Getting into grunge

and Smashing Pumpkins.

Of course the whole thing is open to peoples own definitions of grunge.

Pre Grunge. The bands that set the stage for those to come:

Mudhoney
Green River
Malfunkshun

Green River and Malfunkshun merged to form Mother Love Bone. Lead singer Andrew Wood died and became Pearl Jam whn Wood was replaced by Eddie Vedder.

Isn't there a rolling teenpop thread for people like you, gramps?

Thanks for participating, "kornrulez6969"!

Definitely.

Of course those marketing punks in Seattle turned it into a brand identity. So while Earth may not be grunge® I agree they are definitely grunge.

Grong Grong
Box of Fish
Exploding White Mice
Salamander Jim

Maybe a lot of those folks didn't need to be signed (everybody wistfully recalls Nirvana + Mudhoney; I remember my inbox overflowing with the tepid indentikits of Cat Butt, Swallow, The Fluid, etc). It's not like Sub Pop was the first or last record label in Seattle - but they were the ones w/ the marketing smarts. I give them credit for sculpting an aesthetic out of their local scene and selling it to the nation - but grunge was a lot more interesting before it was dumbed down to its lowest common denominators of hair/riff/b&w photography by Charles Peterson.

The big bad media is not entirely to blame here - they just exploited what Pavitt and Poneman had already put into motion, the assembly line packaging of grunge tied up with a little bow and presented on a silver platter. Those great records could've been recorded and released without the whole Sub Pop Rock City circus schtick. Plenty of labels/scenes do it.

The bands didn't treat it seriously - really, who cares, as long as it moves the records? They had plenty to say when the vultures showed up though, which was more of a case of the chickens coming home to roost. Not for nothing did Mudhoney name a song "Superoverblown".

I'm not saying good things didn't come out of Sub Pop (Steven J. Bernstein fr'instance), but the label was as willing as anybody to capitalize and cash in on grunge, albeit with tongue firmly in cheek.

-- Edward III

Joe Strummer to interviewer, circa 1982: "...but how do we know that [our new American fans] are even listening to what we have to say, and not just grunging out on the guitars and the drums and the bass?"

-Not an exact quote (my memory has its limits), but he definitely said "grunging out".

Bout time for a revival dontcha think?

I'd check out a few of the influences.
Blue Cheer 1st 2 lps.
Sainte Anthony's Fyre
CCR 1st 2.
Stackwaddy
Flipper 1st 2 & Sex Bomb Baby singles comp.
Skullflower
Blackfeather At The Mountains of Madness.
Volcanic Rock
Black Flag from My War onward.
Schentists
Hendrix especially around Berkeley live lp.

I got told that a lot of the Seattle bands members were rabid Oi collectors too.

That was Scientists.
Volcanic Rock is Buffalo.
Forgot the 1st Meat Puppets lp too.
& Steppenwolf and Jon Cann era Atomic Rooster are always worth a listen.
As is Randy Holden Population II.

Somehow skipped The Stooges who I think were essential.
As were the MC5.
Alice Cooper especially Love It To Death and Killer.
Pretty Things.
Saints 1st 2 lps.
Birthday Party Junkyard.
Sonic Youth Sister.
Rolling Stones Mick Taylor era.
The Sonics.
Bent Wind.
Link Wray.

Loads of garage compis of the Pebbles and Back from the Grave persuassion
The Coloured Balls ball Power
The rockier end of glam
New York Dolls
Slade Slayed?
T Rex Electric Warrior

Seeds Raw & Alive

Slow and Sons of Freedom - two Canuck bands that were early on the wave. SoF's debut album is a gem pretty much all the way through but their others lacked the sense of menace that made the first one so compelling.

Listened to Mudhoney's Superfuzz Bigmuff (plus early singles) last week & I can't imagine it ever got any better than that, grungewise - it's urgent & relentless.

A current band I like a lot who're rocking the grunge aesthetic are Fury Things from Minneapolis.

I joined a gym for the first time in my life--small town, small gym--and I was convinced until today they played the same grunge CD or playlist on endless loop. But I distinctly heard a DJ tonight; it's just a radio station with the world's smallest playlist. I hear "Self Esteem" and "Rooster" and "All Apologies" like every single day. I like them all, but it's a bit much.