NIRVANA - INCESTICIDE

"aneurysm" is the ultimate nirvana song imo

Dive

yeah Aneurysm does kinda does have everything and stands apart from Nevermind & In Utero songs. it's equally heavy, poppy, catchy, has the quiet/loud thing but the dynamics & structure are a little more complicated... and that last line, "She keeps it pumping straight to my heart" is one of Cobain's best pieces of near glossolalia. I always thought he was saying "she keeps a pompous shrade of my heart."

Yeah, I know it's a compilation and everything, but this is the Nirvana album I reach for after In Utero ... I'm struggling to choose between 'Dive', 'Sliver', 'Stain', 'Been a Son', 'Molly's Lips', 'Son of a Gun', 'Hairspray Queen' or 'Aneurysm' ...

Dive. So heavy.

Aneurysm. THE Nirvana song imo

kinda stunned there's not even a thread for this

erm

A thread for the discussion of Nirvana's "Incesticide"

(Aneurysm, obviously)

searched "Incesticide" in quotes and w/o, that thread didn't come up

Aneurysm over Sliver, been a son, downer.

aneurism is kinda loaded with ideas, hooks

This was always my Nirvana album. Like, I was in on the ground floor with Nevermind, and it's cool and all, but Incesticide truly spoke to me. I'll have to think on the top track, though. I'd personally opt not to pick any of the covers, but they're all great and worthy choices.

Dive, easy

gonna re-listen tomorrow and then VOTE. i'm being kurt cobain at a halloween party tomorrow night. this is one of the few iconic bands that isn't overrated.

"and that last line, "She keeps it pumping straight to my heart" is one of Cobain's best pieces of near glossolalia. I always thought he was saying "she keeps a pompous shrade of my heart.""

holy shit, TIL

I should vote for Aneurysm but I voted Hairspray Queen

We really should have a 'what did you think Kurt Cobain was singing before you found out what he was actually singing?' thread.

I always found it annoying that they left off two of their best B-sides, 'D-7' and 'Even in His Youth'.

We really should have a 'what did you think Kurt Cobain was singing before you found out what he was actually singing?' thread.

Aneurysm - "Beat me, Adam Ant!"
Scoff - "Gimme back me autoharp!"

(I never did find out what he was actually singing.)

Born in a junkyard, of course

Aneurysm

Also the live version from 'Muddy Banks..' (from the Del Mar Fairgrounds, California, December 1991) is flatly one of the greatest live performances i've ever heard

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FsxmuMNAkvk

People don't even write sleevenotes anymore do they?

https://www.nirvanaclub.com/info/general/ln2.jpg

those liner notes were instructive for me

I was always mystified why Spank Thru wasn’t included on Incesticide. It’s the first Nirvana song, it’s awesome, and it was only available on a vinyl only Sub Pop comp.

Most of these were unreleased at the time, though. Makes sense the B sides from the Nevermind singles weren’t included because they were on the market and available. The version of Aneurysm here is different than whatever single it was on.

I voted for Beeswax but have much love for Mexican Seafood. Cobain in body horror mode is the best.

xp it's also on a more affordable Glitterbest label Euro release of Sub Pop Bands called "Sub Pop Rock City"

Give me back my Albert Hall

I voted "Beeswax" partially bc of the live version mentioned in the OP.

Nirvana's estate could have easily put together a very good "volume 2" of this (there are more than 2 album's worth of non-album tracks even if you don't include actual b-sides like Even In His Youth or Curmudgeon). But at this point it would be best for the parties involved to indefinitely cease all future Nirvana product.

uh what? care to clarify that last sentence?

imo there's too much posthumous nirvana product lol

I was always mystified why Spank Thru wasn’t included on Incesticide. It’s the first Nirvana song, it’s awesome, and it was only available on a vinyl only Sub Pop comp.

What? Sub Pop 200 is not vinyl only. There's like 10 different CD issues on Discogs (I have one of them)

oh lol nvm. Dive, Sliver, Been a Son, and Stain were all vinyl only at the time then?

Sorta doubted you could put together a good Incesticide 2 if you leave out the previously released B-sides, but this is a pretty solid list (assuming this sequel would've come out before the 2004 boxset)

Do Re Mi
Sappy
Verse Chorus Verse
Token Eastern Song
Blandest
You Know You're Right
If You Must (no idea why this wasn't included in the first place)
Pen Cap Chew
The Other Improv
Old Age

throw in Moist Vagina, Gallons of Rubbing Alcohol Flow Through the Strip, and I Hate Myself and Want to Die and you've got a better comp than the first Incesticide.

