Grunge Is Dead Read online

  GRUNGE IS DEAD

  THE ORAL HISTORY OF SEATTLE ROCK MUSIC

  Copyright © Greg Prato, 2009

  Published by ECW Press, 2120 Queen Street East,

  Suite 200, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M4E 1E2

  416.694.3348 / [email protected]

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any process — electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise — without the prior written permission of the copyright owners and ECW Press.

  LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA CATALOGUING IN PUBLICATION

  Prato, Greg

  Grunge is dead: the oral history of Seattle rock music / Greg Prato.

  ISBN -13: 978-1-55022-877-9

  ISBN -10: 1-55022-877-3

  1. Grunge groups—Washington (State)—Seattle. 2. Grunge music. 3. Rock musicians—Interviews. I. Title.

  ML3534.3.P912 2009 782.4216609797772C2008-907553-6

  Editor for the press: Michael Holmes

  Cover design: Bill Douglas at The Bang

  Type: Melissa Kaita

  Photo section: Rachel Ironstone

  Printing: Printcrafters

  PRINTED AND BOUND IN CANADA

  CONTENTS

  Acknowledgments

  Foreword

  1960s–1970s

  CHAPTER 1 — “It was mainly isolation”: 1960s–1970s

  CHAPTER 2 — “Seattle was the closest city”: Transplants

  Early–Mid ’80s

  CHAPTER 3 — “It was so easy to freak people out in those days”: Early–Mid ’80s

  CHAPTER 4 — “’79 through ’84 was hopping”: Power Pop, New Wave, Heavy Metal

  CHAPTER 5 — “A floodgate of creativity in the Northwest”: Blackouts, Fastbacks, U-Men, Mr. Epp and the Calculations, Duff McKagan

  CHAPTER 6 — “Church was really in session”: Venues, The Rocket, Record Stores, Radio

  CHAPTER 7 — “The punk rock David Lee Roth”: Malfunkshun

  CHAPTER 8 — “Godzilla knocking over buildings”: The Shemps, Soundgarden

  CHAPTER 9 — “Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should”: The Melvins, Green River, Screaming Trees

  CHAPTER 10 — “The next logical step is to start a label”: K Records, Sub Pop Records, C/Z Records

  Mid–Late ’80s

  CHAPTER 11 — “If we can just keep it a secret”: Mid–Late ’80s

  CHAPTER 12 — “How do three guys sound like nine?”: Nirvana

  CHAPTER 13 — “The sloppiness was essential”: The Thrown Ups, Mudhoney

  CHAPTER 14 — “GET OUT OF THE WAY! ”: The Melvins, Screaming Trees, Skin Yard, Tad

  CHAPTER 15 — “Dark, black, and blue”: Soundgarden, Alice in Chains

  CHAPTER 16 — “He’s going to be one of the biggest rock stars in the world — no question”: Mother Love Bone and Andy Wood’s Death

  1990–1991

  CHAPTER 17 — “OK, this thing is going to happen”: 1990–1991

  CHAPTER 18 — “If you can sell 40,000, they’ll let you make another one”: Pearl Jam, Temple of the Dog

  CHAPTER 19 — “A ‘testosterone period’”: Alice in Chains, Soundgarden

  CHAPTER 20 — “You guys will be bigger than Hüsker Dü”: Nirvana and Nevermind

  CHAPTER 21 — “That they didn’t reach a broader audience baffles me”: Mudhoney, Tad, Screaming Trees, Truly, Melvins, Jesse Bernstein

  CHAPTER 22 — “Rebelling against the predominant macho grunge scene at the time”: Riot Grrrl

  1992–1993

  CHAPTER 23 — “Be careful what you wish for, you might get it”: 1992–1993

  CHAPTER 24 — “It was on the radio, people were talking about them, people had shirts on and their posters up”: Pearl Jam

  CHAPTER 25 — “Things change, and things change quickly”: Soundgarden, Alice in Chains

  CHAPTER 26 — “We might as well start talking to majors”: Mudhoney, Tad, Skin Yard, Screaming Trees, Melvins, Brad

  CHAPTER 27 — “If you were there, you were part of it”: Riot Grrrl

  CHAPTER 28 — “Everything is not OK anymore”: Nirvana

  1994 and Beyond

  CHAPTER 29 — “It felt like the world had gone seriously wrong”: Kurt Cobain’s Death and 1994

  CHAPTER 30 — “Where I go, you go”: Kurt Remembered

  CHAPTER 31 — “The demise of the entire scene”: Drugs

  CHAPTER 32 — “Preparing for the worst”: Alice in Chains and Layne Staley’s Death

  CHAPTER 33 — “The final magic”: Soundgarden’s Breakup

  CHAPTER 34 — “There was definitely a big Seattle backlash”: Mudhoney, Tad, Screaming Trees, Melvins, Truly

  CHAPTER 35 — “Standing up for something they believed in”: Pearl Jam

  CHAPTER 36 — “Finally — new growth”: Post-Grunge

  CHAPTER 37 — “Maybe I’m a geezer”: How Will Grunge Be Remembered?

