Geffen allowed them to sign bands?
 

i had never heard of this before. did they ever actually sign any?

I don't think they signed anyone. They did do some unofficial A&R work, which of course led to this group called Nirvana getting rather popular.

Didn't they sign Cell?

I think it was a similar A&Rish deal. I suppose in the grand vernacular, that's what most people mean by "signing". God, Cell were the most mediocre rock band I ever saw open for SY. What the hell were they thinking??

How about BYOP?

considering Keith Neely of Cell was a tech for SY, it makes sense, it's odd though, i found a joint review rolling stone did for Cell's Slo-Blo and Gumball's Super Tasty, an they were praising Cell's unique sound and shit on Gumball for sounding too cookie cutter, yet Super Tasty is a hell of a record, and yeah Cell's was kinda underwhelming much of the time