I Found My Friends: The Oral History of Nirvana

by Nick Soulsby

Overview

I Found My Friends re-creates the story of Nirvana, from its earliest days in 1987 to its sudden end seven years later, through the words of the musicians and producers who played and interacted with the band. Soulsby interviewed over 200 musicians from bands that played and toured with Nirvana, including well-known alternative bands such as Hole, Mudhoney, Meat Puppets, Buzzcocks, Butthole Surfers, and the Jesus Lizard, as well as countless others from the alternative rock revolution. Readers get a more personal history of Nirvana than ever before, including Nirvana's consideration of nearly a dozen previously unmentioned candidates for drummer before settling on David Grohl; a recounting of Nirvana's famously disastrous South American shows from never-before-heard sources; and recollections from their first manager, who hosted the band's first ever gig.

I Found My Friends relives Nirvana's meteoric rise from the days before the legend to through their increasingly damaged superstardom. More than twenty years after Kurt Cobain's tragic death, Nick Soulsby removes the posthumous halo from the brow of Kurt Cobain and travels back through time to observe one of rock and roll's most critical bands as no one has ever seen them before.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781250061522
Publisher:	St. Martin's Publishing Group
Publication date:	03/31/2015
Pages:	368
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.20(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Nick Soulsby is the author of Dark Slivers: Seeing Nirvana in the Shards of Incesticide and blogs about the band on his web site.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments xi

Preface xv

1.0 First Fruit: February to December 1987 1

2.0 The First Album: Nirvana in Studio January 1988 17

3.0 The Lost Drummer: February to May 1988 25

4.0 Becoming a Seattle Band: April to June 1988 35

5.0 Sub Pop and Bleach: June 1988 to January 1989 49

6.0 First Tour, First Lessons: February to July 1989 72

7.0 Still Broke: Second Tour: September to October 1989 94

8.0 Young Band in New land: Europe: October to December 1989 107

9.0 Home Soil: January to February 1990 116

10.0 Nobody Knows We're New Wave: March to May 1990 133

11.0 Intermission: June to September 1990 150

12.0 New Blood: October to December 1990 168

13.0 Corporate-Rock Whores: January to July 1991 179

14.0 Takeoff: August to December 1991 198

15.0 Falling Apart in Asia/Pacific: January to February 1992 216

16.0 Festival Season: June to September 1992 233

17.0 Politics, Pressure, and South America: October 1992 to January 1993 255

18.0 In Utero: February to September 1993 270

19.0 Creaking: The In Utero Tour: October 1993 to January 1994 285

20.0 One More Solo? The Curtain Falls: February to April 1994 302

Timeline 319

Index 335

Editorial Reviews

04/27/2015
Cobbled together from interviews with over 150 subjects, including musicians who played and toured with the band, blogger and superfan Soulsby (Dark Slivers) offers an entertaining, if patchwork, history of Nirvana and its troubled leader, Kurt Cobain, who committed suicide in April 1994. For hardcore fans, Soulsby's effort adds little to Nirvana's or Cobain's story; both have been the subject of multiple books already. But as an oral history, the book brims with personality, and perhaps its greatest feature is the way it captures the milieu from which indie rock and so-called "grunge" music emerged. Fans will recognize some contributors—members of various bands of the era, including Tad, Meat Puppets, and the Melvins, weigh in—but the book's foundation rests on the more obscure voices. Cobain's friends and acquaintances ably flesh out his story (particularly his chaotic, tragic end), capture the almost surreal scene emerging in the early 1990s, and bring to life the excitement and tedium of being in a band. Some 21 years after Cobain's death, he still casts a long shadow, and Nirvana's music still resonates. (Mar.)

Publishers Weekly

Fans of Kurt Cobain and Nirvana should find much to savor in this fascinating oral history of one of rock's most iconic bands.” —Booklist

“The book ably captures the lost milieu of independent rock, which Nirvana's moment irretrievably transformed.” —Kirkus

“[T]his history is captivating enough to distinguish itself among the crowded canon. Hard-core and casual Nirvana fans alike will find this book engaging.” —Library Journal

“Nick…demonstrates true passion for the music and a deep understanding of the musicians who create it. His words are more than just ciphers to exchange for dollars, just as the music he's writing about was always more than just noise for profit.” —Kurt Danielson, Tad / Vaporland

From the Publisher

02/15/2015
Nearly 21 years after Nirvana front man Kurt Cobain took his own life, what he and Nirvana were able to musically accomplish during their existence has never disappeared from public consciousness. In this title, blogger and author Soulsby (Dark Slivers: Seeing Nirvana in the Shards of Incesticide) constructs a chronological history of the band from its inception in 1987 to Cobain's death in 1994, using the remembrances of more than 150 musicians to help explain what made the group—and its leader—so remarkable. Nirvana's career story is certainly well-trodden territory; however, the sheer amount of perspectives that the author includes keeps the overall narrative engaging. The other major challenge in writing about the band is the overwhelming tendency to view Cobain as a secular saint. To his credit, Soulsby gently sidesteps that suggestion, though neither he nor his interviewees convey fully the depth of the artist's heroin addiction or the drop-off in his creative output toward the end of his life. Nevertheless, this history is captivating enough to distinguish itself among a crowded canon. VERDICT Hard-core and casual Nirvana fans alike will find this book engaging.—Chris Martin, North Dakota State Univ. Libs., Fargo

Library Journal

2015-01-04
You-are-there narrative of Nirvana's rise, focused on the trio's comrades at the dawn of Alternative Nation. Soulsby (Dark Slivers: Seeing Nirvana in the Shards of Incesticide, 2012) builds his second book concerning Nirvana's brief run and long shadow through the recollections of Nirvana's fellow musicians, most (though not all) of whom remained obscure. This is in line with the most positive aspect of how Nirvana's success transformed the regional American musical underground: "Nirvana never felt it was above the many bands they befriended; they always felt they were part of the community who tell this tale rather than of the celebrity world they joined." Formed four years prior to 1991's chart-topping "Nevermind," the band's core was the fragile, artistic Kurt Cobain and the less-enigmatic rocker Krist Novoselic. Benefitting from the communal, low-budget vibe in the Pacific Northwest music scene, their nascent band quickly evolved into an efficient, hard-driven touring machine, alongside other avatars of grunge like Tad and Mudhoney. As one musician observed, early Nirvana was "definitely still grunge but with better venues comes better sound and all things better." Naturally, Cobain's spirit hangs over the storytelling; he's remembered as withdrawn and clearly overwhelmed by health issues and controlled substances but also for kindness and humor. In an improbable moment, as they were taken under Sonic Youth's wing and added powerhouse drummer Dave Grohl, all the elements aligned for a major cultural shift. As "Nevermind" broke big, the band "brought the communal spirit of the underground to whatever strange land was opening up for them," engaging social causes and booking confrontational bands as opening acts. As Soulsby notes, "Nirvana saw fame as valuable only if it stood for something." Yet the rockers' reflections become increasingly poignant as the band's denouement approaches. Besides appealing to fans, the book ably captures the lost milieu of independent rock, which Nirvana's moment irretrievably transformed.

Kirkus Reviews