Mudhoney Articles
Backlash
February '88
Legions of Dead Bands
Green River, Feast, The Melvins,
and the throbbing continuum of dirge
Dead dirge bands aren't much fun. Neither is writing about them. I'm addressing
the subject because I hear so many of you complaining that life itself isn't much
fun lately, now that Green River, the Melvins and Feast have broken up - how
inconsiderate of them.
It's getting tougher every day to find a good noise fix, a jolt that crips your
entire body and makes you nod your head and drool like a zombie... It's fascinating
to watch someone who's in that state. "Pelt me with green Jello? No problem!" You
see, gutterslime rock brings peace and harmony to a small, troubled segment of the
population. Some of you understand this. The rest of you think we're gutterslime.
And, some of you think I'm gutterslime myself for dredging all this up in the first
place. So for the record, I'm not using any information that I didn't hear directly
from the band members and everybody quoted in this article knew they were being
interviewed for Backlash.
So anyway, HERE'S THE DIRT!
Green River - Musical Differences
Last time i saw Mark Arm at the Vogue he was playing in a cover band with a bunch
of hacks. That's what he said on stage: "So this is what I've been reduced to! I
lose my band, my one shot at the big time and I'm forced to play in a cover band
with a bunch of hacks!"
A week earlier, three of his former bandmates (Stone, Bruce and Jeff) had appeared
on this very same stage with two members of Malfunkshun (Landrew / Andy and Regan).
This group called themselves Lords of the Wasteland and played '70s covers with
finesse and mass hair action. "I went fishing this afternoon and look what I pulled
out of the River!" Landrew quipped. "Pretty good, huh? I thought of that one
yesterday."
Mark's supergroup of sorts consists of Ron from Room 9, Chris from Swallow and
three drummers: Grant from the Walkabouts, Tad from H-Hour and Scott Vanderpool
from Chemestry Set. They change their name every time they play and are perhaps best
known as Beer Garden, but for this occasion they decided to call themselves The Wasted
Landlords.
Don't be fooled; this is a f*k band, pure and simple. Mark gets skittish when he
suspects people might be taking him seriously, so just to make sure no one does, he
also plays in another f*k band, the Thrown Ups. The Thrown Ups make their songs up
on stage and like to spew substances like ketchup and shaving cream at their
audiences.
But believe it or not, Lords of the Wasteland (they may have changed their name by
now) aren't kidding. The combination of the Green River string section with the most
entertaining frontman in Seattle could almost be (dare I say it?) merketable.
Incidentally, Mark's also reportedly forming a real band with Matt from the
Melvins, Danny from Bundle of Hiss and Green River's original guitarist, Steve Turner.
Sounds almost serious.
"I don't think I've ever been in a serious band," Mark assured me.
Serious is relative, but Green River did make a significant impact on the small part
of the world they spoke to. They released two records (Come on Down and Dry
as a Bone) and are even going to release another one soon. And they're largely
responsible for what is now known throughout the land as The Heavy Seattle Sound.
They were getting sick of it, though. Stone says, "I didn't like the way we were kind
of one-dimensional in our heaviness."
What about Alex, you ask? The ex Green River drummer just returned from L.A., where
he'd auditioned for Redd Kross. He didn't make it, but the guitarist raved about his
ability and Alex claimed "it was a moral victory."
In his words, here's why Green River broke up: "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... they didn't think I was serious about my drumming."
Mark says: "It's not important to me that I be a 'rock star.' If it happens, fine. But
they were serious about calling on major labels and stuff, which I didn't really care
about."
Stone says: "Whether the kind of music I wanna play now is more or less commercial
isn't what I'm concerned about at all; it's just the music that I like to play. I
just don't think I would've liked Green River if I were a person coming in to see
them. I wanna like the band I'm in."
Mark: "I don't like bands that pander to the audience - the 'raise your fist and yell'
mentality. I respect bands that f*k with the audience a little. There was no spontaniety
in Green River."
Alex: "We all get along just fine, it's just that Stone, Jeff and Bruce wanted to go
one way and they thought we weren't coming along. But I figure... whatever."
