January 19-21, 1993 BMG Ariola Ltda., Studio B Rio de Janeiro, BR

January 19-21, 1993 BMG Ariola Ltda., Studio B Rio de Janeiro, BR

Band members: Kurt Cobain (guitar, vocals), Krist Novoselic (bass), & David Grohl (drums)

Producer: Craig Montgomery
Engineers: Ian Beveridge and Dalmo Beloti

Set:

January 19-21, NIRVANA:
[X] Heart-Shaped Box
[O] Heart-Shaped Box
[U] Scentless Apprentice
[O] Milk It
[O] Moist Vagina
[O] I Hate Myself And Want To Die
[U] Very Ape
[O] Gallons Of Rubbing Alcohol Flow Through The Strip
[O] The Other Improv
[U] Onward Into Countless Battles (Grohl on vocals and all instruments, Cobain on backing vocals)
[O] Seasons In The Sun (Cobain on vocals and drums, Novoselic on guitar, Grohl on bass)

January 21, Cobain, Love and Schemel only:
[O] Miss World (Cobain on bass)
[X] She Walks On Me (Cobain on bass)
[X] I Think That I Would Die (Cobain on bass)
[X] Softer, Softest (Cobain on bass)
[U] It's Closing Soon (Cobain on bass)
[X] others?

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

SBD #1a 10.0 No 0:07:33 Official CD (In Utero)
• Gallons Of Rubbing Alcohol Flow Through The Strip Mastered by Bob Ludwig.

SBD #1b 10.0 No 0:03:29 Official CD (Hole - My Body, The Hand Grenade)
• Miss World
SBD #1c 7.5 No 0:02:40 Unofficial CD (The Lost Concert)
• It's Closing Soon

SBD #1d TBC No 0:38:51 DAT(X)>ANA(X)>CDR(2)>FLAC
• Heart-Shaped Box
• Scentless Apprentice
• Milk It
• Moist Vagina
• Very Ape
• Gallons Of Rubbing Alcohol Flow Through The Strip
• The Other Improv
• Onward Into Countless Battles
• Seasons In The Sun Craig Montgomery rough mixes. Moist Vagina fades out.

SBD #1e 10.0 No 0:30:02 Official CD (With The Lights Out)
• Heart-Shaped Box
• I Hate Myself And Want To Die
• Milk It
• Moist Vagina
• Gallons Of Rubbing Alcohol Flow Through The Strip
• The Other Improv Adam Kasper remixes Heart-Shaped Box, I Hate Myself And Want To Die, Milk It and Moist Vagina, tracks feature between-song banter not found on other sources. Gallons Of Rubbing Alcohol Flow Through The Strip appears to be the same mix as found on SBD #1a. The Other Improv is sourced from a band cassette of Craig Montgomery's rough mixes.

SBD #1f 10.0 No 0:03:15 Official CD (Nightly Nirvana Promo CD, Week 3, episode 15)
• Seasons In The Sun

AMT CLIP #1a 10.0 No TBC Official DVD (With The Lights Out)
• Seasons In The Sun
• Onward Into Countless Battles Video montage with overdubbed SBD audio, featuring edited footage of the band recording Seasons In The Sun and Onward Into Countless Battles.

AMT CLIP #1b 9.0 No TBC TBC
• Seasons In The Sun
• Onward Into Countless Battles Broadcast on MTV2, Spankin' New Music Week: Nirvana 'With The Lights Out' DVD Special. Video montage with overdubbed SBD audio, featuring edited footage of the band recording Seasons In The Sun and Onward Into Countless Battles.



Notes: Whilst on tour in Brazil in January 1993, NIRVANA took the opportunity to work on material for their forthcoming album, In Utero. (1) Very little was known about this session until August 2002, when an incomplete portion mysteriously appeared in MP3 format on a file-sharing program. A previously unheard session leaking out so long after the event was sensational news; the NME picked up on the story within two days. Session producer, Craig Montgomery, was later able to confirm that the circulating MP3s were from an incomplete, highly generated and badly butchered copy of the session's rough mixes tape. (28)

The band recorded the session over the course of a week, following their show in Sao Paulo. (28) Montgomery remembers, They were just in doing more demos for In Utero, to get more stuff on tape. Five or six songs were done, some songs didn't make In Utero. We did everything live in one take with the vocals added if he had the lyrics written. He didn't have many lyrics written, so usually it was just what we call a scratch vocal, which is him singing live. (29) The band also requested that Montgomery record a running monitor mix, so as to capture any ideas that might then be worked upon at a later date. (28)

Six songs from this session were indeed considered strong enough for the In Utero sessions and were re-recorded with Steve Albini six weeks later. The early versions recorded here feature different lyrics and in some cases, different arrangements.

This tape may have been the one which so worried Geffen executives for the prospects of the new album; the contrast with the polished versions of the Nevermind final mixes is very stark indeed.

Heart-Shaped Box is the first song on the tape, and is longer than the In Utero version by almost a minute. The chorus repeats the lyric Forever in debt to your priceless advice numerous times, and there is a longer feedback solo. The first verse is similar to that recorded for In Utero, while the second and third verses here are repeats of the first verse with minor lyrical variations. The rendition is unsurprisingly comparable to that premiered live at the Hollywood Rock festival, 01/23/93. Montgomery is particularly fond of the version they recorded, It's a warmer sounding [rendition], more direct, less roomy and diffused. [Cobain] didn't have all the lyrics together yet, though, at the time. (29)

Scentless Apprentice is notable for the scratch vocals, revealing the unfinished (or perhaps unwritten) state of the lyric sheet. The music is very close to that found on In Utero, while the screams on the vocals are much less prominent than on the commercially released version. The guitar solo, if one can call it that, is discernibly different, and the third verse features a different guitar effect.

