In which The Curmudgeons revisit the goofy yet ambitious and thrillingly original dawn of grunge music. Unbeknownst to some, the story of what became the dominant mainstream brand of rock 'n' roll in the 1990s dates back to 1984, back when the Seattle area was cold, rainy, gloomy and also a sleepy outpost that was surprisingly actually skipped by major artists of the time. So what you do you when no one's really watching and there isn't a whole lot to do? You mess around wiht your friends and bond over a love for 1970s classic rock, punk, metal, prog rock and other various forms of guitar-driven rock. And you started bands and shared ideas and worked to one up another in finding a way to meld all you loves into one sonic package. And that's exactly what the innovators of grunge did: found a sweet spot in between the fury of punk on the one hand and the grandeur and theatricality of metal on the other. Here. we discuss the first wave of bands that figuratively--and literally-put grunge on the map. We cover Green River, the Melvins, Soundgarden and more...
Listen to all of this awesome proto grunge from the 1980s by accessing our special Spotify playlist:
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3IcoNHpnt15muKt4cg8CLy?si=6c1adf065eb44519
Here's a handy navigation companion to this episode:
(00:52 - 04:23) - Arturo Andrade sets the parameters for our discussion of early grunge
(06:13 - 23:56) - The Parallel Universe, featuring discussions of music of recent vintage from The Men and Cameron Winter
(24:55 - 58:07) - We discuss the origin in story of grunge by providing context about the Pacific Northwest scene in the 1980s. We also analyze great albums from Green River, the Melvins and Sound Garden
(59:02 - 01:18:41) - We analyze a number of great "grunge-adjacent" albums from Sonic Youth, Dinosaur Jr. and The Pixies. And we cover the last great volley from Green River before its members went on to found Mudhoney and Pearl Jam in later years.
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Edited with an assist from Descript! web.descript.com/
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Co-produced and co-hosted by The Curmudgeons - Arturo Andrade and Christopher O'Connor
