100 Weird Grunge songs/moments

The grunge movement was often derided for its po-facedness and lack of ideas. This being a rhetoric of people who'd heard the first few tracks off of 'Ten' and formed an opinion based on that.

But so many bands were keen on the odd bit of psychedelic weirdness - the aforementioned Pearl Jam had almost an album's worth of tunes that fit in here - Pry To, Aye Davanita, Bugs and Heyfoxymophandlemamathatsme all appearing on Vitalogy. So I'll start the list with these:

1. Pearl Jam - Pry, To
2. Pearl Jam - Aye Davanita
3. Pearl Jam - Bugs
4. Pearl Jam - Heyfoxymophandlemamathatsme

http://blog.kexp.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/03/deepsix2.jpg

is this where we cite Screaming Trees covering the Small Faces

couple more Pearl Jam ones:

5. Pearl Jam - I'm Open
6. Pearl Jam - WMA
7. Pearl Jam - [Red Dot] (plus the secret track on Yield)
8. Pearl Jam - Oceans (weird because it was a single)

Pearl Jam is terrible tho, will never understand their appeal. I feel about pearl jam the way J0hn feels about Smashing Pumpkins

Speaking of which:

9. Smashing Pumpkins - We Only Come Out At Night

Hum - You'd Prefer An Astronaut has some trippy grunge

10. The Pod

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Q397xZoMSQ&feature=related

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1AmMqFz-gM

^ this is sSERIOUSLY great but also I've never seen it before and fuck me, I'm in that video in the front row, jesus christ.

What were some weirder Alice In Chains or Soundgarden moments? I vaguely remember there being some neat segues on Down On The Upside. Also "Sludge Factory" sounds quite odd to my ears.

well they covered an Ohio Players song, which is sort of the opposite of po-faced

12. Mark Lanegan getting very out of character (or very in character) here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CClR-9-zhHk

this is crap in the same way that most of Pearl Jams experimental tunes are crap.

13. the Beat Happening/Screaming Trees split EP (weirder more for the idea than the execution)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dtehDIWrX5U

soundgarden acting like the dead milkmen

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-j4TXa6ky14

there's that jazz-ish tune on Jar of Flies, as far as AiC is concerned.

Alice in Chains - Iron Gland

better than ezra secret track

feel like that out of character wacky/weird moment was pretty typical and badly executed for every grunge band ever including pearl jam.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1PWUS4LnQQo&feature=fvwrel
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_s4FhzIA5l0

and a bit ashamed at posting this one, but still...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9nvSej9484w

lol "Wet My Bed". ah, the 90s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EHh-2T84gL8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nH6JT0XF2yg

The weirdness compounded by the fact most people first heard this on Born To Choose, a charity album for Pro Choice agents.

Can't find the 1-800 Collect ad where Larry "Bud" Melman tries to call Seattle. :-(

The weirdness compounded by the fact most people first heard this on Born To Choose, a charity album for Pro Choice agents.

I always confuse the tracklists of "Born to Choose" and "No Alternative" (also from 1993), the AIDS relief/awareness charity album where Soul Asylum covered "Sexual Healing". Great choice!

never made the Zep-Soundgarden connection but Half kind of beats you over the head with it huh?

Weird Al Grunge song/moment

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FklUAoZ6KxY

weird al the saving grace of grunge.

never made the Zep-Soundgarden connection but Half kind of beats you over the head with it huh?

Cornell drew tons of Plant comparisons at the time fwiw

I'm sure you're right Shakey. I was 11 when that album came out...and for a couple years I thought "Dancing Days" was a Stone Temple Pilots song...

Born To Choose had a weirdass lineup:

R.E.M. with Natalie Merchant, "Photograph"
Matthew Sweet, "She Said She Said" (Lennon/McCartney)
Sugar, "Running Out of Time"
Mekons, "Born to Choose"
John Trudell, "Rant 'n Roll"
Tom Waits, "Filipino Box Spring Hog"
Lucinda Williams,"Pancakes"
Pavement, "Greenlander"
NRBQ, "Don't Talk About My Music"
Cowboy Junkies, "Lost My Driving Wheel" (Wiffen)
Soundgarden, "HIV Baby"
Helmet, "Distracted"

Probably the only album that has Tom Waits, Helmet, AND NRBQ.

Honestly, it makes as much sense as a lineup from an episode of 120 minutes of the era.

A band as shitty as Candlebox could get signed and huge EVEN THOUGH NOBODY IN SEATTLE KNEW WHO THEY WERE!

there are plenty of weird soundgarden songs. possibly a couple from each album. weirdness is kind of in their constitution -- what with kim thayil's unorthodox guitar larks and some pretty out-there lyrical imagery.

"frogs" by AIC is a very fucked up kind of song. it threatens to reveal more about the state of mind of layne staley than he was probably comfortable revealing.

pearl jam always struck me as being contrived weird, ie. not genuinely weird.

but some pearl jam albums, i'm thinking no code here, are basically just a jumble of weird moments. at least that's how i saw the album when i was 17.

Two very different takes on the "early-90s Devo cover" thing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uOYHXwaJ8aA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2MDlvg-4qc

I like the slightly more opaque psychedelic Soundgarden songs like Switch Opens and She Likes Surprises, I think that side of them may have come from Ben.

Meat puppets 1st lp, almost in total. Not sure if it counts as gruunge per se but certainly seemed to be an influence on it.

Same possibly for The Scientists doing You Only Live Twice, or their whole reverbed swampabilly thing being filtered through redneck metalheads and coming out as grunge in the first place

a playlist of just the Soundgarden songs with a Ben Shepherd writing credit (Slaves & Bulldozers, Face Pollution, Somewhere, Head Down, Half, Zero Chance, Ty Cobb, Never Named, Switch Opens, An Unkind) would be really dope and give you a totally different feel for the band.

impressed by that Soundgarden take on Girl U Want - they are coming close to make fun of you for being obsessed with someone who's just a girl you want. With the original the message is that she's perfect, just THE girl you want.

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/517FAYKDJ4L._SL500_AA300_.jpg

I always thought it was weird that Pearl Jam released "Oceans" as a single

Dog Latin, be honest with us, how do you really feel about Pearl Jam and "Oceans"?

I feel like you're holding back on us, seriously.

m sure you're right Shakey. I was 11 when that album came out...and for a couple years I thought "Dancing Days" was a Stone Temple Pilots song...

― skip, Thursday, March 3, 2011 4:25 PM (11 months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I'm pretty sure that I learned this from ilx.