  Cast of Characters

  This book is dedicated to Kurt Cobain, Tomata du Plenty, Ben McMillan, Kristen Pfaff, Stephanie Sargent, John Baker Saunders, Layne Staley, Andy Wood, Mia Zapata, and all other Washington-based musicians who are no longer with us.

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  Thanks to Jack Endino, Mark Arm, Susan Silver, Matt Vaughan, Rebecca Roybal, Dave Dederer, Drew Church, Carrie Stamper, and all the photographers who submitted great pix — your help with this book was much appreciated. But wait, there’s more! I’d also like to thank my wife Mary and all my family — Lucille and Robert Prato Jr., Lorraine and the Raz, Little Adam and Baby Aiden, Kris Fleischmann, James Fleischmann, Mikey and Erin Fleischmann, Little Elle, Sylvia and Bob “The Voice of Reason” Fleischmann, Ellen Fleischmann, the Stanleys, Dennis and Cheryl Sullivan, Steven and Jen Castro, Baby Lily, Megan Sullivan, Mellow Michael Sullivan, Grandma and Grandpa Conrad, Grandma and Grandpa Prato, Uncle Eddie, Giacomo and Angela DiMaggio, Angie and Big Michael Prisciandaro, the three little dwarves (Little Michael, Antonia, and Daniela Prisciandaro), Phyllis Basso, Giacomo Caesar Basso, Alan and Beth Tagliamonti, Amy Tagliamonti, Betty Tagliamonti, Tony Clifton, Brendon Cohen, Matt and Martha Baumbach, Adam Krieg, Stefan and Allison Farkas, Orson and Sariah Joseph, Stephen Gross and Karen, Folly, Dirty David Britt, Dave “Dice” Kay, Shawn “The Bear” Bearor, Jack Castronova, Louis “Flossi” Rossi, Mr. Flugz, Mr. Magoo, Greg Hampton, Chip Ruggieri, Clint Weiler, Carol Kaye, Dan Weiss, Lloyd Jassin, Joel McIver, Martin Popoff, Michael Holmes and the folks at ECW, my friends at the Wantagh Post Office, the staff at Pietro’s Pizza … and you, too!

  FOREWORD

  As my high school days were drawing to a close, there was certainly something bubbling in the hard rock world. Bands like Faith No More, Jane’s Addiction, Living Colour, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers were showing that not all rock bands had to sing about “fast cars and fast women” or dress like goofball spandex cowboys. Having only attended strictly big arena rock shows up to this point, I didn’t know quite what to expect when I agreed to attend a show on Saturday, March 17, 1990, at a club called L’Amour in Brooklyn, New York. The two main reasons I purchased a ticket for this three-band bill were to see the aforementioned Faith No More, as well as sci-fi metal headliners Voivod. After FNM’s fantastic set, the next band, which I was least familiar with, came onstage.

  The singer didn’t wait long — upon the first notes of the opening number, he was climbing over the crowd on pipes attached to the ceiling (if my memory serves me correctly — already shirtless, and wearing shorts that were completely covered in silver electrical tape), before dropping himself into the sea of “moshers”
below. The guitarist looked like something out of Cheech and Chong, with a full-on beard, and his eyes seemingly constantly closed — as if he were reaching a state of nirvana playing monstrous Sabbathy riffs. The bassist’s large mop of curly hair bobbed in time to the music, while the drummer bashed out some impressively complex yet primal beats. This, my friends, was my introduction to the mighty Soundgarden.

  Needless to say, soon after, I was a major convert, buying just about every Soundgarden recording that I could get my hands on, and reading all the interviews on the band that I could gather. And in most of the articles, it was mentioned that there were other similarly styled bands from Soundgarden’s hometown — Seattle — that were on their way up the ladder as well. Over the next year or so, it appeared as though each month, there was a new band from the Seattle area to discover — Mother Love Bone, Alice in Chains, Tad, Temple of the Dog, Mudhoney, the Melvins, the Screaming Trees, etc. And of course, when Nirvana and Pearl Jam hit, the rock world had thankfully shifted towards music that was both honest and real. And along with it came the word that would forever be associated with the movement: grunge.

  While the movement didn’t turn out to be as long lasting as many figured it would, what it packed into a four-year period (1990–1994) was pretty darn extraordinary. How many songs from this period are still being played on the radio? How many of these albums sound as great today as when they first came out, continue to sell, and are still being discovered by younger generations? I rest my case. It may have only lasted a few years, but for a few brief and shining moments, grunge certainly shifted the direction of culture (and even fashion), and brought in an unmistakable feeling of change — just as the ’60s hippie and ’70s punk movements had.

