Grunge - Thurston Moore/Michael Lavine
 

I'm listening to Nirvana for the first time in yeaars. If it wasn't for them I wouldn't be on this forum. I will so buy this.

Most grunge bands are deathly boring.

normally i wouldnt buy a book about grunge but if thurston wrote it you know its going to be really in depth and informative. He can provide alot of insight into struggling indie bands and nirvana before and after fame as he was on the ground floor for most of it.I hadnt even heard he was writing a book on this.

Fixed.

just for Nirvana and Moore/Lavine i would buy this book...but most of the grunge bands sounds boring...(nickelback and creed are grunge?? uhhh!)

First it's No Wave, now it's grunge?

Thurston's trying to cover all dem genres!

i think thurston knows the cliches of grunge fairly well by now, and probably wouldn't have done a book if it was just going to reiterate old ideas.

am i too optimistic in expecting something new?

i just don't know what else new there can possibly be to say about grunge. it came. it died. most of it sucked.

As a former grnge fanatic, I basically agree. "Grunge" is made up of tons of horrible, shitty boring bands. For every Tad, Mudhoney and Nirvana there was a Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, and Stone Temple Pilots and then came Silverchair, etc etc. If the shit that doesn't sound anything like Mudhoney, the original grunge band, wasn't included, it would be a really great genre.

Uh.....I actually really like the Silverchair song tomorrow.

I know, it's embarrassing.

Don't worry, I'm also ashamed.

I'd rather listen to Silverchair or Bush than Breaking Benjamin or Chevelle.

grunge was supposedly about killing off the hair metal bands. but it seemed to just want to have all their decadent excess only with indie values as justification.

I don't think "grunge" had any sort of agenda at all. People were sick of hair metal, and all of a sudden a small group of bands that hailed from the Pacific Northwest got popular, and everyone called them the next big thing.

With the internet (YouTube, iTunes, etc.), the music of the future will have so many influences from all time periods that it's not even funny.

Yeah but they still suck, just not as bad

Aw, come on - there's definite stylistic similarities between all the early ("proper") stuff: yer Green Rivers, Screaming Life-era Soundgardens, Tads, Mudhoneys, Blood Circuses etc, even if that was almost entirely due to Sub Pop consciously focussing on the bands that fit with their long hair/sludgy aesthetic at the expense of anything that didn't (initially, at least). Though as Hype (the movie) or Loser (the book) both make clear, that initial scene peaked around '89 and was pretty much over in Seattle by the time Nevermind came along a couple of years later and redefined everything.

Assuming the book focusses on all that stuff and the build up to it rather that the steaming piles of dreck that followed in the 90's, I'll be interested, but whether there's much there that hasn't been exhaustively covered elsewhere remains to be seen...

I think the U-Men, the Melvins & Green River may disagree there ;)

I still do listen to Silverchair and Bush. And I'm not ashamed. I'm awesome.

Hahah, I can't believe I said Mudhoney instead of Green River. Anyway, yeah the Melvins and the U-Men too. My point is, they sound nothing like any of those three awesome bands. And yeah the wipers were influential, but Ive listened to them and they don't really sound that grungy. Maybe I've listened to the wrong albums. Honestly, it doesn't really matter that much because my point still stands. I think you're getting bogged down figuring out the earliest grunge bands. There were plenty of bands with a similar sound.


Yeah Green River kinda sucks, at least the album of theirs that I have. It sounds like hair metal, practically.

That'll probably be Rehab Doll, which is absolute dross. Dry As A Bone holds up though, and Come On Down's got a couple of OK tracks.
Mind, the Together We'll Never/Ain't Nothing To Do 7" is a fucking scorcher.

I agree, honestly Bush aren't all that bad. Shitty lyrics sure, but at the end of the day if I had to choose I'd rather listen to a band that tries to be just like the Pixies or Nirvana than a lot of other bands.

I'd also add that Pearl Jam and Stone Temple Pilots are great bands.... Most people here will disagree with it, but No Code and Purple kick ass.

I think the book will be interesting but will be a disaster. I think it already is coming across as yet another "Kurt Cobain: Behind The Music" which as sway said Kurt and Thurston didn't even know each other all that well.

I still find it interesting how Thurston and Kim always joke about the Seattle scene and yet they tried to cash in by having the same guys who produced and mix Nevermind produce and mix Dirty....

Bush has had some very solid records. RAZORBLADE SUITCASE is f'ing fantastic. And like you said, they were pulling a Pixies-rvana with the Albini production. But it's great.

Pearl Jam has had a very good discography. And I like them enough to own all their albums.

STP um. Core and Purple were cool for the time. But they don't sound that good to me now.

i cant believe the melvins played with rush http://www.flickr.com/photos/umlaut555/3827592770/

I can believe that the Melvins f'ing rule!

yeah.

i saw them in dublin with flipper one time.

greatest show ive ever seen.

the whole place went fucking savage

interestingly, my friend who went with me, he's a electronica dj, and he'd been to over 100 gigs that year apparently. he said the melvins was the best one by far.

I love the way Razorblade Suitcase sounds... It's one of my favorite productions on a record ever. Nobody really wants to admit it but that's the sound Nirvana wanted for In Utero, but it came it a bit more "radio-friendly".

~Jeremy~

The guitar sound on "Personal Holloway" is incredible.

Good grief.

what'samatta?

Yeah, all those guitars squealing at the start sound awesome, and then where the bass comes in all heavy as the guitars chug along palm muted... Awesome.

~Jeremy~

Albini is the shiz.

there was never any hope for this thread.

there is never any hope for a thread with the word grunge in the title.

someone needs to finish this wounded beast off. it's like the coalition forces in afghanistan

why becuz we're discussing Bush? I suppose they don't make you cool to listen to them, but surely adding Albini to the discussion adds some sort of credibility? No?

I was pretty sure the sound Nirvana got on in utero was the sound they always wanted....Kurt seemed very happy with it...

I agree with this statement.

They're shitty. Just get over it. You can enjoy shitty music. Who doesn't? But that doesn't stop them from being shitty.

No Code is definitely my favorite PJ record.

Yeah, since the U-Men and Tad are just such great bands....

Actually Pearl Jam and the Stone Temple Pilots have both released good records and are far from shitty. Probably just not "indie" enough for you?

As for the In Utero thing, Kurt originally wanted it to sound a lot noiser, but when him and Krist heard the finished product they had a number of problems with it, so eventually they remastered the record and had Scott Litt remix a few songs. Kurt said he loved Albini's production but with how he did things (Having the vocals be low in the mix, the guitars *too* noisey, way the bass sounded, etc), it wasn't how Nirvana themselves sound good. Still love the way In Utero sounds, though.

~Jeremy~

Pearl Jam really irritates me, but I enjoy the occasional STP song.