Screaming Trees Best Album Poll

You do know you vote for your favorite, right? This isn't "Rank'em Top To Bottom." I laugh every time I see that reaction - "My second/third/nth favorite should have done better! But I, like everyone else, voted for my absolute favorite!"

Sorry, you don't deserve that pissy response. Just think it is funny that it happens every time. Dust is a great album, but obviously not too many people's #1 pick.

I'm just glad to see that all have partisans.

It's not that at all, it's just Dust got the most mentions by people in the thread AND most fans reckon it's their best album, and critics also agree with that, so I'm surprised it wasnt first or second.

there's different schools of trees fans though, aren't there? and for those who love the Epic-era, I think SweetOblivion is their most substantial, their best album. The SST era is more scattered, so SST acolytes chose around the catalogue. To be honest, I'm amazed as many voted as did. Glady so, though.

I'm amazed that Sweet Oblivion got so many votes; it must be a zeitgeist thing because to me it's their most boring album. Yeah it's got Nearly Lost You on it, but for the life of me I can't remember any other tune (aside from Dollar Bill, which I'm not a big fan of).

i have a soft spot for dust mainly because i recall how it really seemed to fall under the radar on its release, despite overwhelmingly positive reviews. i loved it from the day i picked it up all those years ago, and even though it's perhaps a little tame and underpowered in parts, i think it really holds together well.

that said, sweet oblivion will always be my favourite. i listened to this constantly along with other seminal seattle records released around the same time, and i'll always associate it with the singular expressions of its era.

Went with Sweet Oblivion, best (singalong)songs + epic Connertronics + sweet nostalgia.

Coincidentally, the debut is today's album of the day at allmusic.

"epic Connertronics" is right! Listening to "Julie Paradise" again and at about 2:50 in: what's the name of that effect, the one that could be called a wah-wah but also sounds like it has some chorus going on? Is this a standard pedal or something the band put together? Because it sounds great, that swirling roar.

Julie Paradise is my go-to track on this disc

i has a bitchen 10 minute version from a bootleg somewhere...

Their final recordings (1998-1999) will be released in August. No reunion.

http://easystreetonline.com/blog/5268/new-screaming-trees-album-out-in-august

pretty fuckin excited to hear this.

weird. i'm surprised by the amount of enthusiasm and expertise on display itt, though i don't know why i should be. 75 responses to this poll, which must make the screaming trees something of a minor ILM favorite, though seldom discussed.

have mixed feelings about the trees cuz i was at one time something of a fan, despite lanegan reservations and the fact that they never made a record i 100% loved all the way through. i guess they suffered in my mind for being better than das damen, but 2nd to the likes of the meat puppets and dino jr, damned with not-so-faint praise. even if and especially when is my favorite (or was, haven't heard it in ages), with buzz factory a good close second, both more for certain songs than front-to-back perfection. was a sucker for the tough punk edge and spaceflower hippie lyrics on shit like "straight out to anyplace" and "the pathway":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RelQCJmssHk

this was (and still is!) my favorite tho:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eLWLLrjaAzw

Even If And Especially When is such an SST title that when someone namechecks it, I usually assume that it's by Black Flag or the Minutemen.

or fIREHOSE

^

What it reminds me most of is "I won't stick any of you unless and until I can stick all of you."

Enjoying the Last Words: The Final Recordings. However, back in the 90s, I could have sworn I heard they recorded an album before Dust that was rejected by the label, and that was the "lost album." Was I confused, and it's only these later sessions?

these are the sessions from the album they intended to make after dust, but yeah, i think you're right and there was another album rejected between sweet ovlivion and dust.

would purchase the penultimate recordings, if they released it.

