Rare demo tapes recorded by Nirvana from their earliest incarnation through to the cusp of superstardom have surfaced online. The demos were posted by Tacoma musician John Purkey who claims that Kurt Cobain personally gave the tapes to him.

So what do we have here? Interestingly, the demos contain what is reported to be Nirvana’s first ever recording session at Seattle’s Reciprocal Studios in 1988. With the band still without a regular drummer, The Melvins’ Dale Crover sits in on the session. The sound is pretty rough but the characteristic combination of an innate melodic sensibility and love of fuzz and distortion is present correct. The tracks on the cassette include ‘Paper Cuts’, ‘Downer’, ‘Floyd The Barber’ and ‘Spank Thru’.

The second tape is a copy of a copy, which accounts for the low recording levels and muffled sound. Nonetheless, it’s still interesting listening to early versions of Bleach’s ‘Big Cheese’ and ‘Blew’.

The third cassette features songs that would end up on Bleach. The sound quality is the best yet and offers an insight into what’s to come.

The fourth cassette is a real find. Featuring Chad Channing on drums and recorded by Butch Vig, this contains songs that would end up on ‘Nevermind’. Of particular interest is an early of version of ‘Stay Away’ that was then called ‘Pay To Play’ and had different lyrics. Also included are versions of ‘Polly’ and ‘Lithium’.

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