by Moses Namkung

After the end of "Come As You Are" on Nirvana's MTV Unplugged in New York, Kurt Cobain introduces the next song by saying, "This was written by the Vaselines." Yep. That's the only thing we really knew about the band for years.

On the one hand, it's too bad that everything ever written about the Vaselines has to mention Nirvana within the first couple sentences. But on the other, if superfan Kurt Cobain was not inextricably part of their history, the Vaselines, composed primarily of Eugene Kelly and Frances McKee, wouldn't be reuniting and embarking on their first US tour after twenty years -- they'd have been forgotten long ago.