So what proto-grunge songs do you think I missed out? Comment down below! Trash Theory playlists - Spotify: tinyurl.com/yxp32pjf Deezer: tinyurl.com/y2mdp8h2 Also if you want to access the Grunge playlist, here's my patreon link: patreon.com/trashtheory
"Barracuda" by Heart, a band that's from that area. Chris Cornell, may he rest in peace, has cited Ann Wilson's singing as an influence on him. Her vocals on that track are clearly an influence on his work with Soundgarden. Did you cite any songs by Gang of Four? Kurt Cobain cited that band as an influence of sorts on the sound of "Bleach." Shawn R., Mo-Mutt Music/Sacred & Secular
Same here! I was right there in the middle of it all, and enjoying every minute of it. We really lucked out when it comes to location/era. You almost couldn't ask for a better soundtrack to grow up with. I am so blessed to have seen Mudhoney, Melvins, Soundgarden, Alice in Chains, Nirvana, The Screaming Trees, Tad, Paw, Gruntruck, Filter, Tripping Daisy, Janes Addiction, Porno for Pyros, Sonic Youth, The Pixies, My Sisters Machine, etc.... all LIVE.
Super lucky! Nirvana complete shifted my musical taste (circa 94), I'll never forget my first play through of Nevermind, also never forget finding this new cool band only to find out the singer had died months earlier :/
Y’all were lucky to be living in Seattle for a front row seat, but young people everywhere benefitted from the cultural tidal wave. Being in college in the 90’s was amazing, I almost think it was as good as the 60’s.
It would be interesting if you made a sister video called “after grunge” and how a lot of these bands formed or took a different direction after Kurts suicide, talking more about Stone Temple Pilots, Smashing Pumpkins, Tool, Foo Fighters, Queens of the Stone Age, etc.
Or (and?) mention of more contemporary artists/acts clearly influenced musically by grunge: Bully, Skating Polly, Soccer Mommy, Pom Pom Squad, Starcrawler, for instance.
Temple at the time were not part of this movement. Only thirty years later do props put them there. The pumpkins were apart of the original grunge. Not after. Tool was there also. Foo fighters were not of course and queens were Kyuss and they were even brought up by Dave from Nirvana saying they are the future of grunge. Kyuss was epic in 92. Dave knew it and played for them years later in queens.
Temple at the time were not part of this movement. Only thirty years later do props put them there. The pumpkins were apart of the original grunge. Not after. Tool was there also. Foo fighters were not of course and queens were Kyuss and they were even brought up by Dave from Nirvana saying they are the future of grunge. Kyuss was epic in 92. Dave knew it and played for them years later in queens. I was there. Janes addiction blew it open actually. And so did Guns N’ Roses. They were small once. In 87. They were a very small band once that was to heavy for mainstream radio for almost a year
It's incredibly sad, and tragic, that so many talented people have died from this relatively small scene. I am just glad they got to share their gifts with us all before they passed. They will live on forever.
@@diggie9598 But it definitely helps. You need to have some natural talent in the first place to excel. Yes you can work hard and learn skills, but that natural ability will always give you the edge.
Chris Cornell was the one that truly broke my heart. Because I figured he'd escaped that curse. He didn't OD, he didn't kill himself young, like so many of my other musical heroes from around that time and scene. He seemed to have it all: talent, success, love and family, respect of his peers from the underground to the mainstream... So when he did take his own life so many years later I couldn't believe it. Still can't, really. :(
@@AmyDaisy69 I have this theory. Talent doesn't exist. If you do something over and over again, over a period of time, you'll eventually get it. If there is "talent" it would be having the motivation, confidence, and most importantly in my opinion... the patience. Sometimes, with a lot of things, we quit because we lose our patience, afterwards, we lose the drive and so on. ...just a thought here.
my favorite aspect about Kurt Cobain most people ignore, or don't know much about, is that the success of Nirvana━both sonically and lyrically━can be owed to the fact that he was the biggest student in the John Lennon School of Pop Writing...I loved that he was smart and capable enough to combine that with all of his other influences (and Krist and Dave's) to create some of the best/most enduring music to ever be put on tape; just incredible!
I wish i had that software that could transpose/change vocals between songs. John Lennon singing "Negative Creep" and Kurt singing "Twist and Shout" that sort of thing......
That is another reason why Nirvana would become the most successful of the Seattle bands. The Beatles influence really comes through in every song on Nevermind, they were in the pop song format
That's what made Nirvana different from all the other Seattle bands and what made them break out and change everything. They were deeply punk in their ethos, but played mostly slow stuff, they had the hard edge of metal but the sloppy don't care attitude of underground punk rock. They had the weird artsy lyrics of college rock, but most importantly, they weren't afraid of using pop to hold it all together. And then of course you have Butch Vig, who somehow managed to refine what they were doing without turning it into what everyone else was doing. There's a reason we still talk about that album.
I understand why, but I’m shocked that people don’t often talk about The Beatles’ influence on grunge. The Beatles influenced Black Sabbath’s music, which caused Sabbath to invented the genre of metal. Kurt Cobain and Chris Cornell both listed The Beatles as influences on them as well.
I remember seeing Guns'n'Roses in 91, some band I never heard of was opening. It was Soundgarden. They were amazing and made Guns'n'Roses look like a artifacts from the past. I never turned back after that, it was a new age of rock for me.
Definitely a different perspective and band from the Sunset strip kings of the streets GnR. I think they only toured together in the summer of 92, I believe. Maybe played a few gigs in the US together but not too sure. If they were touring exclusively in the US, I would have went to the closest US city to Toronto for sure because Bad Motor finger was not my first kick at the can with Sound Garden. Definitely their best work from start to finish, album. Kinda disappointed that they were crossing over to the masses with actual new fans singing their radio friendly Outshined, lol. I wanted them to be a private fraternity for the selected few. When you are young you definitely want your parents to actually say " Shut that SHIT OFF!!!, but with Sound Garden you wanted the majority of your peers to say the exact same thing, lol with only a wise few who get it!!! Thsts when you know you're a vital and dangerous rock and roll band!!!
Actually correction they toured in 91 in Europe shortly after opening in America and Canada. I think around the middle of July. I remember a pay per view gig with special guest etc in France- Hippodrome. I remember my Dad driving me to our local cable subscriber to pick up the special cable box, lol. Oh how times have changed. The reason I thought 92 was they also had another Pay per view gig in Japan. And I also saw them for my second time - both in Toronto. First time was GnR opening for the Cult in 1987. But Mettslica was I think 92. Another reason for my confusion is that they didn't release their illusions albums until early Fall of 1991. GnR toured from 91 to 93 on the Illusions discs. And I also saw Alice in Chains open for VH in the Spring of 1992 in Toronto as well. Oh it's all jumbled into about 5 to 6 years when grunge became mainstream. Snd yhat was definitely the realise of Nirvana's "Never Mind ", in 1991. Good Times. Like a wooden match, very bright flsme with s little longer burning flame, but still burns out and is gone or copied, manufactured and programmed along with planned. The very opposite of grunge when it was first coined by the American music reporters and the top 40 mainstream hipsters ala, American public!!! Grunge didn't want to be noticed by a really big audience, they definitely didn't want the responsibility for that msny minions, yhey just wanted to play their own music and to be left alone. Definitely read the program just didn't want to play their game, they just wanted to play their own music, and if a few people enjoyed that well good for you then, lol. True story!!!
I could give you an off-the-head history of Grunge that would blow away most youtube content creators, but I can honestly say that I learned a couple of things from this video and will readily admit that Ive never heard of Bam Bam before. This video was outstanding.
My first love was grunge but it was also exciting to go to raves and dip your toes into techno. I was finishing high school/starting college in the early 90's. It was such an exciting, inventive era for music, totally suited the whole youth in revolt energy that coming of age brings
Not only was I in Seattle from 1985 until 2004 but, I moved there from Grays Harbor. HOQUIAM/ABERDEEN. I was fortunate to be both places at the right time. I also worked within the Music Industry. I saw some incredible shows by some incredible Bands. Going to shows was a part of my job. I cherish this time in my life and know how lucky I was. To me, it's still The Seattle Scene. The Grunge word was a joke to most of us.
@John Napier personally I thought it was pretty decent. Eyelids mouth and Rowing are surprising bangers, Non-state actor and By crooked steps are single worthy, and A thousand days before and Taree are definitely top 15 Soundgarden songs to me all time, if not top 10. Besides those, I can’t say I liked the other half of the album
@John Napier I would class myself as a Soundgarden connoisseur and I really liked it. I'm realistic tho, Superunknown and Badmotofinger have already been made and Scream never should have.
@@MrJJr-lw9zq It's art, there is no best. Soundgarden was the first to get a mainstream record deal, so imagine how Soundgarden could educate all their friends about the big labels, that kinda puts them as the "Canaries in the coal mine" This is what gives them the big brothers of grunge name, plus they were sensible people.
People underestimate the diversity of influences and how these bands (Nirvana, Hole, the Pixies etc) were honest to god music fans and of music that transcended genres. Kurt and Courtney loved Tracey Thorn’s Marine Girls (early 80s), a rather obscure DIY post punk band from the backwaters of the UK. Most of the people in these bands were in it for the music, the politics, the DIY energy, the connection with other musicians.
I am a die hard pixies fan, never was a fan of nirvana....bleach was their best recording. People of a certain age and depending on their musical tastes night not appreciate the Stooges, Pixies, The Cosmic Psychos or the Melvins but real music lovers understand the importance of these bands and their influence on alternative music.
Er, just so you know... when it comes to music, the UK is FAR from being a "backwater"..... where did that little band come from that took America by storm back in the 60s? And by that I include Canada, and South America.... Oh yeah... Liverpool, England, UK - The Beatles. They also went on to take the rest of the World too - Europe, Africa, Asia, Australasia, etc... And where did the real Heavy Metal music scene start? Oh, it was in Birmingham (pronounced Birming'um if you're English!), in England, UK, with bands like Black Sabbath in the very late 60s/early 70s, and continued later with Hawkwind, Deep Purple (at times), Thin Lizzy, Iron Maiden, Motorhead.... you get the picture. These bands pushed Metal Worldwide. And what we would class a 'real' Punk started here in the UK with bands spouting their hatred of the current politics, deprivation, racism, etc in the country from around 1976 onwards, leading to what later became known as "new wave", where these artists were playing with new and varied ways to portray music, that lasted till ....... maybe today? It was a movement though that once again was felt worldwide, and has influenced music ever since - it suddenly allowed freedom of speech in ways that had never been possible before, blending genres..rock/pop/reggae for instance. And there's probably a whole bunch of artists/styles that I've forgotten about over the years..... but that's not a bad musical influence history for the "backwaters"..... more like a whole ocean-front, of the UK.
@@SerenityChaos1975 “people of a certain age”? Well aren’t you then old enough to discard that wannabe “individual poser” attitude and just admit/accept Nevermind is Nirvana’s best recording.
I never forget the sheer awe, when I first saw Soundgarden's Hands All Over on Headbangers Ball, somewhere around 1990. Then came AIC and PJ. My life changed. AIC is still my all time fav.
I love that you mentioned John Peel; a legendary British DJ and promoter, who's personal favorites included, from one end of the spectrum to the other, Sheena Easton's Morning Train, to Teenage Kicks by The Undertones. Still loved and remembered by many; RIP John Peel.
