To explain Led Zeppelin, "Does Anyone Remember Pearl Jam?"
Of course you do, and their first album, the numerically titled Ten, has just been reissued in all its glorious "grunge" splendor, making many of us who remember it the first time feel totally, early. I remember a global B.G. (Before Grunge) when hair-metal bands and funk-'n'-roll bands ruled our planet. Even though grunge bands wound up quickly being a parody of themselves, they a minimum of handed us several memorable tunes and held off "The Death of Music" for a few years.
If you are unaware of the latest band news make sure you go through Breaking Band News and Hot Band News.
Well, I exaggerate. Although not by much. "Grunge" would be a good way for the folks over at Sub Pop Records in Seattle to prove they might go toe-to-toe with any superslick advertising campaign from some fancy East Coast ad agency and essentially sell their record label like a "brand." Just how much the "movement" actually contributed to society continues to be up for debate. Are we better people correctly? We may not realize that answer for a hundred years, after which, as my pal Bill so astutely stated, "We'll be dead."
I even wondered aloud, what would qualify a band as "grunge"? Would it be the wearing of flannel? If so, the Minutemen would qualify. Will it be the usage of long hair without hair product? That would include a lot of unwashed bands to mention. Would it be a band's proximity to Seattle? That will preclude a "West Coast bias." Eventually I realized it might be best basically just started listing all of the bands I could think of and then see how it presented after which let nature be my guide.
Nobody ever agrees with me anyway. So why worry? But I will admit, I've got a sneaking suspicion which i left off a minumum of one crucial band. Obviously, I'm not sure who--or else I'd list them! But it's a daunting fear that keeps me awake during the night and prevents me from truly enjoying the life I've imagined.
And, hey, how can you like this new economy?
25) Smashing Pumpkins: Billy Corgan was always too much of a studio taskmaster to really fit the loose and raw aesthetic of "grunge," but he sure could whine! And considering how a lot of this stuff is based on "complaint" rock, Smashing Pumpkins surely suit you perfectly. And that he did from Chicago, one heckuva town!
24) 7 Year Bitch: Unfortunately most of the bands about this list lived as much as the slacker reputation of the genre by underachieving and suffering band tragedies. In this poor band's case, it was the drug overdose of guitarist Stefanie Sargent for only their first album. Good friend Mia Zapata of the Gits was brutally raped and murdered and the band paid tribute with their second album, Viva Zapata! They even signed to some major label however the band's momentum never quite rolled because it should.
23) Fastbacks: Around long before any "grunge" scene, Fastbacks might be viewed as "enablers" from the scene, as they played your government for their eventual more successful young protégés.
22) Temple Of The Dog: With members of Pearl Jam and Soundgarden, this was a grunge supergroup that formed before there was anything super about it. When the band members were famous the band was over, but that didn't stop the record label from discovering they had pure gold on their own hands and the "Hunger Strike" began entirely earnest.
21) Mad Season: Another supergroup, that one formed once there was something "super" about them, featuring members of Alice In Chains, Pearl Jam, and Screaming Trees. It's almost like each one of these guys hung out at the same YMCA and got these crazy ideas relaxing in the steam room and then achieved it. Don't you wish your lifetime was like this? Amounting to something?
20) Cat Butt: With the best name in the business, it is a wonder how they guys never caught on. You'd think there'd be legions of junior students just dying to obtain this and scrawl the name on their notebooks.
19) Veruca Salt: Were they really grunge? These were surely sloppy and that "Seether" song sure was catchy. However they went into the studio with Bob Rock and came out sounding like something Bob Rock would produce which didn't bode well for his or her future. And it didn't.
18) Skin Yard: Jack Endino produced a lot of grunge bands, therefore it was just fitting that he have his own band to play around with. Very few people took notice. But the ones that did liked them quite a bit. Me? I stared at their album covers and waited to become inspired. I've remembered their name after all these years. That counts for something.
17) Mother Love Bone: Heroin played far too major a role in the Seattle scene, and where Kurt Cobain eked out work for a long time, MLB singer Andrew Wood overdosed before his band might make the correct inroads. MLB is now cited as one of those bands with lots of guys who later continued to be part of Pearl Jam.
16) Tad: What exactly is an "8-Way Santa"? I don't think I wish to know the answer. But this BIG manufactured a large impression on people obsessive about BIGness. No relation that I know of to Tad's Steaks, which is a quality cheap eatery that can be found in NYC.
