BIOGRAPHY

by Steve Huey

Note: this document is based on the original version published by allmusic.com, but has been corrected in some
of its parts and extra material taken from various interviews, articles, books and other sources has been added.

Green River were arguably the first grunge band, forming around the same time as the rest of Seattle's first wave (the Melvins, Soundgarden, and Malfunkshun). In 1985, they became the first grunge band to release a record, kickstarting the Seattle music scene and later helping to establish the Sub Pop label. However, Green River are even more famous for the bands that sprang from their breakup: Mudhoney and Mother Love Bone, the latter of which also contained the roots of Pearl Jam. That lineage somewhat overshadows Green River's actual music, which helped lay out the blueprint for grunge but didn't necessarily rank among its most transcendent expressions. Green River specialized in a dirty, sludgy, gleefully ugly hybrid of punk, heavy metal, and bluesy hard rock, drawing from bands like the Stooges and Aerosmith in addition to the hardcore punk outfits where many of the members first cut their teeth. Its appeal tends to depend upon the depth of the listener's interest in grunge, but regardless, the seeds of a revolution are certainly audible.

Green River were formed in Seattle in 1984, taking their name from the area's notorious, then-recent serial killer (who wasn't brought to justice until around two decades later). Lead vocalist/guitarist Mark Arm and guitarist Steve Turner had previously played together in two local bands, the geek punk Mr. Epp and the more hardcore oriented Limp Richerds.

Before joining those bands, Steve had played for a while with drummer Alex Vincent (aka Alex Shumway) in a band called Spluii Numa.

"[Spluii Numa] were a cheap attempt to reach the kids by playing songs that sounded like Social Distortion or GBH. They had two kinds of songs: their GBH songs and their Social Distortion songs. The whole point was to make kids like them, which was not the point of Mr. Epp or Limp Richerds." --Mark

When all of the aforementioned bands broke up, Mark, Steve and Alex started looking around for a bass player and found one in Jeff Ament from Deranged Diction.

"There was this band that moved out from Montana called Deranged Diction, this hardcore band. They were on some Mystic comp or something. Anyway, they had a bass player who was really into SSD and jumped a lot and we were like maybe if we talked to this guy we can talk him into playing with us..." --Mark

"So I got to know [Jeff] for awhile, and after a bit I was like, 'Hey Jeff, me and Mark are getting this band together and...' He was like, 'Get real! You guys can't even play!' " --Steve

Late in the year, second guitarist Stone Gossard -- Turner's onetime bandmate in yet another band from the early '80s, the Ducky Boys -- came onboard, allowing Arm to concentrate exclusively on singing. Green River started playing local clubs, and in 1985 they recorded two tracks for the compilation album Deep Six, the inaugural release on local indie C/Z Records (it also featured early tracks by Soundgarden, the Melvins, Malfunkshun, and Skin Yard). Later in 1985, Green River went to New York to record their debut EP, Come On Down, for the Homestead label.

Shortly after the recording sessions were over, Steve Turner decided to left the band (reportedly over his distaste for its metal influences) and was replaced by Bruce Fairweather, who had played with Ament in Deranged Diction.

[Ament] shows up [for Green River's first gig] with kind of a rock outfit on, and white makeup on his face. I was like, 'Ohhhhh nooooo...'" --Steve

In order to promote the album, the band put together a tour with shows all across the USA which proved to be short of disastrous: the release date for their record was pushed back so by the time they hit the road virtually noone knew them, and while on some nights things would go fine, on various occasions they found themselves playing in empty venues or facing rowdy crowds.

"Detroit was the worst. We opened for Samhian [i.e. Danzig] on Halloween, and everyone had this badass attitude. We're thinking it's going to be great: 'Yeah, the Stooges, MC5.' But these people just wanted everything fast. ... This one girl kept spitting at me, and Jeff put his foot out to block the spit. But this guy thought he was kicking her in the face. He was huge, and pulled Jeff right into the crowd. In the past, I've been pulled into the crowd, and Jeff rescued me, so now was my chance to help him out. But Jeff is a big guy, and I'm not. Still, I jumped in. The guy was a seven-foot-tall brick of a man; the only thing that saved our asses was an armed policeman." --Mark

In the summer of 1986, the group recorded another EP, Dry as a Bone, in Seattle with producer Jack Endino; it was issued by Bruce Pavitt's fledgling Sub Pop label in July 1987. Green River subsequently began work on an eight-song mini-album for Sub Pop, which was released in early 1988 under the title Rehab Doll.

By the time it appeared, though, intra-band tensions were tearing Green River apart. The central issue was commercialism: Gossard and Ament wanted to pursue a major-label deal, while Arm preferred to remain independent and record for Sub Pop. The final straw apparently stemmed from a gig in Los Angeles; Arm wanted to give his friends backstage passes, but found that Ament had reserved them all for A&R reps who never showed up. Not long after Rehab Doll appeared, Green River officially disbanded.

"We went down to L.A. and had a guest list of 10 people, all of whom were from major labels. Only two of them came. Meanwhile, I wanted to get my friends in and [the band] said 'No, it's really important that we get these industry people in.' But these people didn't give a shit about us; I'd rather have had my friends come in for free." --Mark

"Stoney, Bruce and Jeff - mostly Stoney and Jeff - wanted to become more professional and tight, more 'rock' in the vein of 'record executives love you' type thing. They wanted Mark to be more like Steven Tyler, but Mark's got his own way..." --Alex

Arm reunited with Turner to form the punkier Mudhoney, while Gossard, Ament, and Fairweather joined up with ex-Malfunkshun singer Andrew Wood in the glammier Mother Love Bone. Following Wood's death from a heroin overdose, Gossard and Ament moved on to found the hugely successful Pearl Jam with vocalist Eddie Vedder. Fairweather, meanwhile, moved on to Love Battery.

Mark called me up on Halloween 1987 and was like, "Guess what? Green River broke up," and I was like, "Uh-oh, I guess I'm going to be in a band with Mark again." --Steve

In late 1993, during a Pearl Jam encore in Las Vegas, Arm and Turner joined Gossard and Ament on-stage for a one-time-only Green River reunion.