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Welcome to the first part in an ongoing series of random pockets of music history.
This month we travel back to the first wave of flannel wearing 20-somethings that took not giving a shit to an art level. That little pocket of rock-n-roll history we called the "grunge" era and the explosion of Seattle becoming the rock capitol of the world.
(at least for a year or so)
The most well publicized beginning of Seattle's underground scene would be Nirvana's single "Smells Like Teen Spirit" finding heavy rotation on mainstream radio and MTV in 1991. The sound labeled "grunge" and the underground Seattle hardcore scene it came from takes us back further than that to a short lived band named Green River.
Green River formed in Seattle in 1984, taking their name from the area's notorious serial killer. The original members were vocalist/guitarist Mark Arm, Guitarist Steve Turner, Guitarist Stone Gossard, Bassist Jeff Ament and Alex Shumway on drums
Arm and Turner were introduced to each other by Alex Shumway, who went to high school with Turner and Gossard. Arm, Turner and Shumway were all bandmates in a local hardcore punk band called Mr. Epp and the Limp Richerds. As a publicity stunt, Mark Arm wrote in a fake hate letter to the most well known fanzine in Seattle blasting the bands songs and performance as so terrible it is obscene. The famous tagline would be, "I hate Mr. Epp! Pure noise! Pure grunge! Pure shit!".
Sidenote: Mark Arm still insists that grunge isn't a real word...its a misprint of "grungey". An adjective that may not be very real either, but seems in the same realm as "dingey". All the same...it is an adjective, not a noun. Then MTV got involved and boom!
Mr. Epp played a show with another hardcore act called Deranged Dicition who had Turner's buddy Jeff Ament on bass. Mark Arm, Steve Turner and Jeff Ament drank and talked long into the night about forming a band that would take on a more classic rock sound that Iggy Pop used to do with the Stooges over the speed punk their respective bands were doing. Turner enlisted his friend and former bandmate Stone Gossard to take on some guitar duties so Mark Arm could concentrate on his vocals. Mr. Epp would break-up soon after...leaving the door wide open for this new band.
The band would release their first EP in 1985 and would be courted the following year for the fledgling local record label; Sub Pop Records. Steve Turner would leave the band before they signed on with Sub Pop, citing creative differences (Turner thought the band's final product was more "glam metal" than he was interested in pursuing).
During that time Green River achieved a cult following around Seattle along with like-minded bands such as Malfunkshun, Skin Yard, Soundgarden and the Melvins.
The band entered Sub Pop studios 1986 to record a follow-up EP, but bandmates were already beginning to be at odds with each other over everything. Jeff Ament and Stone Gossard wanted a more produced sound to help achieve mainstream success...even suggesting their singer should take professional singing lessons. Mark Arm resisted thinking the two were far too focused on signing their lives away to a major record label, while Arm was comfortable staying in Seattle and wanted to continue supporting Sub Pop Records. Tensions between the three came to a head during a show in Los Angeles opening up for a local act named Jane's Addiction. Ament distributed guest passes to A&R men from several record labels who never showed up. Arm had promised the passes to friends that had come down to California from Seattle and was furious when he caught word they were turned away at the door.
While Green River would record another eight songs for Sub Pop Records in 1987...they would disband entirely shortly after. Ament and Gossard would walk away to form a new band with the former frontman of Malfunkshun, Andrew Wood, called Mother Love Bone. While Mark Arm would reunite with Steve Turner to form the band Mudhoney. Both bands would have more success and recognition than Green River ever did.
(and, by most accounts, create far better music)
Andrew Wood died of an overdose only two years after Mother Love Bone's forming...leaving Ament and Gossard without a frontman again. The duo later teamed up with the singer from Bad Radio, Eddie Vedder, to put lyrics to a bunch of unfinished instrumental songs that never fully became Mother Love Bone songs. They recorded a major label debut album in 1991 titled "Ten" under the band name Pearl Jam...it did pretty well.
The bandmates later successes would suggest that the parts of Green River were greater than the whole, but they were certainly the well that the rest of the Seattle scene would spring from in the late 80's and early 90's.
So I give you now...Green River.....
