Awesome Grunge

After turning Y.M.C.A. into a sad song, Italy’s Melodicka Bros have done the opposite with another song. Please enjoy as they perform an upbeat ska-punk version of Nirvana’s Lithium, bringing a little bit of levity into this otherwise dark and moody track.

Imagine for a moment that Nirvana and Green Day did some kind of Freaky Friday thing and swapped bodies. Musician Steve Welsh imagines what it might have been like if Billie Joe and his bandmates performed Lithium in their trademark pop-punk style. It took a minute for us to remember this wasn’t an actual Green Day song.

With songs like In Bloom, Polly, and About a Girl to their credit, Nirvana created some of the most memorable and influential music of the 1990s. Vermilion performed dozens of the band’s guitar riffs written by the late Kurt Cobain. They’re not the most complicated musical sequences, but damn they’re still brilliant.

Guitarist Bloxsy imagines what The Beatles might have sounded like achieved fame in the 1990s and recorded in Seattle alongside Soundgarden and Nirvana. The grunge tracks include clever titles like Flowman, Oregon Wood, and Lucy in the Hole. Be sure to listen to Part 2 here.

Hello, hello, hello, how low, indeed. There I Ruined It took the Nirvana track Smells Like Teen Spirit and gave it a cringy makeover as a K-Pop song. It’s every bit as stupid and contagious as the idea sounds.

Stone-faced musician Seth Everman is back at his synth with a performance of Nirvana’s 1991 classic Smells Like Teen Spirit done in a bunch of different styles. The steel drum version makes us want to lie on a beach sipping Piña Coladas while the sun beats down on us.

There I Ruined It manages to destroy two songs at the same time, turning John Denver’s (and later Peter, Paul, and Mary’s) folk classic Leaving on a Jet Plane into Nirvana’s Heart-Shaped Box. Or is it the other way around? Honestly, you can ruin any song in seconds just by adding a slide whistle.

Despite their relatively short lifespan, Nirvana certainly left their mark on music forever. In this video from guitarist yourauntstripe, he reminds us just how many memorable guitar riffs the band produced. If you’re not banging your head or pogoing at some point during the clip, you’re doing something wrong.

Postmodern Jukebox and vocalist Cortnie Frazier perform a truly unique rendition of Pearl Jam’s 1991 grunge classic Black. Scott Bradlee’s smoky blues arrangement is perfectly executed through Frazier’s silky smooth vocals and the band’s rich orchestral sounds.

An amazing time capsule of Kurt Cobain, Krist Novoselic, and initial Nirvana drummer Dale Crover as they created a lo-fi music video back in 1988, before anyone knew them. The guitars weren’t played live, but synced with an earlier demo recording. RIP Kurt (and RIP, RadioShack.)

The always spectacular Haley Reinhart turns in another fantastic cover along with Postmodern Jukebox, with this orchestral arrangement of Soundgarden’s 1994 grunge hit that starts out as a sultry jazz ballad, and ends with as much fire and energy as the original.