Are you a Bleach fan or into In Utero? This question, not exactly worded like that, has sort of replaced the "Beatles vs. Stones" dumb-ass everyone-has-an-opinion question in every rock-loving bar from Portland to Portland. The truth is, someone out there must have loved Nevermind, because copies of it are everywhere. But attaching yourself to the band's debut for indie Sub Pop or their second full length for a major label seems to be as good a way of branding yourself as a circular cigarette burn on your hand made you a Germs fan.

If you're a fan of Bleach it usually means You Were There, or at least imagined yourself so, when Nirvana's first full length came out twenty years ago. Sub Pop has reissued the Platinum Certified album as a deluxe CD with mostly-photo booklet, or in 180 gram white vinyl (as was the original run), and now of course in download versions. The big news, besides discovering the actual great album for yourself if you never have before, is that all the formats include Live at Pine Street Theatre from a February 1990 show in Portland. The seventh track in that set list is the cover of "Molly's Lips," played to a crowd that probably knew who the Vaselines were in the first place.

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When old school Seattle punk-metal icon Duff McKagan wrote about punk rock at the Seattle Weekly a couple of weeks ago, he gave a little list of bands he considers essential to the canon. Though it wasn't specifically numerical in importance, the phenomenon-by-response stack of heroes began with The Ramones (good choice), then The Clash (a little more arguable, but who can resist?), and then -- D.O.A.

To quote McKagan:

"D.O.A., Something Better Change: If you grew up in the Northwest in the late '70s or early '80s, D.O.A. were a larger-than-life example of how brilliant a live rock band should be. They were as important as any band in history, as far as I'm concerned."

The actual word "hardcore" as applied to latter period North American punk rock is most likely taken from a D.O.A. album title -- Hardcore '81. Note the year of its release, and that there really wasn't a musical genre with that name before D.O.A. nailed their hard, fast, no compromise sound.

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Personally, I'd love to see something like a mini Nirvana museum or something similar installed in the sleepy former lumber town that Cobain used to call home -- something to draw a bit of business to the place. Or a fancy Cobain statue erected on the streets, ala the Hendrix one on Cap Hill.

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The starting price is steep--but what do you expect for a piece of Seattle music history?

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Here, in tribute to the Seattle label's 20 years of not going out of business, are my favorite 20 releases from Sub Pop from the past two decades. I encourage you to check out their catalog and provide yours, too.

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As if we all needed another reason to buy No Sweats...

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February 20th marks Kurt Cobain’s 41st Birthday, and to mark this we're giving away a Kurt Cobain About A Son DVD.

To enter to win your very own copy of the DVD: email us at this link (to tig@threeimaginarygirls.com with the subject line "Cobain DVD") before midnight on Wednesday, February 20th, 6p PST.

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A delectable mashup to distract you from last night's fading hangover.

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Krist looks like a down-and-out math teacher rather than the former bassists of the most influential bands of rock and roll.

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Krist Novoselic has joined the local media, blogging for Seattle Weekly.

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