(Credit: Scott Gries)

Are you old enough to remember what a game-changer it was when Nirvana played Unplugged? I am. I swear to you I took s--- from my mother for four years after that, for wearing this moth-eaten mohair cardigan (just like Kurt's!) I found at Salvation Army (after months of looking!). "Daniel!" She'd squawk. "Some poor old lady died in that thing! Pleeease let me throw it out?" No mom. No way.

Watching Pearl Jam Unplugged, I didn't take my shirt off and write "PRO-CHOICE" all over my bare body, even though Eddie did. And I didn't break down and cry in public after Lauryn Hill's performance. But I'll admit that I was tempted on both occasions.

I've seen a few preliminary clips of the new season of MTV Unplugged, and I can promise you that its emotional pull is still very much intact. The series launches Monday with a smoking set by Adele. Have you heard this bad mother belt it yet? Oh my god. She can sing like you wouldn't believe. She gives her smoky set of old soul torch songs the acoustic treatment in a performance that's actually kind of reminiscent of Lauryn Hill's!

Because I know I'm totally incapable of waiting until Monday, I'm gonna go ahead and pop a playlist of classic Unplugged performances in the bottom of this post. Relive the show's finest moments and come back Monday to see it reborn!

+ Exclusive photos of Adele's Unplugged performance

+ Classic MTV Unplugged photo flipbook

Is it possible that, despite what history and everyday logic would tell you, that Soul Asylum invented the Seattle sound... in Minneapolis? Dave Pirner and co started seasoning Neil Young loner folk with country twang and punk aggression back in 1981, the same year  Kurt Cobain was picking out Cars covers on his first guitar at 14.

The sound they came up with was definitely grunge. Whether or not Soul Asylum was the first band to play it doesn't really matter. It's usually impossible to attribute the origins of musical styles to single artists, anyway.

But the fact that Soul Asylum didn't come out of the '90s as notorious as Nirvana, Pearl Jam and Smashing Pumpkins did, is a little bit surprising -- I mean come on. Look at Dave Pirner! He was like Meg Ryan with dreadlocks! And that scratchy crybaby voice... Man. Sweetest dude ever. No wonder Winona Ryder was so wild for him. Now you can't even find a decent photo of him on the internet. WEIRD.

In the Unplugged performance below, Soul Asylum go easy on their classic Grave Dancers Union opener, "Somebody To Shove," fleshing it out with an orchestra. Watch the video, and tell me that song's not just as good as "Bullet With Butterfly Wings."

When Kurt Cobain shot himself, it hurt way worse than the botched tonsilectomy I'd had a few weeks before. As it was, I was laid up on the couch with a stack of plastic Blockbuster shells -- Singles, Reality Bites, Jurassic Park -- and endless orange sherbet. So, my throat was already shot and my head gone on painkillers when Kurt Loder broke my heart and everybody else's April 8, 1994, cutting into whatever MTV programming (music videos!) was underway, to announce that our scruffy hero was dead. What were you doing? Do you remember? (Were you born?)

I don't remember if I was a huge Nirvana fan before all that. I do remember reading Jurassic Park along to the tape of Nevermind that my dad picked up at a truck stop on the long drive from Wisconsin to visit my grandparents in New York. I still think of dinosaurs when I hear "In Bloom." I had Nevermind and Bleach. I thought "Pennyroyal Tea" was the coolest song I'd ever heard.

But before that news broke and the nationwide Nirvana marathon began, Nirvana was just songs. Not to get all Wonder Years on you, but on the day Kurt died and in the weeks following, those songs took on this new meaning, like they were proof that our world was different beyond recognition from the one our parents grew up in.

Of course, that's a little dramatic and not exactly true. But if you didn't live it up close, you might not realize what a moment in history it was, when mainstream fame got so ugly that one of its most gifted recipients chose death, just to get away from it.

Kurt Cobain made an indelible mark on pop culture when he made that terrible and sad mistake. He also added whispery new meanings to his grungy poems, turning them all into go-nowhere clues about the unraveling of a brilliant mind. Flip through his life in photos and watch this video on his musical significance, before watching Nirvana's greatest videos, embedded below.

+ Get Kurt Corbain's story in detail at MTV News.

Back in '91, before all the glitz and graphics and manipulatively salacious voiceovers, all we had at MTV were great bands, board games and a huge amount of lard. That's no clever wordplay. I literally mean that we had a ton of Crisco on hand. Or so it would seem from the very lo-fi production below, in which Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic strips down to briefs and gets a full body Crisco massage from Kurt Cobain and Dave Grohl, before playing slippery Twister with Smashing Pumpkins.

Billy Corgan has long hair. I forgot that was even possible. Also, pre-peroxide James Iha looks so nervous, it's amazing he didn't die. Watch as a very lively (read: alive) Kurt Cobain playfully launches globs of Crisco across the room as a quiet audience inexplicably barely looks up from their beers and cigarettes. It looks like it's about one in the afternoon. What?! The nineties officially made absolutely no sense.

(Credit: Brian Appio)

Before blistering the paint off of NYC's Highline Ballroom with Ludo, Sing It Loud and The Morning Light, This Providence dropped by MTV for a photo session and a quick interview. The Seattle boys with the Aussie accent (courtesy of frontman Dan Young) have been banging out noisy, emotional anthems since 2003, in one incarnation or another.

In 2006, Young and his high school buddy/guitarist Gavin Phillips picked up David Blaise on bass and got signed to Fueled By Ramen. In 2007, they added Andy Horst on drums, toured with Paramore and officially started having to fight off hordes of fans with sticks. Here's a little insight into why you need their Who Are You Now? record (out March 17) more than you need water or toilet paper.