I was at the legendary Reading Festival gig in 1992 when Mudhoney warmed up before Nirvana and the crowd threw mud at them (it rained incessantly all evening). John Peel was the compere/DJ that played between the bands. If memory serves, he played Teenage Kicks and Dinosaur Jr's version of 'Just Like Heaven' (and some others) between Mudhoney and Nirvana. Unforgettable day. Most people on the day said Mudhoney were better, but that may have been because Nirvana's show went on so long that we almost died of hypothermia. It was freezing in that muddy field.
Did not expect someone to mention the This Heat Peel session here. They're the greatest band. Eventually got all my stuff signed by them after loads of stupid BS.
@@JC-lu4se Life is indeed like that. All my favorite albums keep popping up as 30th and 40th anniversary re-issues... and it makes my creaky knees ache.
I saw Nirvana play a gig in a music store. Two weeks later, they were HUGE. Before that, if I heard the word ‘grunge’ it meant the sound and attitude of Mudhoney more than anything.
I was at that event as well near the U District. Was it called Beehive Records? Remember clearly after show Kurt, Kris and Dave sitting on the sidewalk spread apart so fans could visit and get signatures.
Pixies original line up and first album, Surfa Rosa, are underrated and understated in their influence on Nevermind, Kurt said that at all the band listened to while to was Surfa Rosa and their friends, Sonic Youth's Music for weeks and months on tour, Grohl had joined and they did their last tour before recording 'Nevermind', he's on record as saying"Do you think we can release a Pixies song?" To Kurt and Chris. I'm not trying to get anyone to acknowledge anything about anyone, but if you haven't had a listen, Pixies "Come on Pilgrim"' "Surfa Rosa", and "Dolittle", do yourself a favour, the next two albums are good, 'Bossanova' and 'Trompe le Monde' are strong albums for '90 and '91!
I have some weird limited run book of matches with The Pixies on it and a quote from Kurt: 'I should have been in that band'. No idea where it originated, bet it's worth something beyond the obvious nostalgia etc.
I think Kurt's idolization of K Records is another important part of the story, especially with his pop sensibilities; they were of course a twee pop label from Washington, and Kurt had said he tattooed their logo to "stay a child". Of course, grunge and twee feel like on completely different ends of the spectrum, but they certainly adapted from each other.
Definitely!! All that anti solos were definitely a K Records vibe!! Especially when Nirvana started introducing more sad atmospheric tunes like Dumb and Something in the Way. It just screams Beat Happening to me
I am biased to 90s alternative, but this has to be the best video you've ever done. I didn't know it was 36 minutes until I saw the time stamp at the end, I did not feel the time go. Your editing, content, research, layout and narration are at their next level peak power level. Thank you so much. I thoroughly enjoy everything you do, even the British music I would've never heard about or considered the story to if it weren't for your videos. Because of Trash Theory, I am thoroughly defending the Spice Girls.
I'm so glad you mentioned the Sonics. Not only because they were such a great band, but they were from Tacoma! Literally in the heart of the grunge scene a generation before it happened.
Thanks for the deep dive into Grunge, with a few obscure acts I had not heard of that I added to my playlists. I was 40 yrs old in 1990, experienced and listened to the music of the 60's - 80's. If I could do it over, I would have flown out to Seattle to experience the magical and powerful music genre of all time!
I remember thinking when I graduated from high school in 1989 that everything in music was stale and commercial and needed a complete revamp. And just a couple of years later I saw Alice in Chains live in LA in 1992 and it was one of the most memorable times of my entire life.
It was an incredible time for music & I, who grew up with Zeppelin, Sabbath and Van Halen, turned to punk & post punk in the 80's, really felt at home in. I was lucky enough to meet some of these bands and stand offstage listening (but more often drawn into the pit) - the losses that stacked up quickly (Cobain, Staley) and even those more recent (Cornell) have truly taken a toll. Not a huge fan of the pop-punk that followed - so for me, grunge was the high point. Absolutely fantastic work, one of your best!
I think Skin Yard is the most overlooked important grunge band. I feel at this point people are fairly familiar with a lot of the non-"Big Four" bands like The Melvins, Green River, Screaming Trees, etc. But Skin Yard's story is conspicuously absent. Jack Endino wasn't just a producer, he really nailed the grunge guitar sound early on as a musician himself. Ben McMillan was a unique frontman, there was no one quite like him. Daniel House was a damn good bass player as well as the head of C/Z Records, which predated Sub Pop. And they had a bunch of drummers including Matt Cameron and Barrett Martin. Their story deserves to be told.
When I grew up, Rolling Stone magazine had a little section at the end of their charts that was labeled "College Rock". It was on that chart that I first heard of bands like the B-52s, RHCP, 10000 Maniacs and so many others before the media decided to label it "alternative"
I lived with the lead guitarist of Mudhoney for about a year, and one of my favorite stories I ever heard from him was when Nirvana was originally going to open for them for a show, but then Nevermind came out, went to #1 overnight, and they were like “…Yeah, I think we’re opening for them now.” Lol
I think Jimi Hendrix and krautrock bands like Can deserve a mention for their influence, but I absolutely love this video. It was a definitely nostalgia trip. Thanks for introducing me to Bam Bam.
I love how both Boston & Killing Joke influenced Nirvana. What a Longshot they were but they cracked the musical lockbox & set a standard for the 90's.
@@GeertTheDestoyer 50 albums that were more inspirational and more influential (what the fuck is inspirational about stadium rock) than Boston and Killing Joke? Um yes good job you cracked the case Detective Sherlock Holmes
amazed whenever talking about Grunge or rock and roll in general nobody ever mentions The Fabulous Wailers, the first band to ever cover Louie Louie (which inspired The Kingsmen to do their own version,) pioneered garage rock, self-released their own records, and inspired The Sonics to form (which in return inspired dozens of other bands,) Jimi Hendrix would practice their songs when learning how to play, etc probably the most influential band nobody knows about
Wow, I'd forgotten about them. I had a couple tracks on compilations that really stood out and was always promising myself I'd pick up their album 'next time' when I was trying to cut my stack down to fit my budget. Don't think I've seen a copy around in the past 20 years.
I love your musical analysis, but it's a mistake ignoring the socio political influences. Gen X latchkey kids raised in the cold war, 'greed is good' era made this music for a reason. 30 years later and it still resonates.
Growing up in Seattle, I was too young for the grunge scene and totally dismissive of it. I was more into Seattle's 90s hardcore and "emo" with such bands like Sunny Day Real Estate, Botch, The Blood Brothers, Murder City Devils, early Elliott Smith even..etc. But when I got older and more involved in the scene( I worked at KEXP).. I grew to appreciate the grunge scene and how INCREDIBLY TALENTED all those guys were. Seriously, all those guys were exceptional at what they were doing. Even the bands that weren't "commercial success". Whether it was the way they sang and how iconic their voices were/are or how they played their instruments. I am incredibly proud of that time in music. I am still incredibly proud of the Seattle scene. For such a tiny tucked away place, the PNW has been constantly instrumental in changing, and innovating music genres. People only think of grunge, but we also have Death Cab For Cutie, Modest Mouse, Sunny Day Real Estate, The Presidents of The United States, The Melvin's, Tad, The Sonics, Mud Honey, Heart, Mad Season, Minus The Bear, Queensrÿche, hell Quincy Jones even went to HS in Seattle, plus all those other epic grunge bands...the list goes on and on!
I was there and rode the wave. We were all the same age as all those great Seattle band, less Hendrix and Heart.. It was a hell of a ride. They changed everything. Radio got good again, summer concerts and both Lollapalooza I and II, kicked ass. I preferred 2, my EX preferred 1, and that's why she's my EX. jk... It was all ending just as fast as it came. Then came deaths and band breakups, it was over. From '89-'96 or so was fantastic!
Super interesting deep dive! Could probably make an entire film about all of this and still not be able to cover everything. But the way you distilled it down to the most important parts made it very enjoyable to watch. Thanks for making this!
EXCELLENT VIDEO....great subject matter and a worthwhile take on a little talked about subject. Grunge didnt start with Nirvana and neither did Seattle. I absolutely LOVED that Mark Arm quote about Black Flag and think that's the most genius thing Ive heard this month. I know much of this story and live a stone's throw from the area, and I still learned a couple of things. Well done.
I know Kyuss is listed as stoner rock but they always felt borderline grunge to me. They were early 90s and west coast. Josh Homme is a freaking genius! Desert Sessions was life changing for me
Kyuss and later QOTSA have brought a whole new genre of hard-core pop-ish desert rock to the world. Another band that started at the beginning of the century and sadly ended with the group leader Will Mecum's untimely death in 2021 was Karma To Burn. That band I never got to see, but at least they recorded a lot and had some videos. Hard-core, stoner-esque, but fully West Virginia Mountain Rock!
I played out in various bands since the early 80s. I assure you all.... Seattle recycled Sabbath and Neil Young to some extent. And while the rest of us practiced guitar and honed song writing, pop teens embraced simple chords and image as musical greatness. While there is a charm to it all and Soundgarden, Screaming Trees and Mudhoney were certainly the standouts. Movements and trends (Pet Rock anyone?) are just that. I listened to Return To Forever, VH and what moved me. When atrend went one way, I stayed the course. And yet, AIC, Soundgard and STP remain some of my all time faves. So WTF do I know?
So much memories... I remember when Nevermind came out. I went to the record store after school to get it. Listen to it, was blown away (though disappointed not to get the cd with the (in)famous bonus track... yeah that one...which means now I have a very limited copy WITHOUT the bonus track), recorded it onto tape right away. Going to high school, our bus drivers were pretty chill and let us give them cassettes to play during the ride. So the next day, here I came with my fresh made cassette of Nirvana... literally it lasted seconds before the driver said mope not that. Six months later, on the bus, with the same driver, Smells like Teen Spirit played on the radio and yes, he cranked up the volume... I was laughing internally... This was in France.
as a child of the 80's I am shocked and amazed by how much good music I missed. I wish I had that "cool friend" that introduced me to even a 10% of what was presented here. Great research!!
One thing to add to this is that The Sonics (60s garage rock band mentioned here) were actually from Seattle as well which is why they're cited by so many grunge artists as an influence despite them being rather obscure.
Just wanted to drop a note to say how well done this video was. There are too many channels with some stock b-role, a few band pics, and info from wikipedia. I graduated from high school in 1989, lived in the Seattle burbs in the late 1990's, and learned a lot from this video. It is interesting to get a better glimpse into the origins of the bands that defined my college years. Sub'ed!
This was my favorite vid of the channel yet. So many great references in here. I feel like there could be entire videos made of the influences and legacies of Sonic Youth, The Melvins and Dinosaur Jr. Great stuff!
Faster Pussycat has a song called Mr Lovedog that's about Andrew Wood also. While many people know that "Would?" by Alice In Chains is about Andy Wood, most dont know that "Left Behind" by Candlebox is as well. The lead singer of Candlebox grew up with the OG Seattle cats (keep in mind that most of the Seattle bands were from outside Seattle growing up....Chris Cornell being an exception). He had a job with (future Cornell wife and Alice In Chains and Soundgarden manager) Susan Silver at a clothes/shoes store. That's where Susan helped get Chris his first pair of Doc Martins and the lead singer of Candlebox got to know guys like Chris and Andy.
Honestly, I feel like Cobain heard the “it’s better to burn out than it is to fade away” from Devo with Neil Young. Cobain was such a big new wave fan. It makes sense that Devo brought that line to his attention.