Feast - Personality Differences
The story begins with three youngsters from Snoqualmish, Tom, Dan and Jane, who banded
together around their common discovery of the big bad riff. They moved to Seattle and
were soon joined by a couple other guys, Reed and Rolf. The group called itself Feast,
gigged around town, put all their money into one limited edition promo cassette, went
on tour and broke up.
I asked guitarist Dan Blossom why Feast split. "I'm not really sure," he says, "No one's
really talked about it. I thnk everyone was just tired of certain things. Like that tour
thing - you get on each other's nerves on tour. All the problems are amplified when
you're in close quartiers."
Dan, bassist Jane Higgins and vocalist Tom Mick all agree personality clashes killed the
band, though of course nobody wanted to delve into specifics.
"We grew up together and I thought of Dan as a big brother," Tom says. "Now he's not
speaking to me. I still love Dan as a brother, but... I'm trying to be as tactful as
possible... I just got kind of fed up with his personality.
Also, I wanted to write songs with more sense of melody, more parts than just the basic
three chord progressions," he continues, "and I just didn't think the capability was
there, in that format. In the later stages of Feast we had 10 songs that sounded like
the first song we had ever written."
Tom's been practicing with Landrew and Kevin from Malfunkshun (who I hope are still
together by the time you read this) and is also recording with his former bandmates,
Reed and Rolf. The three are considering calling themselves Feast. Dan and Jane are
sticking together and are currently looking for a singer and a drummer to form a band
called (you guessed it) Feast. "I just like the name; we kind of thought of it," Dan
explains. "Actually, Jane and I wrote most of the music."
Has ther been a conflict over the name? "I don't know," Tom says, "Dan won't talk to me.
But I wish all the luck in the world to Dan and Jane, whatever their endeavors are."
The Melvins - Huh?
It's impossible not to like the Melvins - they don't live here. Matt Lukin, Buzz
Osbourne and Dale Crover all hale from the town of Montesano, which means they're
great guys to drink Schmidt and trade insults with. Their record, Gluey Porch
Treatments, stands as the epitome of unselfconscious garage grunge. And as
individuals, the guys oozed charm. What woman could resist Matt's favorite opening
line: "Is that your head, or did somebody crap on your shoulders?"
News got around fast that Buzz had moved to San Francisco with his fiance and the
Melvins were history. Although a few catty comments were thrown around regarding
Green River and Feast (nothing unusual there), the Montesano boys were so damn
pure it was impossible to pretend they deserved their fate.
About a week after the breakup I saw Matt at a party, licking orange juice off the
living room rug. He seemed to be feeling all right. But when I spoke to him on the
phone a couple of days ago, he seemed rather perturbed.
"I'm going down to San Francisco to tell Buzz I don't like him anymore," he said.
Turns out the drummer, Dale, had moved down there the week before to join Buzz and
start up a band. "I hear they're still gonna call themselves the Melvins," Matt says.
"So I wouldn't call it a breakup, I think it was just Buzz's way of ousting a band
member."
Though moving to another state may seem like an extreme measure to get rid of a bass
player, I couldn't track Buzz or Dale down to put Matt's suspicions to rest.
But don't worry about Matt (you wouldn't believe hoe many people worry about
Matt, and whether the poor innocent is O.K.). He's moved to the big city of Aberdeen,
might possibly move to Seattle and is working on new material with two ex Green River
members and the drummer from Bundle of Hiss. Some Melvins fans are already expressing
concern that he's gonna become so-o stuck up now. Best of luck, dude.
Are We Dead Yet?
Everyone I know says the scene's dead. God, I feel stupid using the word "scene." The
term comes up in conversation all the time, but if you actually write it down, everyone
laughs at you, especially scenesters.
Shaddup - its not dead, alright? The blob is merely changing shape. The fate of any
given band isn't relevant anyway, as long as the individual members are still active,
and most of these guys have proven themselves to be amazingly resilient.
Also, remember that we had to kill off punk in order to invent hardcore, then hardcore
had to die to make way for the grinding, oozing mess we've got now. What coems next is
anyone's guess. But since the underground embraced the '70s revival a few years before
everyone else did (don't expect it to end for normal people until at least 1993), I
figure an early-'80s revival is right around the corner. And you know what that means -
Coffin Break. They're your future.
