Customer Reviews

Nirvana - Nevermind Classic Album [UMD for PSP]

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Another solidly-made, thoroughly interesting entry in the "Classic Album" series, this time focusing on Nirvana's landmark album, "Nevermind."

The doc goes through the tracks with in-depth analysis, and also talks to Grohl, Novoselic, Butch Vig and others.

There's not much else to say about the piece, except that if you love Nirvana, you'll probably find this completely absorbing.

And check the deleted scenes, too; I was surprised at how much important stuff was there. The documentary itself is only 48 min., so I'm not sure why they cut out scenes such as the analysis of "Drain You"; a section about Grohl's joining of the band (it's tough to overstate the importance of that addition to the band); a funny anecdote about the band's stymied attempt to travel from Seattle to L.A. to begin pre-production; and a look at the cover art that actually talks to the baby on the album cover -- now a likable and very hip-looking teenager.

This installment in the series is one of the better ones.

This DVD is a must have for any Nirvana fan. I picked this up and watched it over and over.

The DVD features interviews of the surviving members Chris Novoselic and Dave Grohl, album producer Butch Vig recreating the mixes on the songs, and lots of insight to the recording process of the album. There is also some critical analysis of the songs by a biographer and some journalists.

One of the coolest parts of the DVD is when Butch Vig separates each of the instruments from the songs and describing the recording process. For instance, "In Bloom" has multiple vocal tracks layered upon it. He first played the song with just Kurt's voice, then added Dave Grohl's vocals (high harmonies in the chorus), and finally doubled each of their vocal tracks to produce the finished product. Awesome.

"Smells Like Teen Spirit" is one of the main segments (totaling around 10 minutes long) In the beginning, there is a clip of the first live Smells Like Teen Spirit performance. Butch Vig goes into some detail on how he tracked the song. The last part of the segment talked about the making of the music video.

As far as the bonus material, theres some background history in the segments "Going To Record In LA" and "Dave Grohl Joins Nirvana". "Drain You" was cool since Butch Vig shows how elaborate it was to produce (5 guitars/funky sound effects/etc). And finally, the live version of "Polly" was a nice touch to the DVD.

The entire DVD does a great job of showing how each of the songs were put together. Butch Vig goes through about half the album in detail (to keep the running time resonable I guess) and there are lot of interviews to keep the viewer entertained. I definitely recommend this for any Nirvana fan.

First of all, I didn't get this dvd new, I got it used.I looked at it and it seemed to be in good condition so I figured "why not save a few bucks on practically the same thing?"That way I wouldn't have to worry as much if it was a dud, ya see?

Anyways, the dvd was better than I thought, so I definitely got my moneys worth!!!Butch Vig was pretty cool talking about the tracks and tricks of the trade that were used for the album.I think that "Drain You" is not only one of Nirvana's best tracks on Nevermind, but on any of their albums, so I'm glad it was mentioned!!!Ofcourse I would've enjoyed it much more if Butch Vig had gone as in depth with tracks like "On A Plain", "Stay Away", "Breed" and "Territorial Pissings" as he did with the others.

I also really enjoyed hearing about how Dave Grohl entered the band, making them not only more successful, but also a more powerful, better songwriting band too!!!Dave Grohl truly was one of the best things that happened to be with/in Nirvana!!!Once again, it's not about success as much as it was about them finally finding the perfect, much better all around musician for Nirvana.He not only does incredible drum work with/in Nirvana, he also does great (background) singing, which is also talked about and demonstrated on this dvd.

Even if you've already seen this dvd with a friend, I still recommend that you get it.It's worth a second watch for sure!!!