Also the live version from 'Muddy Banks..' (from the Del Mar Fairgrounds, California, December 1991) is flatly one of the greatest live performances i've ever heard

lol, I'm outing myself as an old but I was there... RHCP, Pearl Jam & Nirvana. Right between the holidays.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2TFitc8emyc

^ full show, pretty good quality.

oh yeah and I voted for Beeswax based on that 1992 performance. just VICIOUS!

Re: Flappy's Incesticide II

One of the first music magazines I ever bought was an issue of Circus that had a big Nirvana retrospective in honor of what would have been Cobain's 30th birthday. A sidebar to the main article was a speculative and annotated tracklist for an Incesticide sequel. It looked a lot like your list, except with stuff like "Curmudgeon" and "Marigold" in place of things like "Do Re Mi" and "You Know You're Right", which nobody outside of the Nirvana camp really knew about then. Bar "Token Eastern Song", which was referenced from the Come As You Are bio, everything was previously released on singles & comps (even then, it was missing "Spank Thru" and "Pay To Play" off the DGC Rarities v/a comp), and reading about that stuff really set me off into CD collecting.

With the Lights Out ultimately was the mega-Incesticide follow-up, even though it was kind of a botch job (left some major things uncollected).

Aneurysm is great, wish they had done more songs in that style

what was left off of WLTS? besides "Montage of Heck" (which I only heard for the first time in 2014 - fucking incredible, so much more exhilarating than any of the other posthumous Nirvana songs).

Biggest thing I remember was the In Utero version of "I Hate Myself..." being absent in favor of an inferior demo. Seems like there were a few other cases like that where lesser unreleased versions of rare released songs were included when there was room for both. Of course, a bunch of those things ended up on the expanded reissues years later.

yeah, same thing with Moist Vagina - that, The Other Improv, Gallons of Rubbing Alcohol, and I Hate Myself were all demos taken from the same session, Rio January '93. I prefer the demo of I Hate Myself with the long feedback intro on the box but not the demo of Moist Vagina, which doesn't have the best part - Cobain wailing "MARIJUANAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" at the end.

They could've included the single B-sides on WTLO. Also the Fecal Matter tape would've been cool.

I made myself an Incesticide II playlist a few years back, one song on it that hasn't been mentioned so far is Oh the Guilt, that's got to be one of my favourite non-album Nirvana tracks. WTLO definitely feels like a missed opportunity, same goes for the deluxe editions of the albums I guess.

Went with "Beeswax," but this whole album remains fantastic.

Echoing what has been posted: first Nirvana album I bought, and still the favorite. I could pick pretty much anything off the first side (even the sped-up Polly that everyone hates), with special love for Turnaround (great Kurt vocals and pounding drums) and Been A Son, the 90s version of The Guess Who's Undun. In the end I have to go with Sliver, the musical equivalent of Matt Groening's Childhood is Hell cartoons. I never fail to feel a sense of relief and joy when it comes to the "I woke up in my mother's aaaaaaaaaarrrrrrms" part and "I fell asleep/and watched TV" is one of the most wonderful lyric gaffes since Dennis Doherty came in too early on the I Saw Her Again chorus...or was it intentional - if so even better.

I remember back when me and my friends were Mudhoney fans and following other Sub Pop stuff, Bleach seemed cool but didn't really stand out. But someone got a hold of the EP with Dive and played it in my car and I was like okay Nirvana are fucking great now.

this is the closest i could get, following the same format and opting for earlier songs ...

1. Oh The Guilt
2. Curmudgeon
3. Pen Cap Chew
4. If You Must
5. Here She Comes Now
6. D-7
7. Return of the Rat
8. Something In The Way (BBC)
9. Spank Thru
10. Big Cheese
11. Verse Chorus Verse
12. Blandest
13. Token Eastern Song
14. Anorexocist
15. Endless Nameless (BBC)

Missed "I Have Myself And I Want To Die" and "Even In His Youth".

TS: been a son vs Had a dad

Voted for 'Son of a Gun' ...

lol

"she shoot up...med-i-cine"

(^my vote btw)

yes. it really does sound like he's saying "she shoot up," especially in certain live performances. I'm sure he was conscious of that with a lot of his songs.