Buzzworthy: Here's an easy one -- why are you called This Providence?
This Providence: Well, you know, the meaning. Divine intervention. We like the idea of that. Destiny. That kind of describes us as a band. We were called and destined to make music.

BW: Y'all are from Seattle. There's a lot of musical baggage there. What do you connect more with: grunge or emo?
TP: Well, a little bit of everything, really. We're fans of Death Cab, Sunny Day, Jeremy Enigk... We like Nirvana. Have you heard of them? Don't know when they're gonna go on tour again, though. We've just been waiting.

BW: Would you call yourselves an emo band?
TP: (Dan Young) Yeah, we're pretty emo. We have depth to our music, and that's one kind of depth we have.

(Andy Horst) I don't even know what emo is anymore.

(Dan Young) Emo is just crying because your heart's broken. That's what songs have always been about.

(Gavin Phillips) We won't be mad if someone calls us emo.

BW: Does "My Beautiful Rescue" have a backstory?
TP: It does have a backstory, but I don't wanna share it, really. It's just a song about falling in love with someone you don't deserve.

BW: You've done a lot of touring with Paramore. Any gnarly road stories?
TP: Paramore are awesome. There's a girl in that band. We've toured with them a lot.

BW: Any falling in love?
TP: Unfortunately, no. Well, with Josh (Farro) a little bit. He's a looker.

BW: I'm sure "That Girl's A Trick" is about falling in love, too, right?
TP: Ha, yeah. It's about falling for the wrong girl.

BW: So you are totally emo!
TP: Yeah, see!

Watch "My Beautiful Rescue" and check This Providence's tour schedule to see when they're coming to your venue of choice.

Yes! It's finally here! The cover of 21st Century Breakdown, the new Green Day record! What now, blink-182?! You're gonna have to do better than announcing your reunion! The neo-punk legend gauntlet has been thrown!

Enough of that hype. Will you take a look at their beautiful cover art? Looks like Billie Joe and co. are going for an elder statesmen, classic punk vibe, a la The Clash. To help them pull it off, they've got Butch Vig (who you may remember from Nirvana's Nevermind) working the dials on 16 tracks divided into three sections: Heroes and Cons, Charlatans and Saints and Horseshoes and Handgrenades. Although it's slated for a May 2009 release, 21st Century Breakdown is already available for pre-order!

+ Jennifer Lopez has successfully completed her first triathlon in spite of the bizarre ankle injury that supposedly prevented her from hosting the Project Runway finale (E! Online)

+ Meanwhile, Britney Spears has revealed that her new album, The Circus, will be out December 2nd, in honor of her 27th birthday. (Billboard)

+ Fall Out Boy has dislosed that their upcoming "mixtape" album, New Administration, will feature a Katy Perry-inspired compilation track entitled "I Kissed A Boy." (MTV)

+ Nirvana's manager characterizes Courtney Love as a blonder, boozier version of Yoko Ono. (NME)

+ Motley Crue's Nikki Sixx refuses to classify Miley Cyrus and/or the Jonas Brothers as "rock & roll." (Rolling Stone)

+ Speaking of the Jonas Brothers -- the JBs admit to eating crayons. (Jonasbrothersangels)

+ Carrie Underwood inadvertently ruins Kenny Chesney's romantic aspirations. (The Boot)

+ Kanye West may be acquitted on any/all paparazzi camera-smashing charges. (MTV)

+ Which works out well for Lindsay Lohan, who just pulled a Kanye and clocked a nearby photog for no apparent reason. (Scandalist)

+ Amy Winehouse warned by court officials to stop flirting with her hubby, Blake Fielder-Civil. Yes, seriously. (Hollywood Rag)

+ Kurt Cobain's ashes, which Courtney Love allegedly kept in a pink teddybear-shaped bag (must... resist... "Heart Shaped Box" joke... so inappropriate but... so... hard...), have gone missing. (Current)

+ Metallica will get an eponymous version of "Guitar Hero" in 2009. Take that, Aerosmith! (Multiplayer)

+ Watch promo clips of Pete Wentz's upcoming new show, F N MTV, where the Fall Out Boy talks music, conducts hard-hitting interviews...and, um, chats with Spencer from The Hills. (MTV)

+ Wanna get dirty? Here's a step-by-step guide to dancing like Christina Aguilera. (Cityrag)

+ Meanwhile, John Mayer gets ticketed for driving without front or rear license plates. Which is typically frowned upon by the LAPD. (TMZ)

+ As anyone who watched the American Idol finale already knows, the episode did not, in any way, feature Michael Jackson. Reportedly, the King of Pop was originally slated to perform but then buckled under the pressure of doing a live, nationally-televised comeback. (Stuff)

Considered one of the greatest bands in the history of rock music, Seattle grunge legends Nirvana helped bring alternative rock to the forefront in the early '90s, likely influencing most of your favorite bands today.

However, the band's quick rise to fame was fleeting. Not to be all morbid, but on this day in 1994, frontman Kurt Cobain was found dead in his home. Apparently the result of suicide, Kurt's sudden death was a tragic loss for music fans the world over.

To honor Kurt, here's the single that made Nirvana a household name. It's from their breakthrough album Nevermind, released in 1991:

Click for more classic Nirvana videos, including a clip from their epic MTV Unplugged performance in 1993.

You guys were so intense about Cobra Starship's recent Artist of the Week stint that y'all nearly started a freaking comment jihad. To the point where we were almost a little scared at times. Seriously, we've seen people get less emotional over their family dog getting hit by a car. We envisioned lots of beating of chests and rending of clothing on your part. So we're just gonna post these clips of Gabe Saporta on MTV2's "Saturday Rock the Deuce" quietly and quickly and then back away slowly with our hands up.

(More clips after the jump.)

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