Rethinking the Grunge era

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Doors Alice in Chains fans aren't made, they're born!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5xillqqt0Y0

my opinionation (Hamildan), Monday, 8 July 2013 14:10 (ten years ago) link

I kind of think it's more about parents not letting go of the music they liked 20 years ago these days, rather than kids discovering it off their own backs. My 18yo went to see Mudhoney the other month with her mother, but has no interest in anything I tell her about that I think she'd like.

Troughton-masked Replicant (aldo), Monday, 8 July 2013 14:26 (ten years ago) link

So she wont be going to see terminal cheesecake with you then?

Algerian Goalkeeper, Monday, 8 July 2013 14:30 (ten years ago) link

No, "that's just noise". I think she might go for a Silverfish reunion though.

Troughton-masked Replicant (aldo), Monday, 8 July 2013 14:32 (ten years ago) link

Woah I thought you were joking but Terminal Cheesecake are playing some festival in August! Fingers crossed for Loop/Terminal Cheesecake gig in London next year then...

Just noise and screaming and no musical value at all. (Colonel Poo), Monday, 8 July 2013 15:01 (ten years ago) link

Did the UK have any worthwhile contribution to the whole Grunge era? There must be somebody right, but I'm racking my brains and coming up with nothing.

― MaresNest, Monday, July 8, 2013 2:34 AM (5 hours ago)

I saw Swervedriver open for Soundgarden in 1992.

Jersey Al (Albert R. Broccoli), Monday, 8 July 2013 15:36 (ten years ago) link

Didn't Swervedriver have a kind of shoegazerist quality to them? The story was that shoegaze was killed off by grunge, but now that I'm thinking about it, there was probably a notable bit of traffic between these scenes.

MikoMcha, Monday, 8 July 2013 15:43 (ten years ago) link

If anyone bridged the divide between the two, it was Swervedriver.

Ⓓⓡ. (Johnny Fever), Monday, 8 July 2013 15:45 (ten years ago) link

or Eric's Trip

hoops i did it mccann (NickB), Monday, 8 July 2013 15:46 (ten years ago) link

Shoegaze derailed by BritPop maybe more accurate?

MaresNest, Monday, 8 July 2013 15:47 (ten years ago) link

Smashing Pumpkins (if you wanna count them as grunge) also took some cues from shoegaze on the other side.

MikoMcha, Monday, 8 July 2013 15:47 (ten years ago) link

Neil Halstead: “When Nirvana came along and grunge came over, it kind of kicked shoegaze out of the water. Oddly enough, a lot of the bands had similar roots to bands we were into.”

MikoMcha, Monday, 8 July 2013 15:49 (ten years ago) link

Smashing Pumpkins early on seemed to escape grunge labelling. They were "alternative," but not ever viewed as part of the grunge explosion.

Ⓓⓡ. (Johnny Fever), Monday, 8 July 2013 15:49 (ten years ago) link

catherine wheel's chrome might actually be my fave grunge album.

scott seward, Monday, 8 July 2013 15:51 (ten years ago) link

shoegaze and grunge were of the same ilk to me. They didn't sound too much the same, but both were good for being a 13-year-old practicing using a lighter all afternoon.

how's life, Monday, 8 July 2013 15:54 (ten years ago) link

re: SP. Yeah, sure. They weren't from Seattle, I was quite strict about those kinds of things as a teenager ;)

MikoMcha, Monday, 8 July 2013 15:55 (ten years ago) link

chrome had the soft/loud thing. sounded cool. actually that spacemen 3 album with when tomorrow hits on it might be my fave grunge album. just for that song.

scott seward, Monday, 8 July 2013 16:03 (ten years ago) link

Only "grunge" I really had much interest in was Hammerbox, but Carrie's vox and the guitarist's effects (way more than just a Big Muff) made them only tangentially related anyway imo.

