You know how when you see those VH1 specials about some coke metal band from the 80s and there is always some doughy has-been who blames the decline of his shitty band on some flannel-clad slacker from Seattle? I always find that amusing. Anyways, Green River, being one of the earliest grunge bands, still had some of the last vestiges of gritty Sunset Strip glam dickbaggery, but also had a sort of sinister "end of the party" thing going as well. Perhaps Green River were proto-grunge? Anyways, kind of sad to think of these guys very known drug problems, but even sadder that at least one of them ended up in that paragon of collegiate '90s blandness known as Pearl Jam. I guess grunge is due to come back ironically, then the kids in the retro-thrash bands can whine about how nobody cares about real music anymore. Now that would be ironic. Here's Green River's 1988 album, Rehab Doll. Just so you know, the band's version of "Queen Bitch" was left off of this CD reissue due to legal hassles from a certain thin white duke.
Green River were awesome. And ironic or not I like the idea of anything killing off "retro" thrash.
ReplyDeleteAn interesting piece of music history is there ever was one.
ReplyDeleteBeen listening to loads of mudhoney recently, but have never checked this out. Exactly the same as 92. Spooky. Aren't we skipping a revival somewhere?
ReplyDeleteRide the fucking six pack!
ReplyDeleteand while i think about it, the grunge brain drain on glam metal is pretty much a musicians only whine. Out in record buyer land I remember the evolution being, Motley Crue, then Pantera, the Dr Dre, Then Wu Tang Clan. At which point you could give up balancing spending all your money on records and drugs to concentrate on spending all your money and time on drugs. Doughy has been glam bozo know nothings
ReplyDeletePearl Jam rules! fuck you!
ReplyDeletewow this is funny, i had somewhat recently transferred my deep six comp LP to the ipod. yeah green river were awesome back in the day. i got alot of this sort of stuff. never had rehab doll though. thanks a bunch, i'll check it out.
ReplyDeleteI'd like it if there were more bands that sounded like this. I suppose Mudhoney are one. Not that I am madly in love with Green River (I like them), but as a sort of template for a certain kind of rock, I think they're ideal. A semi-grungy, semi-hair metally, pretty drunken and loose, messy kind of rock. I'd be happy with more of that.
ReplyDeleteim gonna have to check this out. i was a HATER of grunge,i absolutely hated that vague,slow,boring shit and the crap that it spawned. alot of it was the vague lyrical content of alot of that stuff,the corny attempts at being deep that just ended up sounding phony and dumb. i lived in socal in 91-93 and laughed my ass off at the glam rock dudes all of a sudden looking "grunge"- with their flannel shirts with the sleeves cut off and cut off tight jeans and new docs combo. Flandex it was called. the poodle hair was grown out and of course parted to the side. but reading this post and the comments,i can give this a shot. i really liked the early 90s take on hollywood metal that the cult and danzig had goin on around that time.
ReplyDeletedude, you're hilarious!
ReplyDeleteGreen River were cool as shit. Wish they had recorded more. Pearl Jam sucks corporate balls. Ave
ReplyDeleteAn interesting piece I saw a couple of years ago regarding Alice 'N Chainz. Sorry, Alice In Chains.
ReplyDeletehttp://lamestainnorthwest.blogspot.com/2006/09/lip-lock-rock-alice-n-chainz-story_28.html
There are some clips of their work available at the end.
Grunge fucking sucks, I am not even touching this one.
ReplyDeletethis is way more fun than most grunge
ReplyDeleteFunny how some folks still hang on to the backlash for dear life. Don't worry. No one is gonna give you demerits for maybe thinking about liking a 'grunge' band. No one is keeping tally. Take a deep breath. You're still cool.
ReplyDeleteI went through it at ground zero. It sucked. Ruined our scene, and made the rest of the world hate us. Thanks music industry!
Aesop-
ReplyDeleteover a year ago i promised you a Grinch vinyl and didnt deliver. been on my mind ever since. i moved far away from my record collection,cuz shit happens. im near it again and gonna dig out that album. I still got your address in an email so Ill send it asap aesop. thanx for your rad blog,i got it bookmarked on my phone even,I cant dl shit on it,but I just like to read the posts
and I was the anonymous up there who talked about flandex in 91-93,checked out green river and...eh,not so much. maybe its just me,the nymphs were better to me with that stuff
Hated Alice N' Chains until I came down from my high horse and realized that at their peak they were phenomenal (who gives a shit now tho). Pearl Jam too had their moments of brilliance. Aesop you're a bit too predictable and transparent with some of those swipes. Otherwise I enjoy the posts. BTW, what do you think about Devil's Blood??
ReplyDeleteno Aesop is right on the money, Grunge bands sucked dick, I don't care how high my horse is.
ReplyDeletegreen river is great...but mudhoney are one of my favorite bands ever. superfuzz bigmuff and that self titled lp? smokin'.
ReplyDelete"Flandex" is an excellent coinage.
ReplyDeleteI have a drug problem. The problem is they keep running out. It wasn't the grunge bands fault that cockrock and death metal all were stuck in a formulaic rut at the time. For all those grimm troo kvlt people who are not allowed to listen to one note of grunge due to fear of the scene police check out some Tad, Mother Love Bone or old Mudhoney and have a guilty pleasure. Sorry my browser is on paranoid freak mode so I can't use a nickname. Rehab is for quitters.
ReplyDeleteI love Pearl Jam. Just wanted to say that.
ReplyDeleteSounds a lot like Hanio Rocks, Back to Mystery City, to me. I enjoyed this one, even though grunge rock ruined my high school years.(that and hard core straight edge) It's funny how all the grunge bands who got big would go out of there way to dog glam metal. maybe to make up for the fact that they were spawned by it more than anything, else musically.
ReplyDeleteGrunge was as loud as the LA glam 80s metal. Even Nirvana, with the punk roots dripping out, had the big sound.
ReplyDeleteIt's true the bands from this scene did bag on the glam metal scene. It was because those bands wanted to make it just as big but with a "punk but not caring about anything including themselves" attitude. That's my shot at analyzing it like a scholar.
Mudhoney is the tops of the main bands, Tad comes in next, not sure about the rest.
I'll give this a shot!
Grunge was as loud as the LA glam 80s metal. Even Nirvana, with the punk roots dripping out, had the big sound.
ReplyDeleteIt's true the bands from this scene did bag on the glam metal scene. It was because those bands wanted to make it just as big but with a "punk but not caring about anything including themselves" attitude. That's my shot at analyzing it like a scholar.
Mudhoney is the tops of the main bands, Tad comes in next, not sure about the rest.
I'll give this a shot!
Actually, Aesop, two of these band members ended up in Pearl Jam: Jeff Ament and Stone Gossard. But, first after Green River dissolved, they formed Mother Love Bone. I always thought both bands couldn't be any farther away from the ridiculously inaccurate & moronic term "grunge" that the media tacked on everything from that era. I've never listened to anything and thought, "Wow...that sounds..grungy". Anyway, I love this record because its fun & snotty & sloppy and Mark Arm is one of my favorite musical smart-asses. I have Come On Down, the original pressing of Rehab Doll (with the Bowie song) & Dry As A Bone if anyone is feeling nostalgic for this stuff. I'm with Doug, Mudhoney's Superfuzz Bigmuff is a great record too & could have easily been titled "Fuck You, You Fucking Fuck". Mark Arm should have been the huge star that came out of this scene.
ReplyDeleteGlad I'm not the only one that thinks Pearl Jam blows.... Mudhoney and early Soundgarden are the only good things the grunge thing spawned
ReplyDelete