An Oral History of Grunge by Mark Yarm "Everybody Loves Our Town"

[Matt White]

Just got it yestdy...........

100 pgs in.............very cool so far

U-men, Skinyard, Green River, Malfunkshun, Soundgarden, Screaming Trees..............

My fav era of music...that I lived thru.............................................. .........................................

about damn time somebody wrote this book

[Matt White]

1/2 way thru...............

Early history very interesting.............

PUNK in Northwest......

Awesome how a scene developes outside the "Mainstream"....no "New York" or "LA" connection..............

Green River & Sound Garden...get the ball rolling.....Nirvana a "myth" according to Buzz of the Melvins! LMFAO

Can see how Sound Garden were doomed from the start...with Cornell dating the manager........

[TFM_Dale]

I'll have to pick this up, wonder if it is available as a e-book.

[Seshmeister]

Chapter 1

It's the late 1980s and it's raining in Seattle.

People are fed up being happy so decide to spend the next 10 years droning about how terrible it is to live in the richest country in the world at the best time in history over the top of plodding music by mediocre musicians.

Late 1990s people start to cheer up a bit and so grunge dies just in time for 9-11.

The End.

[Seshmeister]

They should use this as the cover...

[kwame k]

Maybe it's because I was living in the PNW for the start of the Grunge movement but.......the local music scene was vibrant and watching guys, who played the same dive bars as we did, make it felt like a win for all of us.

Musically I was at the top of my game and between college, living on my own, the adventure of just being in your early 20's and feeling like you were indestructible all came together during the Grunge years.

There's something to be said about being there and it was cool knowing about all these bands before they blew up on the national stage.

[VAiN]

Very cool, I was a senior in high school when grunge started breaking and it was a huge influence on me as a musician. I've always described my playing as VH meets AIC meets Nirvana...

[Nitro Express]

If you look at the late 80's LA glam rock bands they are nothing more than bad copies of Van Halen. They took the big hair spandex thing David Lee Roth invented and took it to rediculous levels of cliche. It got very stupid. Grunge was one of the great moments something comes out of left field and hits you in the face. It was a bunch of pissed off misfits screaming at the world in a rebellious manner. It was rock. Nirvana if you look at it was kind of like the Ramones. Garage rock done well. Then of course everyone starts to copy that. You get the best of it the first five years and then it's downhill from there.

[Nitro Express]

I was living in Seattle right when the grunge thing broke. It was there if you wanted to find it but it really wasn't that huge. The people out of Seattle made more a big thing out of it than the people in Seattle did. Nirvana was more fueled by the fact the logging industry had gone to shit. All the disfunction of a shit logging town by the name of Aberdeen was rolled up and infused into Kurt's vibe. The depression, the drugs and the frustration comes from there. Grunge came more from Aberdeen than Seattle. It came from shit log towns and homeless kids on the streets of Portland. Seattle was doing very well at the time. Microsoft and other tech companies along with Boeing were bringing lots of money into town. The grunge thing was even underground there.

[chefcraig]

Yeah, we got this in a couple of weeks ago. It's sitting on the shelf, collecting dust much like it's subject matter...might give it a quick read on a bathroom break, providing we don't have the latest issue of People magazine.

[Matt White]

I'm laughing my ass off at how much veterans in the scene (guys who had been in punk bands in the late 70's) hated Cobain...how he was an asshole from the start...and how the press just ate up the BS he told them about himself...like living under a bridge.....

The guys in Pearl Jam deal with Vedder due having been in 2 failed bands that were BETTER...i.e. GREEN RIVER and MOTHER LOVE BONE....

The SOUNDGARDEN/ GUNS N ROSES tour of the early 90's had me crying with laughter...the GUNS crew called 'em FROWNGARDEN!!!! HA!!!

Kim Thayill talks about seeing how fucked Axl was at the get go.....

so far a good read....brings back good memories of the early 90's......thank God they killed off Warrant & Poison & the rest of the hair bands..........

[Hardrock69]

My biggest claim to fame in the Seattle punk scene was opening for The Enemy in August of 1978 in a pizza place called Bugsy's Pizza in Pioneer Square.
Was an amazing thing.....my bandmates and I were in the Army at the time, so with our short hair we fit right in. The following weekend we played the same place again as the headliner, with a band called the Refuzors opening for us.

Those were the days. If I could relive any era of my life over again, it would be that year...1978....

[Hardrock69]

Wait a minute.....why the fuck is that book called "An ORAL History....".

That is a fucking BOOK. Not a tape or record or video.

So the very title of the book is a fucking lie.....because it is a WRITTEN history of grunge....

[Nitro Express]

An Oral History of Courtney Love.

The pussy was rank and nasty but I was so high and horny I endulged anyways. Who damn, I am now broke because of the doctor bills and they are still working on the cure for genital warts that are all over my face and lips. All I can say is that pussy is the poster child for GRUNGE because that mop is a grungy mess. No wonder Kurt blew his brains out.

[Matt White]

My biggest claim to fame in the Seattle punk scene was opening for The Enemy in August of 1978 in a pizza place called Bugsy's Pizza in Pioneer Square.
Was an amazing thing.....my bandmates and I were in the Army at the time, so with our short hair we fit right in. The following weekend we played the same place again as the headliner, with a band called the Refuzors opening for us.

Those were the days. If I could relive any era of my life over again, it would be that year...1978....

Right on HR! Bugsy's is mentioned I believe, as are the Refuzors!

And... :smile: Its called an "Oral History" because its told using quotes from people in the scene....

A lot about TAD...I still laugh was arse off when thinking aboot "8-Way Santa" and the scandal involved....Farking GREAT!!!