I first heard Bleach when I spun it (yes, on vinyl) during my radio show on WEGL in Auburn, Alabama. I believe I played “Love Buzz.” I didn’t realize it was a Shocking Blue cover at the time. The experience quite literally started a life-long obsession with Sub Pop records and the Shocking Blue. To wit: I own Catbutt’s Journey to the Center of… on green vinyl.

i ended up finding this album at the nearest kmart, it was weird to me at the time, because i just gotten into music with nevermind, so it really took me out there, it was like anything else i heard of.

I bought it on tape in Dublin on its re-release after nevermind. On the bus home, I was a bit shocked because it sounded very like a warped Joy Divison… then I realised the batteries in my walkman were going and it was just slowed down…

I bought this album a few years ago when I was in college even though I owned Nevermind since I was a Freshman in High School. Either way I give this label and album props on www.theogblog.com check IT!

I was born January 18, 1992… So I missed getting to see the man I came to absolutely LOVE. I bought this album from a store called Papa Jazz (love that store). I got most of my Nirvana stuff from there. I’m hoping to get this one for maybe christmas or something from my boyfriend… I’m sending him a link now. XD I absolutley love it and Nirvana. Hate that I missed everything though.

So I had just graduated High School, broke up with my chick, and my parents were newly divorced when a couple of my really good friends turned me on to Bleach. What a blessing from Heaven! It sounded like nothing else I have ever heard. Being heavily into skateboarding, picking up the Bass & Guitar for the first time, and just starting to dabble in L.S.D, Bleach was the anthem for the Summer of 89’. I was in NIRVANA! I will never forget the good old days for they left me with an impression that will never go away! Thank you Kurdt, Krist, and Chad!

By EmO on November 3, 2009 9:35 AM

I was in grade 9 and I actually read a review on this album in a black metal fanzine saying it was probably the heaviest album of all time. It compared it to Sabbath and Blue Cheer. Kind of funny to think that is the first place I saw the name Nirvana (in a black metal fanzine way back in 89). My friend Jay had it first and after hearing his copy I promptly ordered the LP and cd from an import store and a few weeks later I had them in my hands. At that time it was indeed very heavy and possibly the heaviest thing I or anyone had ever heard at that time. I was immediately impressed and it was different than anything I listened to at that time. I played this record the whole summer… I brought it with me to ramps, camping, parties, beaches. The metalheads loved it, the skaters loved it. I got to meet the band shortly after that summer. This album and Mudhoney’s first couple will always have a special place on my turntable.

Main thing I remember about this album is how bloody difficult it was to get hold of over here (Manchester UK) when it first came out, compared to pretty much everything else Sub Pop at the time. So it became a bit of a quest to track it down, and it was probably made all the sweeter when I finally managed to get my mitts on it. Soundtrack to all sorts of late teenage – right through to my early twenties – shenanigans (friend of girlfriend asking me “Why is he singing ’I’m an egg in a tree’?” springs to mind for no particular reason), so it’s not just an album of its time, it’s an album of MY time, which is even better. 20th anniversary Winding Sheet next year please!!!

I came from the metal/punk crossover school of the mid-to-late eighties. Spokane, WA. East side of the state. Liked a lot of “initial” bands like D.R.I., C.O.C. and S.O.D. Loved the Crucifucks, Angry Samoans and D.K. as much as Slayer and Motorhead. One night in the spring of ‘89 at a party some skaters brought a homemade VHS copy of a concert they’d taped or gotten somewhere from the West side. The Band’s lead singer was standing on his head and playing guitar at the same time. It sounded very heavy. It was cool. They said it was Nirvana. That summer I saw the band’s Lp at my local mom and pop record store, 4000 Holes. It was on white vinyl. I bought it. I also asked the store owner for the poster he had on the wall when he was done with it. He gave it to me (from one of the second 2000 released). Listened to the thing four times, almost disappointedly, before it started sinking in (I think “About a Girl” threw me at first). Amazing. Unlike anything I’d ever heard. “Negative Creep” especially blew my mind. Told my friends aquaintences, anyone that would listen. Listened to that ONE album ALL summer. My friend Katie was home for the summer, but did a radio show at her college (CU) in Boulder, Colorado during the school year. I played it for her. The next fall or winter or sometime thereafter Nirvana played at CU. She interviewed them for the station and bootlegged the show. She made me a cassette tape of the concert and her interview with Kurt and Krist after the show, telling them how I had turned her on to the band. They thanked me on tape, by name, for “spreading the gospel”. I still have the cassette and the white vinyl copy of Bleach and the poster. Treasures from a beautiful time in music and in my life.