The phrase first appeared in 'My My Hey Hey (Out Of the Blue)' by Neil, the first track on 'Rust Never Sleeps'. It's an acoustic companion piece to 'Hey Hey My My (Into The Black)' that opens the album, while 'Hey Hey...' closes it out.
@@RTek1986 If you’re aware with how Cobain felt about Pete Townshend (old) I’m sure he would’ve felt the same way about Neil Young, he’d never once said anything close to praise about Young in interviews. But w/ Devo - Cobain “Of all the bands who came from the underground and actually made it in the mainstream, Devo is the most challenging and subversive.” “Turnaround” is the best Devo song and it was only released as the b-side of their “Whip It” single”
@@brandontingley7059 it can be argued its more Creedence Clearwater Revival with the flannel thing. Cobain was in a cover band once with Novoselic called the Sellouts and did say he was influenced by the band. He never said anything about Neil Young in interviews. I’m sure the “Better to burn out” was brought to his attention by Devo and not by Neil Young
This is a fantastic review of that era in music and I appreciate the research that went into it. The most remarkable fact I wasn't aware of was that Pearl Jam was originally named after Mookie Blaylock.
GRUNGE FOREVER, the sheer number of bands from that era you have mentioned will make me go down the rabbit hole of alternative again. NIRVANA was the best slap to the music world, wish they were still around we probably would not have has tik tok or instagram. But Garbage was undoubtedly the door closer on The scene, those 1st 2 albums were sheer perfection of art and taste and weird. Would have loved to hear more from you on Monster Magnet and the stoner/desert rock scene alternative to the alternative with Kyuss, and later QOTSA...!
Timeless, grunge is slowly making its way back. The Sacramento scene has some mind blowing new grunge bands, specifically Effective Denial, hope they make it big and bring grunge into the mainstream again.
I was just thinking about how I really, really like Layne Staley's voice when it got to the part where someone said his voice was "wrong." o_O WRONG?! Anyway, thanks for another great video!
That statement made me cackle...esp the part citing noted 1990 chart-topping artist DIO 😂 (I mean, if it'd just been A Guy saying that then it probably wouldn't have really struck me as funny, but that it was a total industry wonk like Dave Jerden absolutely tickled my funnybone lol).
Tad. Pre never mind the British music press held them in equal or possibly slightly higher esteem than nirvana. Both bands were lumped together as the new thing. Nowadays Tad pretty well omitted from history .
Absolutely. From a British perspective Tad were the first of the Seattle Sup Pop bands to be really feted by the music press, then Mudhoney, and then Nirvana. I also remember music journalists using Sub Pop as a genre name, although it never caught on with anybody else. The word grunge was widely used as an adjective for some of the bands otherwise lumped in with Grebo. Most obviously Crazyhead, but also Bomb Party and Gaye Bykers On Acid.
Also interesting when you consider that MTV refused Tad's video for Wood Goblins because it was "too ugly" only to put out the much higher budgeted video for Smells Like Teen Spirit years later.
Very interesting vid, I only had 5 mins so I hit save and thought I’d watch the rest later. Fucked off what I was meant to do and watched the lot! Like the style, subbed. Edit: wound back up here after 2 years, it’s safe to say now that I’m genuinely chuffed every time a new TT pops up in my notifications. The best of these types of videos, bar none.
Man this was a great lesson in the early days of grunge/90s alternative.. i was born in '88 so when all this was happening I was just a wee little boy.. I remember my step dad though really being into sound garden, pearl jam, alice in chains, nirvana, mad season, mother love bone, etc.. i remember in like the first or second grade getting in trouble and having to sit in time out, alone. Because i had heard Stargazer by Mother love bone for the first time on the ride home the day before and i listened to it prolly ten or fifteen times after getting home and going to school the next morning. I knew every word, and i couldnt stop singing it once i got to class. N the teacher had done told me to stop like three time n i jst kept on singing it.. So she put me in time out.. Those were the days.. lol.
Nice one. Literally only heard the intro so far and you just nailed it. Well done. I love these videos, they're always very well researched and informed, whilst still giving a great overview in a short amount of time. Just the right amount of depth. I'd say I'm a "grunge" fan - so like most I may have a slight issue with the word grunge for a bunch of reasons (mainly it just doesn't mean very much in terms of musicality, but it is still a valid term for describing *something* - it's just that people have different ideas about what that is (a fashion, a guitar sound, a place, a scene etc. In fact it's probably most useful for giving insight into the musical knowledge or misconceptions the person using the word has, which sounds elitest but whatever). Anyway, the intro summed up the word very well, in my opinion.
Buzz Osbourne of the Melvins cites both the My War and Slip It In albums by Black Flag for his shift in sound and slowing down. Krist Noveselic and Kurt Cobain went with Buzz to one of these shows in Seattle at the Mountaineer Club in 1984. Chris Cornell and Kim Thayil saw Black Flag and Green River in Fall of that year, Members of Skin Yard and Screaming Trees were also in the audience. It amazes me how overshadowed the Flags influence is, they were a big deal!
You're not a true Nirvana fan if you don't know who The melvins are. Just saying. Yet another band that didn't get the coverage that they should have as well as Mud Honey. I still can't get over the fact that Goodness didn't get more respect and love considering the lead singer also was in Hammer Box and the Rockfords just saying.
The Cosmic Psychos are always forgotten in contemporary “grungeumentaries” that are compiled by people who didn’t experience the grunge years organically. They also influenced Nirvana and are still making music.
Excellent video-I’ve always heard an influence of the British band The Cult in many of these band’s music. I’d really enjoy one on the desert psychedelic garage rock that was going on around this time. Saint Vitus, Across the River, Meat Puppets, etc
I was there, 3000 years ago. My skatepunk friends and I watched slackjawed and confused as our underground burst into pop culture after Nirvana - which had been the kind of band a few ppl paid $5 to see in tiny clubs. It was surreal.
@@n.nealparadise3963 Negative reactions all around. Disgust, horror, a general feeling of one's orderly universe suddenly bending the rules. Suddenly the popular kids who mocked and reviled us social outcasts were gobbling up the special unique hard-to-find music, hairstyles, and clothing that our sub-culture had produced. I watched a crowd of frat boy jocks cheer to radio darlings Stone Temple Pilots, then leave when the headliner Butthole Surfers came onstage.
@@sabertoothrobot Hi man! To be 100% honnest with you, at first (and maybe because I was such a naive boy) I found it more or less reassuring that underground was being 'validated' by the mainstream and even felt that I myself was being validated by other people who considered me for knowing so much about this music (hey, people even started to give a chance and listen to Sonic Youth!!). But, yeah, that was all illusory and soon that feeling of 'recognition' started to fade away... BTW I'm from Portugal, not USA!! so my English is rather clumsy. Even so it is almost incredible how similar your story is to mine (I'm assuming you're american...) Cheers!
Spin Magazine ran a last-page quiz on Are You Real or Bandwagon Grunge? The only one I remember is "How did you get your flannel shirt?" A. $30 at Macy's B. Wrestled authentic 50's style flannel off dead grandpa before paramedic arrived.
The Wilson sisters even show up on the Singles soundtrack (under the name "The Lovemongers"). Honestly I was a little surprised that soundtrack didn't get a mention when he talked about the movie. It's a perfect entrypoint into grunge for anyone looking for a place to start.
@@SerialExperimentsTim Nancy being married to writer/director Cameron Crowe might have had an influence on getting The Lovemongers on the OST. I'm glad in any case because they did a fantastic version of Led Zep's "The Battle of Evermore".
@@SerialExperimentsTim Simply put, they were way too talented and had long since lost any alternarive cred with the string of pop rock albums in the mid 80s. And they were crooning away with the horrid All I want to do track while grunge was lifting off in 91.
As an older guy who grew up north of Seattle back in those days... it's awesome to see Bam Bam being mentioned. I never saw them but heard of them from a tape a buddy of mine gave me at a concert. Tape to tape to tape recordings were the audio sounded almost warbled. Also Green River... so awesome. Sub Pop was like the cement that held together the foundation of grunge starting there. I'm still watching the video but just for my own interjection... I dislike seeing Hole getting a spotlight during that who only got popularity after she met Cobain. L7 was the real group that should have taken the place instead of Hole for that statement... L7's grim and grit on their Sub Pop album "Smell the Magic" was far more respected and came out earlier than Hole did with L7 coming from a punk foundation in the late 80s on Epitaph records.
I was married from 1983 to 1989, so I missed out on the transition of a sub genre of Punk into grunge. This video captures that transition like the compilation “Sub•Pop 200” does.
Grunge was blessed with some of the best voices ever to grace rock'n'roll. I'd put Chris Cornell, Eddie Vedder & Layne Staley up against any three voices from any era. Just unreal vocals.
I'd say that Mike Patton is the only dude who is on Chris Cornell's level. Nobody can fuck with those two, any era. Chris and Mike have sung every genre. They both have crazy diversity in projects they've taken on. Neither of them handcuffed their range. Both are like 6 octaves from hell. Those two are my spirit animals.
I mean there's no mention of In Utero even in the slightest, or of Kurt's suicide, so I think mentioning Nirvana's drummer's band would have been *pretty* out of place
@@crasstrash The end of Nirvana as it were wasn't the point I was making. The point was that during the epilogue he mentioned a list of bands that followed in grunge's wake. The Foo Fighters were one such post-grunge band which emerged from Seattle.
The first Foo's album had shades of Kurt's guitar tone but it's not really grunge, more like a then-modern take on good ol' hard rock (except for Big Me).
Great video! I would love love LOVE to see an entire video dedicated to Smashing Pumpkins. Of all the early 90s bands that changed music....SP were the one that changed my own life the most. Such a shockingly powerful band...so diverse genre-wise...and with a pretty huge output during their first 10 years. Every single album from Gish(including the pre-Gish stuff) through to the double Machina albums are perfect. Just perfect. Hell, on some days Machina is my favorite album. But there's not one dud. I love how they combined shoegaze and dream pop into their otherwise "alternative rock" sound. A bit My Bloody Valentine...and Black Sabbath...at the same time. And come on....no one had a voice like Corgan's. You either love it or hate it(I adore it)....but it absolutely stands out from everything else going on at the time. Ok....I'll stop ranting....but yeah, they deserve the Trash Theory treatment. :)
Such a great video, thanks for letting this together. Not only did you provide info on bands I've liked for a long time, but you've also given me another handful of bands to look into
really like that you included bam bam in this (though i’m not sure the reason they were written out of the history of grunge is THAT much of a mystery)
@@Maskami racism. Tina Bell was constantly attacked physically with chains and verbally with slurs by racists and misogynists at Bam Bam's shows, and to be fair, not a lot of time have passed since the racial segregation ended. You could say it could be also sexism since riot grrrl only gained popularity after white college women started it (not that I don't like it tho), but even then, they also were attacked and sista riot appeared too
@@Maskami they were fronted by a black woman in a scene that was very much male and even more white (and history has a distinct pattern of erasing non-white, non-male, and queer contributions in every field)
@@peach_total I really had no idea she was a black woman. Looking at the video I thought maybe she was a white woman mixed with Asian because her hair looks straight
i love the fact that "grunge", a genre i hold incredibly near and dear, is linked to Neil Young "the godfather of grunge"... and the first "real" band Neil was ever in was my late father's band "The Esquires"... it's a really trippy connection to have to the genre... great video, man! loved every second of it! :)
Great program on how grunge started and I was listening to all that at that time. Miss Cornell. Cobain, Staley and all the other GREAT voices and bands who suffered a loss. Love you ALL ❤ God bless You ALL
They were pretty popular in the alternative scene in late 80s \90s....cosmic psychos don’t get the recognition they deserve, despite being a well known influence on Nirvana and grunge
@@SerenityChaos1975 Killing Joke and whoever they are don't show up in the top 50 favorite albums by Nirvana so they couldn't have that much of an influence
Killing Joke is an interesting band regardless, going from post-punk/new wave in the 80's to industrial metal in the 90's was a cool move. Going from having minor hits in the mid 80's like Love like Blood to the 1990 album Extremities, Dirt and various Repressed Emotions was a bold move. Not sure about the impact they had on grunge but as Joy Division is sometimes mentioned one can assume Killing Joke would or could have had a similar influence. An similarity i do see with a band like Nirvana is surely that both bands kinda disliked the fame and attention and therefore started making more abrasive music after reaching success.