15) The Gits: Mia Zapata died horribly, raped and murdered. Her music spoke towards the passion of life and a rocker's street life. Other bands have paid tribute and she has been remembered, that is about as much as you are able to ask from this life sometimes.
14) Hole: Courtney had to come crashing in somewhere. She designed a spectacle of herself. And she sold on the million records at one time, which considering she was on MTV each day for around two years isn't as impressive because it ought to be. If I sold millions of records that would be earth-shattering. Well, first I'd need to make an archive...however, you get the idea.
13) Afghan Whigs: Cincinnati in the home! With more soul than the majority of the bands on the list, that is saying Greg Dulli sings like he's thought about sex to be some thing than a board game or something like that you read about in a Led Zeppelin biography.
12) Bush: The most derivative band about this list. They make STP sound like true originators. "Everything Zen" remains among my favorite "stupid" songs in the '90s to use after i feel like annoying the folks I really like. And they even made indie-rock album "recorder" Steve Albini work for his money by hiring him to "record" one of their albums. I assume Steve needed to stay awake and perform for the fully contracted time. Employment is a job.
11) Seven Mary 3: "Cumbersome" may be the most unintentionally amazing song of the grunge era. It rhymes "girl" and "world" and says, "I have become cumbersome," which is not a sentiment I every considered would cross anyone's mind. I've heard about people wondering it they've gotten fat. I've heard about people wondering if they've gotten more forgetful or stupid. But cumbersome? 7M3 even continued to record other albums which were a lot better than people gave them credit. But when you're typecast as something--and in their case, like a less than great band--it's nearly impossible to obtain people to think any differently.
10) L7: They are some tough girls. They rocked hard and used an aggression that may almost give Motorhead a run for their money. (Well, nobody gives Motorhead a run...) The bass player in Nirvana liked them enough to put on their T-shirt on national TV for free advertising. Man, if only I had a T-shirt plus some friends!
9) Soundgarden: More Led Zeppelin than Stooges, Soundgarden were really like the high-tech your government of the scene using their macho hair and big, booming sound. Excuse Chris Cornell for being in a position to actually sing. But don't excuse him for his latest solo album. That thing is a mess. Does anyone enjoy it?
8) Screaming Trees: Singer Mark Lanegan went on to have an admirable solo career, but he was once part of this lovely team of psychedelic rockers who used enough fuzz to be considered part of this fraternity of individual.
If you are unaware of the latest band news make sure you go through Breaking Band News and Hot Band News.
7) Green River: Before there was Pearl Jam, before there is Mudhoney...I'd make use of the term "begat" because it sounds cool and makes everything sound Biblical, however, you obtain the idea anyhow. These guys were "progenitors" of the scene.
6) The Melvins: This guitar rock band that all the other grunge bands always paid tribute to, so even though you locate them too raw for your own personel ears, you have to realize that the Melvins influenced a generation the way in which steroids apparently influenced an era of ballplayers.
5) Alice In Chains: These guys specialized in "downer rock" and, obviously, their lead singer Layne Staley didn't allow it to be out alive. Their sound is pretty damn overpowering and genuinely creepy in only how art imitates life. Or life imitates art! I am a bad philosopher, as you can see.
4) Mudhoney: During the late 1980s, it was not Nirvana who looked to become the favorite sons of Seattle but Mudhoney, who using their "Touch Me, I'm Sick" single announced arriving. This guitar rock band, however, had trouble gaining mainstream traction. To their credit, they keep very good records that individuals who choose very good records continue to enjoy.
3) Stone Temple Pilots: One of the first bands to obviously exploit certain stylistic tendencies, sounding like Nirvana one moment and like Pearl Jam the following, STP wrote some catchy songs that sound better today than a lot of their contemporaries. And they did not have to move to Seattle to do it!
2) Pearl Jam: While PJ were initially considered a "corporate" version of the grunge scene, since their members apparently had a desire for actual careers in the music business, they were often the target of criticisms that now sound pretty stupid. And considering they stopped shooting videos, argued with Ticketmaster, and eventually sold dwindling records as years went on, well, are we able to just dig the music?
If you are unaware of the latest band news make sure you go through Breaking Band News and Hot Band News.
1) Nirvana: Without Nirvana's breakthrough hit "Smells Like Teen Spirit," there is a pretty good possibility the rest of the bands on this list never get signed to a decent record label and all sorts of wind up washing cars somewhere. And the world as you may know it is operational in a very different form.