Grunge Is Dead: The Oral History of Seattle Rock Music

490 Pages·2009·3.23 MB·English

by  Greg Prato

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THE SEATTLE MUSIC SCENE
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GRUNGE IS DEAD
WORDSOFTHEPEOPLEWHOWERETHERE, ISANORALHISTORYINTHETRADITIONOF
PLEASEKILLME,THESEMINALHISTORYOFPUNK.WITHTHEINSIGHTOFMORETHAN130OFGRUNGE’SBIGGEST
NAMES,GREGPRATOPRESENTSTHEULTIMATEINSIDER’SGUIDETOASOUNDTHATCHANGEDMUSICFOREVER.
THEGRUNGEMOVEMENTMAYHAVETHRIVEDFORONLYAFEWYEARS,BUTITSPAWNEDSOMEOFTHEGREATEST
PEARL JAM, NIRVANA, ALICE IN CHAINS,
ROCKBANDSOFALLTIME:
SOUNDGARDEN.
AND GRUNGEISDEADFEATURESTHEFIRST-EVERINTERVIEWINWHICHPEARL
EDDIE VEDDER
JAM’S WASWILLINGTODISCUSSTHEGROUP’SHISTORYINGREATDETAIL;
ALICEINCHAINS’BANDMEMBERSANDLAYNESTALEY’SMOMONSTALEY’SDRUGADDICTIONANDDEATH;INSIGHTS
INTOTHERIOTGRRRLMOVEMENTANDOFT-OVERLOOKEDBUTHIGHLYINFLUENTIALSEATTLEBANDSLIKEMOTHER
LOVE BONE, THE MELVINS, SCREAMING TREES,ANDMUDHONEY;ANDMUCHMORE.
GRUNGE IS DEAD
DIGSDEEP,STARTINGINTHEEARLY’60S,TOEXPLAINTHECHAINOFEVENTSTHATGAVE
WAYTOTHEMUSIC.THEENDRESULTISABOOKTHATINCLUDESAWEALTHOFPREVIOUSLYUNTOLDSTORIESAND
FRESHINSIGHTFORTHELONGTIMEFAN,ASWELLASTHEESSENTIALSANDHIGHLIGHTSFORTHENEWCOMER—
THE WHOLE UNCENSORED TRUTH—INONECOMPREHENSIVEVOLUME.
GREG PRATO
ISALONGISLAND,NEWYORK-BASEDWRITER,WHOREGULARLYWRITESFOR
ALLMUSICGUIDE,BILLBOARD.COM,ROLLINGSTONE.COM,RECORDCOLLECTORMAGAZINE,AND
THE ORAL
CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.HEISALSOTHEAUTHOROFTHEBOOKSADEVILONONESHOULDERANDAN
HISTORY OF
ANGELONTHEOTHER:THESTORYOFSHANNONHOONANDBLINDMELONANDTOUCHEDBYMAGIC:
SEATTLE
THETOMMYBOLINSTORY.
ROCK
MUSIC
ISBN-13:978-1-55022-877-9
GREG
COVERDESIGN:THEBANG
FRONTCOVERPHOTOS:MIKELEACH(BESTROCKPHOTOS.COM)ANDPATRICIACOLE 51995
BACKCOVERPHOTOS:PATRICIACOLE PRATO
$19.95U.S.,$22.95CDN
9 781550 228779 ECW
ECWPRESS.COM

2009
Copyright © Greg Prato,
2120 200
Published by ECW Press, Queen Street East, Suite ,
m4e 1e2
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
416.694.3348
/ [email protected]
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any process — e lectronic,
mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise — without the prior written
permission of the copyright owners and ECW Press.
library and archives canada cataloguing in publication
Prato, Greg
Grunge is dead : the oral history of Seattle rock music / Greg Prato.