I was 14, had just heard Nirvana’s Nevermind, and instantly quit playing trumpet in the school band to pick up the guitar. All I wanted to do was play guitar really loud and scream into the mic. A friend found Bleach at a local record store and invited me over for a listen. Between the rad picture of Kurt sprawled over the drum kit and the ridiculous amount a raw energy coming from the speakers, I was completely sold. Soon, I too would grow my hair out and wear flannels and ripped jeans like every other kid who found grunge and believed it was the voice of god. On a side note, a few years later I wrote to Subpop asking how to start a record label, and they sent back a manila envelope with stickers, photocopied pages of Subpop reviews and a catalogue. I was so stoked. I still have all that stuff packed away in a box somewhere.

Being only 18, I first heard the record this year actually. For as much adoration that Nevermind has always had, I figured it’d be worth listening to where the band got their start. I can now say that Bleach is the better of the two.

I’ve only got the album digitally though, so I’d love to get my hands on that gorgeous deluxe white vinyl.

I came late to the whole “grunge” explosion…it had come, gone, and was nothing but a distant memory by the time I decided I liked Nirvana.
I met Chad Channing about 7 years ago when I had his band “East of the Equator” play a show called “Tractorfest”, which happens in my backyard once a year during the Summer…I had heard the fact that he had once played drums in Nirvana. My reaction to that was, “meh”…just had never been a fan of Nirvana at all, and had hardly given them a listen. My horrified friends gave me a copy of “Bleach” to listen to, knowing that I needed to educate myself.
I can’t tell you how that album affected me—it was SO different from what I had become used to as far as the Nirvana “sound”—it was raw, it was ripping, it was AMAZING! I loved it….I stood corrected, and “Bleach” continues to be the measure for every album I listen to. It turns out the ignorance isn’t necessarily bliss…I’m glad I finally listened. After listening to all of Nirvana’s albums (finally) I can safely say the "Bleach is my very favorite. I can appreciate how it changed EVERYTHING….

My brother is listed as Eastside up top here and he is 3 years older than me. He was at Auburn University and was kind enough to constantly keep me in the loop on music. Nirvana was one that instantly stuck with me. I heard them and was memorized and it never let me go. I still have the flyer from the show my brother and I went to see at the masquerade in Atlanta with Das Damen and Love Battery on October 6 for $7.50 IN ADVANCE, boy those were the days…huh! Lastly, I use to have a copy of the first 7" Love Buzz/Big Cheese, my number was 955 in red marker on the back of the seven inch. I am glad they did not trade those guitars for shovels it just would not have been the same. Thanks sub pop for everything you have done for me and my music collection.

I first heard Nirvana/Bleach while driving home from work in Seattle on what was then KCMU (now KEXP.org) and was blow away by the song Paper Cuts. I immediately bought the album and we played it as loud as possible along with Mudhoney Super Fuzz Big Muff. Not long after, we saw Nirvana and Tad play at the Hub Ballroom at the University of Washington. My two fondest memories of that show are of a stage diver jumping off a speaker stack 15 feed high and landing on the ground in front of me, immortalized in a great Charles Petersen photo appearing as a gate fold i Gods Balls. The second memory was of Nirvana trying to destroy their equipment to the horror of the UW staff trying to save mics and stands. This was pre Nevermind and nobody did that. I kept thinking “how are they going to pay for the equipment” and “they’ll never play at the UW again”

My entire hallway at college and I were obsessed with Nevermind, passing around my CD to everyone so they could tape their own copy. One day, the guy across the hall at school growled at me, “That album sucks. Bleach is way better.” I thought Bleach was another band, but it turned out it was a previous album! We started a feud over which Nirvana album was better that lasted what seemed like weeks but may have only been hours. While I grew to love Bleach, I don’t know if he ever got over the “new” sound of Niravana.

I first heard tracks off Bleach on the late-great John Peel radio show in 1989 aged 11. Hardly anything has touched it since!

