Nirvana at 25: Overlooked bands in grunge

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.

Video Playlist #5: Three Letter Words

Here's June's thematic playlist, all bands named after three letter words. Let me tell you, trying to search for these bands on Youtube wasn't that fun!

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL0QOmyo1JgZf80J95TPP5X57JRBis9vpF

1) Can - Vitamin C
2) Neu! - Seeland
3) Air - All I Need
4) Pig - Infinite Shame
5) Wax - California
6) Mew - Why Are You Looking Grave?
7) cub* - My Flaming Red Bobsled
8) Eat - Mr. and Mrs. Smack
9) gob* - Radio Hell
10) Low - Monkey
11) Yaz - Situation
12) Tad - Jack Pepsi
13) Off! - Learn to Obey
14) moe. - Happy Hour Hero
15) Hum - Sundress
16) Poe - Trigger Happy Jack
17) The Orb - Little Fluffy Clouds

Forgotten Bands of Grunge - Tad

As with almost every music scene, for every band that bursts out of a city, there were five bands toiling away with little or no recognition. It's a combination of talent and catching lightning in a bottle, a random factor that influences the music tastes of the time, that makes a band famous. It was Nirvana's combination of slugdy 70s rock, punk sensibilities and distortion that made them famous. And it was Eddie Vedder's voice, good looks and his bands sense of melody that made Pearl Jam starts. But what about bands like Tad?

Tad was one of the many incestuous bands that roared out of the Seattle grunge era. Featuring members from historical Seatlle bands like Bundle of Hiss and Skin Yard, Tad was fronted by vocalist and guitarist Tad Doyle. They formed in 1988, just as the Seattle scene was starting to explode. They served as Nirvana's opening act on their Bleach tour, and shared space on the legendary Sub Pop label with Nirvana. Tad had more in common with Nirvana in their love of 70s sludge metal and melodic punk, though they were much heavier than Nirvana. I always loved the band's early tagline, "Tad puts the sheet back into metal."

Tad's first album was 1988's God's Balls, was produced by Jack Endino, who produced a lot of early grunge albums. It was a crunchy and loud effort that flew under the radar. It featured the wonderfully sludgy "Sex God Missy", which also appeared on the scene-setting Sub Pop compliation Sub Pop 200:

 http://youtu.be/ryDelBsVSDY



Their second album, 1990's Salt Lick, produced by the legendary Steve Albini, began to get the band noticed. By 1991, the band had a solid, melodic, heavy sound, and they produced 8-Way Santa, which included the track "Jack Pepsi", which is a good encapsulating of the band's sound: Heavy, abrasive and decidedly redneck.

http://youtu.be/il066mCId1s



As grunge began to go mainstream, Tad found themselves unlikely major label signees, signing to Warner sublabel Giant, and putting out 1993's Inhaler. They served as Soundgarden's opener during this time. While the album failed to turn the band into stars, it had several well received songs, including "Leafy Incline", heavy and melodic at the same time:

http://youtu.be/f97blSGbM_4



They were dropped from Giant due to poor record sales, then released Live Alien Broadcasts in 1995, then followed up with Infrared Riding Hood for Elektra Records. The album was melodic and sludgy, typical for the band:


http://youtu.be/4focJ9et2sY



Grunge was well past it's expiriation date by the mid 90s. Tad released a single or two before finally breaking up in 1998. Tad Doyle went on to form Hog Molly in the early 200s.