Last Saturday was the 25th anniversary of the release of Nirvana's Nevermind, an album that was so revolutionary, it changed the face of music and of radio in general.
I was just on the end of my first stint in campus radio, from 1989-1991, when Nirvana started coming into the public consciousness. I had heard some rumblings from the Seattle scene, hearing Soundgarden's first album and the first few songs from Green River. No one was really prepared what what was going to follow though. Nevermind was a total left-field phenomenon. No one saw this album coming and no one put any faith in Nirvana of all bands, cracking into the public's collective eardrums. But happen it did.
Looking back, it's easy to forget just how tame radio looked in 1991. Check out the top singles of 1991. Brian Adams, Paula Abdul. Color Me Badd? Top 40 radio in 1991 was pure pablum. Easily digestible mush. Nirvana's arrival was like punk's arrival in 1977-1979. Punk came at the time of soaring soft-rock anthems and masturbatory prog rockers. While punk didn't make much of a dent into Top 40 radio, Nirvana sure did. And many bands followed them into the mainstream.
We know much about the Seattle bands of the time, like Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, The Screaming Trees, Alice in Chains and others, plus the knockoff bands looking for a slice of the pie that Nirvana brought to the picnic. Bands like Stone Temple Pilots, Candlebox, Gruntruck and Veruca Salt.
So many other bands plied this style and had little to show for it commercially, but plenty in critical acclaim and solid music legacies. Let's take a look at a few bands from that era that may have escaped your memory.
Tad - I've blogged about Tad before, and he bears talking about again. Tad Doyle's take on grunge was unique, a sloppy, beer-fueled, almost redneck style of guitar playing, heavy and precise. His lyrics took from the absurdity of rural life in the Pacific Northwest, captured well in the early track "Jack Pepsi". Tad was scooped up by Giant Records during the grunge feeding frenzy, and released a couple of solid albums on the major label, but it led to little commercial success. Their albums Inhaler and Infrared Riding Hood are great late-era grunge.
The Fluid - Denver's The Fluid had a psychedelic/garage style to their grunge. A bit too dayglo for most grunge fans, they nevertheless put out some great albums in the grunge era. A dalliance into major labels produced 1993's Purplemetalflakemusic, their best known album.
Treepeople - Treepeople were an oddly loud and arty band from Boise, Idaho. They got their big break on C/Z Records, that other grunge label in Seattle that wasn't Sub Pop Records. Their output as a band was small but had a big cult following. Frontman Doug Martsch went on to form the venerated 90s alt-rock act Built to Spill.
Love Battery - A more melodic take on grunge, Love Battery are a Seattle area band that had more in common with Soul Asylum than anything. Equally heavy, slugdy and upbeat, they had a style that would have fit right in on college radio at the time, had they not got lost in the shuffle and overlooked. They put out three albums for Sub Pop and one for C/Z. This band is still going too, after a lot of line up changes.
Green River - Green River had a short lived career and are mostly known as the band that spawned Mudhoney. Their style is much like Mudhoney's, but shorter and sloppier. In some ways, they're better than Mudhoney due to their raw, punk-based style. They're only album, 1988's Rehab Doll is a must own for any grunge fan.
Seaweed - Tacoma's Seaweed had a sound unique to the Seattle bands, much more rooted in melodic hardcore than grunge. They were more along the lines of Black Flag or Pegboy: tight, loud punk hooks that hit like a punch in the nose. This band is still together and recording, having reformed in 2007.
The Melvins - One of the longest running grunge bands of all time, Aberdeen, Washington's Melvins are also one of the strangest. Starting in 1983, their discography is full of oddly artistic sludge-metal. The Melvins are known for punishing, sloppy and loud guitars, long, slow guitar solos and completely insane, nonsensical lyrics. Notably, Kurt Cobain got his musical start as a roadie for this band. Thanks to Cobain's love of the band, they ended up on a major label too. 1993's Houdini and 1994's Stoner Witch came out on Atlantic Records. They became a favourite of Mike Patton, who signed them to his Ipecac Records label, and has recorded several albums with the band.
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