Nirvana “Bleach” Framed Album Sleeve – 1989

Description

This is the original 1989 Sub Pop sleeve for Nirvana’s Bleach—the moment before the avalanche. Tracy Marander’s black-and-white photograph captures the band inverted, upside-down in a tiny Aberdeen rehearsal room, guitars hanging like weapons, Cobain’s eyes half-closed in something between exhaustion and defiance. The negative-space Sub Pop logo and hand-stenciled title feel like protest art photocopied at 3 a.m.—because that’s exactly what they were.

This sleeve comes from the first pressing on white vinyl, limited to 1,000 copies—a run so small it sold out before anyone knew what Nirvana would become. The paper stock is the original matte stock from the initial run—thin, slightly textured, with the microscopic imperfections that disappeared once Geffen’s millions took over.

A genuine artifact from the pre-Nevermind era, when music was still physical, regional, and fiercely independent.