By Anthony Bonilla-Lazo

Staff Writer

    What’s up fellow punk rockers? In today’s story, we’re going to go back in time and discuss the bands that were around and how they are currently doing in today’s generation. Let’s dive into the world of ‘90s rock and roll.

    We’ll start with three Seattle boys who formed this really cool band Nirvana. Nirvana was originally formed in 1987 and during that time it was Bassist, Krist Novoselic, Lead Kurt Cobain, and Drummer, Aaron Burckhard.

    The band practiced songs from the preview demo tape, Fecal Matter. Their first album, released in 1989 called Bleach, would debut their new drummer, Chad Channing. Their previous drummer, Aaron Burckhard, was no longer in the band due to frequent altercations.

    Bleach had great songs, launching Cobain’s career in the grunge era. After the popularity of the album’s release and many positive reviews, Channing left the band in 1990 due to creative differences, and Cobain and Novoselic disliked his drumming style. Channing was replaced by Dave Grohl. In 1991, they debuted their second album, Nevermind.

    Nevermind featured one of their most popular songs, “Smells Like Teen Spirit.” Many other songs in the album were well-crafted and had so much tone to it. This would bring Nirvana number one on the Billboard because of the popularity of Nevermind. In 1993, In Utero became the first album on which the entire band contributed to writing a few songs, such as “Scentless Apprentice.”

    The album had mixed reviews and raised questions about its meaning. In Utero featured a lower tone and introduced different effects to the band’s sound. During that year, they were invited to perform on MTV Unplugged In New York.

    This performance brought in their new backup guitarist, Pat Smear. The set included the most popular rendition of a song by David Bowie. That song in question was “The Man Who Sold The World.” Unfortunately, Kurt’s health was declining due to his high usage of heroin. The withdrawals worsened, causing him severe pain in his stomach. Sadly, Kurt Cobain passed away on April 5, 1994.

    As for the remaining members, Dave Grohl went on to form Foo Fighters and invited Pat Smear to be his backup guitarist. Krist Novoselic moved into the world of politics and joined or formed a few bands. 

   After the unfortunate loss of singer Kurt Cobain, Foo Fighters began as a solo project that quickly gained popularity when Grohl first released the self-titled debut album, Foo Fighters. He later brought on backup guitarist Pat Smear, drummer William Goldsmith, and bass player Nate Mendel. After the success of the self-titled album, they toured extensively to promote it. They would later release The Colour and the Shape in 1997. The recording session for that album was a complete struggle.

    Many of the already recorded songs had to be re-recorded because they weren’t what the band was looking for. They ended up replacing William Goldsmith with the late Taylor Hawkins after the album’s release. That challenging recording session influenced the shift from a solo project to a full-fledged band. The band grew rapidly in popularity due to songs like “My Hero,” “Monkey Wrench,” and “Everlong.” In 1999, they released their third album, “There Is Nothing Else Left,”  but during this time, Pat Smear left the band due to feeling burnt out from the tour schedule.

    Pat Smear was replaced by Franz Stahl. Stahl helped record the album, but was fired after its release. Smear would soon rejoin in 2005 and worked on their fifth album, In Your Honor. The songs on the album were all written acoustically by Dave Grohl. He didn’t want this to just be a solo album, so he decided to get the members of Foo Fighters on board to record the album at Studio 606. Studio 606 is a house in Alexandra, Virginia, that Grohl purchased to use as a dedicated music space instead of having to rent out a studio for recording.

    After the success of the In Your Honor album, Foo Fighters went on to make more albums such as Wasting Lights and Sonic Highways. Their work on Wasting Light is particularly beautiful and reflects deeply on themes of aging and time. The music speaks for itself when delving into those common themes. 

    The struggles and loss experienced by these bands is something really hard on them and shows a lot about how dedicated they were to releasing music during the 90’s era. The members who are still around are still striving and hopefully doing well in their lives. 

    These bands brought us great memories and continue to thrive in this generation. Even though it isn’t the ‘90s anymore, it’s still great to listen to them once in a while.