That's the whole problem with nirvana's fanbase. They worship a man who didn't give a shit about himself, or his fans. They find all this poetic meaning in nothingness.
Yeah dude. The lyrics he wrote definitely meant nothing to him and nobody has ever said somthing that wasnt true out of a bout of self hatred and extreme depression. Nobody has ever been self destructive towards something they created and put their blood sweat and tears into. That would just be of unsound mind haha.
Kurt was really ahead of the game. And his "as long as [they lyrics are] not sexist" comment really clarifies to me why he held some of his fanbase in such contempt, and became disillusioned. But I guess that contempt gave us In Utero. All Apologies is still one of my favourite songs.
@@mattkierkegaard9403 Whether his relationship with Courtney Love was good for him or not is another discussion. It doesn't make his embrace of feminism wrong.
Very strongly agree! And it's aging gorgeously. Lanegan's later career solo & collaborative/guest vocal work is full of talented performances. Bubblegum (2004) is just excellent & one of those rare albums you can listen from start to finish. Blues Funeral (2012) has some musically experimental flourishes - Ode to Sad Disco is like Lanegan fronting one of New Order's gothier toned tracks.
Magnificent singer. Difficult guy. I had the pleasure of seeing the Screaming Trees with Alice In Chains and Gruntruck. Mark was on point, but during the rest of that tour he got a little too Jim Morrison in terms of antics.
Great work yet again, Mate. Three things you might want to include in the edits: (1) The Wipers were hugely influential on the whole Northwest scene from the early to late 1980s (Melvins and Nirvana covered them lots), so probably merit more attention here. (2) Minneapolis's The Cows were easily the sludgiest of the sludge from about 1988 through 1991, so perhaps deserve some attention here too. (3) Finally, Dinosaur's 1985 'You're Living All Over Me' was a titanic breakthrough, which has to have influenced the grunge scene immensely - far more than 1989's 'Bug,' which you note here a bit fleetingly. Overall very well done, though - learned a great deal, THANKS!
Informative, entertaining, decently accurate and inclusive considering how condensed it is. Only criticism is I had to turn it down while the narrator spoke because I had it cranked during the music. Maybe could use a remix to correct that? All in all, a good documentary glad I checked it out. Will subscribe
The change was really as dramatic as people say. It was like Def Leppard and Bon Jovi were being played everywhere and then all of a sudden it wasnt. It wasnt overnight but it was noticeably quick. Seismic shift is an accurate way of putting it.
What a superb documentary. Very interesting, informative and entertaining. Thee Hypnotics (UK) live album Louder Than God was held in very high esteem by the Seattle grunge scene. The band toured there early on and reignited a stooged mc5 blue cheer spark. So much so that the album was picked up by Sub Pop and remastered to boost the rawness of the sound. Cue 30 years later and a reformed Hypnotics were invited to tour with Mudhoney
Every time I get into a conversation about the "grunge" era of music with people, they really only know Nirvana, Soundgarden, Alice in chains, and Pearl Jam. (Even more limiting, they only know their hits) While those are some of the titans, there are so many bands and individuals that had huge parts of making the sound. The history is quite more robust than most will ever realize.
You are so right about that! Grunge is so much more than Nirvana. You said it perfectly about everyone only knowing the hits. There is a vast collection of songs out there that were/are even better than the hits.
I do hate calling "Grunge" a musical genre, because outside of a lot of the lower register vocals/screams, none of the bands really sounded the same musically. I think it's even more of a crime that Smashing Pumpkins got lumped in with the Grunge "sound". Yes, "Gish" had a lot of musical Grunge "elements", but after that, those elements pretty much disappeared. "Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness" is in my top 5 albums of all time. You could argue that "Zero" had a "Grunge" feel, I guess, but the Pumpkins had a much greater scope.
Good album but if it’s seriously in your top 5 you need to listen to more , there is so much great stuff from many genres and eras. Not a criticism, Pumpkins are an awesome band.
Yes, agree wholeheartedly. Gish was grungy and for me their best album, but musically Smashing Pumpkins' high musicianship was sort of anti grunge ironically.
@@billymack333 Hey, man, music is subjective. "Mellon Collie" came out when I was 13, it's just one of those albums I still listen to all the time. For a 21 year old album to still have that kind of impact on me, that says something.
@@TranzparentMethods 13 eh ? Probably why it sounds so good 😊 A lot of firsts happening around that time...probably some association with coming of age. I got a few years on you, when it Mellon Collie came out I was in prison 😭One of my buddies sent me the CD 💿 The Brothers didn’t really dig it. Bullet with Butterfly Wings cranking on the boom box during my workouts...”Despite all my rage I’m still just a rat in a cage”. Lucky I was jacked as all fuck back then (and generally likeable !). Not for a second was I suggesting it wasn’t good. When I was younger I usually had to be able to relate to the culture of the music, how they looked, what they represented etc. Nowadays I listen to anything that sounds good.
surprised you didn't mention the little tidbit about how the name "Smells Like Teen Spirit" is from a joke Kathleen Hannah (Bikini Kill) made about Kurt! speaking of which, would be interesting to compare / contrast the more male-dominated grunge bands with the riot grrrl scene.
He already has a video on Smells like Teen Spirit and he goes on a whole tangent about that. Do check it out, great video even though not as well produced as the new ones.
30 years ago as I write this... grunge was starting to break through. I was some kid in a Midwestern town digging on my first taste of Metallica. In a few months I'd get a taste of grunge when I'd watch Nirvana on SNL. The opening lick of Teen Spirit blew me away, and there was no turning back.
![Lp. Сердце Вселенной #60 РОЖДЕНИЕ ЛОЛОЛОШКИ [Финал] • Майнкрафт](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/YoR0pAV9FVQ/mqdefault.jpg)
So what proto-grunge songs do you think I missed out? Comment down below!
Trash Theory playlists - Spotify: tinyurl.com/yxp32pjf Deezer: tinyurl.com/y2mdp8h2
Also if you want to access the Grunge playlist, here's my patreon link: patreon.com/trashtheory
thanks for the video
Pink Floyd - Nile Song
Jerusalem - Primitive Man
"Barracuda" by Heart, a band that's from that area. Chris Cornell, may he rest in peace, has cited Ann Wilson's singing as an influence on him. Her vocals on that track are clearly an influence on his work with Soundgarden. Did you cite any songs by Gang of Four? Kurt Cobain cited that band as an influence of sorts on the sound of "Bleach." Shawn R., Mo-Mutt Music/Sacred & Secular
More like whole scenes-
Butthole Surfers?
Scratch Acid?
Texas never gets any love.
Would have loved to hear about The Gits and the tragic death of Mia Zapata..
It was a magical time to be a music fan living in Seattle. I was there and I can't help but feel like I won my generation's musical lottery.
Same here! I was right there in the middle of it all, and enjoying every minute of it. We really lucked out when it comes to location/era. You almost couldn't ask for a better soundtrack to grow up with. I am so blessed to have seen Mudhoney, Melvins, Soundgarden, Alice in Chains, Nirvana, The Screaming Trees, Tad, Paw, Gruntruck, Filter, Tripping Daisy, Janes Addiction, Porno for Pyros, Sonic Youth, The Pixies, My Sisters Machine, etc.... all LIVE.
Super lucky!
Nirvana complete shifted my musical taste (circa 94), I'll never forget my first play through of Nevermind, also never forget finding this new cool band only to find out the singer had died months earlier :/
@@ShonnDaylee Super envious. Must have been awesome
@@reinaldofavoreto7160 interesting take
Y’all were lucky to be living in Seattle for a front row seat, but young people everywhere benefitted from the cultural tidal wave. Being in college in the 90’s was amazing, I almost think it was as good as the 60’s.
It would be interesting if you made a sister video called “after grunge” and how a lot of these bands formed or took a different direction after Kurts suicide, talking more about Stone Temple Pilots, Smashing Pumpkins, Tool, Foo Fighters, Queens of the Stone Age, etc.
Yes, would love to see something like this.
Or (and?) mention of more contemporary artists/acts clearly influenced musically by grunge: Bully, Skating Polly, Soccer Mommy, Pom Pom Squad, Starcrawler, for instance.
Temple at the time were not part of this movement. Only thirty years later do props put them there. The pumpkins were apart of the original grunge. Not after. Tool was there also. Foo fighters were not of course and queens were Kyuss and they were even brought up by Dave from Nirvana saying they are the future of grunge. Kyuss was epic in 92. Dave knew it and played for them years later in queens.
Temple at the time were not part of this movement. Only thirty years later do props put them there. The pumpkins were apart of the original grunge. Not after. Tool was there also. Foo fighters were not of course and queens were Kyuss and they were even brought up by Dave from Nirvana saying they are the future of grunge. Kyuss was epic in 92. Dave knew it and played for them years later in queens. I was there.
Janes addiction blew it open actually. And so did Guns N’ Roses. They were small once. In 87. They were a very small band once that was to heavy for mainstream radio for almost a year
Also all of the spin off bands like Foo Fighters, and Audioslave.
It's incredibly sad, and tragic, that so many talented people have died from this relatively small scene. I am just glad they got to share their gifts with us all before they passed. They will live on forever.
In many ways it was a punk revival wasn't it. And the drug du jour was the same drug, with all the misery it brought along with it.
They were hard working and passionate artists. Calling them "talented" is an insult.
Talent won't get you any skill, never has and never will.
@@diggie9598 But it definitely helps. You need to have some natural talent in the first place to excel. Yes you can work hard and learn skills, but that natural ability will always give you the edge.
Chris Cornell was the one that truly broke my heart. Because I figured he'd escaped that curse. He didn't OD, he didn't kill himself young, like so many of my other musical heroes from around that time and scene. He seemed to have it all: talent, success, love and family, respect of his peers from the underground to the mainstream... So when he did take his own life so many years later I couldn't believe it. Still can't, really. :(
@@AmyDaisy69
I have this theory. Talent doesn't exist.
If you do something over and over again, over a period of time, you'll eventually get it.
If there is "talent" it would be having the motivation, confidence, and most importantly in my opinion... the patience. Sometimes, with a lot of things, we quit because we lose our patience, afterwards, we lose the drive and so on.
...just a thought here.
Grunge became grunge when the media started labeling these bands grunge, but the fact is that these were actually punk rock bands and metal bands.
It was the Natural Evolution but you got to put labels on it to Market it. The nature of the Beast.
my favorite aspect about Kurt Cobain most people ignore, or don't know much about, is that the success of Nirvana━both sonically and lyrically━can be owed to the fact that he was the biggest student in the John Lennon School of Pop Writing...I loved that he was smart and capable enough to combine that with all of his other influences (and Krist and Dave's) to create some of the best/most enduring music to ever be put on tape; just incredible!
