Aero Zeppelin
For all intents and purposes, I think Incesticide should be thought of as another Nirvana album. I mean, with only three other full albums, we fans only have so much to work with. And while it's meant as a compilation of rarities and b-sides, the album definitely has a cohesive feel to it. Most of the songs have something weird about them, and "Aero Zeppelin" is definitely no exception. But man, does it have some cool riffs, especially the one that kicks in around 1:45.
See also: "Dive", "Big Long Now"
Scentless Apprentice
One of the few songs where Kurt, Krist and Dave all receive songwriting credits. Dave apparently came up with the riff and the basic outline of the song, which the other two members then took and added their own pieces. Noisy, caustic and unbelievably bitter, the song is definitely one of the band's most intense. When asked about it in an 2010 interview with Mojo, Dave Grohl noted that:
One of my favorite lines in a Nirvana song – which is f–king dark and which I didn't realise the weight of until I sat in my house in Seattle playing the first mixes of In Utero is the line on "Scentless Apprentice" where Kurt sings, 'You can't fire me because I quit.' If there's one line in any song that gives me the chills it's that one. Maybe all those things that people wrote about him painted him into a corner that he couldn't get out of.
See also: "Milk It"
Tourette's
The one song that a death metal band could easily cover. No, seriously. In fact, Imapled has a pretty sweet version off their album, Medical Waste. If Kurt's intention was to drive away the excess mainstream fanbase Nirvana had gained with Nevermind, then this song is a pretty good way to do that. Though most of them would probably just skip their way to "All Apologies" anyway.
I Hate Myself and Want to Die
It's strange that Kurt claimed to feel pressured to make Bleach sound the way it did back in 1989, as this later-era song bears all the aspects of that style. It's guitar sound is beautifully dirty, the song is catchy as hell, and yet the subject matter (not to mention the title) is pretty bleak:
Broken heart and broken bones
Think of how a castrated horse feels
(Alt: Think about some capsules of horse pills)
One more quirky cliche'd phrase
You're the one I wanna refill
Still, more of the lyrics bear the stamp of Kurt's dark sense of humor, especially the last verse which basically makes no sense as is kind of hilarious:
Most people don't realize
That two large pieces of coral,
Painted brown, and attached to his skull
With common wood screws can make a child look like a deer
Pen Cap Chew
I originally heard this song from one of the many bootlegged versions passed around the internet before the official versions were put out on With the Lights Out. This newer version almost sounds like they changed the key somehow. Anyway, it's a wonderfully simple and heavy Nirvana song (and I'd prefer to end the list with a song-title like this than the previous one).
In the end, I think this is the influence that Nirvana can have on any form of extreme music: the combination of simplicity with raw energy and feelings which we can all relate to, and the even more basic fact that their music just kicks ass.
See also: "If You Must" (and the entire rest of their catalog)