New Authentic Everybootsy Collins (Dan Peterson), Monday, 8 July 2013 16:09 (ten years ago) link

never could get into hammerbox. or much of anything on c/z, tbh.

twerking for obvious reasons (contenderizer), Monday, 8 July 2013 16:16 (ten years ago) link

I used to run a challops racket involving claiming the best grunge band was actually Stone Temple Pilots, but now I just admit that it's Soundgarden.

i don't even have an internet (Hurting 2), Monday, 8 July 2013 16:16 (ten years ago) link

in seattle, punk-rooted dumbass grunge seemed to compete with a strain grown more obviously from metal, prog, funk and jazzy art rock (that intersection defining a HUGE amount of what was going on in town, musically). c/z skewed slightly toward the latter, and i camped with the former.

twerking for obvious reasons (contenderizer), Monday, 8 July 2013 16:20 (ten years ago) link

^^^ yeah, that'd be an interesting take sides: Sub Pop vc. C/Z. I'm not all that familiar with either catalog tbh.

New Authentic Everybootsy Collins (Dan Peterson), Monday, 8 July 2013 16:25 (ten years ago) link

"vs."

New Authentic Everybootsy Collins (Dan Peterson), Monday, 8 July 2013 16:25 (ten years ago) link

problem is that c/z never generated a breakout mainstream act, where sub pop fielded nirvana, mudhoney and soundgarden (the latter an outlier on the label's roster in that they refused to play dumb, flashed sick chops & drew on influences outside sludgy punk & hard rock).

i guess 7 year bitch were c/z's biggest band (in terms of visibility, if not sales). maybe that first built to spill album?

twerking for obvious reasons (contenderizer), Monday, 8 July 2013 16:36 (ten years ago) link

Skin Yard was the best band on C/Z, don't really like much else though.

Most underrated Sub Pop band of the era was Rein Sanction, who kind of sounded like a jazzier Dinosaur Jr with maybe a dash less Crazy Horse in their blood and a bit more of the Jimi Hendrix Experience. Broc's Cabin still sounds incredible to me.

hoops i did it mccann (NickB), Monday, 8 July 2013 16:43 (ten years ago) link

The Gits, you fools

Just noise and screaming and no musical value at all. (Colonel Poo), Monday, 8 July 2013 16:46 (ten years ago) link

Where is the love for Big Poo Generator?

hoops i did it mccann (NickB), Monday, 8 July 2013 16:48 (ten years ago) link

are the grifters grunge?

marcos, Monday, 8 July 2013 16:51 (ten years ago) link

i don't know if they always caught that label but they seem to represent the best aspects of grunge imo

marcos, Monday, 8 July 2013 16:52 (ten years ago) link

I think my most-played C/Z LP was by Slack, Portland wacky funk that hasn't aged well. Tone Dogs were on C/Z too (love Amy Denio!) but we're far removed from grunge there...

New Authentic Everybootsy Collins (Dan Peterson), Monday, 8 July 2013 16:55 (ten years ago) link

C/Z's very first release (Deep Six LP from 1986) was more grunge than anything Sub Pop ever produced:

http://www.discogs.com/Various-Deep-Six/release/1812635

Green River – "10,000 Things" – 3:37
Melvins – "Scared" – 2:19
Melvins – "Blessing the Operation" – 0:44
Malfunkshun – "With Yo' Heart (Not Yo' Hands)" – 3:54
Skin Yard – "Throb" – 5:29
Soundgarden – "Heretic" – 3:22
Soundgarden – "Tears to Forget" – 2:06
Malfunkshun – "Stars-N-You" – 1:46
Melvins – "Grinding Process" – 2:09
Melvins – "She Waits" – 0:40
Skin Yard – "The Birds" - 3:56
Soundgarden – "All Your Lies" – 3:53
Green River – "Your Own Best Friend" – 6:21
The U-Men – "They" – 3:32

Jersey Al (Albert R. Broccoli), Monday, 8 July 2013 17:01 (ten years ago) link

Sub Pop 200 tracklist is pretty grunge though:

"Sex God Missy" - Tad
"Is It Day I'm Seeing?" - The Fluid
"Spank Thru" - Nirvana
"Come Out Tonight" - Steven J. Bernstein
"The Rose" - Mudhoney
"Got No Chains" - The Walkabouts
"Dead Is Dead" - Terry Lee Hale
"Sub Pop Rock City" - Soundgarden
"Hangin' Tree" - Green River
"Swallow My Pride" - Fastbacks
"The Outback" - Blood Circus
"Zoo" - Swallow
"Underground" - Chemistry Set
"Gonna Find a Cave" - Girl Trouble
"Split" - The Nights And Days
"Big Cigar" - Cat Butt
"Pajama Party in a Haunted Hive" - Beat Happening
"Love or Confusion" - Screaming Trees (Jimi Hendrix cover)
"Untitled" - Steve Fisk
"You Lost It" - The Thrown Ups

Ralph Vogon Williams (NickB), Monday, 8 July 2013 17:05 (ten years ago) link

I used to run a challops racket involving claiming the best grunge band was actually Stone Temple Pilots, but now I just admit that it's Soundgarden.