I wish i had that software that could transpose/change vocals between songs.
John Lennon singing "Negative Creep" and Kurt singing "Twist and Shout" that sort of thing......
@@ari1234a you can with ai nowadays
That is another reason why Nirvana would become the most successful of the Seattle bands. The Beatles influence really comes through in every song on Nevermind, they were in the pop song format
That's what made Nirvana different from all the other Seattle bands and what made them break out and change everything. They were deeply punk in their ethos, but played mostly slow stuff, they had the hard edge of metal but the sloppy don't care attitude of underground punk rock. They had the weird artsy lyrics of college rock, but most importantly, they weren't afraid of using pop to hold it all together. And then of course you have Butch Vig, who somehow managed to refine what they were doing without turning it into what everyone else was doing.
There's a reason we still talk about that album.
I understand why, but I’m shocked that people don’t often talk about The Beatles’ influence on grunge. The Beatles influenced Black Sabbath’s music, which caused Sabbath to invented the genre of metal. Kurt Cobain and Chris Cornell both listed The Beatles as influences on them as well.
This is a master thesis on grunge. Very informative.
I just got taken to school.
I grew up in Seattle and there are a few things in the video I didn't know about.
Or, as our commentator would inevitably put it, 'a master feces...'! ;)
I 100% recommend "Our Band Could Be Your Life" it's an amazing book that several of the quotes used in this video came from.
GRUNGE was good, but not actual METAL!!
I remember seeing Guns'n'Roses in 91, some band I never heard of was opening. It was Soundgarden. They were amazing and made Guns'n'Roses look like a artifacts from the past. I never turned back after that, it was a new age of rock for me.
sound garden will always be one of my favorites.
Brilliant
Why why why and again why go and see a band with the leader called gobble
Definitely a different perspective and band from the Sunset strip kings of the streets GnR. I think they only toured together in the summer of 92, I believe. Maybe played a few gigs in the US together but not too sure. If they were touring exclusively in the US, I would have went to the closest US city to Toronto for sure because Bad Motor finger was not my first kick at the can with Sound Garden. Definitely their best work from start to finish, album. Kinda disappointed that they were crossing over to the masses with actual new fans singing their radio friendly Outshined, lol. I wanted them to be a private fraternity for the selected few. When you are young you definitely want your parents to actually say " Shut that SHIT OFF!!!, but with Sound Garden you wanted the majority of your peers to say the exact same thing, lol with only a wise few who get it!!! Thsts when you know you're a vital and dangerous rock and roll band!!!
Actually correction they toured in 91 in Europe shortly after opening in America and Canada. I think around the middle of July. I remember a pay per view gig with special guest etc in France- Hippodrome. I remember my Dad driving me to our local cable subscriber to pick up the special cable box, lol. Oh how times have changed. The reason I thought 92 was they also had another Pay per view gig in Japan. And I also saw them for my second time - both in Toronto. First time was GnR opening for the Cult in 1987. But Mettslica was I think 92. Another reason for my confusion is that they didn't release their illusions albums until early Fall of 1991. GnR toured from 91 to 93 on the Illusions discs. And I also saw Alice in Chains open for VH in the Spring of 1992 in Toronto as well. Oh it's all jumbled into about 5 to 6 years when grunge became mainstream. Snd yhat was definitely the realise of Nirvana's "Never Mind ", in 1991. Good Times. Like a wooden match, very bright flsme with s little longer burning flame, but still burns out and is gone or copied, manufactured and programmed along with planned. The very opposite of grunge when it was first coined by the American music reporters and the top 40 mainstream hipsters ala, American public!!! Grunge didn't want to be noticed by a really big audience, they definitely didn't want the responsibility for that msny minions, yhey just wanted to play their own music and to be left alone. Definitely read the program just didn't want to play their game, they just wanted to play their own music, and if a few people enjoyed that well good for you then, lol. True story!!!
Bam Bam are a real discovery here. What a shame they were not able to put out a 45 or LP.
Yeah I feel the same. It’s upsetting that talent like that just gets forgotten. Would love to know more.
Ive spent hours, and hours, and hours searching the internet for forgotten grunge bands. And I never once heard or read of Bam Bam. Amazing.
I could give you an off-the-head history of Grunge that would blow away most youtube content creators, but I can honestly say that I learned a couple of things from this video and will readily admit that Ive never heard of Bam Bam before. This video was outstanding.
At work, checked them out whilst gettin back to it, see this comment first thing as I start it back. And I agree. They dope.
Absolutely, I started exploring them only recently
Finished college in 1990. The early 90s were fantastic for exploring music and life in general. I had a blast.
Damn your old
@@A_random_NPC Yes, I am. I can spell, too.
I turned 18 in 1994. I came a little late to the party, but I know what you mean. 😎
My first love was grunge but it was also exciting to go to raves and dip your toes into techno. I was finishing high school/starting college in the early 90's. It was such an exciting, inventive era for music, totally suited the whole youth in revolt energy that coming of age brings
Not only was I in Seattle from 1985 until 2004 but, I moved there from Grays Harbor. HOQUIAM/ABERDEEN. I was fortunate to be both places at the right time. I also worked within the Music Industry. I saw some incredible shows by some incredible Bands. Going to shows was a part of my job. I cherish this time in my life and know how lucky I was. To me, it's still The Seattle Scene. The Grunge word was a joke to most of us.
Hipster noises?
It was the Seattle Sound for us, well before the normies/old folks started calling it grunge.
Grunge sounds cooler though
OK boomer
Do you remember Bam Bam?
I feel like Soundgarden is that big brother archetype that nobody really talks about, but was always the best
@John Napier personally I thought it was pretty decent. Eyelids mouth and Rowing are surprising bangers, Non-state actor and By crooked steps are single worthy, and A thousand days before and Taree are definitely top 15 Soundgarden songs to me all time, if not top 10. Besides those, I can’t say I liked the other half of the album
@John Napier I would class myself as a Soundgarden connoisseur and I really liked it. I'm realistic tho, Superunknown and Badmotofinger have already been made and Scream never should have.
Then is nirvana the youngest brother that people talk about and gets all the attention and was good but wasn’t the best
@@MrJJr-lw9zq It's art, there is no best.
Soundgarden was the first to get a mainstream record deal, so imagine how Soundgarden could educate all their friends about the big labels, that kinda puts them as the "Canaries in the coal mine"
This is what gives them the big brothers of grunge name, plus they were sensible people.
@@thehandseesall yeah that’s true but I just wanted to have fun with the comment
People underestimate the diversity of influences and how these bands (Nirvana, Hole, the Pixies etc) were honest to god music fans and of music that transcended genres. Kurt and Courtney loved Tracey Thorn’s Marine Girls (early 80s), a rather obscure DIY post punk band from the backwaters of the UK. Most of the people in these bands were in it for the music, the politics, the DIY energy, the connection with other musicians.
This is why the music they made still stands to this day. Manufactured music (which is pretty much all pop music), goes stale very quickly.
I am a die hard pixies fan, never was a fan of nirvana....bleach was their best recording. People of a certain age and depending on their musical tastes night not appreciate the Stooges, Pixies, The Cosmic Psychos or the Melvins but real music lovers understand the importance of these bands and their influence on alternative music.
I love Marine Girls ❤️
Er, just so you know... when it comes to music, the UK is FAR from being a "backwater"..... where did that little band come from that took America by storm back in the 60s? And by that I include Canada, and South America.... Oh yeah... Liverpool, England, UK - The Beatles.
They also went on to take the rest of the World too - Europe, Africa, Asia, Australasia, etc...
And where did the real Heavy Metal music scene start? Oh, it was in Birmingham (pronounced Birming'um if you're English!), in England, UK, with bands like Black Sabbath in the very late 60s/early 70s, and continued later with Hawkwind, Deep Purple (at times), Thin Lizzy, Iron Maiden, Motorhead.... you get the picture.
These bands pushed Metal Worldwide.
And what we would class a 'real' Punk started here in the UK with bands spouting their hatred of the current politics, deprivation, racism, etc in the country from around 1976 onwards, leading to what later became known as "new wave", where these artists were playing with new and varied ways to portray music, that lasted till ....... maybe today? It was a movement though that once again was felt worldwide, and has influenced music ever since - it suddenly allowed freedom of speech in ways that had never been possible before, blending genres..rock/pop/reggae for instance.
And there's probably a whole bunch of artists/styles that I've forgotten about over the years..... but that's not a bad musical influence history for the "backwaters"..... more like a whole ocean-front, of the UK.
@@SerenityChaos1975 “people of a certain age”? Well aren’t you then old enough to discard that wannabe “individual poser” attitude and just admit/accept Nevermind is Nirvana’s best recording.
I never forget the sheer awe, when I first saw Soundgarden's Hands All Over on Headbangers Ball, somewhere around 1990.
Then came AIC and PJ. My life changed. AIC is still my all time fav.
I hope you're a nerd like me and AIC's self-titled is your favorite album too lol
@@BobeBryant93 IDK, I love that too, but I can not pick a favorite. Maybe "The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here", lol.
AIC is in a class of their own
@@BobeBryant93 self titled as in “tripod”? Then yeah I agree!!!
AiC is def the best.
It's required genius touch to make a combination of Yardbirds with Stooges and record ultimate Seattle anthem "Touch me I'm sick" .Thank You Mark
❤😂 Definitely 1 of my favorite songs of all time!¡! 😆🤣😂💞 Thanks Mark and all members of MudHoney!¡! ❤❤
I love how UK/US are so musically entwined.
I love that you mentioned John Peel; a legendary British DJ and promoter, who's personal favorites included, from one end of the spectrum to the other, Sheena Easton's Morning Train, to Teenage Kicks by The Undertones. Still loved and remembered by many; RIP John Peel.
Both incredibly cool and incredibly pretentious all in one.
I was at the legendary Reading Festival gig in 1992 when Mudhoney warmed up before Nirvana and the crowd threw mud at them (it rained incessantly all evening). John Peel was the compere/DJ that played between the bands. If memory serves, he played Teenage Kicks and Dinosaur Jr's version of 'Just Like Heaven' (and some others) between Mudhoney and Nirvana. Unforgettable day. Most people on the day said Mudhoney were better, but that may have been because Nirvana's show went on so long that we almost died of hypothermia. It was freezing in that muddy field.
Shout out peel for recording this heats material
Did not expect someone to mention the This Heat Peel session here. They're the greatest band. Eventually got all my stuff signed by them after loads of stupid BS.
That’s the first time I’ve heard “Alive” compared to “Free Bird” and I’m perfectly okay with it.
Hahaha it kinda makes sense though lol Pearl Jam always had a country twang and a folky vibe
Simple Man is very grundge.
@@alexkubinski1099 lol yes
vom
Free Bird
Im really glad you included Bam Bam, its a shame Tina never got the credit she deserved. RIP 🖤
This is an excellent run through of grunge and it’s background. Can’t believe it’s 30 ish years ago.
Reported for hate speech. Grunge was 10 years ago. Right? Right? 👀
@@embunchofnumbers Ha. If only!
@@embunchofnumbers I'm nearly 45 now and the 90s feel like they were 10 years ago.
Amazing how time flies.
@@dub_dub1504 Same here. How times flies, eh?
@@JC-lu4se Life is indeed like that. All my favorite albums keep popping up as 30th and 40th anniversary re-issues... and it makes my creaky knees ache.
