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  4. October, 1990 - Smegma Studios, Portland, OR, US

LIVE NIRVANA SESSIONS HISTORY October, 1990 - Smegma Studios, Portland, OR, US View in Google Maps

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Artist

  • Earth
    • Dylan Carlson (vocals, guitar)
    • Dave Harwell (bass)
    • Joe Preston (bass, percussion, vocals)
  • Kelly Canary (backing vocals)
  • Kurt Cobain (vocals, assistance with various instruments)

Crew

  • Mike Lastra (producer, engineer)

Set

  • [O] Divine And Bright Cobain on lead vocals
  • [O] Bureaucratic Desire For Revenge Cobain and Canary on backing vocals
  • [O] Ouroboros Is Broken Cobain assists with sequencer
  • [X] Private Affair Cobain and Preston on vocals
  • [X] Private Affair Cobain and Preston on vocals

Format

  • Audio: ½-inch 8-track analog magnetic tape (session tape)

Best available sources

Source ID Quality Complete Runtime Lowest Gen Tracks Featured Notes
SBD #1 10.0 0:32:21 Official CD (Earth - Extra-Capsular Extraction)
  • A Bureaucratic Desire For Revenge Parts 1 & 2
  • Ouroboros Is Broken
  • Mixed by Mike Lastra, 1991. A Bureaucratic Desire For Revenge is edited into two parts on this release.
SBD #2a TBC TBC Unofficial 12" (Earth - 10 1990)
  • Divine And Bright
  • A Bureaucratic Desire For Revenge
  • Ouroboros Is Broken
  • Rough mixes by Mike Lastra, 1990. Apparently sourced from a stolen DAT. Divine And Bright appears under the title Divine Bright Extraction; Ouroboros Is Broken appears under the title Oroubaros.
SBD #2b 10.0 0:03:03 Official CD (Earth - Sunn Amps and Smashed Guitars Live, NQR001)
  • Divine And Bright
  • Rough mix by Mike Lastra, 1990.

Notes

Kurt Cobain joins Earth to record a session at Mike Lastra's Smegma Studios, Portland, OR.

While Cobain provides backing vocals on Bureaucratic Desire For Revenge and lead vocals on both Divine And Bright and a cover of The Saints' Private Affair (1), his influence on this session is hard to gauge; reports suggest that he was asleep most of the time. (2)

Dylan Carlson gave gave a brief account of Cobain's contribution to The Wire's Edwin Pouncey in 2005, [Kurt] sings the lead vocal on Divine And Bright. I felt that his voice would be better for that song because it's a sort of pop song. On the other song [A Bureaucratic Desire For Revenge] I sing lead and he was more of a backing vocalist. I wanted different vocal textures. My voice was a monotone, his was a gravely pop vocal and Kelly made cougar howls. Rather than have a straight vocal, I used more textures to prevent it from being a straight pop song. (3)

A cassette of the complete session is known to exist, running at approx. 45 minutes, and is said to feature more of Cobain.

References

  1. Preston, Joe, unknown date. Personal communication with Michael Gillham. ↑
  2. Earth official bio, 1997. ↑
  3. Pouncey, Edwin, 2005. Earth, The Wire 261. ↑
© Alex Roberts. Last modified: August 28 2022