Rick Beato Celebrating the 90s Grunge Bands

[Doctor J]

Arctic Monkeys? Who else?

 

[Barking Spiders]

11 minutes ago, Supernaut said:

Everyone forgets the indie rock movement that peaked here around 2005/2006. 

 

And amen to that. Rightfully disparaged as 'landfill indie

Edited December 27, 2021 by Barking Spiders

[SteveXFR]

8 minutes ago, Doctor J said:

Arctic Monkeys? Who else?

 

 

A gem among turds.

Not really an indie band though, very definitely a rock band. 

Them Crooked Vultures played their first ever show as a surprise support band for Arctic Monkeys. 

[mr4stringz]

13 hours ago, Barking Spiders said:

Huuuuge fan of the grunge era me. I watch a lot of RB vids. He did overlook Stone Temple Pilots for this one which is a tad odd as he's put up a couple of their tunes for his 'why this song is great' series.

I may be reading way too much into STP’s omission, but while very close in time, they were after the fact. All of those ‘classic grunge bands’ had albums released a good year before Core as an absolute minimum, plenty of them well before that. They also weren’t from, or congregated in, Seattle or Washington. And as I seem to remember, copped a fair amount of flak and suspicion at the time.

 

But anyway, that’s only actually one grunge band, isn’t there…

 

 

Edited December 27, 2021 by mr4stringz

[SteveXFR]

I haven't watched it yet but if Melvins, Green River, Screaming Trees, Mother Love Bone, Tad and Mudhoney are omitted I wil hunt down Mr Beato to express my displeasure at his substandard video.

[Munurmunuh]

I'm very glad to hear that the estimable Mr Beato is leaving 80s Grunge Bands well alone

[MacDaddy]

11 minutes ago, Ricky Rioli said:

I'm very glad to hear that the estimable Mr Beato is leaving 80s Grunge Bands well alone

 

I still like Mudhoney 😎

[SteveXFR]

9 hours ago, MacDaddy said:

 

I still like Mudhoney 😎

 

Best live show I ever went to. Not a mosh pit for the feint hearted. I went home covered I blood (some of it mine) with a ripped shirt and half a drum stick. An hour and a half of pure punk energy

 

9 hours ago, Ricky Rioli said:

I'm very glad to hear that the estimable Mr Beato is leaving 80s Grunge Bands well alone

So no Nirvana, Alice In Chains or Soundgarden?

[Nothingman]

Stone Temple Pilots were not a grunge band. 
 

 

Edited December 28, 2021 by Nothingman

[Eldon Tyrell]

I posted this some time ago, but this is a good place to post it again. Good documentary about the Seattle grunge scene. Check it out!

 

"This rock documentary by director Doug Pray focuses on the explosion of grunge music that took place in the Pacific Northwest during the early 1990s. While the film features the most popular bands of the movement -- namely Pearl Jam, Nirvana and Soundgarden -- it also presents lesser-known acts such as the Melvins, Mudhoney and Seaweed. Incorporating concert clips, interviews and behind-the-scenes footage, the movie paints a dynamic picture of this highly influential scene."

 

 

[Nothingman]

42 minutes ago, Eldon Tyrell said:

I posted this some time ago, but this is a good place to post it again. Good documentary about the Seattle grunge scene. Check it out!

 

"This rock documentary by director Doug Pray focuses on the explosion of grunge music that took place in the Pacific Northwest during the early 1990s. While the film features the most popular bands of the movement -- namely Pearl Jam, Nirvana and Soundgarden -- it also presents lesser-known acts such as the Melvins, Mudhoney and Seaweed. Incorporating concert clips, interviews and behind-the-scenes footage, the movie paints a dynamic picture of this highly influential scene."

 

 

Love this film. 
 

Not seen in a while, so thanks- that’s today’s watch sorted. 

[ubit]

The 90's was just the best decade ever for me. The band was doing great and the music around was the best I had ever heard. Grunge was and still is, the most amazing genre (even although it's the vaguest genre ever) of music I have ever experienced. Most of it still sounds fresh to my ears.

[ubit]

2 hours ago, Nothingman said:

Stone Temple Pilots were not a grunge band. 
 

 

 

 

So what is Grunge? Is it just that you had to come from Seattle in the early 90's? Because that's pretty much all that connects most of the bands. Music style is very varied.

[Nothingman]

26 minutes ago, ubit said:

 

 

So what is Grunge? Is it just that you had to come from Seattle in the early 90's? Because that's pretty much all that connects most of the bands. Music style is very varied.

So what is Grunge? 
 

The eternal question. 
 

Let’s stroke our chins over this one.

 

Did you have to be from Seattle? 
 

Yes and No, but an association with the North West was a certain. It was born out of a frustration of lack of touring bands in Seattle abs therefore a home grown scene developed. 

The scene that spawned grunge is very specific to that city. 
 

Stone Temple Pilots were an alt rock band from San Diego. Did they have elements of what was know as grunge? Yes. 
 

But so did bands both before and after the grunge moniker- Smashing Pumpkins, Live, REM, Pavement, Butthole surfers, Sonic Youth, pixies et al. However, their not, in no way grunge. 
 

