the '90s in seattle

a late-night face-melting music trivia jamboree broke out last night and '90s rock decisively established itself as the crowd favorite. so now seems, as jamie wrote in yesterday's comments section, as good a time as any for anyone's guess to formally appreciate an early seminal moment in the development of its musical sensibilities.

seattle in the 1990s (an era a.g. refuses to label or further acknowledge as being labeled by others as grunge) has gotten its fair share of press. some might even say that particular moment in rock history is criminally overexposed. fair play. anyone's guess won't go into an analysis of the scene; what's important, then and now, is the music. which starts, for me anyway, with pearl jam. but hang on, let's back up a tick.

mother love bone - cloe/crown of thorns

this epic, highly recommended track comes off of the debut ep, shine, by mother love bone, one of the frontrunners of the seattle movement. band leader andy wood overdosed on heroin in 1990 and in his memory stone gossard and jeff ament, members of mother love bone and future catalysts of pearl jam, joined up with soundgarden to form one-off temple of the dog.

temple of the dog - hungerstrike

ten, the debut album by pearl jam, was the first compact disc anyone's guess bought. obsession followed quickly thereafter. the album holds up remarkably well, over fifteen years later, and is all but guaranteed a spot on a.g.'s eternal top five list.

pearl jam - sonic reducer (live in atlanta 1994)
pearl jam - garden (alternate arrangement)
pearl jam - state of love & trust

"sonic reducer" is one of jamie's favorites by pj and i can remember him staying up to record - and by record of course i mean dub onto cassette - that whole fabulous atlanta concert,* which was broadcast in entirety over the radio. those were the days, eh, when listening to broadcast radio could be considered an event and teenage boys would stay up into the wee of the night to hear their favorite band play live. hard to imagine such a moment happening today.

"state of love & trust" is off of the soundtrack to cameron crowe's serenade to 1990s seattle singles, which featured cameo roles from some of the pearl jam guys and chris cornell of soundgarden.

chris cornell - spoonman (live)
chris cornell - outshined (live)
chris cornell - burden in my hand (live)

& check out this song (an underappreciated and solid hit) by mad season, a side project of pearl jam guitarist mike mccready, a few members of screaming trees, and the late alice in chains frontman layne staley:

mad season - river of deceit
alice in chains - rooster (acoustic)

but hold on, you're saying, how can you have a post about seattle and the 90s and not even once mention nirvana? not terribly difficult for me, actually, though if you're going whine about it, here you go:

nirvana - smells like teen spirit (live in amsterdam 1991)

satisfied?
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* copies of that atlanta show has been making the rounds on the trading circuit for years. if anyone's interested, leave a comment or email anyone's guess and we'll let pando do the heavy lifting for us.