isbn-13: 978-1-55022-877-9
isbn-10: 1-55022-877-3
1. Grunge groups—Washington (State)—Seattle. 2. Grunge music.
3. Rock musicians—Interviews. I. Title.
ml3534.3.p912 2009 782.4216609797772 c2008-907553-6
Editor for the press: Michael Holmes
Cover design: Bill Douglas at The Bang
Type: Melissa Kaita
Photo section: Rachel Ironstone
Printing: Printcrafters
printed and bound in canada
CONTENTS
6 Acknowledgments
7 Foreword
1960s–1970s
11 CHAPTER 1 — “It was mainly isolation”: 1960s–1970s
21 CHAPTER 2 — “Seattle was the closest city”: Transplants
Early–Mid ’80s
29 CHAPTER 3 — “It was so easy to freak people out in those days”:
Early–Mid ’80s
41 CHAPTER 4 — “’79 through ’84 was hopping”: Power Pop, New Wave,
Heavy Metal
48 CHAPTER 5 — “A floodgate of creativity in the Northwest”: Blackouts,
Fastbacks, U-Men, Mr. Epp and the Calculations, Duff McKagan
68 CHAPTER 6 — “Church was really in session”: Venues, The Rocket,
Record Stores, Radio
82 CHAPTER 7 — “The punk rock David Lee Roth”: Malfunkshun
93 CHAPTER 8 — “Godzilla knocking over buildings”: The Shemps,
Soundgarden
108 CHAPTER 9 — “Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should”: The
Melvins, Green River, Screaming Trees
127 CHAPTER 10 — “The next logical step is to start a label”: K Records,
Sub Pop Records, C/Z Records
Mid–Late ’80s
143 CHAPTER 11 — “If we can just keep it a secret”: Mid–Late ’80s
152 CHAPTER 12 — “How do three guys sound like nine?”: Nirvana
174 CHAPTER 13 — “The sloppiness was essential”: The Thrown Ups,
Mudhoney
187 CHAPTER 14 — “GET OUT OF THE WAY!”: The Melvins, Screaming
Trees, Skin Yard, Tad
201 CHAPTER 15 — “Dark, black, and blue”: Soundgarden, Alice in Chains
223 CHAPTER 16 — “He’s going to be one of the biggest rock stars in the
world — no question”: Mother Love Bone and Andy Wood’s Death
1990–1991
239 CHAPTER 17 — “OK, this thing is going to happen”: 1990–1991
246 CHAPTER 18 — “If you can sell 40,000, they’ll let you make another
one”: Pearl Jam, Temple of the Dog
260 CHAPTER 19 — “A ‘testosterone period’”: Alice in Chains,
Soundgarden
272 CHAPTER 20 — “You guys will be bigger than Hüsker Dü”: Nirvana
and Nevermind
289 CHAPTER 21 — “That they didn’t reach a broader audience baffles
me”: Mudhoney, Tad, Screaming Trees, Truly, Melvins, Jesse Bernstein
303 CHAPTER 22 — “Rebelling against the predominant macho grunge
scene at the time”: Riot Grrrl
1992–1993
317 CHAPTER 23 — “Be careful what you wish for, you might get it”:
1992–1993
325 CHAPTER 24 — “It was on the radio, people were talking about them,
people had shirts on and their posters up”: Pearl Jam
335 CHAPTER 25 — “Things change, and things change quickly”:
Soundgarden, Alice in Chains
347 CHAPTER 26 — “We might as well start talking to majors”:
Mudhoney, Tad, Skin Yard, Screaming Trees, Melvins, Brad
359 CHAPTER 27 — “If you were there, you were part of it”: Riot Grrrl
OK
367 CHAPTER 28 — “Everything is not anymore”: Nirvana
1994 and Beyond
381 CHAPTER 29 — “It felt like the world had gone seriously wrong”: Kurt
Cobain’s Death and 1994
391 CHAPTER 30 — “Where I go, you go”: Kurt Remembered
399 CHAPTER 31 — “The demise of the entire scene”: Drugs
405 CHAPTER 32 — “Preparing for the worst”: Alice in Chains and Layne
Staley’s Death
427 CHAPTER 33 — “The final magic”: Soundgarden’s Breakup
437 CHAPTER 34 — “There was definitely a big Seattle backlash”:
Mudhoney, Tad, Screaming Trees, Melvins, Truly
446 CHAPTER 35 — “Standing up for something they believed in”: Pearl
Jam
458 CHAPTER 36 — “Finally — new growth”: Post-Grunge
463 CHAPTER 37 — “Maybe I’m a geezer”: How Will Grunge Be
Remembered?