It was all alternative rock, grunge was quite a specific sub set.

Not that it’s relevant, but They sold millions and were massive in the 90’s. Fair play to them. 

 

Were STP a grunge band? No.

 

Were they an alt rock band with massive grunge influences? Yes. 
 

[tegs07]

Just now, Nothingman said:

So what is Grunge

It’s just another pointless catch all moniker. Useful for lazy journalists, putting music into neat order in physical shops and Spotify and flogging fashion accessories.

[Nothingman]

6 minutes ago, tegs07 said:

It’s just another pointless catch all moniker. Useful for lazy journalists, putting music into neat order in physical shops and Spotify and flogging fashion accessories.

Easy now. This is the internet, you know. 
 

The place were opinion comes to die. 
 

😉

 

P.S. I agree to an extent. 

[ubit]

9 minutes ago, Nothingman said:

The scene that spawned grunge is very specific to that city. 

 

 

But being from Seattle in the early 90's made you Grunge yet there is a massive difference in the music of those bands therefore as a music genre it's a misnomer. It should have been simply called the Seattle scene. Grunge has become sylised with a certain rock based element that had certain qualities marking it apart from earlier hair metal, not least the look of the musicians which had as much owed to the time rather than the music. In that sense I would argue that STP were Grunge. That's to say they had that sound, look, style of grunge at the time. At the end of the day who cares what's grunge and what isn't? I just liked all the rock music coming out then and if it got lumped in with grunge then I called it grunge. I liked grunge as in I pretty much liked every band I heard back then. Apart from the Melvins. I couldn't get into them.

[Nothingman]

2 minutes ago, ubit said:

 

 

But being from Seattle in the early 90's made you Grunge yet there is a massive difference in the music of those bands therefore as a music genre it's a misnomer. It should have been simply called the Seattle scene. Grunge has become sylised with a certain rock based element that had certain qualities marking it apart from earlier hair metal, not least the look of the musicians which had as much owed to the time rather than the music. In that sense I would argue that STP were Grunge. That's to say they had that sound, look, style of grunge at the time. At the end of the day who cares what's grunge and what isn't? I just liked all the rock music coming out then and if it got lumped in with grunge then I called it grunge. I liked grunge as in I pretty much liked every band I heard back then. Apart from the Melvins. I couldn't get into them.

Yeah, That’s a fair argument.

 

But, I always STP as a bit more…I don’t  know.. sleazy rock band stuff. Quite the distance from how I viewed the rest of the associated scene. 

 

It’s all subjective at the end of day. 


 

 

[ubit]

2 minutes ago, Nothingman said:

sleazy rock band stuff.

 

I think you pretty much nailed it there. That's the je ne sais quoi that Grunge has. A sleaziness that grabs you.

[SteveXFR]

There are some Grunge records that still sound fresh. Badmotorfinger by Soundgarden, Vurses by Pearl Jam and Inhaler by Tad.

 

The one I couldn't work out is were Dinosaur Jr grunge?

 

 

 

[tegs07]

1 hour ago, SteveXFR said:

There are some Grunge records that still sound fresh. Badmotorfinger by Soundgarden, Vurses by Pearl Jam and Inhaler by Tad.

 

The one I couldn't work out is were Dinosaur Jr grunge?

 

 

 

Was every artist on sub pop at the time grunge? 

[SteveXFR]

2 minutes ago, tegs07 said:

Was every artist on sub pop at the time grunge? 

 

No. There were quite a few still on their books from before grunge. Sonic Youth is one that comes to mind.

[tegs07]

7 minutes ago, SteveXFR said:

 

No. There were quite a few still on their books from before grunge. Sonic Youth is one that comes to mind.

In my mind grunge was just a label hung on a fairly blue collar music scene. Sub Pop and Seattle being the epicentre/catalyst of the scene
I see little musical similarity between Nirvana and Soundgarden or The Sex Pistols and the Stranglers, or The Stone Roses and The Happy Mondays etc.

Edited December 28, 2021 by tegs07

[Linus27]

For me Grunge was music from bands originating from Seatle. No different to Motown being music that originated from Detroit. The grunge scene then opened up a wider spectrum of guitar based rock bands who got lumped in with the grunge bands from Seatle, for example Stone Temple Pilots, Live, Smashing Pumpkins etc. These other bands were not Grunge bands but as they fitted and sounded similar, media/listeners lumped them together.

[Maude]

Being born in '73 I was too young for Punk but discovered, and loved it, in the mid to late 80s. All my mates were metalheads and while being into that I'd always loved the slightly more melodic, alternative side to rock, punk, post punk, goth etc. When Grunge hit it was like the perfect blend for me. 

One of my favourite albums at the time was a little known compilation called 'Another Damned Seattle Compilation'. Seattle bands doing The Damned covers. 

Yes it was just cashing in on the grunge scene, but it had unknown (to me) American punk/grunge bands and was fantastic. Seek it out, it's a great album. 

 

In a similar vein, I used to buy the Epitaph sampler albums from a small record shop. Fantastic albums full of bands I'd never heard of doing stuff I loved, more stateside punk though, but where does punk end and grunge start? 

Edited December 29, 2021 by Maude