I saw Nirvana play a gig in a music store. Two weeks later, they were HUGE. Before that, if I heard the word ‘grunge’ it meant the sound and attitude of Mudhoney more than anything.
I was at that event as well near the U District. Was it called Beehive Records? Remember clearly after show Kurt, Kris and Dave sitting on the sidewalk spread apart so fans could visit and get signatures.
Pixies original line up and first album, Surfa Rosa, are underrated and understated in their influence on Nevermind, Kurt said that at all the band listened to while to was Surfa Rosa and their friends, Sonic Youth's Music for weeks and months on tour, Grohl had joined and they did their last tour before recording 'Nevermind', he's on record as saying"Do you think we can release a Pixies song?" To Kurt and Chris. I'm not trying to get anyone to acknowledge anything about anyone, but if you haven't had a listen, Pixies "Come on Pilgrim"' "Surfa Rosa", and "Dolittle", do yourself a favour, the next two albums are good, 'Bossanova' and 'Trompe le Monde' are strong albums for '90 and '91!
If you ask me, Bossanova is the pinnacle of pop-rock. Nothing comes close. Off course at that period.
I think Kurt was quoted as saying he just wanted to do something like a Pixies song. Surfa Rosa was seminal for the whole movement IMO
I have some weird limited run book of matches with The Pixies on it and a quote from Kurt: 'I should have been in that band'. No idea where it originated, bet it's worth something beyond the obvious nostalgia etc.
@@likelemmyidabasest3882take a picture of it and “search through Google Lens. Never know.!
@@likelemmyidabasest3882 A book of matches is extremely random lol, but that quote is gold.
I think Kurt's idolization of K Records is another important part of the story, especially with his pop sensibilities; they were of course a twee pop label from Washington, and Kurt had said he tattooed their logo to "stay a child". Of course, grunge and twee feel like on completely different ends of the spectrum, but they certainly adapted from each other.
Definitely!! All that anti solos were definitely a K Records vibe!! Especially when Nirvana started introducing more sad atmospheric tunes like Dumb and Something in the Way. It just screams Beat Happening to me
I am biased to 90s alternative, but this has to be the best video you've ever done. I didn't know it was 36 minutes until I saw the time stamp at the end, I did not feel the time go. Your editing, content, research, layout and narration are at their next level peak power level. Thank you so much. I thoroughly enjoy everything you do, even the British music I would've never heard about or considered the story to if it weren't for your videos. Because of Trash Theory, I am thoroughly defending the Spice Girls.
I'm so glad you mentioned the Sonics. Not only because they were such a great band, but they were from Tacoma! Literally in the heart of the grunge scene a generation before it happened.
3 generations before!
Thanks for the deep dive into Grunge, with a few obscure acts I had not heard of that I added to my playlists. I was 40 yrs old in 1990, experienced and listened to the music of the 60's - 80's. If I could do it over, I would have flown out to Seattle to experience the magical and powerful music genre of all time!
I remember thinking when I graduated from high school in 1989 that everything in music was stale and commercial and needed a complete revamp. And just a couple of years later I saw Alice in Chains live in LA in 1992 and it was one of the most memorable times of my entire life.
God, I discovered so much great music from mtv's 120mins!
I loved that program
Me too! 120 minutes and Alternative Nation were my favorites on MTV in the 90's! Miss it so much!
*120 Minutes should be a UA-cam channel.*
@@hulkhatepunybanner great idea.
It was an incredible time for music & I, who grew up with Zeppelin, Sabbath and Van Halen, turned to punk & post punk in the 80's, really felt at home in. I was lucky enough to meet some of these bands and stand offstage listening (but more often drawn into the pit) - the losses that stacked up quickly (Cobain, Staley) and even those more recent (Cornell) have truly taken a toll. Not a huge fan of the pop-punk that followed - so for me, grunge was the high point.
Absolutely fantastic work, one of your best!
I think Skin Yard is the most overlooked important grunge band. I feel at this point people are fairly familiar with a lot of the non-"Big Four" bands like The Melvins, Green River, Screaming Trees, etc. But Skin Yard's story is conspicuously absent. Jack Endino wasn't just a producer, he really nailed the grunge guitar sound early on as a musician himself. Ben McMillan was a unique frontman, there was no one quite like him. Daniel House was a damn good bass player as well as the head of C/Z Records, which predated Sub Pop. And they had a bunch of drummers including Matt Cameron and Barrett Martin. Their story deserves to be told.
Just a quick piggy back on this to mention GrunTruck, Ben's subsequent effort with guys from The Accused
Hammerbox.
When I grew up, Rolling Stone magazine had a little section at the end of their charts that was labeled "College Rock". It was on that chart that I first heard of bands like the B-52s, RHCP, 10000 Maniacs and so many others before the media decided to label it "alternative"
I lived with the lead guitarist of Mudhoney for about a year, and one of my favorite stories I ever heard from him was when Nirvana was originally going to open for them for a show, but then Nevermind came out, went to #1 overnight, and they were like “…Yeah, I think we’re opening for them now.” Lol
I was expecting this video to happen. I'm glad it did.
I think Jimi Hendrix and krautrock bands like Can deserve a mention for their influence, but I absolutely love this video. It was a definitely nostalgia trip. Thanks for introducing me to Bam Bam.
I love how both Boston & Killing Joke influenced Nirvana. What a Longshot they were but they cracked the musical lockbox & set a standard for the 90's.
Neither of those bands are in the Top 50 albums list by Nirvana in Kurt's journals so they couldn't have influenced them that much.
@@rocknroll_jezus9233 Emagine limiting yourself to 50 Albums for inspiration
@@GeertTheDestoyer 50 albums that were more inspirational and more influential (what the fuck is inspirational about stadium rock) than Boston and Killing Joke? Um yes good job you cracked the case Detective Sherlock Holmes
I f**king loved Killing Joke, I used to listen to Love like blood over and over back then.
You can trace it back to bowie too
This is not a video, this is a History class! Thank you so much for such a great content
amazed whenever talking about Grunge or rock and roll in general nobody ever mentions The Fabulous Wailers, the first band to ever cover Louie Louie (which inspired The Kingsmen to do their own version,) pioneered garage rock, self-released their own records, and inspired The Sonics to form (which in return inspired dozens of other bands,) Jimi Hendrix would practice their songs when learning how to play, etc
probably the most influential band nobody knows about
Wow, I'd forgotten about them. I had a couple tracks on compilations that really stood out and was always promising myself I'd pick up their album 'next time' when I was trying to cut my stack down to fit my budget. Don't think I've seen a copy around in the past 20 years.
Wow, this is such a great mini-doco. So much packed into 36 minutes, with every line genuinely informative.
I love your musical analysis, but it's a mistake ignoring the socio political influences. Gen X latchkey kids raised in the cold war, 'greed is good' era made this music for a reason. 30 years later and it still resonates.
Man, your productions are SO well done! The Depeche Mode episode hooked me for sure.
Growing up in Seattle, I was too young for the grunge scene and totally dismissive of it. I was more into Seattle's 90s hardcore and "emo" with such bands like Sunny Day Real Estate, Botch, The Blood Brothers, Murder City Devils, early Elliott Smith even..etc. But when I got older and more involved in the scene( I worked at KEXP).. I grew to appreciate the grunge scene and how INCREDIBLY TALENTED all those guys were. Seriously, all those guys were exceptional at what they were doing. Even the bands that weren't "commercial success". Whether it was the way they sang and how iconic their voices were/are or how they played their instruments. I am incredibly proud of that time in music. I am still incredibly proud of the Seattle scene. For such a tiny tucked away place, the PNW has been constantly instrumental in changing, and innovating music genres. People only think of grunge, but we also have Death Cab For Cutie, Modest Mouse, Sunny Day Real Estate, The Presidents of The United States, The Melvin's, Tad, The Sonics, Mud Honey, Heart, Mad Season, Minus The Bear, Queensrÿche, hell Quincy Jones even went to HS in Seattle, plus all those other epic grunge bands...the list goes on and on!
I was there and rode the wave. We were all the same age as all those great Seattle band, less Hendrix and Heart.. It was a hell of a ride. They changed everything. Radio got good again, summer concerts and both Lollapalooza I and II, kicked ass. I preferred 2, my EX preferred 1, and that's why she's my EX. jk... It was all ending just as fast as it came. Then came deaths and band breakups, it was over. From '89-'96 or so was fantastic!
Super interesting deep dive! Could probably make an entire film about all of this and still not be able to cover everything. But the way you distilled it down to the most important parts made it very enjoyable to watch. Thanks for making this!
Also that was a brilliant example of a top-notch Trash Theory vid! Deeply and correctly researched, then perfectly organized and paced. Well done!
EXCELLENT VIDEO....great subject matter and a worthwhile take on a little talked about subject. Grunge didnt start with Nirvana and neither did Seattle. I absolutely LOVED that Mark Arm quote about Black Flag and think that's the most genius thing Ive heard this month. I know much of this story and live a stone's throw from the area, and I still learned a couple of things. Well done.
I know Kyuss is listed as stoner rock but they always felt borderline grunge to me. They were early 90s and west coast. Josh Homme is a freaking genius! Desert Sessions was life changing for me
Also Josh Homme was in Screaming Trees for some time.
Kyuss and later QOTSA have brought a whole new genre of hard-core pop-ish desert rock to the world. Another band that started at the beginning of the century and sadly ended with the group leader Will Mecum's untimely death in 2021 was Karma To Burn. That band I never got to see, but at least they recorded a lot and had some videos. Hard-core, stoner-esque, but fully West Virginia Mountain Rock!
That’s like smashing pumpkin being borderline grunge and shoe gazer rock. That’s awesome
I played out in various bands since the early 80s. I assure you all....
Seattle recycled Sabbath and Neil Young to some extent. And while the rest of us practiced guitar and honed song writing, pop teens embraced simple chords and image as musical greatness.
While there is a charm to it all and Soundgarden, Screaming Trees and Mudhoney were certainly the standouts. Movements and trends (Pet Rock anyone?) are just that.
I listened to Return To Forever, VH and what moved me. When atrend went one way, I stayed the course.
And yet, AIC, Soundgard and STP remain some of my all time faves.
So WTF do I know?
That was the best 30 mins I’ve spent in a long time. Kudos to the writers, the commentary was silky aural poetry
So much memories... I remember when Nevermind came out. I went to the record store after school to get it. Listen to it, was blown away (though disappointed not to get the cd with the (in)famous bonus track... yeah that one...which means now I have a very limited copy WITHOUT the bonus track), recorded it onto tape right away. Going to high school, our bus drivers were pretty chill and let us give them cassettes to play during the ride. So the next day, here I came with my fresh made cassette of Nirvana... literally it lasted seconds before the driver said mope not that.
Six months later, on the bus, with the same driver, Smells like Teen Spirit played on the radio and yes, he cranked up the volume... I was laughing internally... This was in France.
as a child of the 80's I am shocked and amazed by how much good music I missed. I wish I had that "cool friend" that introduced me to even a 10% of what was presented here. Great research!!
One thing to add to this is that The Sonics (60s garage rock band mentioned here) were actually from Seattle as well which is why they're cited by so many grunge artists as an influence despite them being rather obscure.
The Sonics were actually from Tacoma, not Seattle
Just wanted to drop a note to say how well done this video was. There are too many channels with some stock b-role, a few band pics, and info from wikipedia. I graduated from high school in 1989, lived in the Seattle burbs in the late 1990's, and learned a lot from this video. It is interesting to get a better glimpse into the origins of the bands that defined my college years. Sub'ed!