Milk It underwent only minor cosmetic musical changes before re-recording with Steve Albini. Cobain's lyrics here were far removed from those chosen for In Utero; indeed, his vocal delivery here lacks the desperation of the final version, and suggests a less dark origin of the song than the In Utero recording may imply.

Moist Vagina is notable for being the only other known rendition of the song besides that which was released as an official B-side. The structure is broadly the same, but the song fades out much earlier here.

I Hate Myself And Want To Die, which was not among the tracks surfaced in MP3 format, starts with approximately 1:25 minutes of feedback. Aside from a few lyrical variations on the verse, the song itself is almost identical to the version the band would record a month later with Albini. I really liked this one, remembers Montgomery, I thought they could've done something with it. (28)

Very Ape also has very different lyrics here, but is musically well-formed. The guitar part continues beyond the usual end of the song, and leads straight into Gallons Of Rubbing Alcohol Flow Through The Strip, which is clearly the same recording as that which appeared on import copies of In Utero, but has undergone some tweaking to remove some of the sounds recorded here.

The origins of the track Gallons Of Rubbing Alcohol Flow Through The Strip were obscure for a very long time: many authors had suggested that the track came from Brazil, but nobody seemed to know for sure. The arguments are now resolved, and Montgomery describes the genesis of the song thus, [It] was totally improvisational. It was a jam, but Kurt did this kind of monologue over it with a scream at the end. (29)

The track concludes with a heavy-metal style guitar solo (without accompaniment), which may be a musical joke.

The Other Improv is almost six minutes long, and features two spoken word breaks. Cobain would later cannibalise the lyrics (Her milk is my shit) for Milk It from this song, which perhaps cemented its demise. Cobain's vocals gather momentum and clarity as the song progresses. The lyrics are the most remarkable facet of the song, for example: If we did not have chemicals, you would not be writing my death certificate. Listening back to the track, Montgomery laughs, It's not like everything they did [that session] was the greatest thing ever, they were just throwing down ideas and if it didn't get used later there's probably a good reason for it! (28)

A cover of Onward Into Countless Battles sees Grohl paying homage to Swedish death metal legends, Unleashed. Montgomery recalls Grohl playing all the instruments on this track. (28)

A cover of Seasons In The Sun must rank as one of the most anticipated covers in the NIRVANA catalog; indeed it had been assumed to have been merely played live a couple of times, so it was a genuine surprise to hear a studio recording. Despite a mangled opening, this is ostensibly a straightforward cover of Terry Jacks's hit, which is itself a cover of Belgian crooner Jacques Brel's song, Le Moribond.

However, we can ascertain from Cobain's lyrical adjustments that this version is far from sincere. Whether these were intentional or resulting from being oblivious of the original words is unclear. I have bought three turds / With my BB-gun I would kill birds and All my tears are salty / I think that now I will start to wee were not, to the best of the author's recollection, in the Jacks version.

The tape is of particular use to us in charting the progression and development of In Utero. All songs recorded on this tape can be assumed to be relatively recent, which implies that Heart-Shaped Box, Scentless Apprentice, Milk It and Very Ape (which had the working title Perky New Wave Number (29)) were all written in late 1992. Indeed, the band probably considered the first two songs to be the pick of the new ones, hence their inclusion in the following night's setlist. Clips of the Sao Paulo soundcheck on January 16th are also known to collectors, which also include Scentless Apprentice and Milk It.

Cobain recorded an interview for MTV at these sessions, clips of which can be seen on MTV's Tribute To NIRVANA. He was asked about the band's future musical direction, and his answer is more interesting in the light of his contemporaneous output: We're gonna go back to the first stuff [Dale Crover demo style] with more effects boxes... (5) The sound is certainly very anti-commercial by NIRVANA's standards, and does feature more guitar effects than most other sessions. This was by design rather than accident: Montgomery reports that, It was a really nice studio with a great board and tape machine and tons of really nice microphones. (29)

Resident sound engineer, Dalmo Beloti, claims that the band were so pleased with the sound of the recording, that they went as far as to enquire about buying the soundboard from the studio; the studio declined their offer, however. (67) Beloti also insists that no drugs were consumed in studio, suggesting coffee and cookies as Cobain's preferred sustenance. (67)

Courtney Love was certainly present at this session and also recorded some material whilst in Rio. Montgomery described the scene as follows, Since we had the studio time and NIRVANA didn't have anything else to record, we did some Hole stuff too, including Miss World. It wasn't meant to be released, [Love] just wanted to use the time to get some ideas down. The Hole demos were recorded to a separate analogue cassette and Montgomery recalls There were a handful of songs, maybe some of them were just half-baked ideas, but Miss World was a fairly complete song at that point. (28)

Indeed, Love gave a tape of material to John Peel in 1995, who broadcast It's Closing Soon from this session (an unremarkable song captured in terrible quality) on his radio show. Love tends to refer to this song as Drunk In Rio. The song was recorded by Cobain, Love and Patty Schemel was the drummer. (29) Love in a post on her messageboard at hole.com also confirmed that Cobain played bass on Miss World, whilst Love performed guitar and vocals. Montgomery considered that the song was, the most fleshed out song of the session. (29)

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