Being that I was 3 years old when Subpop pressed the first copies of Bleach, my first experience with the record came a little later on. I was a 7th grader in the year 2000, had spent several afternoons jumping around my room listening to Nevermind, made my way to the local record shop (remember those?), dug through the bargain bin, and wound up buying Bleach for a buck. I studied the cover art long enough to have an imprint of it etched in my memory to this day. To me, that picture of Kurt crashed into the drums defined rock music as I knew it. I still wish I could have been staring at a vinyl version of the album though, not just the booklet inside of a cracked plastic cd jacket.

I still remember the time a kid at my bus stop had us over to hear Smells Like Teen Spirit. Blew me away, changed my (music) life forever. So I went out and bought … Bleach. Not Nevermind, but Bleach. Why? I don’t know, honestly. I heard “Spoonman” and bought Badmotorfinger instead of Superunknown, so I guess that’s just something I do! From the first notes of Blew, I was hooked. And man, when I heard About a Girl (still one of my all time favorite songs), I knew this was going to be one of the best albums I’d ever hear. The other Nirvana albums are stellar, but pale in comparison. There’s just something about that raw energy that hit me, the raw, energetic teen. It was like as I was looking for my teenage base, my teenage home, it found me. Bleach had it all, and still does.

Nirvana were really taking offf at that time, a lot off jocks were getting into them, guys that mainly listened to rave, and would normally beat you up for listening to Mudhoney or Butthole Surfers. Anyway, I’d ment to buy this album for 2 years, but when I did get it I loved it. It wasn’t really embraced or even acknowledged by Nirvana’s newer crop or fans. Nevermind was their one and only album, as far as they new. Bleach was raw, dark and grungey, it really sorted the real fans from the poseurs. It’s an outsider album, compaired to the other more recognised LPs, and being in outsider makes it much closer to the spirit of what Nirvana were about. Outsider music for outsiders.

The first time I heard Bleach was like the first time I heard The Beatles. My nipples got hard and I fell to the ground weeping. Gasping through my tears I shouted, “It’s true!! Nirvana really was a punk band!!” Then I got up from the floor of the computer lab at my high school and went back to work until I was told to go to the principal’s office. I renewed the CD from the library as many times as possible and contemplated stealing it, but then nobody else would have had the chance for an experience like mine.

I’m really not sure of the date that I first heard Bleach, but it was sometime in the 10th grade. I had been trying to get into some new music outside of the normal punk that i was into. A friend of mine named Brian had just gotten this album from a band named Nirvana from Seattle . So we went into his basement at his parents house where we usually went to go jam to some tunes and talk to Pete with the green feet, if you know what I’m sayin. We put on the cd and cranked it up. i couldn’t believe how fucking heavy and raw the music was that was coming out of those speakers. holy FUCK!!! we were up jumping off the couch and slamming all over that room. If his mom would have came in she would have thought that she just walked into a psych ward or some shit. after that night I was sold and wore my first flannel and after that the second time would be when I heard Double Nickels, which is totally backwards but that’s how it goes!

Thanks Nirvana,
Nate

I first heard ‘Bleach’ in 1990 when I ordered it along with Green River from the Sub Pop catalog (I miss those plain white paper catalogs). It was truly mind blowing for a child of the 80’s who listened to hair band music growing up. It totally changed my musical tastes from that point forward.

I miss those days!!!

I’m from Brazil, and things where very hard to get, i heard bleach at a friends house, there was a shop that had all the independent cds on display, but not for sale, they survived recording tapes and selling to the kids. I copied his tape, the quality wasn’t that good, and saved some money to exchange in US$ and buy a cd on ebay, sending cash inside a letter, the old and good way.
William.

i was gonna be like kurt and lie, make up a cool embellisehed story but ill be honest. i bought the CD lol in like 2007!! along with in utero. im young by the way. but i now own a record player. im a die hard nirv fan i own all music and lit written on them in some format or another. anyway bleach epic from the cover art to the music to the story behind the title . epic. fuck a detiled review gimme the deluxe hahaha

I found Bleach after discovering Nevermind. I was just curious if they had any other music out, and wallah, there in it was, ah la Sam Goodies records. I practically wore out that cassette, yes I said cassette. Probably played School, Negative Creep, and Love Buzz about 100 times. It may not measure up to the other findings of Bleach, but I’ll say this, it did help me get through high school and only grew my appreciation of the band.

