How did you get into a band
 

I got into Genesis 'cause I'd read that one of my fav Paul McCartney songs of recent years was ripped off from an early Genesis song. I went to y/t to listen and loved it so I thought I'd check out the album...

I got into Meat Puppets because of Nirvana's covers, even though I now dislike Nirvana, I still love Meat Puppets.

The only band I really remember how I got into (or is worth telling) is The Mars Volta.
On last.fm some fourteen-year-old with an explicit loli avatar left me about four paragraphs about my taste in prog and recommended that I checked out TMV (he even went in depth about their albums). Normally I don't take recommendations from random last.fm fanboys, but this was so ridiculous that I had to at least listen to a song.

That's a shame. For me

Nirvana > All their influences beside the Pixies

As per the thread, I got into Punch (a female fronted thrashcore band) after betting a friend of mine I could find a female vocalist that was more "hardcore" than that overrated FlyLeaf lead singer. Now they're one of my favorite bands. And I don't even know much at all about their genre.

Nirvana are definetly not as good as Wipers.

I don't know. They were a good punk band. They even transcended the punk rock of the time... but there's a certain charm to Nirvana that I don't pick up on with a lot of other artists. Probably just personal preference since I much prefer the style of Grunge to Punk Rock.

Are you only counting their underground influences? What about Bowie? :O

I say Nirvana is a better band than Bowie, Sabbath, Zeppelin AND the Melvins combined. No disrespect to any of those artists.
The reason I think Nirvana was so great is because they were such a conglomerate of their influences while taking the music in a completely different aesthetic and social direction that speaks to me personally.

Nirvana are good.
Nirvana are not better then Mudhoney, Big Black, Green River, or The Jesus Lizard.

Speaking of Nirvana influence though, anyone check out Scratch Acid? If you like The Jesus Lizard you'll probably like them (David Yow is the vocalist for both).