[video=youtube;v_XVHkpBaxk]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_XVHkpBaxk[/video]
This month we travel back to the first wave of flannel wearing 20-somethings that took not giving a shit to an art level. That little pocket of rock-n-roll history we called the "grunge" era and the explosion of Seattle becoming the rock capitol of the world.
(at least for a year or so)
The most well publicized beginning of Seattle's underground scene would be Nirvana's single "Smells Like Teen Spirit" finding heavy rotation on mainstream radio and MTV in 1991. The sound labeled "grunge" and the underground Seattle hardcore scene it came from takes us back further than that to a short lived band named Green River.
Green River formed in Seattle in 1984, taking their name from the area's notorious serial killer. The original members were vocalist/guitarist Mark Arm, Guitarist Steve Turner, Guitarist Stone Gossard, Bassist Jeff Ament and Alex Shumway on drums
Arm and Turner were introduced to each other by Alex Shumway, who went to high school with Turner and Gossard. Arm, Turner and Shumway were all bandmates in a local hardcore punk band called Mr. Epp and the Limp Richerds. As a publicity stunt, Mark Arm wrote in a fake hate letter to the most well known fanzine in Seattle blasting the bands songs and performance as so terrible it is obscene. The famous tagline would be, "I hate Mr. Epp! Pure noise! Pure grunge! Pure shit!".
Sidenote: Mark Arm still insists that grunge isn't a real word...its a misprint of "grungey". An adjective that may not be very real either, but seems in the same realm as "dingey". All the same...it is an adjective, not a noun. Then MTV got involved and boom!
Mr. Epp played a show with another hardcore act called Deranged Dicition who had Turner's buddy Jeff Ament on bass. Mark Arm, Steve Turner and Jeff Ament drank and talked long into the night about forming a band that would take on a more classic rock sound that Iggy Pop used to do with the Stooges over the speed punk their respective bands were doing. Turner enlisted his friend and former bandmate Stone Gossard to take on some guitar duties so Mark Arm could concentrate on his vocals. Mr. Epp would break-up soon after...leaving the door wide open for this new band.
The band would release their first EP in 1985 and would be courted the following year for the fledgling local record label; Sub Pop Records. Steve Turner would leave the band before they signed on with Sub Pop, citing creative differences (Turner thought the band's final product was more "glam metal" than he was interested in pursuing).
During that time Green River achieved a cult following around Seattle along with like-minded bands such as Malfunkshun, Skin Yard, Soundgarden and the Melvins.
The band entered Sub Pop studios 1986 to record a follow-up EP, but bandmates were already beginning to be at odds with each other over everything. Jeff Ament and Stone Gossard wanted a more produced sound to help achieve mainstream success...even suggesting their singer should take professional singing lessons. Mark Arm resisted thinking the two were far too focused on signing their lives away to a major record label, while Arm was comfortable staying in Seattle and wanted to continue supporting Sub Pop Records. Tensions between the three came to a head during a show in Los Angeles opening up for a local act named Jane's Addiction. Ament distributed guest passes to A&R men from several record labels who never showed up. Arm had promised the passes to friends that had come down to California from Seattle and was furious when he caught word they were turned away at the door.
While Green River would record another eight songs for Sub Pop Records in 1987...they would disband entirely shortly after. Ament and Gossard would walk away to form a new band with the former frontman of Malfunkshun, Andrew Wood, called Mother Love Bone. While Mark Arm would reunite with Steve Turner to form the band Mudhoney. Both bands would have more success and recognition than Green River ever did.
(and, by most accounts, create far better music)
Andrew Wood died of an overdose only two years after Mother Love Bone's forming...leaving Ament and Gossard without a frontman again. The duo later teamed up with the singer from Bad Radio, Eddie Vedder, to put lyrics to a bunch of unfinished instrumental songs that never fully became Mother Love Bone songs. They recorded a major label debut album in 1991 titled "Ten" under the band name Pearl Jam...it did pretty well.
The bandmates later successes would suggest that the parts of Green River were greater than the whole, but they were certainly the well that the rest of the Seattle scene would spring from in the late 80's and early 90's.
So I give you now...Green River.....
[video=youtube;v_XVHkpBaxk]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_XVHkpBaxk[/video]
