Remembering Grunge

[Zoots]

Time for some nostalgia! Use this thread for any of the following:

- Celebrate grunge music
- Top 10 albums/songs/bands
- Recall your memories getting into it
- Make your own playlists
- Post your own "essential" recommendations

The possibilities are endless...

Grunge music

 

[Zoots]

Here's a thought...

Seeing how Soundgarden's slow bassy grooves were heavily influenced by Black Sabbath, how is this 1970 album any different in sound?

Was this the birth of metal?

.... or the true birth of grunge?

 

[BVS]

Singles soundtrack...(well for the most part)

 

[Moonlit_Angel]

That Black Sabbath cover is awesome. I love the artwork-looks like something straight out of an Edgar Allen Poe story or whatever. You have a good question, too-I also know Neil Young was heavily credited as influencing grunge artists, so yeah, who really was the originator?

They're gonna be showing the "Unplugged" episode with Nirvana on VH1 Classic soon, along with some "making of" thing or other...*Goes to find link to airtimes*

http://www.vh1.com/artists/rock_on_tv/sort.jhtml?type=artist&motvId=1002&title=Nirvana

Looks like there's other stuff in there, too, if anyone's interested. I always liked their song "All Apologies", that's probably my favorite one from them.

I seem to mainly remember a lot of the videos from various grunge artists-"Jeremy" (which still creeps me out to this day-Eddie Vedder looks like a freakin' psycho at the end there), "Man In The Box" (also creepy), and "Black Hole Sun". I love the "Black Hole Sun" video-the apocalypse comes to demented suburbia. Gotta love that .

Angela

 

[intedomine]

Not forgetting Smashing Pumpkins.....a very different type of grunge compared with Seattle grunge.

 

[angelordevil]

Some bands transcend labels, movements, and fuzzy hunting shirts.

Okay, okay, I'll bite! My 'Grunge' introduction was through my cousin's copy of Pearl Jam's Vs. I completely didn't get it at first. He had it on cassette, and would listen repeatedly as if it were some divine work of art. I thought he was crazy. At one point, he said, "Man, you have to hear this," as he passed his headphones to me. It was Leash. While I should have heard Eddie sing, "...Drop the leash, drop the leash..," I actually heard "Drug police, drug police, get out of my fucking face!!..." In that moment, I thought they were a bunch of bad-assed criminals who somehow managed to release a recording of their corrupted lives. (The images of syringes and other 'shocking' things in the album booklet only added to this image.) U2 were looking pretty great at this point. Vanilla Ice, as well. Pearl Jam? Uggggh.

Fast-forward a few months, to the time when Kurt Cobain killed himself. Pearl Jam played Saturday Night Live the following weekend. (This was the era when SNL was routinely great.) They performed Not For You, Rearviewmirror, and Daughter, in that order.

Having never heard them live, I thought I would dislike them. Boy, was I was wrong. I was completely riveted by the guitars, the emotions drenched in utter sincerity, and the rawness of it all.

This is the exact sequence of my falling in love with them, along with a new musical form:

Not For You
http://video.aol.com/video-detail/pearl-jam-not-for-you-live-on-snl/2980360578

"...all that's sacred comes from youth dedication, naive and true with no power, nothing to do i still remember, why don't you...don't you..."

That part still gets me in the gut every time.

Rearviewmirror
http://video.aol.com/video-detail/pearl-jam-rearviewmirror-live-on-snl/2395630293

Holy guitar.

Daughter
http://video.aol.com/video-detail/pearl-jam-daughter-live-on-snl/1144901584

The Neil Young tag of Hey Hey, My My is a direct reference to Cobain's suicide note which distorted the lyrics "...It's Better to burn out, than to fade away.." When Eddie sings the other lyrics, it's a eulogy to Cobain, but equally important--a message to Neil Young, who was devastated by Cobain's use of the song. I remember thinking just how impressed I was that he would do that.

Before I turn this into a complete nod to Pearl Jam, and make others ill, I'll quickly mention my other Grunge thoughts:

* Dave Grohl has turned out to be a great artist in his own right.
* Soundgarden were truly amazing (especially the drummer).
* Stone Temple Pilots had some truly catchy songs (though, strangely, I don't wish to hear them right now).

*What the world needs right now is a Temple of the Dog reunion! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lln5i1N3J8g

 

[lazarus]

Can I just say how much I despise that fucking poser Scott Weiland, and Stone Temple Pilots?

And no grunge discussion is complete without this definitive movie soundtrack:

So amazing. 2 unreleased Pearl Jam songs, Alice in Chains, Soundgarden, Mudhoney, Screaming Trees, an unreleased Pumpkins song (and one of their best tracks ever), Mother Love Bone...

