Kurt's Bands

Even In His Youth: A Tribute to Nirvana

The Bands Kurt Was In

The Sellouts
1985

Line up
Kurt Cobain: drums
Krist Novoselic: vocals, guitar
Steve Newman: bass

Songs
Unknown, but probably:
Bad moon rising
Who'll stop the rain

Info
A Creedence Clearwater Revival cover band that only existed for a short period of time in 1985. The band broke after Kurt and Newman got into a fight, apparently because Newman attacked Kurt with a vacuum cleaner. Newman later lost some of his fingers in a woodcutting accident (anyone said karma?).

Fecal Matter
1985 - 1986

Line up Kurt Cobain: vocals, guitar, bass, percussion Dale Crover: bass and percussion Replaced by: Buzz Osborne: bass Greg Hokanson: drums Replaced by: Mike Dillard: drums

Songs
Sound of dentage
Bambi Slaughter (a.k.a. Bambi Kill a.k.a. Bambie Kill)
Made Not Born (probably the same song as Laminated Effect)
'Unknown#29'
'Unknown#30'
'Unknown#31'
'Unknown#32'
'Unknown#33'
Spank thru
'Unknown#34'
Buffy's pregnant
'Unknown#35'
Downer
'Unknown#36'
'Fecal Matter Guitar Riffs'
Suicide Samurai - May not have been performed by Fecal Matter, but by antoher pre-Nirvana band.
Seaside Suicide - (could be the same as Suicide Samurai).

Info
One of Kurt's first real bands. Greg didn't play in the band for long, and in December (some say it was at Easter?) 1985 Kurt and Dale recorded a bunch of songs at Kurt's aunt Mari's house in Seattle. Kurt did the vocals, guitar and bass, while Dale did the drumming. Later Dale left and Buzz Osborne and former Melvins drummer Mike Dillard joined Kurt.

Kurt gave a copy of the demo recorded at Mari's house to Krist who didn't bother to listen to the tape for a time. When he heard it, he was impressed - shortly after he and Kurt agreed to form a band together.

The only confirmed demo-tape, the so-called "Fecal Matter"-demo tape (a.k.a. "The FM-demo", a.k.a. "The Aunt Mari Tape"), was recorded on a 4-track TEAC and contained 14 songs by Kurt. Then there's some commercial like Montage of heck and the song Turnaroud by Devo - later played as a cover by Nirvana. At the end of the tape there's guitar riffs for most of the songs.

The title Suicide Samurai was mentioned by one of Kurt's high-school friends, Steve Shillinger, who described some of Kurt's songs as 'really cheesy heavy metal songs'. But Shillinger wasn't even referring to the FM-demo, so it's possible that this song is from another early demo. But it could be the title of one of the 'unknown' songs.
In Nick Bromfield's movie, "Kurt & Courtney", Kurt's aunt Mary says that once during the recording of the FM-demo she read some of Kurt's lyrics, and was heavily affected by the suicidal lyrics in a song called Seaside Suicide. She also says that they never recorded that song, during the making of the FM-demo. She could be wrong, thus making Seaside Suicide one of the songs on the demo tape. Another possibility is that Seaside Suicide is the same song as Suicide Samurai.

The real "Fecal Matter"-demo tape has not surfaced yet, but a fake version began circulating in '97. Some believe that this is actually "Organized Confusion", a demo supposedly recorded in 1982, while others believe it's an unknown demo form around '84/'85, but it should now have been proved that the tape is fake.

Brown Cow
1985 - 1986

Info
See Brown Towel

Brown Towel
1985 - 1986

Line up
Kurt Cobain: vocals, guitar
Dale Crover: bass drum, snare, cymbal
Buzz Ozborne: bass, guitar

Info
Live band from '86. The trio played a show at CESCCO Hall in Olympia, WA, but due to a misspelling the poster called them Brown Cow.

Stiff Woodies
1986

Line up
Had several line up variations. Here's one of them:
Kurt Cobain: drums
Krist Novoselic: vocals, guitar, bass

Info
Melvins satellite project. Might also have featured Mike Dillard, Buzz Osborne, Dale Crover, Matt Lukin and Gary Cole

'Unnamed'
1987 - 1987 / 1988