Will I be the lone ‘Hairspray Queen’ vote? Clearly the winner in a world that they were an obscure but loved band on Touch & Go called Pen Cap Chew.

Aneurysm here. Also, loved the notes in the cd package. Pretty ballsy and righteous for a major pop star.

"Hairspray Queen" would have been my choice 10 years ago.

I remember back when me and my friends were Mudhoney fans and following other Sub Pop stuff, Bleach seemed cool but didn't really stand out. But someone got a hold of the EP with Dive and played it in my car and I was like okay Nirvana are fucking great now.

― President Keyes

As fans of Mudhoney/Treepeople/Seaweed/Tad we were all about “Dive” at the time, but a cognoscento tipped me off to how “Silver” was the real breakthrough. Still my vote here.

SLiver!

Denis Leary reminds me of someone

re: "Even In His Youth" this song was easy to find at most CD stores 1992-1994 and probably would have been a wasteful inclusion on this or a hypothetical volume 2.

Aneurysm was on that same CD, single though. then again they did play Aneurysm at almost every show in 91-92, often right at the top, which I suppose necessitated its inclusion at the end of Incesticide. it is a different version though. and they only played Even in His Youth on one tour in 1989.

Aneurysm is a BBC session take on Incesticide.

it is a different version though.

― flappy bird, Sunday, November 4, 2018 8:02 PM

SLiver!

― flappy bird

I seem to remember an interview with Cobain where he said something like “I called that song “Sliver” because I just knew everyone would fuck it up and call it “Silver.” What a guy.

Aneurysm will walk this, deservedly. I love the closing four song run, Nirvana at their most metal-y. I understand Aero Zeppelin is much derided amongst some fans though.

Fuck it I should have voted for AZ, but I compulsively clicked on Aneurysm.

I understand Aero Zeppelin is much derided amongst some fans though.
Fuck those people imo. I voted for AZ (because the better version of Aneurysm is on the SLTS single).

Would vote for Aneurysm but I much prefer the other version. BBC sessions often have that samey sound to the production that never sits well with me.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Mashed potatoes and stuff like that...

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Surprised that Stain didn't get a single vote

https://i.imgur.com/taR2bD9.png

is this my favorite nirvana album

i know this is not literally what the song is about but on a personal level i've come to think of "been a son" as a trans girl anthem

weirdly I've thought about that recently when I've thought of that song too.

this is a fun Nirvana collection to pull out because there's no underlying sonic theme. lot of variety of styles, but it's pretty raw no matter how you slice it. many of these tunes could anchor an album of their own.

"New Wave Polly" maybe the only one I dislike outright. much prefer the acoustic version

"Sliver" gets a vote from me mostly because "screaming the verse melody an octave higher in verse 3" was one of my favorite Nirvana affectations, though I feel like "Lounge Act" was my favorite iteration of that trick.

Brad I ask myself that question often.

(It’s either this or Bleach.)

Or a live album maybe.

Kurt's screaming on Bleach is interesting because it's not diaphragmatic like a metal singer where it's this powerful emanation from within the bowels, it's a throaty screech, which is in some ways almost more terrifying, like someone coming unhinged. like "Paper Cuts"

also "Floyd the Barber" has forever ruined Andy Griffith for me, or the chain of Floyd's that exists here in town.

go to book of appointment, reminded of taste of pp on lips

This has always been my favorite Nirvana album. After the hugeness of Nevermind, it always felt like this little underacknowledged secret album for the TRUE fans.

Mexican Seafood

this was uploaded recently

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=25zxoPvOzM8

Dale is such a great, immense drummer. Kurt & Kris were insanely lucky to have someone around like that when they were starting out.

The last run of four songs is immense - Nirvana at their most abrasive and metallic. The first stretch of the record is more indie Nirvana, which interests me less.

I love Hairspray Queen. Nirvana skirting the line between a straight-up rock song and something altogether more noisy and abstruse

i don't often think about new wave's influence on Nirvana, but Hairspray Queen is as close to Pere Ubu as it got, and of course there's Turnaround, a Devo song before I knew who Devo were.

xps... it's this!

Hairspray Queen is as close to Pere Ubu as it got

with a touch of Bobcat Goldthwait thrown in.

hah yeah I was listening to Incesticide the other day and thought exactly that!