Dark Side Of The Womb: Part 1, Melody Maker [online] Available at: http://www.livenirvana.com/interviews/9307tsb/index.html. ↑
6. Albini, Steve, 1999. Entertain Us: The Nirvana Story, [radio] BBC Radio One, April 5, 1999. ↑
7. Gaar, Gillian G., 1997. Verse Chorus Verse: The Recording History Of Nirvana, Goldmine, [online] Available at: http://www.nirvanaclub.com/articles/02.14.97.html. ↑
8. Punter, Jennie, 1993. In Womb, Impact [online] Available at: http://www.livenirvana.com/interviews/9308jpr/index.html. ↑
9. Savage, Jon, 1997. Kurt Cobain: The Lost Interview, Guitar World [online] Available at: http://www.livenirvana.com/interviews/9307js/index.html. ↑
10. Bailey, Earnest, 2005. Personal communication with Brian Haberman. ↑
11. Kot, Greg, 1993. Record Label Finds Little Bliss in Nirvana's Latest, Chicago Tribune, [online] Available at: http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1993-04-19/news/9304190057_1_record-release-date-chris-novoselic. ↑
12. Thompson, Dave, 1993. The Boys Are Back In Town, Alternative Press [online] Available at: http://www.livenirvana.com/interviews/9307dt/index.html.↑
13. Giles, Jeff, 1993. You Call This Nirvana?, Newsweek, May 17, 1993. ↑
14. Nirvana, 1993. Advertisement. Billboard, [online] Available at: http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=cygEAAAAMBAJ&pg=RA1-PA125&lpg=RA1-PA125#v=onepage&q&f=false. ↑

© Alex Roberts. August 28, 2011