Bleach was actually the last Nirvana album I bought. Nirvana was the catalyst that started a life-long obsession with music. Prior to discovering Nirvana, I was merely a casual listener and had never considered playing instruments. After Nirvana, I started listening to other music and began teaching myself to play bass and guitar and soon started a band. The rest is history. I bought Bleach after discovering it around the age of 11. I put it in as soon as I got home and listened to it on repeat about a dozen times straight. I was totally blown away! In my opinion, it was and is Nirvana’s best album. It was a life changing experience for me.

The first time I heard Bleach. Hmmm…I just got back from the record store and bought this CD (it was like 2002). I turned it on and wept like a baby to the pure awesomeness. I started swearing to myself because I had never heard this record before. Also I threatened to quit my band because I knew there was no way we could make an album as good.

Im a pretty late boomer to the whole “Bleach” Experience. Take it im only 15. I had a pretty
big knowledge of music built up before listening
to Bleach but when i finally listened to it. I, like
many others found a new appreciation for the band.The sound they made was the first i tried to
replicate on guitar. After Bleach, i continued my
musical expedition and eventually got back into Grunge. This time i went deep, and fell in love with
Green River, Mudhoney, and Tad. Hell, im not sure how i my mom let me purchase that Green River shirt from Subpop a while back…didn’t even put up much of a fight.

Probably felt the love buzz too.

I would like a copy of Bleach as I have never heard it. Dave Grohl wasn’t in the band? Geez.

1900: I was looking to start a heavy-metal-sonic-youth band. I hooked up w/ a guitarist thru the OC Recycler. He was very into Bleach and brought the tape along. Unfortunately, I got pulled over for speeding, the guitarist (don’t remember his name) didn’t like cops too much and let the officer in question know about it. The cop ran his ID and it turned out the dude had a warrant and was taken away. I never heard from the guy, I never got his number. So, I got a shitty guitar and a cool Bleach cassette. I fucking wore that thing out, the tape. As a side note, Kurt spat on me at the Palace in Hollywood, the same year, after I told him to break a string, cuz it was the punk thing to do.

I was 20 and living in a NoCal college town—-working at the local record store. Lots of anticipation for this one and I snatched a copy as soon as they came in. Made everyone I knew listen and was fortunate enough to catch them on a cold February night when they came to town with TAD—-just a few days after the Pine Street Theater show was recorded. There were no more than twenty-five people in attendance and it was everything I expected.

1992- I just got my first paycheck at my seasonal job and headed to the nearest grocery/dept. store hybrid. On a fluke, I came across it when walking past the cds/tapes. Honestly, the first time I heard Nevermind, I didn’t care for it. Still I gave them one more shot and bought Bleach on cassette.

It was raw and awesome and became part of my summer soundtrack. I was from the sticks (pre-internet) so this was all new to me. It was that album that made me want to seek out… well everything. Later freshman year, some ass clown stole my cassette in the dorms.

by drawrobot

Bought it in ‘89 on cassette from Sydney’s best (and sadly now no longer) record store, Waterfront Records, on the way home from university. Waited until flatmates went out. Turned lights off and volume at max. Pressed play. Moshed like a person possessed around my lounge room.

the first time i heard bleach, i was at my friend’s house hanging out in his basement. this record fucked my seventh-grade head until my ears bled; i started wearing black t-shirts and jeans everyday. my dad got pissed at me for letting my hair grow out, so every day we listened to this and smoked cigarettes to get back at him.

i miss when life sucked because your parents grounded you.

9th grade,1993 baseball camp. Bought it for $15 from some
mall in west palm. Pressed play on cd “Walkman” and jerked off with two hands. I came by school…

I had Bleach on cassette tape, and the track listing was wrong in some weird way. The confusion caused by that has lasted until today, since I never bought it on CD. I just ordered the vinyl, so maybe I’ll finally get straightened out.

When first listening to this record, I could only decribe the experiance, as a moment of complete clarity. It was as if I had taken in an intense breath of fresh air. For me it was the perfect blend of Punk, Metal, and Rock, with that Quirky edge that really made me question my choices in music at the time. For that i am grateful. I can say in all honesty, that to this date no record has yet to leave such an impression to me as this record…Cheers!