473 Cast of Characters
This book is dedicated to Kurt Cobain, Tomata du Plenty, Ben McMillan,
Kristen Pfaff, Stephanie Sargent, John Baker Saunders, Layne Staley, Andy
Wood, Mia Zapata, and all other Washington-based musicians who are no
longer with us.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Thanks to Jack Endino, Mark Arm, Susan Silver, Matt Vaughan, Rebecca
Roybal, Dave Dederer, Drew Church, Carrie Stamper, and all the photog-
raphers who submitted great pix — your help with this book was much
appreciated. But wait, there’s more! I’d also like to thank my wife Mary
and all my family — Lucille and Robert Prato Jr., Lorraine and the Raz,
Little Adam and Baby Aiden, Kris Fleischmann, James Fleischmann, Mikey
and Erin Fleischmann, Little Elle, Sylvia and Bob “The Voice of Reason”
Fleischmann, Ellen Fleischmann, the Stanleys, Dennis and Cheryl Sullivan,
Steven and Jen Castro, Baby Lily, Megan Sullivan, Mellow Michael Sullivan,
Grandma and Grandpa Conrad, Grandma and Grandpa Prato, Uncle Eddie,
Giacomo and Angela DiMaggio, Angie and Big Michael Prisciandaro, the
three little dwarves (Little Michael, Antonia, and Daniela Prisciandaro),
Phyllis Basso, Giacomo Caesar Basso, Alan and Beth Tagliamonti, Amy
Tagliamonti, Betty Tagliamonti, Tony Clifton, Brendon Cohen, Matt and
Martha Baumbach, Adam Krieg, Stefan and Allison Farkas, Orson and
Sariah Joseph, Stephen Gross and Karen, Folly, Dirty David Britt, Dave
“Dice” Kay, Shawn “The Bear” Bearor, Jack Castronova, Louis “Flossi” Rossi,
Mr. Flugz, Mr. Magoo, Greg Hampton, Chip Ruggieri, Clint Weiler, Carol
Kaye, Dan Weiss, Lloyd Jassin, Joel McIver, Martin Popoff, Michael Holmes
and the folks at ECW, my friends at the Wantagh Post Office, the staff at
Pietro’s Pizza . . . and you, too!
FOREWORD
As my high school days were drawing to a close, there was certainly some-
thing bubbling in the hard rock world. Bands like Faith No More, Jane’s
Addiction, Living Colour, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers were showing that
not all rock bands had to sing about “fast cars and fast women” or dress like
goofball spandex cowboys. Having only attended strictly big arena rock shows
up to this point, I didn’t know quite what to expect when I agreed to attend a
17 1990,
show on Saturday, March , at a club called L’Amour in Brooklyn, New
York. The two main reasons I purchased a ticket for this three-band bill were
to see the aforementioned Faith No More, as well as sci-fi metal headliners
fnm
Voivod. After ’s fantastic set, the next band, which I was least familiar
with, came onstage.
The singer didn’t wait long — upon the first notes of the opening
number, he was climbing over the crowd on pipes attached to the ceiling (if
my memory serves me correctly — already shirtless, and wearing shorts that
were completely covered in silver electrical tape), before dropping himself
into the sea of “moshers” below. The guitarist looked like something out of
Cheech and Chong, with a full-on beard, and his eyes seemingly constantly
closed — as if he were reaching a state of nirvana playing monstrous Sabbathy
riffs. The bassist’s large mop of curly hair bobbed in time to the music, while
the drummer bashed out some impressively complex yet primal beats. This,
my friends, was my introduction to the mighty Soundgarden.
Needless to say, soon after, I was a major convert, buying just about every
GRUNGE IS DEAD
8
Soundgarden recording that I could get my hands on, and reading all the
interviews on the band that I could gather. And in most of the articles, it was
mentioned that there were other similarly styled bands from Soundgarden’s
hometown — Seattle — that were on their way up the ladder as well. Over
the next year or so, it appeared as though each month, there was a new band
from the Seattle area to discover — Mother Love Bone, Alice in Chains, Tad,
Temple of the Dog, Mudhoney, the Melvins, the Screaming Trees, etc. And of
course, when Nirvana and Pearl Jam hit, the rock world had thankfully shifted
towards music that was both honest and real. And along with it came the word
that would forever be associated with the movement: grunge.
While the movement didn’t turn out to be as long lasting as many figured
1990–1994
it would, what it packed into a four-year period ( ) was pretty darn
extraordinary. How many songs from this period are still being played on the
radio? How many of these albums sound as great today as when they first
came out, continue to sell, and are still being discovered by younger genera-
tions? I rest my case. It may have only lasted a few years, but for a few brief
and shining moments, grunge certainly shifted the direction of culture (and
even fashion), and brought in an unmistakable feeling of change — just as the
60 70
’ s hippie and ’ s punk movements had.
The original idea for doing this book came about when I was doing a
2004
Soundgarden article for Classic Rock magazine back in . While inter-
viewing the group’s early producer, Jack Endino, he mentioned that almost
every single article being written about grunge bands nowadays were by
writers who were not from the Seattle area, yet were giving their “revisionist
take” on what happened. Which got me thinking . . . what if a book was
comprised of nothing but quotes from the actual people that experienced the
movement firsthand, tracing it from its very beginning to its end? In other
words, letting them tell the entire story as it unfolded (with only chapter intro
130
paragraphs from yours truly). Nearly interviews later, here we are.
Enjoy!
Greg Prato
2008
New York, July
p.s. Want to let me know what you thought of the book? Email me at:
greg [email protected], or see what I’m up to at: myspace.com/gregpratopage.
1960s–1970s