Nirvana Box set to be released this month...

LonghornFan · Nov 4, 2004

NME.com is reporting that the long-awaited NIRVANA box set, "With the Lights Out", will feature 68 previously unreleased recordings.

Released on November 23 (one day earlier internationally), the four-disc set will feature 81 tracks including 68 previously unreleased recordings — rehearsals, outtakes, late NIRVANA frontman Kurt Cobain's home demos, as well as a DVD which is confirmed to have unreleased band home movies, live footage, rehearsal footage and 20 full-length video performances. A 60-page booklet will accompany the release.

The title is a reference to a lyric in "Smells Like Teen Spirit".

A source told NME.com: "I've seen some of the footage and it's amazing stuff. There's a video of them performing at a friend's party with Kurt reading lyrics off a sheet of paper on the wall, footage of them covering 'Seasons In the Sun' in a studio with Kurt on drums and lots of other great stuff."

The artwork for the set is currently being put together, with the likely choice being a "landscape" box.

An official web site has been launched to promote the upcoming NIRVANA box set, "With the Lights Out", due on November 23 via Geffen Records (one day earlier internationally). Right now, all the site offers is a NIRVANA photo (possibly the one that will be used as cover artwork), and the release dates. Apparently, the site will provide sound clips, video clips and images later. Check it out at www.nirvanabox.com.

There's something missing from Nirvana's "new" video to promote the band's upcoming box set: drummer Dave Grohl.

That's because Grohl was still hitting the skins for DC punk band Scream when the video for "In Bloom" was shot in April 1990, with Chad Channing behind the drum kit. The vintage clip, which first appeared on 1991's "Sub Pop Video Network Program 1," will resurface the week of November 8, two weeks before Nirvana's long-awaited four-disc box set, With the Lights Out, drops on November 23.

The original "In Bloom" video was filmed mostly in New York. Performance footage is intercut with scenes of the bandmembers goofing off around Manhattan a day before they were to play a show at the Pyramid Club that ended with mixed results. According to Michael Azerrad's "Come As You Are," the definitive Nirvana tome, the show was far from the band's best: One of the few who refrained from heckling was Iggy Pop, who cheered encouragingly. After the show, bassist Krist Novoselic was so disappointed with the performance that he shaved his head bald in the Jersey City, New Jersey, motel where the band was staying. This explains why, in the video, he's seen with hair in some scenes and resembles Kojak in others.

Sonic Youth's Thurston Moore and Kim Gordon stitched in the story's silver lining by bringing A&R man Gary Gersh to the show. Not long after, Gersh signed the band to Geffen Records, the company that released Nirvana's breakthrough, Nevermind, in 1991, after Moore convinced Kurt Cobain that signing to a major label wasn't selling out. The video, however, offers no indication that the band was on the verge of a bad night. The trio parades through New York's East River Park wearing creepy clear-plastic masks and goofing around in the city's Financial District. After the band checks out the clipper ships in the South Street Seaport, Cobain even munches on a street-vendor hot dog.

While the version of "In Bloom" used in the video sounds similar to the one that appeared on Nevermind, it was actually recorded in 1990, a few weeks before the video was shot, with producer Butch Vig at the helm (Vig was also responsible for producing Nevermind). A second studio version of "In Bloom" was later recorded with Grohl on drums, and another video was shot with director Kevin Kerslake, who also directed clips for Nirvana's "Come As You Are," "Lithium" and "Sliver," and later worked with Ryan Cabrera and Velvet Revolver.

The 81-track With The Lights Out, which takes its name from the first line of the chorus of "Smells Like Teen Spirit," includes 68 previously unreleased tracks, including rehearsals, outtakes, demos and covers that include Led Zeppelin's "Heartbreaker," the Velvet Underground's " Here She Comes Now" and four Leadbelly songs. Five tracks come from an overseas promotional sampler: a 1987 radio performance of "White Lace and Strange," a 1988 demo of "Blandest," a 1990 solo acoustic version of "Lithium," a 1993 demo of "Heart Shaped Box" and a 1994 solo acoustic version of "You Know You're Right," the song that served as the single from 2002's Nirvana greatest-hits set.

