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Ahhhh, where do we begin? Well, we have to begin somewhere, so let's start
with these guys:
Everyone in grunge, in one way or another, ripped their music off the Pixies. The Pixies pioneered the use of dynamics in grunge where a quiet passage would be followed by a roucous, loud passage, ala Teen Spirit, that Nirvana ripped off of the Pixies' "Surfer Rosa" album. The pixies were the gods AND godfathers of grunge. All that would follow came from them in all ways....that is why they are one of the most admired bands of all time, true musicians' musicians................
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Then we have these guys:
Nirvana was nothing but a more melodic, watered-down version of the Pixies. Nothing more, nothing less. That being said, they did open up the doors of commercialism to grunge, making it safe and fun for MTV and kids everywhere. Much better grunge bands were to come......
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Trivia questions:
1.) How many times did Kurt Cobain try to kill himself? Answer: 8 times......most times he was kept from deaths door by Courtney Love, but the bandmates interceded several times as well. 4 times he tried to kill himself with heroin overdoses, once by hanging, twice by pills....the last time, with a gun, he succeeded.
2.) How many times did Courtney Love try to kill herself? Thrice, and she came back out of it by the help of her "holemates" each time.
3.) How many kids did they have? One, Courtney Bean, who looks just like her crazy daddy in this recent pic:
One band was a total ripoff MOCK-grunge band, much like the Monkees were a mock of the Beatles......these guys:
STP put out totally fabricated faux-grunge, and the proof was in how popular they were......rule of thumb: the more a band sucks, the more it generally is played, if it is watered down to make a hard-core movement palatable to the masses.....most people in the know would agree that STP were just posers whose sound-alike Nirvana-riffs were pure pap......
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Okay, you say, how about the great grunge acts....surely they weren't ALL Pixie/Nirvana ripoffs....indeed, thats the case....and here are the greats
as follows:
My fav.......and I think the best out of the grunge bunch......and most definitely the best vocalist of the bunch, with Chris Cornell......I may be going off here, but I think they were one of the greatest bands of all time....and hey, Pat Boone and Steve and Edie covered their songs, so that must be saying something!
Pearl Jam was another great band, with a singer just about with the range of Cornell in Eddie Vedder, and great songwriting. The first Album, Ten, is truly one of the greatest albums of all time.I saw them last year with Tom Petty, and they sound good as ever.
Another great grunge band was Alice in Chains, who were also the rawest of all the grunge bands, almost on the verge of thrash metal at times. The lead singer was crazy, and Layne Staley blew his mind out permanently on Heroin.........so sad, isn't it?
Mudhoney were incredible,and perhaps the least known of the great grunge bands to come out of the Seattle scene. If you have never heard their stuff, you really must get a few of their albums.....powerful stuff..
Finally we have Screaming Trees, possibly the most seminal grunge band out of the Seattle area outside
of Soundgarden and Pearl Jam........again, if you haven't heard of these folks, get some of their early-mid 90's albums....truly some of the greatest rock ever laid down in the studio....ever ever ever!
Thats the end of my little illustrated history of grunge....but one last thing. You may ask if anyone is still carrying on the grunge tradition in a good way.....yes they are....and they are the following:
Live....a cross between U2 when they kicked @ss and Soundgarden...really..listen to them and see what I'm taking about...
Bush.....killer riffs
Everclear.....wicked stuff
Queens of the stone age.....incredible stuff.....
I'd be interested in hearing what you folks see as current bands, or relatively recent bands that disbanded, carrying on the grunge torch.......hope you enjoyed this! Later!
Last edited by El Rhino; 10-09-2008 at 06:12 AM..
Reason: copyrights
I am not an STP fan, but there I believe Candle Box and Collective Soul are better examples of commercialized, mass-produced, for-profit, grunge. Great history, though.
I know they weren't grunge, but Rage is my favorite band of that era.
I am not an STP fan, but there I believe Candle Box and Collective Soul are better examples of commercialized, mass-produced, for-profit, grunge. Great history, though.
I know they weren't grunge, but Rage is my favorite band of that era.
Trucking, you notice I didn't mention Creed.......can you imagine what I left out, with good reason? I would not even think of remotely considering Candlebox and Collective Soul in a history of grunge. I did 'mention' STP, which is saying something, I suppose. My antipathy towards STP is echoed by many musicians in grunge. Cobain called Pearl Jam sellouts, so you can only imagine what he thought of STP. I would be kind and say they were as good as Creed, on a "Higher", "With Eyes Wide Open" level. Just calculated pop hook pap, aping Eddie vedder-type vocals and Nirvana riffs.
