Recent Stories with tag grunge

If the enigmatic Andrew Wood hadn’t died on this day in 1990, Seattle’s world-dominating grunge phenomenon, ironically, might not have been so big. The Malfunkshun and Mother Love Bone frontman’s latter, glam-leaning band was poised for stardom when he passed—at a time when the sound that would define a generation was still defining itself. Check them out.

 

 

Had he lived, there would have been no Temple of the Dog (formed by MLB members and Soundgarden’s Chris Cornell). There would have been no Pearl Jam (formed by MLB members and a San Diego gas station attendant named Eddie Vedder). Grunge “fashion,” if it came to exist, might have meant loud colors and white face paint.

And everyone who knew Andy or knows of him would trade all that rose from his void for the living man himself.

As you raise your glass this Friday night, toast the Man of Golden Words. Not that he’ll hear; he’s having too much fun romping around Olympus.

Meh. That's what I thought of Mudhoney in 1993, after seeing the unabashedly scrappy band open for Pearl Jam. And what I've thought, for almost as many years, of New Belgium Brewing's beer resume.

Sometimes you're just wrong about shit.

Lucky for the ignoramuses among us, Mudhoney's still around and making fantastic fuzzy rock. In fact, as announced yesterday, the band's exhibiting its classic grunge style at Neumos next month. Also fortuitous: New Belgium's plugging the massive hop-hole in their product line with the new 7% ABV Ranger IPA.

But what really has the angels singing in my animated, clouds-parting sky is this: Mudhoney is playing Neumos on February 8 to celebrate the launch of said India Pale Ale. (As is opener Sleepy Sun.) And you can catch the iconic act's set for free by purchasing a Fat Tire amber (still...meh!) at Moe Bar. (No ticket price is listed on Neumos calendar, and no Mudhoney show exists at TicketsWest, so this, what, four dollar? beer may be your only means of admission.)

Get thee to Neumos that Monday, fellow ignoramuses (and already-enlightened ones). A Mudhoney show can change your life. Great beer can too, but unless there's a Ranger keg tapped (as there damn well should be), it probably won't happen this night.

If you grew up when grunge blew up—in the Northwest or unfortunately far away, like me—you probably felt a few tugs at your heartstrings via your eardrums (and eyeballs) this year. Maybe what you heard gave you a little thrill. Maybe it pissed you off. Either way, it was a fine year for remembering and reliving Seattle’s flannel-rock heyday. Here's the most compelling (first half of the) evidence.

10. News flash: Satchel is back!

Mid-year, founding members Shawn Smith and Regan Hagar both said Satchel was long-gone history. A reunion for the melodic rock band, defunct since 1997, was admittedly an old-school fan's sentimental wish. Or was it? By fall, Smith was tweeting hints that he and former Satchel cohorts (drummer Hagar and guitarist John Hoag) were playing together again. Then Smith's site boasted an official reunion, fresh tunes, and a new studio record (Heartache and Honey, appropriately). And finally, this belated Christmas Twitter-gift from Smith on the 28th: "Satchel confirmed, Feb. 18th 2010 at The Crocodile in Seattle." Awesome. I so want to believe I helped make this happen.

9. Pearl Jam’s Ten turns 18, gets deluxe reissue

The first step in a promised 2011 celebration of 20 years of music, the reissue of Pearl Jam's big-time debut was a doozy. Multiple packages boasting multiple music formats (viva la vinyl!) and replicated grunge-era memorabilia sated hardcore fans while a complete crisp, Vedder-vocal-boosting new mix from producer Brendan O'Brien pleased everyone. By clearing up the hitherto unnoticed echo effects and cloudy fuzz, O'Brien made a classic rock album sound even classic-er. Look for similar reissues of Pearl Jam's successive records in the coming years.

8. Grunge books recount the era's look and feel

Rock journalist Greg Prato put together the most comprehensive and fascinating account of Seattle's global musical domination with spring's Grunge Is Dead: The Oral History of Seattle Rock Music. The book's so good because the tales are told by the people who lived them, before and after the term "grunge" became synonymous with local rock: producers (Jack Endino), concert-goers, girlfriends (Tracy Marander), label owners (Pavitt and Poneman), roadies, managers (Susan Silver), and band members (Mark Arm, Jerry Cantrell, Kathleen Hanna, Mark Pickerel, Kim Thayill, Eddie Vedder...). You'll learn about the iconic (and forgotten) bands of the era, their members' personal struggles, and the clubs that hosted their genre-founding awesomeness.

Grunge isn't as must-have a book, but it's an honest, telling document of that time. Half street-punk album and half band portrait, Michael Lavine's photo book captures the souls of the people who made the music and of those who ate it up—or fashionably rejected it, preferring those bands' pure punk and metal predecessors. (Lavine was a Sub Pop-sanctioned photographer at the time. Cha-ching!) Sonic Youth's Thurston Moore adds some introductory color (and amusing ain't-I-cool lyricism). It's a super look back; the release party, featuring Tad Doyle's Brotherhood of the Sonic Cloth and Mudhoney, was even better....

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"Bad name. Lame name, actually. But kinda funny in its lameness. That was the point, to some degree. It was the late 1980s and Nirvana, Mudhoney, Soundgarden, and swarms of other Seattle area bands released albums on Sub Pop Records, the label started by Bruce Pavitt and Jonathan Poneman. The kids were so uncool, they were beyond cool. They embraced and reclaimed their high school denigration: LOSER. Sub Pop Records even threw an event they called Lame Fest."

That's how Grunge, a new book of photographs by Michael Lavine, starts—with contemporary indie rock figure Thurston Moore's intro spotlighting the wink-wink, Can you believe this shit is happening? side of Seattle's inevitably overblown musical era.

He would know. Moore, of Sonic Youth, was making noisy guitar rock when Kurt Cobain was a hormonal, directionless teen. And he introduced honchos at Geffen Records imprint DGC to Cobain's band in 1990. (Nevermind hit on the label the following year.) And you could argue that thanks to grunge's massive success,...

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