[potsie]

I know Nirvana is considered THE grunge band and given all the accolades for the scene and the impact they had on music, pretty much equivalent to the Beatles to rock. But personally I never had the connection to Nirvana like others did/do. Not a knock against them, just my own personal taste.

But Soundgarden and Stone Temple Pilots...they were my Nirvana. To have lost both now just completely sucks.

Hard to believe the losses we have had. Eddie is the last man standing of the grunge scene.

I'm with you on this. The culture impact Nirvana had is undeniable. However, Pearl Jam's Ten was a much bigger album in my world at the time. Nirvana continues to take the lion's share of the Seattle spotlight but I believe this is in large part due to Cobain having been deified since his death, when he really isn't any more talented than the rest of the "grunge" era band leaders. This is no knock on Cobain, I just think Chris Cornell is at least as equally talented, and Soundgarden is at least as great a band as Nirvana.

As for "connections" to the bands of that era, I would put PJ, STP, Soundgarden, and Alice-in-Chains all ahead of Nirvana in terms of my own personal taste. I "like" Nirvana (especially "MTV Unplugged in New York") but I "love" those other four bands. Like you, I never felt a strong connection to them. In my circle of friends in the early 90's Nirvana was the band that meant more to those who were mostly listening to pop or other genres of music at the time "Nevermind" became huge. Nirvana, when they hit the mainstream, got a lot more people interested in rock music and for many this was their first foray into "heavy" music. Because I was already listening to that type of music, Nevermind never had a huge impact on me.

I would undoubtedly feel different about Nirvana had Cobain lived a little longer and had the artistic freedom to make the album that he truly wanted. I love the unpolished nature of "Bleach", but I find "Nevermind" to be a collection of great songs that are poorly produced. "In Utero" is inconsistent for me, and probably isn't the record Cobain wanted to make as he had to deal with record company influences. If I'm comparing the peak of Nirvana's catalogue (Nevermind or MTV Unplugged) vs. the peak of Soundgarden's catalogue (Superunknown), I'm taking Soundgarden every time!

[arewhyehen]

I am with you guys on the Nirvana thing. I never really fell in love with Nivrvana the same way I did bands like Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Mad Season and Temple of the Dog. Hell, out of all the bigger grunge bands in Seattle at that time, Nirvana was really the only odd man out. All of those bands had connections to each other in some way or another. Seattle really was different in that way than most other scenes and that is what I love about it. I think most of us are always looking for new bands through some odd connection in our favourite bands. Whether it's a side project of a member, or past project, etc...we all make connections that way. Seattle was gold when it came to those connections.

A few weeks ago my girlfriend and I started talking about all the connections in bands that we could think of and obviously all these Seattle bands came up, although we wanted to focus more on the lesser known members at the time, the whole "family tree" thing just blew up. I am sure it's been talked about 100 times (including PJ20) but it's so much crazier when you start to write it all down and make the connections. PJ20 touches on all the connections with PJ, Soundgarden, Mother Love Bone and Temple of the Dog, but it goes on to Mad Season with McCready and Staley and then guys from Screaming Trees. Obviously that's also connected to Alice in Chains and Skin Yard and so many other bands...

Here is an article we put together that has a really cool Seattle family tree graph with the bands and members.

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="https://hippiehistorian.com/2017/05/21/seattle-grunge-and-the-musical-family-tree/">https://hippiehistorian.com/2017/05/21/ ... mily-tree/</a><!-- m -->

[arewhyehen]

For those who have never seen the graphic in the article I posted above, here is a link to see the larger graphic




It's kinda cool to see how back in the day the scenes were rooted in specific cities, but now with digital recordings and the internet, they are more rooted around specific people. These articles all originally started because we found a ton of connections with Dean Fertita and all of his projects. On one side, they were all connected to Jack White in some way or another (Raconteurs, Dead Weather, Brendon Benson, Jack White) and then on the other side of things, there were so many Josh Homme Projects and relationships formed through those bands (Iggy, QOTSA, EODM) but then members of those bands have conections to Kyuss, Perfect Circle, Puscifer.....on and on. It's so crazy.

[edgoffin]

Interesting thought that "the scene" has faded away. Places likes Athens and Seattle, and then from a Canadian perspective the east coast, seemed to generate a number of high-profile bands all within a short time period. I wonder if part of the demise of the scene has been the closing of live music venues -- less bands opening for each other, trading members, etc.

[potsie]

I am with you guys on the Nirvana thing. I never really fell in love with Nivrvana the same way I did bands like Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Mad Season and Temple of the Dog. Hell, out of all the bigger grunge bands in Seattle at that time, Nirvana was really the only odd man out. All of those bands had connections to each other in some way or another.

There is one small connection between Nirvana and Soundgarden. A fella named Jason Everman was in Nirvana as their second guitarist on the "Bleach" tour. If you look at the Bleach album cover, you will see Nirvana as a 4-piece and he's the fourth. Everman later spent a short time as Soundgarden's bassist, prior to Ben Shepherd.