Now as for RATM, they should have been included in the above. I usually categorize them as Rap/Metal, but considering the fact that a few of RATM played for Audioslave with Cornell, I think I should have included them as well. Well, here's the logo.....
The Pixies pioneered the use of dynamics in grunge where a quiet passage would be followed by a roucous, loud passage, ala Teen Spirit, that Nirvana ripped off of the Pixies' "Surfer Rosa" album.
I figured that bands like Led Zepplin and Black Sabbath beat them to it by about 15 years, with songs such as " What Is And What Should Never Be" and " Hand of Doom" respectively. And they probably weren't the first to do it either, but they were the first to pop into mind...
I figured that bands like Led Zepplin and Black Sabbath beat them to it by about 15 years, with songs such as " What Is And What Should Never Be" and " Hand of Doom" respectively. And they probably weren't the first to do it either, but they were the first to pop into mind...
Interesting observation. My little spin on it is this. The tree of rock, per genres, branches out more as time goes on. All genres after Sabbath and Zeppelin can be traced to the same in some respect, including grunge. That being said, lets look closer at Zep and Sabbath. Were they similar, and if so, what could you call them both?
I would say both of them chrystalized the genre of heavy metal, for the masses AND the critics. Heavy metal's incubus can be seen in the power chords of the early KINKS(You really got me), Hendrix, Cream, and the Who, on their dissonent stuff like "My generation". Though Steppenwolf gets the credit for the name Heavy Metal in " BTBW", itself ripped off a William Burroughs novel, Naked Lunch, Sabbath and Zeppelin brought the genre to its fruition with two seminal albums, LZ II and Paranoid. These influences were sliced and diced, so to speak, by the pixies in their own late 80's way, and they liberally focused on the dynamics of slow vs. sped up passages, which Nirvana later made a trademark of their sound on "Nevermind"........the Pixies gelled together a unique mix of items from the heavy metal palate, focusing on the aforementioned dynamics and heavy, droning guitars of Sabbath and Zepp.....finally, one thing many folks have not noticed is the similarity between LZ II and Paranoid......both the ultimate examples of pure heavy metal.
The Pixies Like I Was There..Not GRUNGE whatever that is....They were most certainly no more `grunge` than ABBA!! And I was there for that too!!
Frank Black would be laughing his wallet off at this,
I'm not sure I'm ready to categorize Zepplin as heavy metal. To me, they're the bridge between heavy metal and blues without categorically being either. Their themes were typically blues-oriented, dealing most often with love, loss/heartbreak plus some travel/adventure themes, and the like. Black Sabbath's themes were much darker (vengeance, war, mental instability, drug use, etc.) and their sound was (pardon the pun) consistently heavier. I regard Zepplin as more of a precursor to heavy metal, whereas Sabbath was the first consistently heavy metal band. Same goes for The Pixies: a precursor to grunge without actually being grunge. I guess I'd categorize them as "surf-rock." While they had a heavy sound, their themes and music were generally more upbeat (with some exceptions, of course) than the "woe is white middle-class me" crap that grunge indulged in when it hit its stride.
Agree with Drover 100%...Sorry is it the English in me?? I think not,,,Radiohead!! CRAP!! There I`ve said it!! Male Angst is one thing,, Having a suicide fest is something else..
``I`me a student ..Surely That Means Something??``Yes it means You`re on the scrounge and trying to con your father!!
The Pixies Like I Was There..Not GRUNGE whatever that is....They were most certainly no more `grunge` than ABBA!! And I was there for that too!!
Frank Black would be laughing his wallet off at this,
Brilliant! Absolutely bloody brilliant! Yes, Abba is indeed the most seminal grunge influence in the history of rock. How could I have overlooked this? Truly, the thunderous, ominous guitar work in "Dancing Queen" led directly to the cresendo-like power chords in "Seems like Teen Spirit"! Even the lyrical content, Digging the dancing queen, foreshadows the nihilistic lyrical content of "Nevermind"! And, oh, "Waterloo" surely conjured up all those necrophilic images on the Alice in Chains albums.....Freda was quite a wicked little tart as well, who Soundgarten had in mind as they laid down the ominous chords of "Black Hole Sun"
Okay, now its reality check time......dude, the Pixies were cited by Kurt Cobain himself as Nirvana's primal influence, and he chose Steve Albini to produce Nevermind solely because he produced the Pixies "Surfer Rosa" album. Are you sure you have actually listened to the Pixies? Trust me, they wont be winning the Eurovision song contest anytime soon! Excuse me while I dig the Dancing Queen!
I`ve every Pixies album my friend..I have also every ABBA album..If we are to duel then I leave it to you, if it is to be so be it!!
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