...and a couple too-catchy Paul Westerberg cuts.

The movie (from Almost Famous and Say Anything's Cameron Crowe) was great too.

 

[Canadiens1131]

I'd rather not remember grunge.

 

[Auhiz]

Cool thread, any excuse to reminisce over Pearl Jam's Ten gets a from me.

I never got far into the grunge scene on the whole but Ten was one of my first cassettes back in the early school days and I really had no idea who PJ were when it came into my possession (long story). No-one knew who they were. Also my initial impressions were kind of similar to angelordevil's; it took some time for it to grow on me since it was so different than all the other stuff that I was into at the time. These days that old tape is so battered and worn it's almost comical and probably wouldn't play a bar even if I tried it, but it's still one of my prized possessions along with the rest of the PJ catalogue..

Nevermind was also great but I never got into it as much in those early days so the memories aren't quite the same..

 

[UberBeaver]

Mudhoney. I remember going into NYC to see all these weird, random bands from Seattle (or wherever) play this slow, grinding music. Grunge bands always sounded so much better live.

The Melvins rocked.

I'd rather not remember grunge.

You were like 5 when grunge hit, right? If you could remember the shit that was there before it, you might want to remember grunge just to be a buffer that blocked out the shit it got rid of.

 

[Snowlock]

Singles soundtrack....

So Paul Westerberg's on there, the lead singer of legendary band The Replacements. He had a great quote about Cobain.

It was the MTV VMA's or some such, 1993, and afterwards, Paul found himself riding up the elevator with Kurt in the hotel. Kurt had long been a Replacements fan (just like everyone was in those days that knew anything about music) and claimed Paul as a major influence (just like everyone in those days did). There they are, Paul Westerberg, underground icon and Kurt Cobain, king of the grunge hill riding up the elevator together, their rooms right next to one another; and not a word was said between the two. Later Paul would say of that elevator ride:

"He was dying to be dying, and I was dying to get out of there..."

 

[AnnRKeyintheUSA]

No need to remember in past tense what is not dead and gone. Grunge lives on.

 

[lazarus]

Why in god's name would Westerberg even be at the VMAs? The whole thing must have been painful for him.

 

[corianderstem]

I was in college when Nevermind came out, and was a DJ at our teeny-tiny radio station.

I had a huge crush on our music director, so when he came down and handed me a copy of Nevermind and said "Play the first track once an hour for me, will you?" I totally did.

And it was awesome. "Smells Like Teen Spirit" blew me away.

I still like Smashing Pumpkins (to a small point) and Nirvana (to a smaller point) and Pearl Jam, but for the most part, I don't miss grunge.

I loved the Singles soundtrack but really didn't like the movie. I disliked most of the characters.

 

[LarryMullen's POPAngel]

The first grunge I remember ever hearing was when my best friend at the time came over one day and popped Nevermind into my boom box. I remember being so excited by what I heard coming out of those speakers. I discovered other artists through the same friend - mind you, this was when we were both in our "omgz U2 is teh best!!!11" teenybopper stage (come on, give me a break - I was 13 the year grunge hit ).

To this day, I still have love for Pearl Jam, Smashing Pumpkins (older stuff, as I wasn't too impressed with the new stuff when I saw them last month), and can still appreciate Nirvana to an extent, even though when one looks back it's clear that, while they were the ones who really brought grunge to the mainstream, they were nowhere near the founders or whatever that so many hail them as.

Also, Chris Cornell has one of the best voices I have ever heard, hands down.

 

[Snowlock]

Why in god's name would Westerberg even be at the VMAs? The whole thing must have been painful for him.

My first thought too! But he was trying to go all mainstream back then.

 

[zuropa_fit]

AW! I love/ed grunge. What's not to love? And the fashion that went with it - Doc Martens, flannel, thermal long johns...

What about Ethan Hawke's "satire" of grunge from, aw crap, that one movie with him and Wynona Ryder and Janine Garafalo. (It had All I Want is You on the soundtrack too)

"Got a pothead mama, got a cokehead dad / I'm the ultra modern version of the American Man... / 'Cause me, you see, I'm nothin'"

 

[LarryMullen's POPAngel]

AW! I love/ed grunge. What's not to love? And the fashion that went with it - Doc Martens, flannel, thermal long johns...

