Thirty years ago today — on Sept. 24, 1991 — Nirvana's Nevermind was released. It quickly achieved storied status, acclaimed today as one of the greatest LPs of the rock era and a seminal influence on generations of artists. We caught up with four Minnesota artists who weren't even born when Nevermind was released, but who count themselves among the album's many fans.

VIAL

"For me, it's a lot of high school feelings and high school memories." You might expect to hear that from a gen-X fan of Nirvana's Nevermind, but it's also true of Kate Kanfield, bassist in the Minneapolis gen-Z punk rock quartet VIAL.

"It's an album that I grew up listening to," said VIAL guitarist KT Branscom. "It's always been in my arsenal of music to choose from, ever since middle school...one of the earliest rock albums I ever heard."

Among all the albums of that era, what is it about Nevermind? "Nirvana [were] not afraid to sing about anything — scream about anything," continued Branscom. "There's a lot of chaos in the music that I very much admire."

Beyond the music, VIAL appreciate what the members of Nirvana stood for and the respect they earned among their trailblazing peers. "I remember in high school," said Kanfield, "I was obsessed with the fact that Kurt Cobain and Kathleen Hanna from Bikini Kill were friends and that she wrote, like, 'Kurt smells like Teen Spirit' on the wall of a punk house after a party with them one night."

That phrase would inspire the title of Nevermind’s best-known song, but the one VIAL like best is "Territorial Pissings."

"We cover that song when we're performing, almost at every show," said Branscom.

"It's the only cover song that we do," said drummer Katie Fischer, "but we do it every time."

"We've been doing that probably since the second or third show we played as a band," said Branscom, "and it probably is one of the songs that goes the hardest at shows."

"I will admit," said Kanfield, "I did not know that 'Territorial Pissings' was by Nirvana when KT first showed me the song. Obviously I do now, and I love it."

"I think that a lot of '90s grunge music bands are one-hit, two-hit wonders," said Branscom. "There's always that one song that is their most popular and you probably can't name any other ones. But I think Nirvana is different in that; specifically this album. People could name hit after hit after hit."

- Jay Gabler

EVV

EVV loves a good riff. Whether it’s the playful, bobbing loop of Arctic Monkeys’ “Dangerous Animals,” the foreboding chords of Nirvana's “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” or the seething power of their own “Superficial Dedication,” their ear hooks on that memorable pattern. So when they first heard Nevermind in middle school, they fell for its riffs and rowdy energy.

Of Nirvana’s discography, they’re the biggest fan of the first half of Nevermind, particularly “Breed.” “When [I] hear the intro of that song, I get this rumbling from deep inside,” they say. “I'm like, ‘I'm ready to mosh. Where is the pit?’"

As a solo artist, EVV’s work ranges from bluesy pop rock to mosh-worthy punk, both captured on their double single Gemini. Until several months ago, they also played lead guitar in local rock group Allergen. In fact, the band was workshopping a cover of “Breed.” “We never finished that,” they say, “but it was so fun to play. When the drums come in, and then the bass drives it, it's such a good intro.”

EVV, aka Evelyn Speers, is 21. Even though their lifetime began after Kurt Cobain’s ended, they’re grateful to him for pushing back on norms. “You would see Kurt Cobain onstage in dresses,” they say. “It's this really roundabout way of not caring, but also caring so that you're making a statement, but also showing that you don't care.” Speers also follows their own senses of style and comfort, wearing all black to a recent First Ave gig and all pink to a show at Duluth venue Blush.

“Right now, we're in the middle of recording an album,” Speers says of their upcoming musical plans. Here's hoping their Nirvana love leads them to even more incredible riffs.

- Cecilia Johnson

Heart to Gold

When Grant Whiteoak was about 11 years old, he was into Green Day and Fall Out Boy: music that he liked, yes, but also music that his mom let him listen to. But one Christmas morning, he found Nevermind in his stocking. “My dad was really, really hyped to have me listen to it,” they say. “He went to his stereo and played it from the start.”

