Session Information
With another brief break in Nirvana tour dates, February 1991 saw Dave Grohl once again heading home to Virginia and Barrett Jones’ Laundry Room Studio. With the help of Jones, three songs were recorded in a single day.
First to be recorded was ‘Color Pictures of a Marigold’, a song that Grohl had written and first demoed in Kurt Cobain’s Olympia apartment a few months earlier. That initial recording featured only acoustic guitar and whilst now having the opportunity to further the song, he elected to keep it as a simple acoustic + vocals arrangement. Jones had, in fact, labeled it as ‘Nice sweet acoustic song’ on the tape reel box before Grohl had made him aware of the final title.
The second song to be tracked was another new song written by Grohl which would later be known as ‘Petrol CB’, but at the time of recording it was known rather vaguely as ‘That Song’. As was now commonplace for Grohl all instruments for the track were recorded by himself, although Jones did add backing vocals.
Finally, the pair decided to let off some steam and recorded a cover of the Kim Wilde classic ‘Kids In America’. The recording once again featured Grohl on all instruments with Jones on backing vocals. Towards the end of the song, a tambourine and bar chime feature, the pair having fun experimenting with different instruments.
The two original tracks were, along with eight others, given by Grohl to Jenny Toomey for her Simple Machines cassette series, although ‘Petrol CB’ would first see release on the labels ‘Neapolitan Metropolitan’. The compilation released in early 1992 brought together songs from artists in Baltimore, Richmond and Washington D.C. with Grohl’s contribution, now titled ‘There’s That Song’, featured on the white Washington D.C. record.
Later that year saw the release of ‘Late! - Pocketwatch’, featuring both ‘Color Pictures Of A Marigold’ and now correctly titled ‘Petrol CB’. The two tracks were however erroneously credited as being recorded at an earlier session in 1990, due to Grohl mixing the two sessions on one cassette given to Jenny Toomey.
Fans became aware of the Kim Wilde cover in the mid-2000s but it wasn’t until 2015 that ‘Kids In America’ was released, featured on the special Record Store Day EP ‘Songs From The Laundry Room’.
