I've been listening to Temple of the Dog in my car for the last few weeks. The album, a tribute to Mother Love Bone lead singer Andy Wood, came out in the spring of 1991. It was written almost completely by Chris Cornell of Soundgarden. The band is two parts Mother Love Bone, two parts Soundgarden and two extra parts of a band that would release its first LP later that summer (Pearl Jam). At the time, none of these people were very famous. Soundgarden was getting some play, but mostly on 120 Minutes and Headbanger's Ball. Mother Love Bone was DOA because Wood ODed before their major label debut came out. Would a major label release this album today? Nope.

In 1991, Soundgarden released Badmotorfinger. Pearl Jam released Ten. The Red Hot Chili Peppers released Blood Sugar Sex Magic on the same day as another album. Nirvana's Nevermind. I bought the first three albums as soon as I could. I was anticipating them coming out (and scored a promo copy of Ten).

Also, in the mainstream rock category, Guns N' Roses released their double CD opus, Use Your Illusion. And Metallica released The Black Album. These were the radio hits.

Didn't see Nevermind coming.

Because I was in college (and the dorms didn't have cable or the Internet back in those days), if I wasn't looking for it, I didn't always see it. It would be a few months before I saw the video for "Smells Like Teen Spirit." I'd buy the CD in December. The radio station I listened to (a nationwide satellite to radio station called XRock or something like that) was slow to play Nirvana. I think they played the Weird Al parody more than they played the actual song. For the mainstream rockers, this was some kind of shot over the bow. And they resisted its pull for as long as they could. Some, in fact, would bitch about it like it was some kind of affront to humanity (or at least heavy metal).

By the spring of 1992, however, the grunge revolution was in full effect. I'd moved into a house near the airport and the projects with a few friends, and we had a party. We put together a makeshift band that sorta played covers of the current hits. And then did big time jams that were more messy and loud than anything else. I was the singer, and I didn't know all the words, so I'd make stuff up.

The party became huge. One of our roommates was in a frat, and the members of the La Cueva High School swim team had shown up at the frat house to party. Our roommate sent them our way. Suddenly we had a keg and a cooler full of hard liquor. And hundreds of kids at our house. The swim team had won some competition. And some parents bought them a shitload of alcohol.

When we played "Smells Like Teen Spirit" (in a very half assed, not making it through the whole song kind of way), the entire living room became a mosh pit. We should have played "In Bloom" (but there was no way we'd have been able to pull it off, and it wouldn't have had the same affect at the time). So we played "Teen Spirit" again about a half hour later. Another mosh pit.

Life moves pretty fast sometimes. In two years, Kurt Cobain would be dead by his own hand. His death enabled people who hated what had become of their rock heroes to proclaim they never liked Nirvana much in the first place. These kinds of conversations would pop up at parties. Death freezes people in time. And then sides are taken.

But I'd veered to third wave punk by this time, which is all to do with Nirvana and many of the bands that came up after them.

I listened to my vinyl copy of Nevermind last night. As with pretty much any anniversary of anything these days, we are reminded of the upcoming "event" weeks if not months in advance. Saturday was the official 20 year anniversary of the release. The anniversary edition comes out on Tuesday. With some insane bigger and much more expensive edition coming out in another month. Even with all this hype, the album still holds up. It's still great.

It hasn't been twenty years since I heard Nirvana for the first time. That's weeks away (and I couldn't really give you a date, I heard the song on the radio). But the impact of the album was so seismic, it seems like it exploded all at once.

There's a conversation with El Hefe in NOFX's Backstage Passport (a documentary series about the band playing out of the way places on the other side of the world) where he talks about joining NOFX in 1991. Being a good guitarist, he was playing in metal bands in L.A. at the time. But, for some reason, he chose punk. And, almost immediately, the world changed in an instant. The bands he had played in disintegrated under the weight of Nirvana's success. NOFX became the world's greatest punk band (my explanation of this fact is an entire other column).

And it was Nevermind, in its dismissive yet powerful way, that started one of the greater sea changes in rock music. Toast!

Matt Worley wishes Kurt had stayed alive to see how lovely his daughter has become.