What about Ethan Hawke's "satire" of grunge from, aw crap, that one movie with him and Wynona Ryder and Janine Garafalo. (It had All I Want is You on the soundtrack too)

"Got a pothead mama, got a cokehead dad / I'm the ultra modern version of the American Man... / 'Cause me, you see, I'm nothin'"

Reality Bites

 

[Canadiens1131]

You were like 5 when grunge hit, right? If you could remember the shit that was there before it, you might want to remember grunge just to be a buffer that blocked out the shit it got rid of.

Yes yes yes, it thankfully destroyed the spandex hair metal radio-friendly power ballad.

 

[lazarus]

Yes yes yes, it thankfully destroyed the spandex hair metal radio-friendly power ballad.

For that alone it should be saluted.

Though I'm not sure if Smells Like Teen Spirit is actually a better song than Every Rose Has Its Thorn.

 

[Snowlock]

Oh yeah thank god that metal was destroyed by Grunge because after grunge, on the radio we had...

......
......
......

The closest I can get to rock now, living in a city of 1,000,000 is either Goo Goo Dolls knock offs, Hinder, or ELO. Do you have any idea how awful that is? And I'm not gonna go so far as to say it's Grunge's fault or anything, but I'm not going to be happy about grunge taking mainstream hair metal off the radio either.

I'd take Sweet Child O Mine over Iris every. single. day.

 

[Moonlit_Angel]

I like "Iris" . Got played TO DEATH when it came out, sure, but eh, I can tolerate the song.

But ugh, yes, Hinder, Nickelback (those are the ones I got to hear ad nauseum in the last town I lived in . If I don't have to hear "Lips Of An Angel" ever again, life will be good). And of course, there was also Creed... I'm not a huge fan of gruff male voices overall, but I can handle Eddie's, Chris's, or Kurt's, because at least their voices seemed genuine, like that's how they really sang on a regular basis. These Hinders and Nickelbacks sound like they're forcing it a lot, and it just grates on my nerves after a while.

I agree, though, I don't think grunge as a whole is to blame for that stuff, because the original grunge bands were so good. It's not these artists' fault that bands followed that tried to imitate them only to fail miserably. Every decade has bands like this.

Though I'm not sure if Smells Like Teen Spirit is actually a better song than Every Rose Has Its Thorn.

I'd say it is, personally. I don't mind a few hair metal songs here and there, some of them are just goofy fun, but it's not something I listen to on a regular basis.

Angela

 

[beegee]

"Got a pothead mama, got a cokehead dad / I'm the ultra modern version of the American Man... / 'Cause me, you see, I'm nothin'"

Lol, and his band was called "hey, that's my bike"

If you could remember the shit that was there before it, you might want to remember grunge just to be a buffer that blocked out the shit it got rid of.

It's so true. Like several of the other people in this thread I can remember exactly where I was the first time I heard Nirvana. It sounds ridiculous but by the end of the song I was very aware of the feeling that something had changed. And it was good.

 

[LarryMullen's POPAngel]

Lol, and his band was called "hey, that's my bike"

Hah, that was it - as I was answering the person who couldn't remember the name of the movie, I was trying to remember the name of the band.

 

[EdgeIsTooSexy]

I LOOOOOVE PEARL JAM!!!!!!
me and my friend are always arguing whos better pearl jam or nirvana

this is pretty appropriate
.....

I love Eddie!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Moonlit_Angel]

Eddie Vedder has gone on to hang out with three of my favorite artists and perform live with them. That, along with the fact that his band makes great music, puts him in my good book .

Angela

 

[beegee]

Eddie's still going strong

 

[Zoots]

Rearviewmirror
http://video.aol.com/video-detail/pearl-jam-rearviewmirror-live-on-snl/2395630293

Holy guitar.

What a fucking kickass performance! God I love this band!

*What the world needs right now is a Temple of the Dog reunion! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lln5i1N3J8g

That song is perfection. Vedder + Cornell = heterosexual musical joygasm!

 

[LarryMullen's POPAngel]

That song is perfection. Vedder + Cornell = heterosexual musical joygasm!

Hey, girls enjoy that kind of stuff, too Zoots

A friend of mine and I were in a bar a few weekends ago when we heard Eddie and Chris consecutively on the jukebox. She and I were in joygasm heaven, let me tell you.

 

[Bono's shades]

I was never really into grunge at the time it was popular. I guess I was a little too old. I was in my early 20s and thought of grunge as being this strange, angry music my younger sister and her friends loved that really had nothing to do with me. I did like the Pearl Jam songs I heard on the radio, but I never went out and bought any of their albums.

Then about five or six years ago I started listening to some stuff by these bands and realized I really liked it. It was so refreshing after being bombarded everywhere with teen pop for several years. I wished I had appreciated it more back in the early '90s. I'm glad Pearl Jam at least is still active.