Nirvana Bootleg Recordings - Overview

Overview

Nirvana was formed by singer/guitarist Kurt Cobain and bassist Krist Novoselic in Aberdeen, Washington in 1987, and featured drummer Dave Grohl for the majority of the band's career. They had previously gone through a succession of drummers, most notably Chad Channing, Dale Crover and Dan Peters. Jason Everman was briefly added as a second guitarist in 1989. Pat Smear joined the band as a touring guitarist in 1993. Although Nirvana existed for less than a decade, they released three studio albums, starting with 1989's Bleach, followed by their major label breakthrough album, Nevermind in 1991. In Utero was released in 1993, just seven months prior to Cobain's death in April 1994.

As Nirvana's popularity grew following the success of Nevermind, unreleased recordings of the band began to surface in the form of unofficial bootleg CDs, often originating from companies in Europe and Japan. The sound quality and album art would frequently range from appalling to appealing, sometimes sounding like and resembling something of a legitimate release. Some of the recordings came from "tape trading" circles while others may have been recorded or obtained specifically for the bootleg CD. Material was sometimes gathered from already existing vinyl bootlegs or other bootleg CDs as they became available. Additionally, songs issued only as a b-side or compilation track became frequent candidates for use as filler material. Nirvana would not see any royalties from these releases, nor would they have anything to do with their production. The first Nirvana bootleg CD was released in 1992 by Post Script, simply titled Europe 1991. Since then, hundreds of recordings of concerts, demos and various unreleased material have surfaced in this format.

The official release Incesticide was issued in late 1992, including demos, outtakes and radio sessions, some of which were previously circulating in lower quality on bootleg CDs. Despite MTV Unplugged in New York being released less than a year after the performance occurred, it would still become one of the bands most bootlegged shows. After the first several installments of the unofficial Outcesticide collection surfaced, the official live album From the Muddy Banks of the Wishkah was released in 1996, containing various performances recorded between 1989 and 1994. It should also be noted that the official With the Lights Out box set was released in 2004, which included many rare, unreleased recordings, while the official Live at Reading debuted Nirvana's now classic 1992 Reading Festival performance in 2009, after years of endless bootlegging.

Due to the fact that there is an uncountable number of unofficial releases and their accompanying versions, below is a partial list of the most sought after and talked about bootleg CD recordings, including the A Season in Hell Part One box set, the Into the Black box set, and the complete Outcesticide series. Since bootleg CDs are notorious for including erroneously listed information pertaining to song titles, dates and venues, the information below has omitted any false listings and replaced them with the correct information.