Damn, I used to have most of those CDs you listed. All gone now.  Divorce stuff.

I've only got a couple of CD from that era left. AIC's "Jar of Flies" is one of my favs of the genre. No Excuses is a great tune to run to. Soundgarden rocked! I think Chris Cornell has one of the best voices in Modern rock. Pearl Jam's "Ten" is a classic, probably the best albums to come out of the 90's. Mad Season kicked, with Lane Staley really hitting the power gut vocals. No cookie monster stuff. Have you checked out the Screaming Trees? The "Singles" movie soundtrack is pretty good too.

Have you heard Chris's brother in prog band Somnabulist? He sounds just like Chris and the band is like a heavy YES.  

Grunge was sort of alternative/ underground music's return to heavy and dirty sounds, a bit of punk and metal influence, a bit of arena rock, a little psychedelia. Nirvana was the breakout band (for some reason- they weren't the best by a long shot) and Pearl Jam took more of a mainstream approach...and then we got Bush and the Foo Fighters (Dave Grohl ex-Nirvana) and it kinda lost momentum.

Don't miss Mudhoney's "Superfuzz Bigmuff", Screaming Trees' "Anthology", and Tad's "8-way Santa"; absolute classics of the genre. Anything from the SubPop label (up until around '95 or so) is worth hearing if you have any liking for the style. The Pixies (like Dinosaur Jr. and The Jesus & Mary Chain) were more of an inspiration to grunge rather than a grunge band themselves...they probably also were a big inspiration for the first crop of Emo bands.

regarding your question, are you looking for the musicians who played on all of those albums, or the tragic story behind them? If the latter, you could include Alice in Chains' first big single "Would" (i.e., "Wood") as well.

Never heard any that I liked. I find it formulaic (soft/heavy/soft/heavy, etc.) and predictable, and didn't like the growling vocals. Really, I can't relate to it.  -- what is the attraction? I don't actively hate it, or anything, but it does nothing but irritate and/or bore me. Where's the melody? Where's the fun? Where's the love? The lyrics all seem to be ugly/disfunctional, too. More macho anger music -- give me good old rock and roll any day!

Sorry.

frenchie wrote: actually i dont know any grunge bands that have growling vocals, and all of it is VERY melodic and full of range and ideas, i dont know what the hell you've been listening to peter but you havent described grunge at all. If you did mean grunge then i am very confused about your view!

Maybe I don't quite say what I mean when I ask where the melody is, Frenchie (I'm not a musician), and maybe I heard the wrong stuff, but aren't Nirvana and Soundgarden grunge, and don't they have growling, gravelly, angry type vocals? (Forerunners of the Nickleback-type sound?)

Don't take it personally, please -- you started the thread, and I'm not trying to insult your taste in music, but just meant to reveal more about my tastes in music as a reviewer. I'd like to hear that Who cover, too, as the Who are one of my all-time fave R&R bands.

I only know grunge from the radio, BTW.

frenchie wrote: that "i am one", isn't a cover, eddie vedder came onto stage to take over from roger on vocals, i think he does "see me feel me/listening to you" as well. I have it on cd, i could send the tracks to you, its from live at the royal albert hall which is originally a dvd. sorry peter, by growling i thought you meant opeth/death metal style vocals. I would call grunge vocalists bluesy yet gravelly, nirvana are grunge but a weak and commercial verison of it. Grunge IS about harsh lyrics, not vocals, some of the music is very melodic, having a strong blend of acoustic and electric songs. The best examples of grunge are "Alive" by Pearl Jam, "Hunger Strike" by Temple of the Dog, "Nutshell" By Alice in Chains, "Black Hole Sun" by Soundgarden, the list could go on. I am betting that the radio rarely play any good grunge, the best grunge is quite underplayed, but in the early 90s it was rather popular.

