Skip to content
Hi Sorry State fam! Hope everyone is having a good start to the summer! I don’t have much in the way of chit-chat so let’s dive right in, shall we?
Today’s pick comes from the archives of my collection. It’s The Fluid/Nirvana split released on Sub Pop in 1991. The songs are live versions of Candy and Molly’s Lips, respectively.
Nirvana was no stranger to Sub Pop, but Fluid, hailing from Denver, was the first band outside of the PNW to sign with the label. I can’t say that much about Fluid, but their song Candy became their best selling single, as Nirvana helped open them up to a wider audience. But I can go on and on about Nirvana records. I will never complete my Nirvana collection because of the insane prices on a few of the rare ones, but I haven’t stopped trying.
I love Nirvana 45’s and splits with other bands. But truthfully, I hardly listen to the other band on the record. I love that the very first Sub Pop singles were part of the Sub Pop singles club, which is still going strong after a few decades! I wish I could say I have been subscribed the whole time, but I did start subscribing about five years ago. And let me tell ya, it’s worth it.
So the early singles came with a fold out order form for the singles club, which makes these copies so cool. If you see an order form on any Sub Pop single, you likely have an original pressing. There are now six pressings of the Nirvana Sliver/Dive single in various colors and jacket styles, and order forms came with the first pressings.
As for this one, they made approx 7500, and 4000 are marbled green (this one) and the rest on black. However they made a small undisclosed amount of vinyl on solid green. And what a beautiful green it is. The thing about a lot of early Nirvana singles that came on different colors, is that there isn’t a definitive number for each color. But I know there are very few of the solid green Fluid/Nirvava split because 69 people have it catalogued in Discogs. Not that everyone uses Discogs, but it’s still a good measure.
Anyway, Nirvana really slayed cover songs and they knew how to pick em.’ They had an affinity for the Vaselines and would end up covering a couple Vaselines tracks, including Molly’s Lips. They took these simple catchy songs and roughed them up, while maintaining the same flow. However, Kurt didn’t want to release it because he just didn’t think it was strong enough. But, this release was supposed to be their last release because they had been bought out of their Sub Pop contract. in the etching of the record is the word “Later.” A rather ominous word, as a lot would change after 1991. But the Sub Pop years were exciting, and this is one of the records that marks that time.
Thanks for reading! Until next time!
-Angela