It’s embarrassing, but true to the times, that I discovered Nirvana at 15 while home alone New Year’s Eve drawing pictures for some animation I was trying to make. I was taping the countdown off the radio to record (gasp) Marky-Mark’s “Money” song when I got up to hit the bathroom. When I played the tape back I had accidentally recorded Smells Like Teen Spirit, which sounded like nothing my sheltered, suburban ears had ever heard. After spending freshman year locked in a locker, it was the first time I heard music that sounded like I felt. I eventually realized the band’s name was not “Smells Like Teen Spirit” and found that just about everyone else loved this song as well – now 3 months after Nevermind was released. A kid I knew in grade school, who had gone on to become a much cooler BMX/skater dude than I scoffed at Nevermind and passed my brother a well-worn cassette of Bleach. It was warbled and playing at off speeds – some songs didn’t play at all – but the first time I heard Paper Cuts it was an awakening. Teen Spirit sounded chaotic (it’s hard to hear it through those ears now – but it was like nothing on the radio up to that point) but Paper Cuts was out of it’s gord. Negative Creep. School. Floyed the Barber. Big Cheese. One heavy, nihilistic, and self-loathing song after another. It was my introduction to punk rock and now 33, I still smile thinking back on it.

I first checked out Bleach after hearing Nevermind and I’ve been addicted to it ever since. Chad’s drumming really helped influence my own drumming style. Bleach was the album that changed my musical interests…yet, alas, I’m still 20 years behind where I should be (and I’m not even 20) but I’m enjoying it.

The first time I heard ‘Bleach’, I hated it. I bought the CD in 1993, listened to it twice, and hated it. So I went back to the record store and exchanged it for the new Candlebox CD, of all things. The clerk gave me the stink eye and I can’t blame him, but I just shrugged. I was 16 and didn’t understand ‘Bleach’. I remember thinking it sounded too harsh. What a moron.

A few months later, I went back and sheepishly bought the cassette, I think from the same record store clerk. This time, I fell in love with the album, but I’m not sure the clerk ever forgave me.

Born in 1991 (that fateful year), I was a latecomer to the Nirvana bandwagon by necessity moreso than choice. Around the age of 14 I popped an old copy of Nevermind in my CD player…and damn were the songs catchy!
About two months later I decided I had to round out my collection of this wonderful band’s albums, so I bought them all. Chronological order being the fun way to proceed in these cases, I stuck Bleach in my Dad’s car stereo while he went in to pay for gas. The opening notes of Blew came on. I hopped into the driver’s seat. I put the car into drive, drove out onto the interstate, and proceeded to cause a 14-car pile up. The ambulance crews found me thrashing around, broken bones and all. Today I have Nirvana to thank for all my love of music and my calcium deposits.

I’m from Colombia and the “grunge” made it’s way to get to south america back in the 90’s. I was into Pearl Jam, Alice, Soundgarden… first original cassette I owned was “Vitalogy” by Pearl Jam. I was 12 years old back in 94, a fatal year in Nirvana’s history. I owned “Nevermind” and “In Utero” but one day I went to the record store and found “Bleach”. At the beginning it was confusing to hear such a raw-garage style music from the band that “conquered” the musical world with albums so perfectly produced such as Nevermind and Unplugged in NY, but it had that energy and anger that described all the grunge phenomenon. Immediately loved the fastest tracks on it such as Mr. Moustache and Negative Creep and of course Love Buzz, now a Nirvana-Shocking Blue classic for me. Thanks to a Nirvana video I got back in 94 (the year that punk broke) I discovered bands such as Sonic Youth and Mudhoney and I keep on listening to grunge or whatever you want to call it to this day. Thanks to sub pop for this deluxe album, the Pine Street Theatre concert is great also… great memories

Just gotta say you gotta do a deluxe edition of TAD’s “Gods Balls” and “Salt Lick” albums

I was in 5th grade and my uncle gave me a copy. Every month in Music class we would have the option to either A. Play an Instrument/Song for class or B. Play a tape.

One kid played Vanilla Ice,One kid played MC Hammer..