Thanks for the info, French Safe!  Yes, I meant gravelly more than growling, as I know that adjective is often used to describe the type of death metal vox that I loathe, and find just plain corny, affected, and irritating (as in my Haggard review -- the vocals absolutely RUINED that disc for me. I don't think many folks my age want to hear a "singer" who is actually TRYING to sound like a demon, especially one with a thick German accent -- that just made it even sillier/more juvenile for me.

Some of the more acoustic grunge passages are fine, but when the Nickleback-type vox (which seems to be the style of 3/4 of the bands on my local rock station) come in, I just switch it off.  All that anger just depresses and bores me. Give me some feel-good Weezer, and harmonizing, and a little sensitivity, any day.

But then, I like Coldplay OK too, and I bet most guys your age HATE them, correct?

To each his/her own, but still, I'd like to hear more of your fave grunge -- perhaps I could like some of it after all, if it's R&R based....

(But I am indifferent to the hair and the clothes, at 44!)

smashing pumpkins are supposed to have gone a little prog with "Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness" - a pretty cool record by all accounts.

I too used to love grunge, but stopped listening to it back in 1994 - just before kurt cobain died.  I actually find listening to it now quite difficult, as it isn't as good as I remember it. 

Pearl jam became dull after Yield and the rest of the scene imploded when kurt died.  Any bands who surfaced after 1994 aren't worth listening to.  Stone Temple pilots being one of them! 

It was fun while it lasted though and when Nirvana came on the scene I remember being blown away by them.  Pearl Jam were one of my faves at the time though.

don't you think stone temple pilots were just pearl jam clones?  I bought their first album, but the singer (whose name escapes me, but isn't he in that G 'n' R band now) seemed to just rip off  vedder, IMO.

Do you still enjoys revisting the grunge albums?  I bought rearviewmirror: pj greatest hits - it has some good songs, but didn't make me want to buy the albums again.

I've got most of the STP stuff. I still love it. They really never hit their stride.

Have you heard their cover of Zep's "Dancing Days?" I dig it.

Do you have a fave PJ song then Frenchie?  State of Love and Trust is pretty cool.  There is also a track off Yield which opens remarkably like a tune off Led Zep IV.

I struggle with No Code, Binaural and Riot Act.  I really like Yield - that is a definite high point for me.  Ten and Vs are stunning though.  That opening riff on rearviewmirror is excellent.

I think PJ were the only band to have transcended the grunge scene, while remaining true to their music.  I put this down to their classic rock edge as opposed to the punkier side of the likes of Nirvana.  Not having serious drug problems or singers dying has also helped their longevity

I owe a lot to grunge; it stopped me listening to pap like Def Leppard, Cinderella and equally dreadful big hair metal/rock.

Grunge was my first serious love in music, I was a lad of 11 years old. I still have a soft spot for it, although I cant think back on alice in chains without sniggering (one of the only bands which I really lost a taste for). Pearl Jam is the best grunge band, Nevermind (yes nirvana, its an awesome album but people just overrate nirvana so much nowadays people loose sight of how good that album actually is, amazing!) is the best grunge album, and my favourite grunge song is Limo Wreck by Soundgarden (even if it is kinda lame ). This is all only IMO.

Grunge was the path to good music!  I think a lot of people used it as a stepping stone to finding out about other genres.  I listened to grunge from 1991 to around early 1994.  I then discovered underground melodic hardcore and that was the end of grunge for me.  I still look back on the music with misty eyes;  especially when I hear early PJ songs, or watch the movie Singles.

I hear Gus Van Sant has made a movie which is kinda based on Kurt Cobain.  If there's a subject that sells sh*t, it's Cobain.  I bet if you made toilet paper with his face on it and charged £100/$100 a roll, people would buy it!

Try get hold of some Malfunkshun (they only had one album) - I severely doubt it's in print and like a fool I deleted the MP3s I had but that's probably the most historically important proto grunge album there is, although it's a mile away from anything any other grunge bands did.