If you are interested in this era, I would highly recommend you check out "Everybody Loves This Town: An Oral History of Grunge". It's a good read.

[potsie]

For those who have never seen the graphic in the article I posted above, here is a link to see the larger graphic

[url=<a class="vglnk" href="http://s30.photobucket.com/user/arewhyehen/media/Pearl%20Jam_zpswe8vzljr.jpg.html][/url" rel="nofollow">
It's kinda cool to see how back in the day the scenes were rooted in specific cities, but now with digital recordings and the internet, they are more rooted around specific people. These articles all originally started because we found a ton of connections with Dean Fertita and all of his projects. On one side, they were all connected to Jack White in some way or another (Raconteurs, Dead Weather, Brendon Benson, Jack White) and then on the other side of things, there were so many Josh Homme Projects and relationships formed through those bands (Iggy, QOTSA, EODM) but then members of those bands have conections to Kyuss, Perfect Circle, Puscifer.....on and on. It's so crazy.

Thanks for sharing this. It's neat to see it all laid out. I was aware of Eddie Vedder's band Bad Radio but I had never heard of "Indian Style" (or Indian Summer, as it sometimes appears to be credited), and did not know that he was in a band with Brad Wilk from Rage and Audioslave (another degree of connection between Eddie and Chris). I checked out a two song demo of Indidan Style on YouTube and the songs are awful but were nonetheless interesting to listen to.

[arewhyehen]

I am with you guys on the Nirvana thing. I never really fell in love with Nivrvana the same way I did bands like Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Mad Season and Temple of the Dog. Hell, out of all the bigger grunge bands in Seattle at that time, Nirvana was really the only odd man out. All of those bands had connections to each other in some way or another.

There is one small connection between Nirvana and Soundgarden. A fella named Jason Everman was in Nirvana as their second guitarist on the "Bleach" tour. If you look at the Bleach album cover, you will see Nirvana as a 4-piece and he's the fourth. Everman later spent a short time as Soundgarden's bassist, prior to Ben Shepherd.

If you are interested in this era, I would highly recommend you check out "Everybody Loves This Town: An Oral History of Grunge". It's a good read.

Awesome. I did not make that connection. I know there are a ton that I didn't mention, but that is cool to know Nirvana had a connection to the rest of the scene, other than taking shit about Pearl Jam and the other bands. haha

I will look into that tonight. Thank you.

[arewhyehen]

Interesting thought that "the scene" has faded away. Places likes Athens and Seattle, and then from a Canadian perspective the east coast, seemed to generate a number of high-profile bands all within a short time period. I wonder if part of the demise of the scene has been the closing of live music venues -- less bands opening for each other, trading members, etc.

Yeah, I don't know what it was that has sort of killed the "local scene" but I am sure it is due to the digital world. You used to be influenced by the things around you and the other musicians around you. You couldn't share things as easily as you could like you can now with the internet. Hell, like when Pearl Jam started they were sending out demo cassettes in order to find a singer. Now days you can post an MP3 on your website or facebook. They are still around..just not like they used to be. Except Nashville....that just seems to be some sort of garbage Modern Country assembly line..haha

[arewhyehen]

Thanks for sharing this. It's neat to see it all laid out. I was aware of Eddie Vedder's band Bad Radio but I had never heard of "Indian Style" (or Indian Summer, as it sometimes appears to be credited), and did not know that he was in a band with Brad Wilk from Rage and Audioslave (another degree of connection between Eddie and Chris). I checked out a two song demo of Indidan Style on YouTube and the songs are awful but were nonetheless interesting to listen to.

No Problem! Yeah, we decided to leave out Audioslave and a few other connections because they weren't Seattle "grunge" connections. It's tough to know when to stop..

[cochise]

This is goosebump worthy.

[youtube]XbQ08Ixczvo[/youtube]

[arewhyehen]

Posted by Tom Morello on his facebook along with this photo

#ChrisCornell & #AndrewWood were good friends and roommates in Seattle. Chris sang for #Soundgarden, Andrew sang for #MotherLoveBone (who were signed to MCA by @goldie.momandpop). Andrew overdosed and died. Chris wrote songs for Andrew that became the #TempleOfTheDog album. Some of the guys from Mother Love Bone formed a new band briefly called Mookie Blaylock before they settled on a permanent name...#PearlJam. Some of those dudes, including their new singer #EddieVedder played/sang on Temple Of The Dog record. Pearl Jam needed a drummer so Eddie called his old pal, #bradwilk. Didn't work out so Brad came home and helped form #RageAgainstTheMachine, who were then signed by @goldie.momandpop to Pearl Jam's new label, Epic. Soundgarden, Pearl Jam and RATM all rocked the planet mightily (and we're all produced and/or mixed by #BrendanObrien). Soundgarden & RATM broke up and dudes from those bands formed #Audioslave, who also rocked the planet (also produced by Brendan). Audioslave broke up but later Soundgarden, RATM, Temple Of The Dog and Audioslave all reunited at one point or another. Then Chris Cornell passed away and now he and his good friend Andrew Wood are roommates once again.