Nirvana is prob my favorite band ever and On a plain is my favorite nirvana song. Comparing bleach and nevermind is kind of like comparing early beatles singles to revolver or led Zeppelin I with Houses of the Holy.... Bleach showed potential but no one would ever mention it again hadn't he shown his brilliance as a shrewd craftsman of pop music. Not to mention a vast difference in production quality. Everyone likes to pass off nevermind and play the cool card by saying bleach was IT or whatever but there's really know comparison in terms of hooks, songwriting craft, vocal chops, part writing, arrangements etc. Going in the in utero direction was shrewd as ever.. While it was far more raw, especially with Albini to engineer and "produce it", they still ended up having the two main singles remixes by Andy Wallace, possibly the one most responsible for the sound and sheen of Nevermind. It's not like Cobain didn't think Albini's mixes sucked too..
Saw nirvana new years eve '94 at Oakland coliseum with buttonhole surfers. Saw AIC at Lollapolooza same year with primus and rage when they were unknowns. We played at the Neptune in Seattle last fall and the front of house guy was telling us that layne's apartment was literally across the alley a block down, where they found him. I also loosely know his old business mgr. And the way they knew there was a problem and that layne might be dead was one day, all the ATM transactions stopped. When some days went by without any activity, gotta keep taking cash out to cop, they went ton his place and found him.Facelift changed my life when I was in high school.
So much great music from that time. Such sincerity.