(I'm also really interested in seeing one of these about In Utero though.I like it just as much as Nevermind and believe that it's just as significant, ya know?)

i'm glad "nevermind" finally got a spot in the "classic albums" series. it's probably best to leave the story of a controversial and famous record like "nevermind" to a reputable name who actually have a budget and can get butch vig, krist novoselic, dave grohl, and thurston moore to appear in their dvds rather than a bunch of burnouts and junkies who maybe knew kurt in middle school. if you're interested in music engineering as i am, watching butch vig shave tracks off songs such as "in bloom" and "drain you" to reveal the individual vocal, guitar, and bass tracks naked is highly intriguing. the comments from dave and krist are interesting as usual as is the appearence of thurston moore from sonic youth, one of my other favorite bands.

one small complaint is that the flow of the footage seems kind of disorienting and vague at times, as one minute krist would be talking about how he and kurt smashed their gear to get off stage and close their set while the next minute butch vig will be telling a little anecdote about how he couldn't get kurt to double track vocals. this actually detracts from the overall value very little, however.

one other thing i missed in this release is the fact that the engineering aspects of songs such as "lounge act", "breed", "territorial pissings" (interesting in the sense that kurt plugged his guitar straight into the board), "on a plain", or "stay away" aren't to be found on this release. clips of most of these songs can be found on the release but there isn't much in-depth information about them. this is unfortunate, but this DVD dodges the bullet again and it doesn't ruin the experience. as an aside, the june 2005 issue of guitar world contains two long, excellent articles about the making of "bleach" and "nevermind" that complement the information on this DVD very well. the "nevermind" article is of interest because it does actually cover all of the songs on the album as well as the other songs that were recorded during the sessions but never used, such as "sappy" and "old age".

the exterior packaging is done very well too, keeping in with the watery theme of the cover art on "nevermind". as such, i kind of expected a bunch of morons to buy it and expect it to be a compilation of music videos or something and get all pissed off when it's just some lame-o documentary with a bunch of stupid-head old dudes playing around in a studio. try reading the packaging before you buy something, idiots. and there actually is one full-length video in this release: a really good live version of "polly" with an ethereal, watery backdrop being projected on the curtain behind the band. of course, i doubt this would please the "smells like teen spirit" teenie-boppers but i liked it. the bonus material is very good as well and includes an interview with the now grown-up baby pictured on the cover of the album, who has now become a stuttering sub-mongoloid who looks like he was loaded into a cannon and fired into a wall at pacsun. just like the kind of people who would buy a DVD about the making of "nevermind" and expect it to be a music video compilation.

After reading the other reviews on here I decided to give my opinion. If your just a casual nirvana fan whos only looking for the music videos (which can easily be found on the net) then this is not for you. This is a documentary is based on the making of this incredible album, which why would anyone expect the videos to be on here? The purpose is to give a behind the scenes look at the making of this masterpiece. The new/ recent interviews with Dave Grohl & Krist Novoselic are great! It is rare for them to speak publicly about Nirvana, especially dave, so these are a great treat! Some great stories and insight that have not been revealed anywhere else. But by far the best parts of the dvd is when Butch Vig (the producer) breaks down the trackings of the recordings, when he drops out the intrumentation and is just playing the Kurts vocal tracks, to hear just kurts voice on its own is incredibly moving. I highly recommend this DVD, it is by far the best Nirvana documentary I've seen. And Ive pretty much seen them all.

When I heard this DVD was coming out I wasn't sure what it was. It even took me a while to buy it because of that. I didn't want to get disappointed, and I didn't. This is the making of Nevermind. With no real footage from the sessions though, the band members, producers, etc tell the story. The thing was there are really not any interviews of Kurt. I am pretty sure he has said something about the album or the sessions in the past. The extra features include a live performance of "Polly", which if you have the box set the performance of "Jesus Doesn't Want Me for a Sunbeam" it is the same concert. Also the making of the smells like teen spirit. Again there is no footage of the shoot just director Sam Bayer discussing the shoot. Also the band talks about how Dave joined the band. The making of "Drain You" is just the producer messing around with the soundboard and discussing the session. Then the band and everyone else just discuss how they got the idea for the album cover. They even interview Spencer Elden who is the baby featured on the Nevermind Cover. If you're a big Nirvana fan this is for you. I still think it could have been better though.

the second I saw the advertisement for this in that godawful Spin magazine, I rushed out and purchased this DVD. it is that of the story of how Nevermind, the greatest album of the 90's, was made. the story is told by producer Butch Vig, Sub Pop founder John Poneman, the baby featured on the cover (now a grown young chap,) and surviving members Krist Noveselic and Dave Grohl. Chad Channing does not appear for commentary.