I put on Floyd the Barber and then had to look up the word Nirvana and describe it to the class because according to my teacher “Listening to Nirvana isn’t Nirvana”

Needless to say I’m still a fan of Sub Pop.

Actually I discovered Bleach as many others only in 1992 after the release of Nevermind. Nevermind … I found it awesome, wow it’s been mi pick of the year.

Congrats for signing The Obits, they’re kickin’ !

Love from Brussels

@rock_0la

i came rather late into the grunge underground or whatever you would like to call it. i found this album after a discussion with my friends on how krist novoselic is unappreciated (true enough, figuring that everyone remembers kurt for being murdered and dave for starting foo fighters). i told them i didnt know nirvana at all. they immediately slapped my friend’s $50 akg hi-def headset on my head and blasted out “negative creep”. i think i had an orgasm right there on the spot. 2 months later, i discovered nevermind and in utero. it completely changed my life and my view on music. thanx sub pop for taking on the band back in ’89. i think the world thanx you.

Who the fuck is this “Nirvana” everybody keeps talking about? Got any more of those The Legend 7"s?

The year was 1995. I was all of 13 and in the 7th grade. I had just heard “Weird Al”s “Smells Like Nirvana” and my friend Chris (RIP) said that he had some of Nirvana’s albums and I heard Unplugged and In Utero. So I ran out and bought Unplugged. Then my older cousin Clint saw my cassette he said he had some more albums and he copyed Nevermind and Incesticide for me. Anyway I was listening to Unplugged with him and I noticed that at the begining of “About A Girl” Kurt says “This is off our first album, most people dont know that”. So I inquired about said album to my cousin. He said that the first album wasnt very good and mostly just noise. Regardles I asked for Bleach for Christmas of that year and recieved it. The copy that I god had a sticker on it that read “Nirvana’s Debut Album Features the original version of ‘About A Girl’”. Mostly what I remember about the first time that I heard the album was how much I loved “Love Buzz”. I have sice bought the album on vinal, still unrapped after all these years. In my opinion it is the second best Nirvana album after In Utero and I am proud to say that when I get the Delux Edition I will be passing my original copy on to my young son and carrying on the legacy of Nirvana for another generation. I already have given him my old cassette copys of Nevermind, In Utero and Unplugged.

I was 10 when Nevermind came out and at the time I thought SLTS was a little gimmicky. I didn’t really get into Nirvana until my buddy Malcolm gave me a tape of Incesticide to listen to. I wore that thing out loving every minute of it. I then got Nevermind and like 10 other CDs for a penny from BMG. I grew to really like Nevermind, and Nirvana was soon my favorite band. And then on Chrismas of 1993 I asked for Bleach. This album was worthy of all the superlatives. Then I knew that I had to learn guitar and write songs myself.

I don’t even know how to begin. I have read all these great posts and have to admit that each and every one sums up what I have to say. It’s incredible really. I’ll just continue the thread and give you all my story. Growing up in the midwest in the early ninties, about all we heard was music shoved at us on the radio. From what I remember top 40. Sure we had a classic rock radio station, but the same songs as great as they are get a little stale after repeated radio play. Well, being a fan of metal (Metallica, Crue, etc.) a friend on my school bus asked me if I had heard Smells Like Teen Spirit. I said, “No I have not.” She told me it was the most awesome thing she ever heard. So, I remember I bought Nevermind in the middle of September 1991. Which if my memory serves me correctly this was about the time it was released. This cd became my most listened to cd that year. For my birthday February 22, 1992 my Mom and Dad got me Bleach on cd. My cousin and i went up to my room and jammed out. I think he was frightened by the awesome heavy sounds that were emitting from my stereo. I had found the perfect sounding band. Krist, you continue to inspire me. Dave, you continue to keep me hungry for new rock sensations. Kurdt you will be eternally the heart and soul of my love for music.

Matt Fuelberth
Pekin, Illinois

I went with my dad to the library to borrow loads of CDs and I grabbed Nirvana just because I recognised the name.

I put the CD in and the first few seconds of ‘Blew’ came on and I was so scared of it for sounding like nothing I’d ever heard before that I switched it off.

The next night, I plucked up the courage to listen to it on my CD Walkman in bed and I spent pretty much the rest of that entire night listening to it on a loop.