“And then I just became the most annoying 11- or 12-year old,” Whiteoak, now 26, says. Nobody else in their life was into Nirvana. "So I had my CD player, and I would listen to Nirvana at flex time — which is recess — and couldn't relate to anybody. Because I was like, ‘I love skateboarding, and I'm listening to Nirvana. You guys do not know, but the CD at home, there's a baby penis on it. You guys would freak out.’”

Nearly 15 years later, Whiteoak is still a Nirvana megafan, as is his bandmate Sid Johnson, who fell for their music while learning guitar ("You learn how to play one power chord, and you can play most Nirvana songs, just from a basic standpoint"). Blake Kuether rounds out their band, Heart to Gold, and they released their first album, Comp, in 2018.

“I would be lying if I said that the way that I sing was not influenced by ruining my voice at 12 years old, trying to do little Kurt Cobain squeals and whines and fry my voice,” Whiteoak says. The Comp track "Miss Me Entirely (Riff City)" is an apt showcase of his rasps and screams.

But he and Johnson hope that their biggest Nirvana influence has more to do with their ethos as a band: “F*** corporate, commercialized music,” Whiteoak paraphrases. “Just do your thing. Don't take it too serious, but also, obviously, care about what you're making.”

It’s almost hard not to copy Nirvana at this point, they admit, especially as a three-piece rock band. "From when we've been born, those are the primary colors for songwriting and alternative music," Whiteoak says. "That album changed the world."

Nevermind is "a 10 out of 10," Johnson says. Whiteoak agrees: "Every song on that album, specifically, is a certified hit." Johnson is partial to "Drain You," while Whiteoak loves "Endless, Nameless," Nevermind's hidden track. "They're just destroying their gear," they say. "It's very different than all their other songs. And I love that."

Heart to Gold are working on rebooting their momentum after the pandemic and a scary car accident. They've completed a second full album, they say, and they'll headline a quasi-house show in Northeast on Friday, Oct. 1.

- Cecilia Johnson

Danielle Cusack

"My Beatles are Nirvana," said Danielle Cusack. "Nevermind is one of the first albums I ever remember listening to."

Cusack, 25, is a multi-instrumentalist and songwriter who's well-known to Twin Cities rock fans as a member of Bruise Violet, Scrunchies, and Tony Peachka. Ever since her parents introduced her to Nevermind during family car trips, it's been core to her musical aesthetic.

"It's just been so influential on me," she said. When she recently revisited the album, "I was like, wow, every single one of these songs is just like so individually legendary. There's not a single song on that album that I feel is skip material or a filler. It's all killer."

As with other artists we contacted for this piece, Cusack respects Nirvana's emphasis on inclusivity and radical politics. Nevermind "was kind of revolutionary in a way," she said.

"[Kurt Cobain] said 'God is gay' in one of the songs, and then another where he's like, 'never met a wise man, it's always a woman'...'In Bloom,' the whole chorus is about how there's a guy who likes their songs but doesn't know what it means. They championed all these bands with women in them, which was pretty rare at the time."

Being in a band named after a Babes in Toyland song, Cusack and her Bruise Violet bandmates soon connected with Babes in Toyland's Lori Barbero, who knew Cobain as a peer and a friend.

"It's nuts to me," said Cusack. "When Bruise Violet played with Babes in Toyland and Porcupine. At the end of the night I went up to the office to get paid; it was me, Greg Norton from Hüsker Dü, and Lori, and they just started talking about the good old days, and then they just casually brought up their friend Kurt, and I was just like, 'Holy s--t. I cannot believe I'm the third person in this conversation.'"

"It's surreal," she continued. "It's very cool. But it's also like, you can see that he really was just a guy just like anybody else. And his friends all really cared about him and knew his influence and knew how important he was." They also felt Cobain's pain, Cusack noted, when Nevermind became a generation-defining hit and celebrity began to weigh on him.

Cusack also teaches music, in which role she helped pass the legacy of Nevermind on to another local band featured in this article. "VIAL are my old students," she said, "and they're the ones I had play 'Territorial Pissings.' They covered it as a band and I was like, 'Ah! Cute!' Very proud of them. Very, very proud of them."

- Jay Gabler

Bruise Violet with Lori Barbero at The Current in 2016. l-r: Danielle Cusack, Bella Dawson, Barbero, Emily Schoonover. (Andrea Swensson/MPR)