paper cuts

(1989) Nevermind

(1991)

Bleach is the debut album by the American grunge band Nirvana. It was released on June 15, 1989 through the independent record label Sub Pop. Bleach originally sold a mere 30,000 copies, but following the enormous success of the band's second album, Nevermind (1991), fans discovered Nirvana's poorly known debut. It has since been certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America. Contents [hide] 1 Recording 2 Music 3 Release 4 Packaging 5 Track listing 6 Personnel 7 Chart positions 8 Accolades 9 References 10 Notes 11 External links //

Recording

The main sessions for Bleach took place at Reciprocal Recording Studios in Seattle, Washington, with local producer Jack Endino manning the board. Nirvana began recording with a five hour session on December 24, 1988.[1] The band recorded again on December 29-31, and on January 14 and 24.[2] Ultimately Endino billed the group for 30 hours of recording time. Three of the album's songs–"Floyd the Barber", "Paper Cuts", and the CD-only track "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.[3] "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.[2] The album was edited and sequenced, but Sub Pop head Bruce Pavitt ordered that the album be completely resequenced. The record was further delayed for several months until Sub Pop was able to secure sufficient funds to issue it.[3]

The recording sessions were completed with a cost of $606.[4] Jason Everman, a guitarist who was impressed by the band's demo with Dale Crover, supplied the money. He eventually joined Nirvana as a second guitarist.[3] Everman received a credit on the album sleeve, even though he did not perform on the record. Bassist Krist Novoselic explained, "We just wanted to make him feel at home in the band."[5]

Music

According to Cobain, the music on Bleach conformed with the grunge genre Sub Pop heavily endorsed. "There was this pressure from Sub Pop and the [grunge] scene to play 'rock music'," Cobain said. "Strip it down and make it sound like Aerosmith." Cobain felt he had to fit the expectations of the grunge sound in order to build a fanbase, and so he purposefully suppressed his arty and pop songwriting traits when crafting the record.[6]

Cobain told Spin in 1993 that with Bleach "I didn't give a flying fuck