This year mark’s 20 years since Nirvana released their third and final album In Utero and just as their Sub Pop-issued debut Bleach and infamous 1991 record Nevermind did, the album is getting the lavish reissue treatment come this September to commemorate its 20th anniversary.
Though specifics are still being kept a secret, the campaign trail for the deluxe reissues has already been birthed, quite literally, with Rolling Stone pointing out that Nirvana’s official Facebook page has posted a little-seen treat from the band archives.
In a vintage clip promoting the 1993 album, band members Kurt Cobain, Krist Novoselic, and Dave Grohl are laid prostrate on a classroom floor as they’re instructed on how to give birth by comedian Bobcat Goldthwait (there’s a sign of the times) dressed in drag. The commercial is as humorously dated as you’d expect from a big budget push for a band that famously hated corporate coddling; still, it kind of looks like the trio are in on the laughs.
Other than a September 2013 release date, details on the In Utero 20th Anniversary reissues are scarce, but expect to see something along the lines of the Nevermind reissues of two years ago when Universal and Geffen Records went all out, providing several deluxe editions in vinyl and CD saddled with a host of demoes, b-sides, in-studio rehearsals, live sessions, alternate mixes, a rare live concert – the whole kit and kaboodle.
Given the legacy of Nevermind‘s follow-up – especially surrounding album producer Steve Albini’s mixes that irked record execs so much they commissioned several polishes of In Utero before its September 1993 release – there’s bound to be some surprises for the re-issues. Perhaps fans will get to hear the original, rejected versions of singles ‘Heart Shaped Box’ and ‘All Apologies’ that were recorded before Albini and Nirvana butted heads over the album’s sound.
In any case, Nirvana never seem to stray far from the cultural conscience. Whether it’s providing a source of inspiration for Jay-Z on his new album (and bizarrely many other rappers over the years), being named by Rolling Stone readers as one of the worst band of the 90s (that’s not a typo). Meanwhile, Kurt and Courtney’s daughter, Frances Bean Cobain, is all grown up and showing off her parent’s influence with her impeccable music taste.