How did Dust poll so low?! Although to be fair I don't know much of their other work, and came to them via Dust.

bizarrely low

i love their SST output, bought Anthology as a teen from mailorder SST catalog that came with i think You're Living All Over Me. Only recently have I been trying to track down all the originals on vinyl. I think Invisible Lantern is my fav. Not such a fan of the 90s stuff, kinda like Sonic Youth 90's vs. 80's where the 90's major label stuff seems less murky/mysterious/lo-fi/intangible to me but that's probably down to my not being old enough/around when the early stuff was new.

"new" album is fuckin awesome.

sweey obliv remains my favourite, love the sst stuff, but have always been cold on uncle anaesthesia

Surprised that "Dust" polled so low.

I am super gay for Lanegan.

Commute this morning was fueled by Invisible Lantern. what a great album, song after song of good material...even the terrible production job sounded good. Still love these dudes.

their SST stuff is so so rad.

Man. I fucking missed out on this band like crazy the first time around; recently bought Invisible Lantern (on SST) and it's so fucking good. Like you can hear that Pacific Northwest pre-grunge thing but they have such a cool sound, integrating 60s psych/garage influences so well.

yeah, amazing record. no fluke neither. even if and especially when & buzz factory are right up there with it. never liked the epic albums anywhere near so much as those 3.

great (& kinda silly) track from the beat happening split:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pnZXEAGTA9I

lol i posted the exact same track 4 years ago. listen with new ears!

Awesome, kind of a 13th Floor Elevators pastiche (until the chorus).

troo. and i recant of what i said 4 years back: they suffered in my mind for being better than das damen, but 2nd to the likes of the meat puppets and dino jr.

bosh. they don't suffer at all in that comparison.

That entire Beat Happening/Screaming Trees EP is pretty great, though Polly is my favorite track from it. What a weird idea for a record.

I don't think they're anywhere near as idiosyncratic and as interesting as the Meat Puppets (80s)...Black Flag, maybe

90s Meat Pups maybe better...but not the 80s stuff

... Maybe a better comparison I mean xp

Change Has Come EP (1989) is an important record too, and how do you all rate Last Words, recorded around '98? I'm surprised the other lost album never surfaced. I'd be much more excited for a reunion of this band than say, Soundgarden.

Find it v weird that they couldn't get a deal after Dust tbh

Soundgarden are apparently recording a new album atm, news to me too

It seems really weird that Lanegan working with Queens of the Stone Age never seemed to bring people around to this band, cause a reunion, etc.

I think the no-reunion thing is down to them all finding it really hard to be in a band together without wanting to beat the crap out of each other. They did finally release the post-Dust recordings, though, and they were pretty ace.

There's a great radio session of early Trees out there where they cover The Doors' The End, The Stooges' No Fun and Cream's Tales Of Great Ulysses.

I've been trying to find that radio session and only found some dead links from 2007... anyone know where I can get it?

Whoa! That sounds cool. I hope someone turns it up.

Found it on soulseek. What a blast. ilx mail me if interested

Hey, willem, thanks for that radio stuff, it's great!

I just realized that Screaming Trees' first major label album came out like 7 months before Nevermind. Which kind of makes me wonder, yet more, why the hell Epic would've signed them.

Like I get that the majors were trying to suck up everything grungey and Seattitalian in the post-Nevermind rush, it's just weird that they'd hear this ragged, psychedelic rock band that clearly weren't going to engage with 99.97% of Americans and think, yeah, those guys are for us.

There was already some buzz on the Seattle scene--A&M had already signed up Soundgarden and Mother Love Bone. The Trees had a pretty good indie track record that might have looked attractive. In the HYPE! movie some of the interviewees mention that by '90 the majors had been sniffing around, picked up a couple bands and that seemed the end of it.

Oh shit I forgot about Soundgarden. But that all makes sense!

Buzz Factory was the first album I heard by the Screaming Trees and it is the one I still like the most. There is all sorts of awesome wah wah on that record, especially on Black Sun Morning.

Its the best of the SST albums for sure

These revives always makes me want to listen to a bunch of '87 SST albums