I Found My Friends (9 page)

GEOFF ROBINSON:
Kurt had a huge chip on his shoulder (I now know it was because he was picked on by jocks in Aberdeen, and three members of Blood Circus were over six foot tall—I'm six-six), so we didn't interact with him too much …

SLIM MOON:
The main “audience interaction” … was just Krist being drunk and grabbing the microphone to say something weird or funny. That started early …

Sub Pop made use of what advantages they had to get Nirvana's name out.

SCOTT VANDERPOOL:
I met Jon Poneman when I started doing radio at the University of Washington's then all-volunteer not-so-student radio station KCMU … Mark Arm followed me on-air Friday afternoons … all the future Sub Pop band members that worked with Bruce at Muzak would call in with requests … I ran live sound for a lot of Poneman-produced rock shows, and played briefly with him and Gary Thorstensen (later of Tad) in his band the Treeclimbers before he quit to make Sub Pop a full-time concern.

JAIME ROBERT JOHNSON,
Crunchbird:
The first time I heard “Paper Cuts” by Nirvana I was down at the Comet Tavern one night and they had KCMU on the overhead speakers, who were playing the song. Hearing that was a revelation to me because here was a band thinking about rock in the same way I felt I was …

PETER LITWIN:
I was listening to a local radio show called
Audio Aces
on KCMU and heard a Nirvana song. I immediately called the DJ (who happened to be Jonathan Poneman) and asked him who it was. I loved it! I loved the heaviness of it; it reminded me of the Melvins, but with more melodic vocals. I just know I loved them at first after hearing that song on the radio. I think that same week I went and saw them play one of their first shows in Seattle at the Vogue. I was one of six people at the show. They were great.

Poneman's presence at KCMU got Nirvana on-air almost immediately while Bruce Pavitt's work at the Rocket meant by the time of an April 24 show, the fliers and listings already showed “Sub Pop w/Nirvana.”

Of Nirvana's eleven Seattle shows in 1988, three were branded Sub Pop Sunday. Instead of trying to promote individual bands, Sub Pop used the prestige they'd earned from existing successes and sold that connection to audiences; buying a Sub Pop release always meant buying not just the band but the label, too.

SHAMBIE SINGER:
At times on that tour we were booked to play with other bands either from Seattle, or with a Sub Pop release. Usually both. In some cases it was clear Sub Pop had booked us with other bands on the label in order to promote the label itself. I recall, for example, being one of the bands on the bill for “Sub Pop Night” in Houston, Texas. I felt like putting together Sub Pop bills was part of the whole Bruce and Jonathan Motown hit factory aspiration.

The label also used their many friends to get Nirvana out there.

SCOTT VANDERPOOL:
I think Jon asked me if one of his bands could open a show we already had down there …

JOE GOLDRING,
Amorphous Head:
At our first show in Seattle, Jonathan Poneman happened to be there. He liked a couple of songs and paid for us to go into the studio with Jack Endino to record a seven-inch for C/Z … One of these tracks ended up on the
Teriyaki Asthma
compilation (also with Nirvana). So when Nirvana were heading down to San Francisco for the first time, Poneman asked us to put together a gig at an appropriate venue … so we booked it at the only place we could; the Country & Western saloon. We also gave them a place to crash at George [Miller—Amorphous Head guitarist]'s house—George suspected they were some kind of weirdo Christians … I have no idea where this came from.

SHAMBIE SINGER:
They'd put out the single “Big Cheese”/“Love Buzz.” Loved it. Especially their version of “Love Buzz.” Think a chick named Shannon who was a DJ at WOZQ [Smith College] played it for me one afternoon when I was hanging around the station.

Sub Pop made the call that Nirvana's cover of Shocking Blue's song “Love Buzz” should be the A-side for the single. The decision made perfect sense; it was the most pop-oriented song Nirvana possessed, and the provenance of the song was a talking point for musos.

