October 25-26, 1992 Word Of Mouth Productions Seattle, WA, US

October 25-26, 1992 Word Of Mouth Productions Seattle, WA, US

Artist
NIRVANA
Cobain, Kurt (vocals, guitar)
Grohl, Dave (drums)
Novoselic, Krist (bass)
Crew
Ek, Phil (assistant)
Endino, Jack (producer, engineer)
Set
[X] Dumb (instrumental)
[X] Dumb (instrumental)
[X] Dumb (instrumental)
[O] Jam
[X] Frances Farmer Will Have Her Revenge On Seattle (instrumental)
[X] Frances Farmer Will Have Her Revenge On Seattle (instrumental)
[X] tourette's (instrumental)
[X] Frances Farmer Will Have Her Revenge On Seattle (instrumental)
[X] Pennyroyal Tea (instrumental)
[X] Pennyroyal Tea (instrumental)
[X] Rape Me (instrumental)
[O] Rape Me
[X] Radio Friendly Unit Shifter (instrumental)

Best available sources
Source Quality Complete Runtime Lowest Gen Tracks Featured Notes

SBD #1a 10.0 No 0:03:01 Official CD (With The Lights Out)
• Rape Me
SBD #1b 10.0 No 0:05:31 Official DVD (With The Lights Out)
• Jam This Jam serves as background audio to the DVD's main index menu.

Notes
Under duress from their record label, NIRVANA returned to the studio in October 1992. The band opted for the familiar surrounds of Word Of Mouth Productions, formally known as Reciprocal Recording. Session producer, Jack Endino, found the atmosphere markedly different to that enjoyed on previous occasions, however: It was very tense, he explains. There was something dark in the air. It was dysfunctional in some way. People were not communicating with each other. Kurt was sort of in a different reality from everybody else. It made me very uneasy. Everybody seemed to be very on edge. It just wasn't the same band it had been. (1) At this time, Cobain and Courtney Love were embroiled in a custody battle for their two-month-old daughter, Frances Bean.

The session began badly, with Cobain failing to arrive on the first day, He didn't show up at all the whole first day - didn't show, didn't call, just no Kurt. (57) Cobain's negligence came as a shock to Endino, For him to book studio time and then not show up was completely unlike anything he'd done in the old days. (57)

Cobain's attention was further sidetracked when Courtney Love arrived at the studio with baby Frances the following evening, It was a little distracting! admits Endino. [But] Frances was only two weeks old or something, [and] I have to say that they were both very cute with the baby. You just had to grin and bear it - It's a baby and they're new parents, so you have to let them do their thing. (57)

Cobain only ended up recording a vocal track for Rape Me, ( [Frances] was sitting on his lap, and then they held her up to the mic while Kurt was singing. (57) Endino admits to finding the result somewhat unsettling, as a piece of art, he's singing in this very cracked, too-many-cigarettes voice Rape Me and then there's a baby crying. It does creep me out. I think he wanted to disturb people with that juxtaposition. (57)

The session was enlivened by the arrival of the police, due to a noise complaint - Grohl was playing his drums too loud, His drumming was so loud, it was going right through the walls of the building, Endino says. It was only the second noise complaint we'd ever had! It was kind of embarrassing. But they were almost done at that point. (1) Endino tried to assuage the officers with a bit of name-dropping, The cops were cool, they knew who NIRVANA was and they were like, Well, you guys should wrap it up pretty soon... (62)

No one from the band returned to finish the demo, to do vocals, or to mix it. (1)

Alex Roberts.