This small section has fakes which have been created using actual NIRVANA recordings.
If anyone has more information on any of these entries than what is already here, please feel free to send
an email.
TRACK LENGTH(S): 0.31
ORIGINAL PLACE OF CIRCULATION: Posted at the NFC Forum
CIRCULATING QUALITY: 24KB/sec
DATE OF CIRCULATION: Late March 2000
DEVICES USED: Audio editing program, sampling and compiling different pieces of Bleach
AUTHENTICITY: Recording unclaimed
INFORMATION: The poster of this clip claimed to have obtained it from a friend of Krist Noveselic. The clip is about 31 seconds long, and cuts out right before vocals are supposed to come in. This track was proven to be fake within hours of it first being posting. Kris Sproul and Mike Ziegler came up with this explanation (the following is Kris Sproul's post in NFC's NIRVANA Forum):
"OK, Ziegler and I both just got the clip and analyzed it. Here's our conclusion:"
"The drums are sampled straight from Bleach. The kick and hi-hat sound like they're from Sifting, and the snare could've been lifted from anywhere else on the album, like the Scoff intro or the Floyd outro.
"The guitar is sampled from the intro to Swap Meet, slowed down exactly one full step. It's put into the song out of phase with the way the real Swap Meet matches the drums, so it's not immediately noticeable.
"And listen to the bass that comes in at the tail end of the clip. It's just the very beginning of Blew, also straight from Bleach.
"Anyone care to elaborate? This is an original way to fake a song, quite clever,
but the resemblance to Swap Meet tipped both Ziegler and I off, so we had to check it out.
Nice try...".
The lack of vocals is another dead giveaway that this is likely not to be
the real deal. Fraudsters often produce instrumental tracks because Cobain's vocals are very difficult to fake.
That said, the fraudsters in this case were clearly more clever than the average faker but not clever enough!
Nevermind - Rough Mixes Fake
CIRCULATED FILE NAME(S): UnknownTRACK LENGTH(S): See above
ORIGINAL PLACE OF CIRCULATION: Trading circles
CIRCULATING QUALITY: Unknown
DATE OF CIRCULATION: At least 2000
DEVICES USED: Audio editing program and NIRVANA recording
AUTHENTICITY: Recording unclaimed
INFORMATION: This recording was circulated as early as 2000 between traders as an authentic recording, although it is now regarded as a fake. The sound is a bit thinner than the offiical recording, with less studio trickery. Kurt's vocals too are thinner, and sound as if he's singing in an empty hall.
LN VERDICT: Unproven fake
TRACK LENGTH(S): 04.33
ORIGINAL PLACE OF CIRCULATION: Unknown
CIRCULATING QUALITY: 192KB/sec
DATE OF CIRCULATION: As early as April 2005
DEVICES USED: Audio editing program and NIRVANA recording
AUTHENTICITY: Recording unclaimed
INFORMATION: This is a clever fake in that it is very hard to tell how this NIRVANA recording has been altered. After comparing this recording to the version on the 'With the Lights Out' boxed set , it was found that part of the original recording had been inserted (at roughly 2.09). This change is very difficult to notice on first listen, as the edit has been created so well and there is no noticeable join. Although this recording classifies as a fake, it is understandable why someone has created it. This is because of the fade out. Someone has inserted part of the same song in the recording to make the song longer.
It is also worth pointing out that there is another possible Pen Cap Chew fake edit, labelled as 'Pen Cap Chew [Full].mp3, which is apparently 4.42 long.
TRACK LENGTH(S): 03.02
ORIGINAL PLACE OF CIRCULATION: DC++
CIRCULATING QUALITY: 192KB/sec
DATE OF CIRCULATION: As early as May 2005
DEVICES USED: Audio editing program and NIRVANA recordings
AUTHENTICITY: Recording unclaimed
INFORMATION: This track cunningly uses two actual NIRVANA recordings to create this 'fake'. The muck-up intro is taken from the 'Classic Albums' Nevermind DVD, and has been pasted onto the beginning of the Nevermind version of 'Polly'. On careful inspection of this track the cut can be determined (on the version linked above) at 9.6 seconds in. This is because of the difference of background hiss. It appears that the creator of this fake has recorded off the intro from the DVD poorly, and reduced the quality of the Nevermind track to try and make it match. Also it must be noted that the intro as found on the DVD has a 0.6 second long gap between the end of the false start and the actual beginning. However, this fake does not have this gap because the original version contains part of the commentary from Butch Vig.
LN VERDICT: Definite fake
TRACK LENGTH(S): 04.40
ORIGINAL PLACE OF CIRCULATION: Unknown
CIRCULATING QUALITY: 96KB/sec
DATE OF CIRCULATION: Unknown
DEVICES USED: Audio editing program and NIRVANA recording
AUTHENTICITY: Recording unclaimed
INFORMATION: This is simply "Smells Like Teen Spirit" reversed and mislabelled as a "rare" song. The "and contagious" part of 'Teen Spirit', when reversed sounds like "sorry yesterday", hence the title of the song.
LN VERDICT: Definite fake
TRACK LENGTH(S): 03.01, 02.33
ORIGINAL PLACE OF CIRCULATION: Unknown
CIRCULATING QUALITY: 16KB/sec
DATE OF CIRCULATION: Began circulating heavily in late 1999 and early 2000
DEVICES USED: Audio editing program and NIRVANA recordings
AUTHENTICITY: Recording claimed
INFORMATION: Owned up by William Clarke, these two tracks are original NIRVANA recordings that have been modified using a computer. Anorexorcist is the pre-NIRVANA KAOS radio recording from 17 April 1987 but with the vocals removed using an audio editing program. The intention of William was to add his own vocals to it but he abandoned the idea. Old Age is taken from the boombox recording recorded in March 1991. Before 'With the Lights Out' was released, the only surfaced version of Old Age was 1:10 minute long clip. This has simply been looped to give the impression that is the full length version.
LN VERDICT: Proven fake
TRACK LENGTH(S): 03.43
ORIGINAL PLACE OF CIRCULATION: Unknown
CIRCULATING QUALITY: 128KB/sec
DATE OF CIRCULATION: Unknown
DEVICES USED: Audio editing program and NIRVANA recording
AUTHENTICITY: Recording unclaimed
INFORMATION: This is the official version of 'You Know You're Right', but with the vocals from the officially released acoustic version (from 'With the Lights Out') mixed in to sound like backing vocals.
LN VERDICT: Definite fake