Nirvana
It’s easy to drown in the titanic hyperbole that hangs over Nirvana like a giant exclamation point. Best Group Ever! Voice of a Generation! The Band That Changed Everything! And sure, they’re all based in some sort of cultural truth—many hormonal worlds shifted upon first hearing _Nevermind_—but in attempting to capsulize Nirvana it’s important to remember that, above everything else, they gave the ’90s some great music. If songs like “About a Girl” or “Smells Like Teen Spirit” didn’t course with the desperation of an escaped convict, they wouldn’t be musical milestones. If “Heart-Shaped Box” didn’t sprinkle its bitterness with snark, it might be just another love-gone-wrong song. If we’d never heard “All Apologies” stripped down to a plaintive prayer (“What else should I be…”) on MTV Unplugged in New York, we might never have believed that Kurt Cobain was, at his core, inspired most by the pretty hooks of the Beatles. Celebrities tend to be puffed up when they die early but, beyond the iconography and mythmaking, Cobain and Nirvana never compromised, never betrayed their vision, and even in death never stopped being relevant. Since Cobain’s suicide in 1994, legions of bands have picked up where Nirvana left off and we’re all the better for it. If only Cobain himself was around to hear the fruits of his labor. —BB
Because of them… Seattle became a musical epicenter where
the creation of great rock was no longer an isolationist accident—it was expected.
Now hear this: Nevermind? Sure, but as a visceral piece of art and a stiff middle finger to expectation, In Utero is Nirvana’s defining album. Listen to its “Serve the Servants,” which opens with Cobain complaining that “teenage angst has paid off well, now I’m bored and old.”
Modest Mouse
Their explicit subject is how to keep up with life despite—or because of—the fact that you’re feeling down. A hit like 2007’s “Dashboard” is as much about attempting to move past one’s own inertia as it is an ode to enjoyment. The duality makes it compelling; it sounds sunny, anyway. Founded as a scrappy three-piece in Issaquah in 1993, Modest Mouse has, despite its name, doubled in size: It’s now a sextet that happens to employ guitarist Johnny Marr of the 1980s UK rock band the Smiths (no strangers to the pop beauty to be mined from depression). Early albums—such as The Lonesome Crowded West from 1997—offer some of the period’s most rhythmically knotty rock. But once lead singer and guitarist Isaac Brock, bassist Eric Judy, and drummer Jeremiah Green opened up the arrangements for Good News for People Who Love Bad News, the band caught the attention of the masses. Last year’s album We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank made Modest Mouse the premier Northwest rock band this side of Death Cab for Cutie. —MM
Because of them… Music-loving misanthropes across the land have a Seattle support group.
Now hear this: “The View” from Good News for People Who Love Bad News was not a hit like the same album’s “Float On,” but sees the band at its most rhythmically rubbery and instantly tuneful.
Mudhoney
When a band lifts its name from the title of a movie by Russ (King of the Nudies) Meyer—_Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!—you know they aren’t aiming to poach Linda Ronstadt fans. Yet this raucous quartet found its fair share of ardent supporters; UK press raves over the band ignited grunge hysteria (they were frequent guests on DJ John Peel’s BBC Radio 1 shows). Formed in 1988, the group teamed singer Mark Arm and guitarist Steve Turner (both of seminal Seattle outfit Green River) with former Melvins bassist Matt Lukin and blink-and-you-missed-him Nirvana and Screaming Trees drummer Dan Peters. The foursome never cracked the mainstream, even though Warner Bros. enticed them away from Sub Pop in 1992. Though dancing with the big boys didn’t take the sting out of Mudhoney’s blistering sound and sarcastic tone, it didn’t do them any favors, either. Since being dropped from Warner Bros. and returning home to Sub Pop, the band has gone from strength to strength, particularly on the brass-driven _Since We’ve Become Translucent in 2002 and this year’s The Lucky Ones. Lukin bowed out in 2001 and was replaced by Aussie import Guy Maddison, but otherwise, the band has forged ahead, surviving drug problems, changing tastes, and gray hair. They may be family men with full-time day jobs, but Mudhoney still kicks ass harder than bands half their age and 10 times as wealthy. —KBR
Because of them… The term “grunge” was coined and an entire generation of musicians tuned in to the sound of Sub Pop.
Now hear this: Everyone should be aurally defiled at least once by “Touch Me I’m Sick” from Superfuzz Bigmuff.
Published: December 2008
Agreed but would like to add another musician to list. Omar Torrez, most recently on world tour with Tom Waits as his lead guitarist. He is making a splash in other countries and has returned to his blues roots, but with an edgy quality that only playing with Tom Waits could achieve. Hot new music from Seattle’s own.
I have always thought this was true, so many people just………………?
Looking forward to watching this dvd.
I`ve been a Hendrix fan for so many years.
JIMI HENDRIX MURDERED? “NOT IMPROBABLE” SAYS NOEL REDDING…
The name Jimi Hendrix conjures up some of the most colourful and wildest moments that the sixties produced. Hendrix arrived, he conquered and took the music world by storm, got inside your head and went onto the great gig in the sky – all by the age of 27.
The Jimi Hendrix Experience , left you in no doubt that it was exactly that – an experience.
A trio of musicians who came together from both sides of the Atlantic and found common ground, fame and for one third of the group not very much fortune.
For Noel Redding the bass player in the group the experience was not to be forgotten. Since the death of Hendrix 40 years ago, much as been documented about him and the group.
Looking back to the sixties and you could be thinking you are on another planet. Any history relating to that period is taken up with music and culture. The Jimi Hendrix Experience played
it’s part.
Making a timely appearance is a DVD that is being put out by Discs International, containing a never before seen interview with Noel Redding recorded at his home in Ireland in 1988.
It makes fascinating viewing. All the years of seeing film of them in concert and photographs of Hendrix, Redding and Mitchell, you find yourself sitting in a living room not with just a legend – but an ordinary guy talking about his early days with the group. No rock star here, no pretentious name dropping, just plain talking. Listening to him you are left wondering how they made it to top.
I asked producer Will Scally who had the foresight to record this interview how it all came about. “ I had known and been friends with Noel for many years and always found him a very upfront, straightforward guy. We often spoke about doing an interview, he wanted to speak about the band, money, drugs and the death of Hendrix and much more – even speaking about the possibility of Hendrix being murdered. He was on good form that day and wanted to record this for posterity.Sadly Noel Redding died back in 2003 aged 57
For those interested in Hendrix, Redding and the history of sixties rock music this rare visual documentary should not be missed. The Redding Experience Release date
NOVEMBER 2010.
Barry LeveneThis comment has been removed.
Give Floyd Standifer some love, people. I’m sad he’s not on this list.
http://www.seattlepi.com/pop/300902_standifer24.html