I slipped the CD behind my shelves so it couldn’t go back to the library and my dad had to pay a fine. My dad ‘found’ it a few years later and it took pride of place on my CD rack. To this day, my copy has ‘Property of Willesden Library’ stamped across it.

And I’ve never looked back – Bleach is my favourite Nirvana album and Blew my favourite Nirvana song, if only because it reminds me of those few seconds where it all sounded so new.

But I can’t even remember when I first heard bleach.

I first heard Nirvana thanks in part to my brother. Three years older than me and in a band with a few of his friends. He was practicing in the school hall and I happened to sneak in and watch. The first song I heard them play was ‘Rape Me’ from In Utero. Later on I asked him if he cared to divulge what the song was and he hesitantly told me. Oh god, my little sister wants to listen to the same music as me, I bet he thought. So I ‘borrowed’ In Utero and listened to it for what seemed like forever. I would go to sleep with it on, wake up to it, on the way to school, on the way back home and so on. Once In Utero was sketched into my brain I ‘borrowed’ Bleach because the cover looked so damned raw, so I figured the music must be too. Well I was blown away. That cd didn’t leave my walkman for a good long time. Bleach was an album that my friends didn’t know about and I, looking oh so cool, did.
It must have been hell for my parents to have one teenager in one room blasting grunge and the same from the adjoining room.

As a lifelong Portland resident, I have an original poster from the Pine Street show . Screaming Trees, Nirvana and Tad. Tad were the best band that night, no matter how much nostalgia makes me want to say it was Nirvana. I happen to be bestest pal’s with the asshole who printed the poster oh so long ago. I think 2 or 3 nearly mint copies are at my house. Anybody want to make a deal?

In 1989 i was a punk ass 21 year old, going to school at Michigan State, working at a shitty pizza place & partying my ass off on a nearly daily basis. We had a pretty cool little scene in East Lansing, the Hannibals, Water for the Pool, Turning Minnows Into Whales, YMI & others that few have ever heard of, but it was ours & we loved it. There were also lots of shows by "big’ bands, Butthole Surfers, Meat Puppets, Sonic Youth, either in town or in Detroit, Ann Arbor or Kalamazoo. But I will never forget that day late in the summer of ‘89, when my friend Brian played this album by a group he said, “fucking kicked ASS!” He then proceeded to play Bleach. Looking at the cover i figured they were a shitty metal band, what with all that flying metal kid hair, but i humored him & gave it a listen. By the time the album was done, I had him play it again & again & again. The hypnotic ’Love Buzz’, ‘School’ & ‘Negative Creep that could have been written for me,the scary ’Paper Cuts’, and the beautiful ‘About a Girl’, needless to say i was hooked! GREAT songs, cool guitar & THAT VOICE!! After becoming a Nirvana fanatic, i began to spread the good word & every time that Nirvana played in Michigan, me & my friends were there….That first show at Club Soda in Kzoo, the 2 shows at the Blind Pig, Saint Andrews, the State Farigrouds gig, Wings Stadium, each show ranking with the best I’ve ever seen. FUCKING AMAZING! Like all old fuckers, I have idealized my youth, but damn, i consider myself lucky to have had Nirvana & Bleach in particular, be such a major part of that wasted youth.

1989 i was on a double date with my friend, along with our girls we were heading to the Detroit Renaissance Festival. my friend popped in Bleach exclaiming “you gotta hear this!”.
fuckin’ heavy. the opening bassline set the tone for the car ride. obviously Negative Creep blew me away. great nite overall… also heard Tad God’s Balls & Stooges’ Funhouse. what a nite.

I was 24 my son was 5 months old and my wife and I were enjoying life as young parents. Always being into the alternative scene whatever that meant I came across this new release at a east village record store. Brought it home and was in rock lust after sounds I just heard and words I had just digested. All this emotion built up inside me was released by a band that were peers of mine. Not washed up 70’s rockers and shitty Bon Jovi hair bands. People my own age saying things that I felt that I could not express and my wife and I were hooked. My Son had no choice LOL… By the time Nevermind came out My son was 2 and 1/2 and speaking words. He loved the sounds, driving drums, and a melodic tunes. One day I catch him singing to Teen Sprit and at the chorus he sings Ninja turtles… He was hooked then and grew into a life long Nirvana fan probably bigger than me, Nah.. I had the shear joy of seeing them twice live in NY.. 7/93 Roseland Ballroom, 11/3/93 NY Coliseum. Both shows General Admin standing feet away from Kurt and feeling the pure energy that had I had never felt at a concert before and still today!!! I wish he was Alive like the rest of us, I wish I wish I wish. He was a oen pal, a friend you only know in words or still images.. I miss him, his voice, his words, his sense of humor and all that was kurt Cobain and Nirvana…. Peace Love and Joy

