No. 350: Nirvana - "Bleach" (1989)

I was reading today that Krist Novoselic, former bass player with Nirvana, will be making a guest appearance on the new Foo Fighters record, Wasting Light, alongside his old band-mate Dave Grohl. Good for him, I thought.
We first heard from Krist and some guy called Kurt back in 1989 on Nirvana's debut album Bleach - recorded for approximately $600 and released on the independent Sub Pop label out of Seattle, Washington.
Everyone knows the rest of the story: the follow-up Nevermind went ballistic, became a global phenomena and launched a hundred copycat bands the world over. While Nevermind was an extremely polished, poppy and professional-sounding record, Bleach was the opposite - very rough, bleak and heavy.
Tracks like "About A Girl", "Blew" and "Negative Creep" all became live favourites over the next few years, but they are here on this album in their rawest form. Drummer Chad Channing was replaced by Grohl after this album as the quality of his drumming apparently wasn't good enough, but it's Cobain's voice and guitar that delivers that primal DIY feeling that characterizes the record.
This is Sub Pop's best selling album ever, and the starting point for grunge as we knew it.