This was my favorite vid of the channel yet. So many great references in here. I feel like there could be entire videos made of the influences and legacies of Sonic Youth, The Melvins and Dinosaur Jr. Great stuff!
Faster Pussycat has a song called Mr Lovedog that's about Andrew Wood also. While many people know that "Would?" by Alice In Chains is about Andy Wood, most dont know that "Left Behind" by Candlebox is as well. The lead singer of Candlebox grew up with the OG Seattle cats (keep in mind that most of the Seattle bands were from outside Seattle growing up....Chris Cornell being an exception). He had a job with (future Cornell wife and Alice In Chains and Soundgarden manager) Susan Silver at a clothes/shoes store. That's where Susan helped get Chris his first pair of Doc Martins and the lead singer of Candlebox got to know guys like Chris and Andy.
Stone Gossard grew up in Capital Hill
@@neonnights3955 Mark Arm was born and raised in Seattle also.
Honestly, I feel like Cobain heard the “it’s better to burn out than it is to fade away” from Devo with Neil Young. Cobain was such a big new wave fan. It makes sense that Devo brought that line to his attention.
He was also a massive Neil Yong fan. I mean, that whole flannel thing was his look, even...
barrel go boom
The phrase first appeared in 'My My Hey Hey (Out Of the Blue)' by Neil, the first track on 'Rust Never Sleeps'. It's an acoustic companion piece to 'Hey Hey My My (Into The Black)' that opens the album, while 'Hey Hey...' closes it out.
@@RTek1986 If you’re aware with how Cobain felt about Pete Townshend (old) I’m sure he would’ve felt the same way about Neil Young, he’d never once said anything close to praise about Young in interviews. But w/ Devo - Cobain “Of all the bands who came from the underground and actually made it in the mainstream, Devo is the most challenging and subversive.” “Turnaround” is the best Devo song and it was only released as the b-side of their “Whip It” single”
@@brandontingley7059 it can be argued its more Creedence Clearwater Revival with the flannel thing. Cobain was in a cover band once with Novoselic called the Sellouts and did say he was influenced by the band. He never said anything about Neil Young in interviews. I’m sure the “Better to burn out” was brought to his attention by Devo and not by Neil Young
This is a fantastic review of that era in music and I appreciate the research that went into it. The most remarkable fact I wasn't aware of was that Pearl Jam was originally named after Mookie Blaylock.
GRUNGE FOREVER, the sheer number of bands from that era you have mentioned will make me go down the rabbit hole of alternative again. NIRVANA was the best slap to the music world, wish they were still around we probably would not have has tik tok or instagram. But Garbage was undoubtedly the door closer on The scene, those 1st 2 albums were sheer perfection of art and taste and weird. Would have loved to hear more from you on Monster Magnet and the stoner/desert rock scene alternative to the alternative with Kyuss, and later QOTSA...!
Timeless, grunge is slowly making its way back. The Sacramento scene has some mind blowing new grunge bands, specifically Effective Denial, hope they make it big and bring grunge into the mainstream again.
Name more bands please!!
Also from Sacramento- the grunge pioneers Tales of Terror!
Thanks for giving me something new to listen to.
Violent Soho from Australia
I’m excited for when hair metal comes back and crushes it
I was just thinking about how I really, really like Layne Staley's voice when it got to the part where someone said his voice was "wrong." o_O WRONG?!
Anyway, thanks for another great video!
That person must have felt pretty silly after the fact!
That statement made me cackle...esp the part citing noted 1990 chart-topping artist DIO 😂 (I mean, if it'd just been A Guy saying that then it probably wouldn't have really struck me as funny, but that it was a total industry wonk like Dave Jerden absolutely tickled my funnybone lol).
Tad. Pre never mind the British music press held them in equal or possibly slightly higher esteem than nirvana. Both bands were lumped together as the new thing. Nowadays Tad pretty well omitted from history .
The music press don’t know sheet. Actually, the media in general don’t know sheet - just subversive Public Relations.
Absolutely. From a British perspective Tad were the first of the Seattle Sup Pop bands to be really feted by the music press, then Mudhoney, and then Nirvana.
I also remember music journalists using Sub Pop as a genre name, although it never caught on with anybody else.
The word grunge was widely used as an adjective for some of the bands otherwise lumped in with Grebo. Most obviously Crazyhead, but also Bomb Party and Gaye Bykers On Acid.
Also interesting when you consider that MTV refused Tad's video for Wood Goblins because it was "too ugly" only to put out the much higher budgeted video for Smells Like Teen Spirit years later.
I saw Nirvana open for Tad in 1989. Still have my stub.
Very interesting vid, I only had 5 mins so I hit save and thought I’d watch the rest later. Fucked off what I was meant to do and watched the lot! Like the style, subbed.
Edit: wound back up here after 2 years, it’s safe to say now that I’m genuinely chuffed every time a new TT pops up in my notifications. The best of these types of videos, bar none.
Man this was a great lesson in the early days of grunge/90s alternative.. i was born in '88 so when all this was happening I was just a wee little boy.. I remember my step dad though really being into sound garden, pearl jam, alice in chains, nirvana, mad season, mother love bone, etc.. i remember in like the first or second grade getting in trouble and having to sit in time out, alone. Because i had heard Stargazer by Mother love bone for the first time on the ride home the day before and i listened to it prolly ten or fifteen times after getting home and going to school the next morning. I knew every word, and i couldnt stop singing it once i got to class. N the teacher had done told me to stop like three time n i jst kept on singing it.. So she put me in time out.. Those were the days.. lol.
@ciao214Z yeah...that's what he said.
Nice one. Literally only heard the intro so far and you just nailed it. Well done. I love these videos, they're always very well researched and informed, whilst still giving a great overview in a short amount of time. Just the right amount of depth.
I'd say I'm a "grunge" fan - so like most I may have a slight issue with the word grunge for a bunch of reasons (mainly it just doesn't mean very much in terms of musicality, but it is still a valid term for describing *something* - it's just that people have different ideas about what that is (a fashion, a guitar sound, a place, a scene etc. In fact it's probably most useful for giving insight into the musical knowledge or misconceptions the person using the word has, which sounds elitest but whatever).
Anyway, the intro summed up the word very well, in my opinion.
Actually cheered in my office when Babes in Toyland came up \m/
Me too lmao
Me three!
Me four...what about Soul Asylum !?!
Buzz Osbourne of the Melvins cites both the My War and Slip It In albums by Black Flag for his shift in sound and slowing down. Krist Noveselic and Kurt Cobain went with Buzz to one of these shows in Seattle at the Mountaineer Club in 1984. Chris Cornell and Kim Thayil saw Black Flag and Green River in Fall of that year, Members of Skin Yard and Screaming Trees were also in the audience. It amazes me how overshadowed the Flags influence is, they were a big deal!
that album influenced the whole post-metal genre too. Neurosis
And yet most of the reviews at the time were like "This isn't Damaged, it sucks"
@@jaschul exactly. The Alternative was always there, just in 1991 it became cool
@@coryleblanc hearing Helmets Meantime after it's been a minute, I could see that
You're not a true Nirvana fan if you don't know who The melvins are. Just saying. Yet another band that didn't get the coverage that they should have as well as Mud Honey. I still can't get over the fact that Goodness didn't get more respect and love considering the lead singer also was in Hammer Box and the Rockfords just saying.
Shout out to TAD, the best of the forgotten great original grunge bands.
The one brief mention of TAD in this video was nowhere near what they deserved.
Plenty of TAD stickers but nobody knew they were a music group !!!
I love the stuff trash theory puts out. So informative obviously taking a deep dive, LOVE IT, thanks for for the quality edits
about the only thing I would add to this list, Janes Addiction's "Nothing Shocking" it has all the elements of grunge in place.
All time favorite band! Jane's is musical perfection to me.
Ted, Just Admit It is a banger. Among an album of other bangers.
The Cosmic Psychos are always forgotten in contemporary “grungeumentaries” that are compiled by people who didn’t experience the grunge years organically. They also influenced Nirvana and are still making music.
But...that's an L.A. band! L.A. BAD!
@@SerenityChaos1975 Also the U-Men
Excellent video-I’ve always heard an influence of the British band The Cult in many of these band’s music. I’d really enjoy one on the desert psychedelic garage rock that was going on around this time. Saint Vitus, Across the River, Meat Puppets, etc
I was there, 3000 years ago. My skatepunk friends and I watched slackjawed and confused as our underground burst into pop culture after Nirvana - which had been the kind of band a few ppl paid $5 to see in tiny clubs. It was surreal.
what exactly was your reaction to that? excitement that the world was finally seeing the light, or horror at what you loved becoming mass-marketed?
@@n.nealparadise3963 Negative reactions all around. Disgust, horror, a general feeling of one's orderly universe suddenly bending the rules. Suddenly the popular kids who mocked and reviled us social outcasts were gobbling up the special unique hard-to-find music, hairstyles, and clothing that our sub-culture had produced. I watched a crowd of frat boy jocks cheer to radio darlings Stone Temple Pilots, then leave when the headliner Butthole Surfers came onstage.
@@sabertoothrobot Hi man! To be 100% honnest with you, at first (and maybe because I was such a naive boy) I found it more or less reassuring that underground was being 'validated' by the mainstream and even felt that I myself was being validated by other people who considered me for knowing so much about this music (hey, people even started to give a chance and listen to Sonic Youth!!). But, yeah, that was all illusory and soon that feeling of 'recognition' started to fade away... BTW I'm from Portugal, not USA!! so my English is rather clumsy. Even so it is almost incredible how similar your story is to mine (I'm assuming you're american...) Cheers!
Indeed. It’s was very odd.
Spin Magazine ran a last-page quiz on Are You Real or Bandwagon Grunge? The only one I remember is "How did you get your flannel shirt?" A. $30 at Macy's B. Wrestled authentic 50's style flannel off dead grandpa before paramedic arrived.
Your writing of these extraordinary documentaries is fucking brilliant, and assuming that's you also narrating, job well done!! I'm here forever
I love the detail of you putting all the names and years into the video. It makes it easier to follow. Cheers.
I always thought Heart was a pretty big Seattle band that probably contributed to grunge in a lot of ways, but no one ever talks about them
The Wilson sisters even show up on the Singles soundtrack (under the name "The Lovemongers").
Honestly I was a little surprised that soundtrack didn't get a mention when he talked about the movie. It's a perfect entrypoint into grunge for anyone looking for a place to start.
@@SerialExperimentsTim Nancy being married to writer/director Cameron Crowe might have had an influence on getting The Lovemongers on the OST. I'm glad in any case because they did a fantastic version of Led Zep's "The Battle of Evermore".
@@ronbo11 That version of The Battle of Evermore is one of my all time favourite songs
Also one of heart's singers was on the track "Brother" by Alice in Chains, definitely important
@@SerialExperimentsTim Simply put, they were way too talented and had long since lost any alternarive cred with the string of pop rock albums in the mid 80s. And they were crooning away with the horrid All I want to do track while grunge was lifting off in 91.
As an older guy who grew up north of Seattle back in those days... it's awesome to see Bam Bam being mentioned. I never saw them but heard of them from a tape a buddy of mine gave me at a concert. Tape to tape to tape recordings were the audio sounded almost warbled. Also Green River... so awesome. Sub Pop was like the cement that held together the foundation of grunge starting there.
