History of Grunge (part 2)
Part 2 in a 6 part series on Grunge. Here’s part one in case you missed it
http://kevingelinas.com/blog/2008/10/03/history-of-grunge-part-1/
Initially, the city was really nothing special when it came to music. Seattle was completely outside the west coast sound that came out of California through the 60s and 70s. That was pretty weak once you got north of San Francisco and any remaining influence was filtered out by the state of Oregon. The fact that it was in the same time zone as Los Angeles meant nothing. But even though the Pacific Northwest was home to some very talented musicians, few people used to care. To the record company executives headquartered in L.A. and New York, the only significant music to ever come out of the area was Jimi Hendrix and Bing Crosby - and they only became successful because they left town.
Like Homer Simpson, it seemed like the inhabitants believed that rock attained perfection in about 1977. Lots of kiss, Sabbath, Judas Priest, AC/DC and Zeppelin. That was the staple diet for years. Neil young was big, too, especially his super fuzzed-out records of the late 70s. And because Seattle is tucked up high in the upper left hand corner of the continental United States, promoters weren’t real keen on looping any major tours up in that direction. About all the area got were the hard-touring hardcore punk bands who seemed determined to play every horrible club in North America.
Black Flag, Bad Religion, Bad Brains, Flipper, the Dead Kennedys. Needless to say, a number of kids were pretty grateful for this attention and as a result became big fans of hardcore. They traded bootlegs and mix tapes featuring all this hardcore punk. It didn’t take long for it to mingle with the AC/DC-Led Zeppelin-Sabbath stew. This music ended up being played on the campus radio stations in the area. Lots of universities in the Pacific Northwest and this further spread the gospel. What I’m trying to say is that the U.S. Pacific Northwest was its own little petri dish, separate from a lot of what was happening culturally in the rest of America and the rest of the world. Seattle was just far enough away for the city to develop a unique arts-and-culture scene.
And one of the key elements of that scene is the local rock n roll community - and this is the scene that gave birth to grunge culture. And I mean that. It had everything that it needed to be its own unique culture. Grunge was a sound, but it was also an aesthetic, a philosophy and a fashion sense. And it came with its own rules and goals. Its own politics and activism. It even evolved its own class system. You’ll see what I mean as we go along. In other words, the whole grunge thing was far, far more complicated than a casual outsider might pick up from a few bands and a few albums.
If we’re going to start somewhere when it comes to the true story of grunge, we probably have to begin with a kid named mark McGlaughlin. Mark - who went to a local Christian school - was part of a small crowd that appreciated all those hardcore bands who made the effort to come to town. He went to all the shows. In 1980 - when mark was 18 - he formed a group called Mr. Epp and the Calculations, which he named after a math teacher he really, really hated. At first, it was just a goof. There was no such band. But that didn’t stop him from writing a letter to a local fanzine called Desperate Times. Part of the letter read: ?I hate Mr. Epp and the Calculations! Pure grunge! And there’s that word. It’s apparently the first time anyone connected with the Seattle scene used that word to describe a local band’s sound - even if the band didn’t really exist at the time. Eventually, mark did form a band called Mr. Epp and the Calculations Mr. Epp, for short.
Mr. Epps first show was in late 1981 and in 1982, they released a long-lost 7-inch ep called Of Course I’m Happy, which was followed by a cassette. Their biggest song was something called Mohawk Man. Very hardcore punk. Then by February 1984, they had broken up. By this time, Mark had changed his name to Mark Arm , because it sounded more punk rock than Mark McGlaughlin. He enrolled at the University of Washington and together with his new buddy, Steve Turner - a Mr. Epp fan and fellow hardcore traveller - they formed a new group called Limp Richerds. They lasted just a few weeks. And here’s where things begin to come together. Mark and Steve hooked up with Stone Gossard, Steve’s old high school friend. They had played together in band called Ducky Boys.
All three guys knew a bass player from a band called Deranged Diction named Jeff Ament. They convinced him to join. If those names sound familiar, they should. They’re now in Pearl Jam. And for a drummer, they found Alex Vincent, a buddy of Mark’s from an old band called Spluii Numa. This new group was called Green River. If you listen carefully to their 1985 song called Swallow My Pride, you can hear how punk and metal are mixed.
It had the maniacal edge of punk, but with that low-end metal sludge that was so big back in the 70s. It’s the very beginnings of what we’d eventually call grunge. There are those who maintain that Green River was the first true grunge band. They were certainly the first of their kind to release a record. But even though they had their fans, Green River couldn’t hold it together. Alex Vincent bailed to concentrate on school. He eventually ended up as a lawyer in Japan.
Meanwhile, Steve Turner wanted his own band. We’ll get back to him later. There was another Green River ep and then an album. But there was dissension in the ranks. Mark Arm was all about being anti-commercial and anti-establishment. Although Green River could have signed a major label record deal, Mark was dead against that kind of selling out. He wanted to make music that was raw and uncompromising. He wasn’t even a fan of melody.
