They made a rough recording which they sent to Vig, who was continuing as their producer even through the label change. He was attempting to write the “ultimate pop song.” With the newly recruited Grohl on drums, the band quickly found their groove writing and rehearsing the song together. Cobain credits the song’s dynamic changes and sound to an attempt to imitate the Pixies. “Smells Like Teen Spirit” is an interesting song in many ways. Nevermind – as an album – turned the whole rock world on its head, but one song in particular stands out for the way it brings together the band’s punk attitude, and distorted sonic world, alongside hauntingly beautiful melodies…. By the time they got into the studio, they were ready to create one of rock history’s revolutionary albums. In the time between Smart Studio sessions and the actual recording of Nevermind in May and June of 1991, the band further refined their performances. In early 1991, Nirvana signed with DGC Records, who would release their second album Nevermind later that year. The Smart Studio recordings became like a demo for DGC records to hear the band’s developing sound. The band recorded “Pay to Play,” “Dive,” “Sappy”, “Here She Comes Now” and three tracks which would later appear on Nevermind: “In Bloom”, “Lithium” and “Polly. Vig recalled: “Jonathan called up because he said he loved the sound of this Killdozer record, and he said, ‘I want you to get that sound for Nirvana.’ …I wanted to work with Sub Pop because I knew they were a cool label.” Vig (who had just finished working on the Killdozer’s album, Twelve Point Buck ) had been suggested to the band by Poneman.

The band began work on their second album before Gohl joined the band, even recording some early tracks in producer Butch Vig’s Smart Studios in Madison Wisconsin. This is the first time we’ve felt like a very definite unit…the band is finally complete.” And Dave has been in the band for a year. In a 1991 interview with Studio Brussel, Cobain explained: “Krist and I have been playing together for about four-and-a-half years now….with a few different drummers. The band also went through several drummers in these early years, before finding Dave Grohl in 1990. Bleach became a favorite in the college radio circuit, steadily selling over a long period of time, despite very little promotion on the part of the label. Later that year Nirvana recorded their first album Bleach which was released in June of 1989. Impressed, Sub Pop co-founder Jonathan Ponemen signed the group. In January of 1988, Nirvana recorded a 10-song demo with Seattle producer Jack Endino who then sent the demo to the indie record label, Sub Pop. Their first band was a Creedence Clearwater Revival tribute band called the Sellouts, but by early 1987 they had launched a new band playing original music with dummer Aaron Burkhard. Nirvana founding members Kurt Cobain and Krist Novoselic had met while attending Aberdeen High School in Washington state together. In doing so, the band changed the course of rock and roll history.

With their 1991 hit, “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” Nirvana took the raw, authenticity of their Seattle grunge peers, and merged it with phenomenal melodic writing and performance. At the start of the nineties, amid the polished perfection of pop and the glamour of hair metal, one band broke through and revolutionized the entire music landscape.

Smells like teamspirit