of course the DVD is packaged together nicely with some live clips here and there, insights into the mixing of a select few songs, rare interviews around the time of Nevermind, the story of the cover, and it's all tied in together nicely with a rich, watery layout that serves to the imagery of the album.

after watching the film, I felt disapointed that the story ommited certain occurences during the making of the album that would have made for great entertainment. such as the time Nirvana went behind the studio after a day's work for a BBQ and shared hot dogs with Ozzy Osbourne. I was also left without venturing into the technical aspects of quite possibly the most artistic song on the album, "Come As You Are," and how Butch Big stacked layers of clean, chorusey guitars with a mix of distortion for the song's atmosphere. I even wished there was narration into the event where Krist screamed the Youngbloods song through Kurt's humbucker for the intro to "Territorial Pissings."

though, however much was not included into the film can just as easily be read in the book, "Nevermind" by Jim Berkenstadt and Charles Cross (the #1 overtly-obsessed-Cobain-fanatic on the planet.)

good DVD, amazing album, great book.

I've seen so many Nirvana documentary dvd's out there that are a waste of my 37 minutes. This one, on the other hand, is one of the best one's that I've seen. It sucks that we KNOW there won't be any new Nirvana stuff out, so it's good to see the old stuff in great detail which this dvd provides. I won't explain the content because every other review does, but I'm a huge Nirvana fan, almost obsessive, and I think anyone out there looking for Nirvana dvd's are the same way. So hearing good reviews on a dvd such as this one's means a lot because these are typically true fans. Reading the good reviews is the whole reason I checked it out.

The only negative comment I think I could say is that I wish it could've been a little bit longer and maybe showed more of Kurt personally. I feel selfish even saying that because I know there is only so much footage taken and you can't go back in time and make more. That's why I kept this at five stars. I loved the interviews with Krist and Dave. They don't talk much about Nirvana now days so it was awesome to hear things from their perspective and what those days were like for the band. And we get to see the Nirvana baby!

If your a big fan, it's worth watching. I wish they would do a Classic Album dvd for In Utero too just so I can see more Nirvana!

What more could you ask for?

A DVD on the making of "Nevermind" featuring interviews with (most importantly of all) Krist Novoselic and Dave Grohl among others highly relevant to the band.

I honestly can't say this is a bad dvd, but it would have been a PERFECT one if only they had gone into the recording and background of songs like "Come As You Are", "Lithium" (all that is offered is a version recorded in early sessions and even then there is little to say), "On A Plain" and 4 other songs. The focus instead is on "Smells Like Teen Spirit", "In Bloom", "Polly" and "Something In The Way" with "Drain You" at least getting it's own feature in the bonus section of the dvd. I would to have loved to hear about more than 5 songs on the album. But what you do hear is worth it, I just think that if in the "Classic Albums" series Pink Floyd can get a release that is 10 minutes or more longer than Nirvanas then surely they could have filled this dvd a little more.

But needs must and this is really worth getting for any fan or person interested in recording processes of albums, I really enjoyed watching this and was left wanting more. There are some very interesting bits of info on the dvd.

In summary take some talking about the Bleach era or other un-necessary things and replace it with a couple of songs and it'd be killer!!! Or even yet just add more!!! Get it folks.

This video is a nice review of the making of Nirvana's most commercially successful album. There are some rather in-depth demonstrations of how the songs were mixed, and interviews with Krist Novaselic (looking a lot older I might add) and Dave Grohl. One of the best things about it is the way you hear the songs in a sort of deconstructed way. (Butch Vig?) strips the songs down to just one guitar and one vocal track, and then you witness as more tracks are added, until it matches the version that's on your cd at home. It's very interesting from the point of view of a musician who has never experienced the mixing process. It's kind of like being taken back in time to when the album was being made. But one of the best things about it is that Courtney Love is never mentioned! Maybe Dave Grohl does once, I can't remember. Regardless, if you love Kurt Cobain and the legacy of Nirvana, get this video, I doubt you'll be disappointed.