GEORGE SMITH:
At that show I remember them playing “Love Buzz” and being very taken by that song, a little piece of the crowd thinking, Hey, these guys are pretty good …

LINDSEY THRASHER,
Vomit Launch:
I really liked them because they covered “Love Buzz” and I'm a Shocking Blue fan and had never heard anyone cover that song … I remember telling Kurt how much I loved “Love Buzz” … They played with Tad in Chico once and I asked him to please play “Love Buzz,” which they were going to do anyway.

The single wasn't just Nirvana's first release. More important to Sub Pop, it was the inauguration of the Sub Pop Singles Club, a series aimed at collectors that quickly needed to secure an audience so the label could gather sorely needed member fees—which is why Sub Pop was so particular about the release, insisting on a particular song and sending Cobain back to the studio to rerecord vocals.

SCOTT VANDERPOOL:
I do remember thinking it somewhat brilliant they'd covered that obscure Shocking Blue song … Managed to hang on to a test pressing of “Love Buzz” that Jon gave me to play at KCMU … sold it on eBay about ten years ago during some financially tough times … got quite a lot for it, which sort of made up for Sub Pop never paying me my sales commission.

It was a first vindication of Nirvana's efforts, too—something they marked with a pointed joke.

RYAN AIGNER:
You've seen the “Love Buzz”/“Big Cheese” single? Have you noticed the inscription on the vinyl? Around the label it says “Why don't you trade those guitars for shovels?” That quote happened during a rehearsal with Robert Novoselic, myself, and a friend called Brett Walker. We were at Krist's house; we'd gotten together after school … trying to rehearse and learn some cover songs. Krist came home, came upstairs, listened to what we doing, and gave us his opinion about what was going on, helped us out—showed us some guitar leads he knew—then Krist and Robert's father came home. He was a construction worker and he wasn't happy about this noise, so he came upstairs to the boys' bedroom, forced the door open. He was yelling. Krist was yelling back, “Aw, leave them alone! They're just kids, you know!” Finally they let him in. We didn't know him well; we introduced ourselves and let him know who we were. And he says with a frown on his face, “You kids, why don't you kids go sell those goddamn guitars and buy something useful like shovels or something?” That's where the quote came from—many years later, the story had a mythological life-span and kept coming up. They found it pretty funny so they had it engraved.

The front cover of the single was a statement of intent foregrounding only two textual elements; the band's name and Sub Pop's—all Sub Pop releases enforced this equal billing. The style was so identifiable that Steel Pole Bath Tub and Melvins would eventually put out a parody.

MIKE MORASKY:
The idea to parody the Mudhoney/Sonic Youth split seven-inch was the Melvins'. I think they originally wanted to do it as a split with Nirvana, who I think were uncomfortable with the idea. We were big Sonic Youth fans, so we immediately volunteered. The Sub Pop explosion was just getting rolling and people were taking Sub Pop so seriously that the Melvins, us, and Tom [Flynn] at Boner Records found it funny to take the piss out of them a bit.

Sub Pop latched onto the old Detroit Motown wisdom of making a label synonymous with a location—ergo Soundgarden's “Sub Pop Rock City” song. They created a situation where it was hard to mention music from the state of Washington without the label's name appearing.

PETER LITWIN:
On our show posters we started seeing “Seattle” and “Sub Pop” before our name. We did do one seven-inch record on Sub Pop, so that might be why concert promoters thought they could benefit from associating us with Sub Pop.

PETER IRVINE:
One thing we saw was that at some of our gigs in Europe, the promoters would toss around the “Seattle” adjective in the marketing either as a bold misdirection, or else a geographic misunderstanding.

SHAMBIE SINGER:
They were explicit about trying to marshal a particular sound they could market. I think at one point maybe Danny Bland—a Sub Pop PR guy and member of the band Cat Butt—likened the Sub Pop approach to Motown. He felt like Bruce and Jonathan were pretty proud of that strategy … Jonathan, who I knew the best of the two of them, was very candid about cultivating a certain sound and image for his label as a primary means toward financial success.

