Bayer kicked his career off with a bang, as his first project out of the gate was as the director of Nirvana’s legendary “Smells Like Teen Spirit” video. It was Bayer who put the band in the famous pep rally from hell and inspired the anarchic mosh pit that closes out the clip. For many, the lasting image of Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain is of him shouting “A denial!” in an uncomfortable close-up at the end of that video.

Though you would think that Bayer would have trouble topping himself (especially considering “Smells Like Teen Spirit” regularly appears near the top on lists of the greatest videos of all time), he managed to keep up an incredible career, amassing all sorts of awards and buzz along the way. He is responsible for Green Day’s “American Idiot,” Justin Timberlake’s “What Goes Around,” Blind Melon’s “No Rain” and My Chemical Romance’s “Welcome to the Black Parade.” But it all began with “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” which remains just as intense as it was back in 1991. Enjoy it along with a select collection of Bayer’s greatest clips below.

“It started when I came on this one talk show and got on someone’s desk and took my shirt off and danced on it. Drew Barrymore had done it when she was 19, and I was so out of my mind when I did it, I thought I was 19. But I was actually 39. I did a lot of cocaine back then. I had bad people around me. I abused it. There’s nothing else you can do with cocaine.”

-Controversial Hole mastermind Courtney Love, talking to “The Late Show with David Letterman” host David Letterman about her “lost years,” the period following her 2004 appearance on the show that saw her climb up on the host’s desk and flash her breasts at him. She refers to the subsequent epoch as the “Letterman years,” which saw her abusing drugs and disappearing from the music and movie worlds that she had inhabited so often for 15 years prior.

But Love is sober now, and has a new album with her a reconstituted version of her band Hole called Nobody’s Daughter (which just hit store shelves today). Love has fought her way back into the music world, delivering an inspired comeback performance at this year’s South By Southwest Festival, embarking on a well-received tour and appearing on a bunch of talk shows this week (including an appearance on “The View” earlier today). But despite her kinder, gentler approach to public relations, she still has a few tricks up her sleeve: She told Howard Stern about an affair she had with former Bush frontman Gavin Rossdale while Rossdale was concurrently wooing future wife Gwen Stefani and got into a Twitter battle with Smashing Pumpkins frontman (and also ex-boyfriend) Billy Corgan.

For many late night fans, the countdown is on until the debut of Conan O’Brien’s new show, which is set to appear on cable station TBS at 11 p.m. some time this fall. When the still-untitled show debuts, you’ll really see some fireworks and one-upsmanship not only between O’Brien and former rival Jay Leno but also between O’Brien and David Letterman, Jimmy Kimmel, Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert as they all struggle for late night dominance. But before those fireworks start blazing, we still have plenty of comedy, music and interviews to enjoy during the time when we should be climbing into bed, and this week offers up a bevy of excellent diversions from slumber.

Letterman has a particularly explosive week ahead of him, as he’ll talk to recent “American Idol” reject Tim Urban on Monday (April 26) and will welcome the always-unpredictable Courtney Love for an interview and performance on Tuesday (April 27). The rest of the week is just as packed, with OK Go stopping by on Wednesday (April 28), the cast of “American Idiot” performing on Thursday (April 29) and the always-rocking Hold Steady on Friday (April 30). That is one loud week of late night rock.

Leno counters with a quieter but more eclectic batch of musical guests, featuring Melissa Etheridge on Monday and Laura Bell Bundy on Thursday. He’ll also chat with Jessica Simpson on Tuesday and California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger on Thursday. Across town, Kimmel will turn the amps on for Dr. Dog (Wednesday) and another visit from Courtney Love and Hole (Thursday).

In the extra-late hour, Jimmy Fallon will welcome the likes of Gogol Bordello (Monday), Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings (Wednesday) and Paramore (Thursday) during another music-centric week for him. Meanwhile, “The Colbert Report” has been inching farther into awesome music territory (they had Gorillaz on last week) with visits from Sharon Jones and OK Go on Monday and Thursday, respectively.

