With "Nevermind," Nirvana has certainly succeeded. There are enough intriguing textures, mood shifts, instrumental snippets and inventive word plays to provide for hours of entertainment. "Lounge Act" closes with an extended guitar chord that suddenly distorts and loses shape like a crayon melting on a radiator. "On a Plain" ends on a fade-out, but its luscious three-part harmonies remain at full volume a few extra seconds. "Polly," a slow, disturbing song about a woman trying to escape from a rapist, features little more than the dull, dry strum of an acoustic guitar. "That song," said Mr. Novoselic, "is pretty much Kurt's. We got him this left-handed Fender Mustang guitar for $20. He really liked that guitar, and he wrote some great songs on it. He wound up smashing it, being Kurt."

Nirvana started up in 1987 in the small town of Aberdeen, Wash. Mr. Novoselic summarized the band's history this way: "We were living in this coastal town in Washington State, typical repressions were happening, we all felt odd, like why are we weird, and we started listening to punk rock. We were listening to the Dead Kennedys and Millions of Dead Cops, and getting these radical political messages that society is really screwed up. And we started getting our own group together." Junky Equipment, but Motivation

Mr. Cobain had an aunt who was a struggling country-western singer, so he had access to a portable four-track tape recorder for making demos. Mr. Novoselic bought a bass, and together they found a drummer (Nirvana went through four drummers before recuiting David Grohl, who plays on "Nevermind"). "We had just the junkiest equipment, but we were really motivated," Mr. Novoselic said. "We practiced every day and in a couple of weeks we had a bunch of songs. We took it very seriously."

By 1989, Nirvana had released singles, an EP and a debut album, "Bleach," on the ultra-hip Seattle independent label Sub Pop, earning the band the status of indie-rock heroes. At first, Mr. Novoselic said, the band was leery of signing a major-label record deal. "We were terrified," he said. "But we drove down to L.A. and found an attorney and started talking to these label people. We toured all these major-label offices and found out how they worked. We just gained an education and are comfortable with it now."

As a result, "Nevermind" is more sophisticated and carefully produced than anything peer bands like Dinosaur Jr. and Mudhoney have yet offered. And for all Nirvana's pledged nihilism, there are a number of issues the band strongly supports. "We're pro-feminist," Mr. Novoselic said. "Sexism is just as bad as racism. We've made it clear that we're going to play all-ages venues on this tour. And we're total leftists. We're going to demand the socialization of the music industry. Records are going to be free to everybody."