KURT DANIELSON,
Tad:
Sub Pop was an unbelievably supportive, visionary, fertile, and energetic label, one with a genius for innovative promotion … In a way, they were extensions of the band itself in terms of creative input when it came to things like ideas for album titles, contributing creatively to ideas about promotion and image … We always knew that both Bruce and Jon believed in the band, and this gave us a great sense of self-confidence. This was one of the greatest things about Sub Pop: how supportive they always were, even during the toughest and most tense times. We always felt as if whatever we accomplished ourselves musically, it was for our benefit as well as for theirs. It was a family atmosphere, and there was a sense of family pride, a feeling that whatever we did, we were doing it for the good not only of our own band but also for the other bands as well as the label itself and beyond that for Seattle and its music community.

Sub Pop's focus on regional identity wasn't particularly unique; the label was reproducing a common underground trend of the period.

TOM DARK:
By 1983, cities and record labels everywhere started to put out lots of compilation albums, putting their scenes and bands on the map. For some reason, northeast Ohio didn't have one, so I decided to put one out myself. While helping out bands, putting on shows and benefits, I raised enough money to put out the
New Hope
compilation album on my own New Hope Records.

DAVID YAMMER,
Bayou Pigs:
Houston was good because of its size and its geographical location. We were sort of a halfway point between Austin and New Orleans for touring bands … Anomie Records was run by Scott Ayers [and Bliss Blood] of the Pain Teens. We recorded a song at Scott's studio for the
Houston Loud
compilation that was released in 1988. Actually it was Bliss and Scott who suggested that we change our name to the Bayou Pigs from the Bay of Pigs (it seems that there was a band who already had that name), and it made sense since Houston is known as the Bayou City … Anomie Records and Scott Ayers were a driving force in the Houston scene—he's hardworking and bright if not outright brilliant!

C/Z Records had planted the Northwest seed in early 1986 with the
Deep Six
compilation. In 1988, the new label caught up with a compilation that would feature only the second Nirvana original to see release, “Spank Thru,” on
Sub Pop 200.

JAMES BURDYSHAW:
Sub Pop 200
was Bruce Pavitt's next compilation release after his US compilation
Sub Pop 100
from 1986.
100
was from a bunch of indie-punk bands across the US … For
200
, Bruce wanted to showcase all the Northwest bands he loved … He really dug Cat Butt from day one and wanted to have us on his Northwest compilation. There was nothing formal about handing over the song; it was simply to have Jack Endino mix it and give it to Bruce to include on the record. No money was exchanged or contracts signed. Bruce was running the label out of his apartment at the time … It's still a compilation, which never sells as well as a full-length release by one single group, but I made more money off that one song than anything I've ever put out. The first check was a $450 payout from Sub Pop about seven years after the record was released. Then there was a residual trickle for the next couple years.

SCOTT VANDERPOOL:
We got a song on
Sub Pop 200
, but Jon said at the time “I'm not putting you out; you're a twee jangle-pop band.” But then they put out the Walkabouts, so go figure. I made fun of that, even though I'd known Chris Eckman since junior high school PE. “They're sensitive hippies with big amplifiers!” … Bruce loved that and used it in their promo shit … In any case, they liked us just enough to put one song on a compilation that I think over the years made each of us about $800 total …

Nirvana probably made not a penny off this release for many years to come. But given the label's relaxed attitude toward it, the band must not have had huge expectations.

LEIGHTON BEEZER:
I ran into Bruce at the beach and sat down next to him. I said that I heard Sub Pop was putting out a compilation album, and he said yes, and I said he should put the Thrown Ups on it and he said sure. It was a simpler time.

TERRY LEE HALE:
Grant Eckman, drummer for the Walkabouts … told me that one of the bands that was supposed to be included on the
Sub Pop 200
album had missed their deadline for submissions and that if I had a song ready and could get it to them immediately I might have a chance to be included. I just happened to have two recently recorded songs ready to go … I put them on a cassette tape and got it to Jon/Bruce right away. The rest is history. I don't remember even having a conversation with them.