A DVD features live and rehearsal footage (including an eight-song rehearsal filmed at Novoselic's mom's house in 1988), home movies, and 20 full-length videos. Thurston Moore reprises his role in Nirvana lore by penning the liner notes to the set's 60-page booklet.

Track list for With the Lights Out, according to Geffen Records:

Disc One:
Heartbreaker (live, 1987)
Anorexorcist (radio performance, 1987)
White Lace and Strange (radio performance, 1987)
Help Me I'm Hungry (radio performance, 1987)
Mrs. Butterworth (rehearsal, 1988)
If You Must (demo, 1988)
Pen Cap Chew (demo, 1988)
Downer (live, 1988)
Floyd the Barber (live, 1988)
Raunchola/ Moby Dick (live, 1988)
Beans (home demo)
Don't Want It All (home demo)
Clean Up Before She Comes (home demo)
Polly (home demo)
About a Girl (home demo)
Blandest (demo, 1988)
Dive (demo, 1988)
They Hung Him on a Cross (demo, 1989)
Grey Goose (demo, 1989)
Ain't It a Shame (demo, 1989)
Token Eastern Song (demo, 1989)
Even In His Youth (demo, 1989)
Polly (demo, 1989)

Disc Two:
Opinion (solo acoustic, 1990)
Lithium (solo acoustic, 1990)
Been a Son (solo acoustic, 1990)
Sliver (home demo, 1989)
Where Did You Sleep Last Night (home demo, 1989)
Pay To Play (demo, 1990)
Here She Comes Now (demo, 1990)
Drain You (demo, 1990)
Aneurysm (demo, 1990)
Smells Like Teen Spirit (demo, 1991)
Breed (rough mix, 1991)
Verse Chorus Verse (outtake, 1991)
Old Age (outtake, 1991)
Endless, Nameless (radio session, 1991)
Dumb (radio session, 1991)
D-7 (radio session, 1990)
Oh, the Guilt (B-Side, 1992
Curmudgeon (B-Side, 1992
Return of the Rat (B-Side, 1992
Smells Like Teen Spirit (Butch Vig mix, 1991)

Disc 3:
Rape Me (solo acoustic, 1992)
Rape Me (demo, 1992)
Scentless Apprentice (demo, 1992)
Heart Shaped Box (demo, 1993)
I Hate Myself and Want To Die (compilation track, 1993)
Milk It (demo, 1993)
Moist Vagina (demo, 1993)
Gallons of Rubbing Alcohol Flow Through the Strip (B-Side, 1993)
The Other Improv (demo, 1993)
Serve the Servants (solo acoustic, 1993)
Very Ape (solo acoustic, 1993)
Pennyroyal Tea (solo acoustic, 1993)
Marigold (B-Side, 1993)
Sappy (a.k.a. Verse Chorus Verse) (previously unreleased, 1993)
Jesus Doesn't Want Me for a Sunbeam (demo, 1994)
Do Re Mi (solo acoustic, 1994)
You Know You're Right (solo acoustic, 1994)
All Apologies (solo acoustic)

Disc 4 (DVD)
Love Buzz
Scoff
About a Girl
Big Long Now
Immigrant Song
Spank Thru
Hairspray Queen
School
Mr. Moustache
Big Cheese
In Bloom
Sappy
School
Love Buzz
Pennyroyal Tea
Smells Like Teen Spirit
Territorial Pissings
Jesus Doesn't Want Me for a Sunbeam
Talk to Me
Seasons in the Sun
Click to expand...

Can we say early Christmas present!? This is too sweet...

Phillyrocket · Nov 4, 2004

Good find, I'm definitely picking it up.

DanHiggsBeard · Nov 4, 2004

There's a lot of incredible material that will be on the dvd that's not being revealed to the public yet. Let's just say it will be worth purchasing for the DVD alone.

Molotov Cocktail · Nov 4, 2004

As Cartman would say.....KICK ASS!!!

Chance · Nov 4, 2004

Is Cobain in it?

LonghornFan · Nov 4, 2004

Nope, but there's a guest appearance on 'Rape Me' that includes Wesley Snipes on tamborine and Shirley from What's Happening on drums.

Good times, man.

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Nirvana Box set to be released this month...

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