DGC Records

Because Sonic Youth signed to a major label.

They signed to DGC.

And that just seemed to be the ultimate.

Because you'd be on a major label that would release your records.

And I think maybe Bruce and John thought that could happen, but I think even they didn't anticipate the tidal wave of 92.

What I thought was that bands in Seattle, because they were starting to get signed to major labels, the Soundgarden and Alice in Chains had been signed to major labels before 92.

Nirvana came along and I thought that bands would get to like a Sonic Youth type of level because Sonic Youth signed to a major label they signed to DGC and that just seemed to be like the ultimate because you'd be on a major label that would release your records and you'd sell 100 to 200,000 that sounded pretty good you could tour and not play a club you could play a theater and you wouldn't need a day job and that just kind of seemed to you know you'd be set then but

And then came Nirvana's Nevermind, that that's what changed everything.

This isn't an SST album.

It's a DGC album, but it's, uh, from the SST lane, and it's Sonic Youth's Tunic, Song for Karen from 1990's Goo.

Now, the first lyric from this song, uh, "Dreaming, dreamy, dreaming of a girl like me.

Dreamy, dreaming of a girl like me." That's Kim Gordon singing in a very dreamlike voice, and this is her singing the song from the point of view of a dead Karen Carpenter.

Mm-hmm.

The, um, I think DGC Records was like, "We think you need a producer."

[laughs]

And Rivers was like, "No, I'm a 23-year-old boy.

Nowhere was this more obvious than within his lyrics, particularly throughout the songs on Nirvana's second album, Nevermind.

The success of Nevermind, Nirvana's first for the major label DGC, was staggering.

In four short months, Nirvana went from releasing a record their label predicted would have only modest success to number one on the Billboard charts by January 1992.

The record was propelled by its first single, "Smells Like Teen Spirit," a song which Kurt said was a direct rip-off of his favorite band, The Pixies.

He was hired, which ended up being a fortuitous move for both parties.

The band then also signed with DGC Records as they looked to increase their exposure with their next album.

In May of 1991, a year after they had made their initial recordings, the band was back in the studio, this time in Sound City Studios in California.

Here they decided to re-record the songs they wanted to keep from the initial sessions, keeping only the song Polly from those recordings.

In 1993, Nirvana released their third and final studio album, In Utero.

It was released via DGC Records, and it was the follow-up to their Diamond-certified album, Nevermind.

They tried to get away from the polished commercial production of Nevermind, So they got polarizing engineer Steve Albini to record the project during a brief two-week burst in Cannon Falls, Minnesota.

The result was a very abrasive punk rock masterpiece that paired Kurt Cobain's lyrics with harsh Sonic 10. textures, and to soften some of the mix for radio play at least, i.e. to take care of the record labels who thought that it was a little too hard for them.

Okay, great.

I think there's a sense of when Nirvana broke and they were on, you know, that album, Nevermind, is a co-release with Sub Pop and DGC.

David Geffen and Jonathan Poneman had to have a phone call for that album to come out.

And I think there was a sense, kind of like Hollywood in the early 70s, of like, fuck it.

And I was just like...

A- and because this is, what, it was '94, or, I think, 'cause this is right around the time where it's like the other stuff that's coming out on DGC or Geffen or whatever was, like-

Yeah

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