AN ARTICLE FROM GUITAR WORLD
"Muddy Honey" (Guitar World October 1996) p. 47
- A sneak preview of Nirvana's upcoming live album.
"From The Muddy Banks of the Wishkah," an album of live performances
by Nirvana, will be released October 8, 1996 on DGC records. The
Wishkah River intersects Aberdeen, Washington, the town where Nirvana
was founded. The album will feature 16 songs recorded between 1989
and 1994, from Seattle to Springfield, London to Amsterdam, in venues
ranging from small American clubs to the giant Reading Festival in
England.
"It's an aggressive record," says Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic,
who along with drummer Dave Grohl listened to more than a hundred
hours of tapes to select the tracks. "Hopefully, people who didn't
get the chance to see us live will get a flavor of what the band was
all about. Most of the songs we chose were the ones we played every
night." Novoselic also contributed liner notes for the album.
If the previous live Nirvana album, 1994's "MTV Unplugged In New
York," documented the acoustic side of the band--"Nirvana Lite," as
Novoselic puts it--"From The Muddy Banks of Wishkah" is "Nirvana
Raw." Sources for the tracks range from soundboard reference
cassettes to 24-track recordings. The album was mixed by Andy
Wallace, who also mixed "Nevermind."
A two-CD live set was originally planned for release in the fall
of 1994; one disc from the acoustic MTV Unplugged show and another
culled from the band's electric performances. However, the process
of reviewing the live tapes so soon after the suicide of the band's
singer-songwriter-guitarist, Kurt Cobain, proved too emotionally
difficult for Novoselic and Grohl, so the Unplugged album was
released on its own.
Two tracks on "From The Muddy Banks of the Wishkah" pre-date the
band's breakthrough album "Nevermind:" "Polly" and "Breed" were both
recorded in London in December, 1989. The majority, however, come
from the band's world tour in the winter of 1991: "Drain You,"
"Aneurysm," "(Smells Like) Teen Spirit," "Been A Son," "Lithium,"
"School," "Negative Creep," "Blew," and "Spank Thru." Nirvana's
appearance at the Reading Festival in the summer of 1992 yielded
"Tourette's." The remaining tracks are taken from the 1993-94 "In
Utero" tour: "Sliver," "Scentless Apprentice," (recorded for "MTV
Live and Loud"), "Heart-Shaped Box" and "Milk It," from a January
4, 1994 Seattle concert.