111 - Nirvana with Everett True (Olympia, Washington)

111 - Nirvana with Everett True (Olympia, Washington)

Author: Rock n Roll Book Club April 12, 2026 Duration: 45:13

Join us for our first episode on one of the seminal bands of the 90s - Nirvana with legendary music writer Everett True. His book Nirvana - The True Story is out now. 


Kurt Cobain & Krist Novoselic meet in Aberdeen, Washington but it’s in Tacoma & Olympia where the band really comes together. 


We hear about Kurt’s early influences including The Melvins, The Raincoats, The Pastels, Teenage Fanclub, Young Marble Giants, Bikini Kill & various releases on local label K Records. 


The first gig billed as Nirvana takes place at the Community World Theatre in Tacoma. 


Nirvana sign to Sub Pop Records in Seattle & their debut single Love Buzz comes out as part of the Singles Club series. We hear about the influence of other local bands Mudhoney & Soundgarden. 


The debut album Bleach is made for $600 & Everett conducts his first interview with the band not long after. 


The band tour the UK starting at Newcastle Riverside & Everett himself joins them onstage at a gig in Nottingham. 


Original drummer Chan Channing leaves Nirvana & is replaced by Dave Grohl as the band sign a major label deal with Geffen Records & producer Butch Vig comes in to help realise the sound of Nevermind. 


Shortly after the band debut a new song named Smells Like Teen Spirit at the OK Hotel in Seattle. The song title famously comes after Kathleen Hanna scrawls ‘Kurt Smells Like Teen Spirit’ on an apartment wall. 


The band headline the Reading Festival in England in the summer of 1992 as Everett wheels Kurt Cobain onstage to start the gig. 



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Hosted, Produced & Edited by Simon Cardwell

Music by Andy Maxwell




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The Music Maps Podcast from the Rock n Roll Book Club isn't your typical music show. It's an audio expedition where geography is the guide. Every episode starts with a specific location-a city, a venue, a forgotten roadside attraction-and uses that place as a launchpad to explore the sounds, stories, and scenes connected to it. You might find yourself deep in the blues clubs of Chicago one week and tracing the underground punk threads of a small European town the next. The conversations are wide-ranging, connecting the dots between iconic artists and obscure movements, all anchored to a point on the map. Listening to this podcast feels like adding a new, richly detailed pin to a global atlas of musical influence. It’s about the context behind the chords and the cultural soil from which genres grow. The result is a continuously evolving, deeply human portrait of how music and place are inextricably linked, one fascinating destination at a time.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 100

Music Maps Podcast
Podcast Episodes
85 - The Everly Brothers with Barry Mazor [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

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Duration: 1:19:30
In May 1980 an unknown Paul Westerberg walked into Oar Folk Records in Minneapolis & handed Peter Jesperson a demo tape. When Peter eventually got round to playing it he was bowled over by what he heard & asked to come &…
78 - Lamb Of God with Randy Blythe [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:13:57
Join us this week on Music Maps as we dive into the world of metal with Randy Blythe, the frontman of Lamb of God. Hear about his journey from a small-town punk rocker to global success.Randy tells us about the early yea…
77 - Maybe I'm Amazed with John Harris & Keith Cameron [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:06:09
Maybe I'm Amazed - A Story of Love & Connection in 10 Songs is one of the music books of the year it tells the story of how writer John Harris connects with his autistic son James via the music of The Clash, The Velvet U…