I remember hearing this album at my best friend’s house. His brother was older than us and turned us on to so much cool shit. But this shit was far cooler, and hotter, than any other disc he had stolen from the mall.

Later that night, we decided we too wanted to be musicians. The Retaining Fluids was born. My best friend plugged a Sears catalogue-purchased electric guitar into a 15 watt amp, while I found some drum sticks and beat on an empty ice cream pail and a pillow with a sheet of loose leaf under the case for that snappy snare sound. “Worst band ever” doesn’t even begin to describe that period of my life when my eyes and ears were so wide open.

This album illustrated a crunchy portrait of my awkward middle school years. Wanting to get myself into Nirvana after hearing about how transforming they were, I went and bought their albums in chronological order, Bleach being my first.
The summer I turned 13, my family took my on a vacation to Canada and Alaska, which was my first trip ever to the Northwest. I saved the album as new frontier to go along with my journey, and as funny as it is, listening to Bleach brings up memories of Vancouver, glaciers, and the aurora borealis.

none

… but probably the best. Only surpassed by In Utero or maybe With The Lights Out.

I first heard this album a couple years after listening to Nevermind and In Utero – neither album had thrilled me but I was heavily into bands like The Melvins and Tad at the time. I initially only bought Bleach for Dale Crover’s presence on the album, actually. Anyways when i spun it for the first time i remember thinking “wow… Nirvana can be heavy too!”

sou henrique Brasileiro amo nirvana mais doque tudo na minha vida quando ouvi esse album pela primeira vez foi quando o baixista da minha banda na qual era cover do Nirvana comprou e mostrou para mim e para o vocal,de imediato resolvemos colocar quase todas as musicas em nosso repertorio eu amo nirvana

In the 5th grade, my friend and I used to hole up in his room and listen to this album over and over again (while playing NES) trying to decipher the lyrics and make sense of them. We would then try to write our own songs loosely based on Kurdt Kobain’s lyrics. Ah, good times.

In the 5th grade, my friend and I used to hole up in his room and listen to this album over and over again (while playing NES) trying to decipher the lyrics and make sense of them. We would then try to write our own songs loosely based on Kurdt Kobain’s lyrics. Ah, good times.

I bought Bleach in 1989…I was 15 years old. Around the same time I discovered K Records via the Fallout store in Seattle(they had a special K records tapes display!). I missed them the first time they played near my town(in Vancouver)because of my age but saw them at an all ages gig in East Vancouver supporting Sonic Youth on their second trip to Vancouver. Kurt & band unloading their instruments from their little van right by me and others waiting in line to get in to the venue. They blew Sonic Youth away..Dale Crover from the Melvins played drums for them that night. Noone in my high school had heard of them…when “Nevermind” was released and caught on all of a sudden so many people at high school that I hated ‘discovered’ them. They became famous….
I bought the Bleach reissue last week and it made me feel old…a special time…before punk broke.

the second time I saw them was a ‘surprise’ show at Western Washington University …it was a Mudhoney concert but Nirvana(this was around the time of Nevermind superhype explosion) came on stage as a surprise opening act. the crowd went nuts…must have been around 1993? After their set half the audience left…I felt so bad for Mudhoney(who I had already seen a few times before and was a big fan). Mark Arm(ex-Green River..genius singer/artist) coming on stage to a dwindling crowd….ugh!

No big huge drug addled story here. I ordered the Sliver/Dive single around 1992 and immediately had to hear more. I ordered Bleach via Subpop Mailorder shortly thereafter (with a copy of Mudhoney’s “Touch Me I’m Sick 7” which was out of stock…psh). I received it, rocked hard and have been listening to it constantly ever since.

I bought the Bleach Deluxe on vinyl, so that makes it twice I have paid you for it. I think you owe me the free copy on CD.