Nah.

Tad > Mudhoney pre-1990 > Soundgarden > Mudhoney post-1990 >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Pearl Jam >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Nirvana

誤訳侮辱, Monday, 8 July 2013 17:09 (ten years ago) link

yeah, deep six was awesome, love most of those songs. heavy as hell and probably the single best document of grunge ground zero. way more ferociously single-minded in its attack than either of the early sub-pop comps. if you culled a bunch of the best SP tracks from 87-90, you could beat it, but that's hardly fair.

twerking for obvious reasons (contenderizer), Monday, 8 July 2013 17:19 (ten years ago) link

my list would probably go (not worrying about what phase of who):

melvins > mudhoney > nirvana > tad > soundgarden > screaming trees > the fluid >>>>>> some other stuff

twerking for obvious reasons (contenderizer), Monday, 8 July 2013 17:28 (ten years ago) link

I have never thought of the Melvins as a grunge band. But I never liked them until they assimilated Big Business.

誤訳侮辱, Monday, 8 July 2013 17:48 (ten years ago) link

they're not grunge canon, but the label fits them better than most who carry it. huge inspiration to (and contemporary of) the bands for whom the term was coined.

twerking for obvious reasons (contenderizer), Monday, 8 July 2013 17:56 (ten years ago) link

it is hard for me to accept the existence of those who would deny lysol & bullhead

twerking for obvious reasons (contenderizer), Monday, 8 July 2013 17:57 (ten years ago) link

I do kinda like Lysol, actually, but mostly for the cover songs.

誤訳侮辱, Monday, 8 July 2013 18:31 (ten years ago) link

i've tried with melvins i really have. well, in a youtube way anyway. i never hear anything i really like. they allude me. and they totally sound like grunge every time i hear them.

scott seward, Monday, 8 July 2013 19:59 (ten years ago) link

i think the only grungy thing i own is that Only Living Witness double CD that Decibel magazine made me buy cuz everyone at Decibel loves them. or Albert did anyway. pretty good. though they weren't technically grunge. too metallic. but they had kind of an alice in chains thing going on. i'd rather listen to Kyuss though. i really like Kyuss.

scott seward, Monday, 8 July 2013 20:02 (ten years ago) link

i mean this is totally grungy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1mGI-_j_i6c

scott seward, Monday, 8 July 2013 20:04 (ten years ago) link

Melvins are pretty good live. If they're playing, say, a block from your house (or your store), and it's free, you should totally check them out.

誤訳侮辱, Monday, 8 July 2013 20:05 (ten years ago) link

Seems like there's a little bit of grunginess creeping up in the last few years of the garage rock scene. Kurt Vile seems kind of grunge-y to me. Or at least Mascis-y. And I saw that Jeff The Brotherhood band open for somebody last summer and it felt like a real grunge flashback... and some of that late-period Jay Reatard stuff reminded me a lot of early Nirvana's poppier stuff.

But I don't listen to any of this stuff or grunge much so I may be making this up as I go along.

brio, Monday, 8 July 2013 23:47 (ten years ago) link

"Kurt Vile seems kind of grunge-y to me. Or at least Mascis-y."

i think "sleepy" is the word...

scott seward, Monday, 8 July 2013 23:56 (ten years ago) link

ty segall is pretty grungey too

wk, Monday, 8 July 2013 23:57 (ten years ago) link

someone mention sic alps and then all the people that make me sleepy will be accounted for.

scott seward, Monday, 8 July 2013 23:58 (ten years ago) link

ha i think i might actually have meant ty seagall, i get him and kurt vile mixed up

brio, Monday, 8 July 2013 23:59 (ten years ago) link

just don't call my new fave band grungy

are FIDLAR the best new rock band?

scott seward, Tuesday, 9 July 2013 00:01 (ten years ago) link


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