I'm still watching the video but just for my own interjection... I dislike seeing Hole getting a spotlight during that who only got popularity after she met Cobain. L7 was the real group that should have taken the place instead of Hole for that statement... L7's grim and grit on their Sub Pop album "Smell the Magic" was far more respected and came out earlier than Hole did with L7 coming from a punk foundation in the late 80s on Epitaph records.
Needless to say I’ve been waiting for this one
Nice profile picture
I was married from 1983 to 1989, so I missed out on the transition of a sub genre of Punk into grunge. This video captures that transition like the compilation “Sub•Pop 200” does.
Grunge was blessed with some of the best voices ever to grace rock'n'roll. I'd put Chris Cornell, Eddie Vedder & Layne Staley up against any three voices from any era. Just unreal vocals.
I'd say that Mike Patton is the only dude who is on Chris Cornell's level. Nobody can fuck with those two, any era. Chris and Mike have sung every genre. They both have crazy diversity in projects they've taken on. Neither of them handcuffed their range. Both are like 6 octaves from hell. Those two are my spirit animals.
This is actually really cool to watch, thank you!
This was an impressive overview of the genre. An early Foo Fighters mention there at the end wouldn't have been out of place.
A bit late for this video's period.
I mean there's no mention of In Utero even in the slightest, or of Kurt's suicide, so I think mentioning Nirvana's drummer's band would have been *pretty* out of place
@@crasstrash The end of Nirvana as it were wasn't the point I was making. The point was that during the epilogue he mentioned a list of bands that followed in grunge's wake. The Foo Fighters were one such post-grunge band which emerged from Seattle.
The first Foo's album had shades of Kurt's guitar tone but it's not really grunge, more like a then-modern take on good ol' hard rock (except for Big Me).
Great video! I would love love LOVE to see an entire video dedicated to Smashing Pumpkins.
Of all the early 90s bands that changed music....SP were the one that changed my own life the most.
Such a shockingly powerful band...so diverse genre-wise...and with a pretty huge output during their first 10 years. Every single album from Gish(including the pre-Gish stuff) through to the double Machina albums are perfect. Just perfect. Hell, on some days Machina is my favorite album. But there's not one dud.
I love how they combined shoegaze and dream pop into their otherwise "alternative rock" sound. A bit My Bloody Valentine...and Black Sabbath...at the same time. And come on....no one had a voice like Corgan's. You either love it or hate it(I adore it)....but it absolutely stands out from everything else going on at the time.
Ok....I'll stop ranting....but yeah, they deserve the Trash Theory treatment. :)
Absolutely agree.
One of the best UA-cam videos I've seen. Thank you for letting me relive my youth! It's sad how many great musicians we've lost. Great work
Another fantastic Doc. The amount of research id guess that went into this is staggering.
Such a great video, thanks for letting this together. Not only did you provide info on bands I've liked for a long time, but you've also given me another handful of bands to look into
I’m so glad he included wipers, D-7 is one of my favorite songs of all time
Exactly me too
The Wipers are awesome.
"When Its Over" is my favorite Wipers song. It's this crazy punk/psychedelic masterpiece
really like that you included bam bam in this (though i’m not sure the reason they were written out of the history of grunge is THAT much of a mystery)
enlighten me as to this mystery
@@Maskami racism. Tina Bell was constantly attacked physically with chains and verbally with slurs by racists and misogynists at Bam Bam's shows, and to be fair, not a lot of time have passed since the racial segregation ended. You could say it could be also sexism since riot grrrl only gained popularity after white college women started it (not that I don't like it tho), but even then, they also were attacked and sista riot appeared too
We all know why lmao.😅 it’s not hard to guess….they wasn’t ready at the time.
@@Maskami they were fronted by a black woman in a scene that was very much male and even more white (and history has a distinct pattern of erasing non-white, non-male, and queer contributions in every field)
@@peach_total I really had no idea she was a black woman. Looking at the video I thought maybe she was a white woman mixed with Asian because her hair looks straight
i love the fact that "grunge", a genre i hold incredibly near and dear, is linked to Neil Young "the godfather of grunge"... and the first "real" band Neil was ever in was my late father's band "The Esquires"... it's a really trippy connection to have to the genre... great video, man! loved every second of it! :)
Great program on how grunge started and I was listening to all that at that time. Miss Cornell. Cobain, Staley and all the other GREAT voices and bands who suffered a loss. Love you ALL ❤ God bless You ALL
I don't think Killing Joke gets enough credit.
HA
They were pretty popular in the alternative scene in late 80s \90s....cosmic psychos don’t get the recognition they deserve, despite being a well known influence on Nirvana and grunge
@@SerenityChaos1975 Killing Joke and whoever they are don't show up in the top 50 favorite albums by Nirvana so they couldn't have that much of an influence
Killing Joke is an interesting band regardless, going from post-punk/new wave in the 80's to industrial metal in the 90's was a cool move. Going from having minor hits in the mid 80's like Love like Blood to the 1990 album Extremities, Dirt and various Repressed Emotions was a bold move. Not sure about the impact they had on grunge but as Joy Division is sometimes mentioned one can assume Killing Joke would or could have had a similar influence.
An similarity i do see with a band like Nirvana is surely that both bands kinda disliked the fame and attention and therefore started making more abrasive music after reaching success.
@@rocknroll_jezus9233 just listen to their song eighties and tell me nirvana werent influenced…
"I don't hold any of those lyrics dear to me." - Kurt Cobain, literally the opposite to every Nirvana fanatic.
That's the whole problem with nirvana's fanbase. They worship a man who didn't give a shit about himself, or his fans. They find all this poetic meaning in nothingness.
Yeah dude. The lyrics he wrote definitely meant nothing to him and nobody has ever said somthing that wasnt true out of a bout of self hatred and extreme depression.
Nobody has ever been self destructive towards something they created and put their blood sweat and tears into. That would just be of unsound mind haha.
Kurt was really ahead of the game. And his "as long as [they lyrics are] not sexist" comment really clarifies to me why he held some of his fanbase in such contempt, and became disillusioned. But I guess that contempt gave us In Utero. All Apologies is still one of my favourite songs.
@@Neilios1000 Yeah that embrace of feminism really paid off for him - marrying a domineering woman feminist who bossed him into his grave.
@@mattkierkegaard9403 Whether his relationship with Courtney Love was good for him or not is another discussion. It doesn't make his embrace of feminism wrong.
I love Mark Lanegan's voice so much
Mark’s underrated
His vocal on QOTSA's In The Fade... oh boy
Very strongly agree! And it's aging gorgeously. Lanegan's later career solo & collaborative/guest vocal work is full of talented performances. Bubblegum (2004) is just excellent & one of those rare albums you can listen from start to finish. Blues Funeral (2012) has some musically experimental flourishes - Ode to Sad Disco is like Lanegan fronting one of New Order's gothier toned tracks.
@@Etsba_ Wow, you took most of the words right outta my mouth! I absolutely love everything Mark has put out, and yes his voice has aged amazingly 👌
Magnificent singer.
Difficult guy.
I had the pleasure of seeing the Screaming Trees with Alice In Chains and Gruntruck. Mark was on point, but during the rest of that tour he got a little too Jim Morrison in terms of antics.
Great work yet again, Mate. Three things you might want to include in the edits: (1) The Wipers were hugely influential on the whole Northwest scene from the early to late 1980s (Melvins and Nirvana covered them lots), so probably merit more attention here. (2) Minneapolis's The Cows were easily the sludgiest of the sludge from about 1988 through 1991, so perhaps deserve some attention here too. (3) Finally, Dinosaur's 1985 'You're Living All Over Me' was a titanic breakthrough, which has to have influenced the grunge scene immensely - far more than 1989's 'Bug,' which you note here a bit fleetingly. Overall very well done, though - learned a great deal, THANKS!
Informative, entertaining, decently accurate and inclusive considering how condensed it is. Only criticism is I had to turn it down while the narrator spoke because I had it cranked during the music. Maybe could use a remix to correct that? All in all, a good documentary glad I checked it out. Will subscribe
The change was really as dramatic as people say. It was like Def Leppard and Bon Jovi were being played everywhere and then all of a sudden it wasnt. It wasnt overnight but it was noticeably quick. Seismic shift is an accurate way of putting it.
by far the best video on the topic
i saw soundgarden in early 92
What a superb documentary. Very interesting, informative and entertaining. Thee Hypnotics (UK) live album Louder Than God was held in very high esteem by the Seattle grunge scene. The band toured there early on and reignited a stooged mc5 blue cheer spark. So much so that the album was picked up by Sub Pop and remastered to boost the rawness of the sound. Cue 30 years later and a reformed Hypnotics were invited to tour with Mudhoney
Nice mention of Blue Murder! This is a blip on the metal road that many people forgot about. Great research, love to see the details you delve into.
Every time I get into a conversation about the "grunge" era of music with people, they really only know Nirvana, Soundgarden, Alice in chains, and Pearl Jam. (Even more limiting, they only know their hits) While those are some of the titans, there are so many bands and individuals that had huge parts of making the sound. The history is quite more robust than most will ever realize.
You are so right about that! Grunge is so much more than Nirvana. You said it perfectly about everyone only knowing the hits. There is a vast collection of songs out there that were/are even better than the hits.
I do hate calling "Grunge" a musical genre, because outside of a lot of the lower register vocals/screams, none of the bands really sounded the same musically. I think it's even more of a crime that Smashing Pumpkins got lumped in with the Grunge "sound". Yes, "Gish" had a lot of musical Grunge "elements", but after that, those elements pretty much disappeared. "Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness" is in my top 5 albums of all time. You could argue that "Zero" had a "Grunge" feel, I guess, but the Pumpkins had a much greater scope.
Good album but if it’s seriously in your top 5 you need to listen to more , there is so much great stuff from many genres and eras. Not a criticism, Pumpkins are an awesome band.
The same goes for the Pixies!
Yes, agree wholeheartedly. Gish was grungy and for me their best album, but musically Smashing Pumpkins' high musicianship was sort of anti grunge ironically.
@@billymack333 Hey, man, music is subjective. "Mellon Collie" came out when I was 13, it's just one of those albums I still listen to all the time. For a 21 year old album to still have that kind of impact on me, that says something.
@@TranzparentMethods 13 eh ? Probably why it sounds so good 😊 A lot of firsts happening around that time...probably some association with coming of age. I got a few years on you, when it Mellon Collie came out I was in prison 😭One of my buddies sent me the CD 💿 The Brothers didn’t really dig it. Bullet with Butterfly Wings cranking on the boom box during my workouts...”Despite all my rage I’m still just a rat in a cage”. Lucky I was jacked as all fuck back then (and generally likeable !). Not for a second was I suggesting it wasn’t good. When I was younger I usually had to be able to relate to the culture of the music, how they looked, what they represented etc. Nowadays I listen to anything that sounds good.
surprised you didn't mention the little tidbit about how the name "Smells Like Teen Spirit" is from a joke Kathleen Hannah (Bikini Kill) made about Kurt! speaking of which, would be interesting to compare / contrast the more male-dominated grunge bands with the riot grrrl scene.
was literally about to say
He already has a video on Smells like Teen Spirit and he goes on a whole tangent about that. Do check it out, great video even though not as well produced as the new ones.
Probably because we’ve all heard that before… and no longer care.
This is legit one of my favorite UA-camrs now, need more genre origins videos like this
30 years ago as I write this... grunge was starting to break through. I was some kid in a Midwestern town digging on my first taste of Metallica. In a few months I'd get a taste of grunge when I'd watch Nirvana on SNL. The opening lick of Teen Spirit blew me away, and there was no turning back.