The Dale Crover Demo
On January 23rd 1988 Nirvana (then called EdTedFred (could be TedEdFred)) recorded a demo with producer Jack Endino at Reciprocal Studios in Seattle, WA with Melvins drummer Dale Crover. Jack talks about the demo in the movie 'Hype':
I recieved a call from a guy, who said his name was Kurt, and that he was a friend of the Melvins. He wanted to come up and record some songs. And I said "Sure, a friend of the Melvins is a friend of mine". And they came up, and recorded ten songs in five hours. And it just blew me away, and I said "Guys, can I please keep a copy of this tape for myself when you go back to Aberdeen?"
The songs Jack is talking about are these:
- If you must
- Downer
- Floyd the Barber
- Paper Cuts
- Spank Thru
- Hairspray Queen
- Aero Zeppelin
- Beeswax
- Mexican Seafood
- Pen Cap Chew
Paper Cuts, Downer and Floyd the Barber ended up on Bleach. Years later Hairspray Queen, Beeswax, Aero Zeppelin and Mexican Seafood was released on Incesticide. The three remaining, Spank Thru, Pen Cap Chew and If you must have all been widely bootlegged and are available on bootleg CDs like Outcesticide 1. Spank Thru was re-recorded at a Bleach session and was released on the Sub Pop 200 compilation. If you must was left at the state it was recorded, because Kurt disliked the version they recorded and wanted to get it better for a later recording. Pen Cap Chew has a fade ending, because the reel was running out, so it wasn't worked on anymore. On the same day Nirvana played with Dale at the Community World Theatre in Tacoma, WA. The funny thing about that show is that it has the same songs as the studio demo, and they are played in the same order too (Except for Hairspray Queen, which was interrupted because of a broken bass string). In addition, after Pen Cap Chew, they played three more songs. One song that appears on 4/17/87 and the circulating tape thougt to be the Fecal Matter demo (see Earliest Recordings), known as 'Anorexorcist', and an unknown song referred to as 'Raunchola', because Krist describes it as "really, really raunchy". They also played a jam of Led Zeppelin's 'Moby Dick'. If the reel hadn't run out, then 'Anorexorcist' and 'Raunchola' would probably also have been recorded during the studio session.
But now they weren't,and we only have a pretty crappy live recording of them. Here are some sound samples:
If you must
Pen Cap Chew
Raunchola (Tacoma show)
Anorexorcist (Tacoma show)
This was the first session for what would become Nirvana's debut album, Bleach. And that's the next part.