The daytime shows don’t offer as much in music this week, though Courtney Love will be on Wednesday’s edition of “The View,” which should be a good time. And be sure to tune in to “Ellen” on Wednesday for a sit-down and performance with Shakira.

What guest are you most looking forward to on the last night shows this week? Let us know in the comments!

There’s a new twist in the ongoing saga Aerosmith saga. The beleaguered band has had problematic relations with lead singer Steven Tyler, leading to rumors that Joe Perry and company would be recruiting a new singer while Tyler got whatever help he needed. But the band has announced that they will play a series of European festivals in June, and they’ve promised that Tyler will indeed serve as the frontman. “I love performing as the lead singer in Aerosmith,” Tyler said. “I am grateful for all of the support and love I am receiving and am committed to getting things taken care of.”

Tyler entered a rehab facility in December, but a series of strange instances (including a visit to a karaoke bar and gig singing in a Home Depot) have created doubt among fans as to what Tyler’s future with the band would be. Aerosmith have been through a lot as a band (drug issues, public apathy, that one time their drummer set himself on fire), but they’re becoming dangerously close to joining the pantheon of bands who become known more for their personal drama than for the music itself. Who else is in that pantheon? Glad you asked!

Courtney Love/Hole
Love didn’t invent the concept of band drama, but she certainly refined it to an art form. It’s been six years since she released her debut solo album America’s Sweetheart, and since then, she has gone to war with the former members of Nirvana, her old bandmates in Hole, the makers of “Guitar Hero,” a credit card company and her own daughter Frances Bean Cobain. She is only now making her live performance comeback, though her heavily-bootlegged follow-up album Nobody’s Daughter remains somewhere in limbo. But even if her new album is the new decade’s version of Kid A, her personal drama will still eclipse the music.

Whatever Band Pete Doherty Is Currently In
The beleaguered British star, who first broke out with the Libertines and then formed Babyshambles, is known more for dating Kate Moss and taking photos of himself while doing drugs than anything he has ever recorded. Every time he schedules a concert, the question becomes not “What will he play?” but rather “Will he make it to the stage?”

Amy Winehouse
She grabbed everyone’s attention back in 2006 when her Back to Black floored music fans around the world and launched a mini-genre of her very own. But since Winehouse won five Grammys, it’s been nothing but issues involving drugs, her health, her strange relationship with her parents, her legal problems and her relationship with on-again/off-again boyfriend/husband Blake Fielder-Civil.

Oasis
When they were putting out all-time great singles like “Wonderwall” and “Supersonic,” everybody was willing to overlook the fact that the two brothers at the front of the action were constantly at odds. But in the past few years of middling albums and go-nowhere singles, all of the focus has been on the war of words between Liam and Noel Gallagher. And even though the band officially broke it off last year, whenever either brother puts out any music, the question will immediately be “What does the other brother think?”

Axl Rose
No fewer than 17,000 people have been in Guns N’ Roses since the release of the Use Your Illusion albums and Axl essentially turned the group into a solo project. Since then, he has floated in and out of the public’s consciousness, released one album and sporadically toured (most recently, he showed up for a surprise show during New York Fashion Week). The drama surrounding Rose and his various players has long eclipsed the fact that “Welcome to the Jungle” still rules.

In a strange bit of cosmic coincidence, today also marks the 18th birthday of Spencer Elden, better known as the nude baby on the cover of Nirvana’s Nevermind. Elden’s parents were paid $200 to take the photo, with the fishhook and dollar bill added later. In an interview in 2007, Elden remarked that he sort of feels like a porn star because so many people have seen his penis.

Nevermind represented the beginning of the ’90s alt-rock revolution and made Nirvana into one of the biggest bands in the world — and it also turned both Elden and Love into generational icons. In honor of their birthdays, enjoy a live version of Nirvana’s “Drain You.”