The 7th annual NFC Christmas Present is now finally online. It got a bit delayed for various reasons this year - and it was a bit difficult to come up with something unique. Each year around Christmas I like to put up something semi-rare by Nirvana, be it a live recording or some sort of movie clips. This year you can listen to the entire recording (well, what's available, anyway) of Nirvana's first ever concert. The 'show' took place at some house party back in March of 1987 in the city of Raymond, WA. It is not the most crystal-clear hi-fi recording one could wish for, but it is nevertheless quite good considering the circumstances and the fact that Nirvana were hardly a band back then. The setlist is interesting to say the least - offering some very early compositions, some of which have not been released officially to this day. This also marks the first update of the news section in almost a month in a year that has been quite dull when it comes to Nirvana-related events. Anyhow, you can find this year's NFC X-Mas present here.

Kurt Cobain graces the cover of the December 13 issue of NME, detailing his Top 50 favorite albums of all time. The Top 50 list was derived from the 'Journals' book which was recently published in a paperback edition with some new content. The previous issue of NME had an article where they set out to reveal a 'new' Nirvana song. "This is an exclusive look at some unfinished Nirvana lyrics, published for the first time in the new edition of Kurt Cobain's Journals. Alongside Cobain's thoughts and prose is 'Travelin White Thrash Couple', the verse/chorus format of [sic] which suggests it was intended for a song. The new lyrics raise the question of whether any more unheard material exists." Unfortunately, NME's journalists apparently forgot about Nirvana's Bleach album when writing the article as the song in question is merely Swap Meet released some 14 years ago. View the magazine covers: #1 - #2

Some news on a possible upcoming DVD edition of "1991: The Year Punk Broke" which features several Nirvana performances and backstage clips of the band: "We're getting together the first official Sonic Youth DVDs which will be jammed with anything/everything that needs to be jammed onto DVD. More info on these as they get closer but a full scale Geffen-era video retrospective will be released including the full on GOO video reel w/ extras. Commentary by a number of people from Kathleen Hannah to Richard Kern will be there for personal edification. Dave Markey, director of 1991: THE YEAR PUNK BROKE, has prepared an awesome 2-DVD set of that film with tons of unseen footage of us, Nirvana and others w/ commentary by Thurston and Dave. This one may have to wait for legal issues with various aspects of the film to be straightened out though." Courtesy of Sonic Youth's official website. Also thanks to Scott.

MSN recently compiled a list of the 'Ten Most Influential Popular Music Albums Since Elvis' (whew!) and Nirvana made it to spot #10 with Nevermind: "Dying young is always a good career move and Kurt Cobain took his own life when he was still in his artistic prime. With the jury still out on Radiohead, Nirvana is the last band to change the direction of mainstream music, combining the passion of punk with the power of heavy metal and the lyrical ambition of Patti Smith. 'Here we are now. Entertain us' is about as raw and honest as music gets." Number one on the list is The Beatles with Rubber Soul. Article by Eric Alterman. Link courtesy of Chris.