  The original idea for doing this book came about when I was doing a Soundgarden article for Classic Rock magazine back in 2004. While interviewing the group’s early producer, Jack Endino, he mentioned that almost every single article being written about grunge bands nowadays were by writers who were not from the Seattle area, yet were giving their “revisionist take” on what happened. Which got me thinking … what if a book was comprised of nothing but quotes from the actual people that experienced the movement firsthand, tracing it from its very beginning to its end? In other words, letting them tell the entire story as it unfolded (with only chapter intro paragraphs from yours truly). Nearly 130 interviews later, here we are.

  Enjoy!

  Greg Prato

  New York, July 2008

  p.s. Want to let me know what you thought of the book? Email me at: [email protected], or see what I’m up to at: myspace.com/gregpratopage.

  1960s–1970s

  CHAPTER 1

  “It was mainly isolation”: 1960s–1970s

  Think that grunge began with Soundgarden, Nirvana, and Pearl Jam? Think again. Grunge’s roots stretch back to the’60s and’70s, as evidenced by such garage-punk bands as the Sonics, the Wailers, the Telepaths, and the Lewd, among others.

  KENT MORRILL: [The Wailers] started in ’58. We played teen dances mainly — there were no such thing as clubs. High school dances, armories, a famous place here called the Spanish Castle. We were all from different schools; so all the schools followed us. When we played dances, we drew like 2,000 or 3,000 kids — we were very popular, especially in the Northwest. We were influential on a lot of groups — we have quotes from the Beatles, that they got some of their original ideas from [the Wailers], because our records were bootlegged over in England. “Tall Cool One” was a Top 30 hit. Twice.

  BUCK ORMSBY: [ Jimi Hendrix] used to come to our dances at the Spanish Castle. He wanted to jam with us, but we didn’t know him that well. He really liked our guitar player — our guitar player was an innovator. Jimi used to say to Rich [Dangel], “If your amp goes out, I’ve got mine in the car.” But it never did happen. He was a big Wailers fan. One of his songs, “Spanish Castle Magic,” was written about that place we played.

  Seattle native Jimi Hendrix comes home, 1968

  I joined the Wailers in ’60, after they came back from their East Coast tour. Their label was Golden Crest Records in New York. Golden Crest wanted them to stay there and make records. They decided they were going to come back — their parents wanted them to finish high school. When they returned, they asked me if I wanted to join the band. They said Golden Crest was not happy with them, and they decided, “Well, maybe that’s the end of the story.” I said, “I don’t think this is the end of the game. The Wailers could be a great, great band. If the label is not going to do anything with you anymore, let’s start our own label.” Three of the guys said, “No, we’re too young and we don’t know anything about it.” We worked that weekend. I took money out of my pocket, put it on the table, and said, “Who’s in?” And Kent Morrill and Rockin’ Robin did the same thing.

  KENT MORRILL: [Etiquette Records’] first release was “Louie Louie,” which became number one all over the Northwest — actually two times. Then the Kingsmen picked up on it and got the big hit. We had groups like the Galaxies, the Bootmen — probably close to a dozen acts we produced. We had about ten albums that [the Wailers] did. Some of our best-known songs were “Tall Cool One,” “Roadrunner,” “Dirty Robber.” [“Out of Our Tree”] was pretty close to being a national hit. We opened for the Stones and just about every group.

  BUCK ORMSBY: We opened an office in Tacoma, Washington, on Sixth Avenue. We started getting tapes from all over the Northwest. This one lady called and said, “You’ve got to go hear [the Sonics].” So I went over to this garage. They played this real raucous rock ’n’ roll song that Gerry Roslie wrote. Remember all the dance songs like “Do the Chicken”? I said, “That was the best thing I heard all day. I don’t want to date anything here by having it a dance song that’s going to come and go. Rewrite the lyrics, and I’ll come back.” I went back and it was the song “The Witch.” I said, “That’s it — we’re going to record that. ”

  So we took them into the studio, recorded that, but they didn’t have any other songs — that was the only original song they had. So we put “Keep A-Knockin’” — the Little Richard song — on the other side. I took that record up to the radio stations, and nobody would play it, because it was so outrageous and different. I talked to Pat O’Day [a DJ at KJR], and he said, “This is a little outside of what we’re doing here. Get some charts — see if somebody else will play this record.” So we kept pounding this thing — it took us about six months to get the charts. We got it played on independent radio in the Northwest into Canada and down into Oregon. There was this one station in Seattle that was a small am station — I think it was KEW — they gave us a chart and some of the other cities in the Northwest. I took those charts in. Pat said, “I’ll go see the group.” He was knocked out, came back, played the record. In about a week, it went up to number two on the major station.

  ART CHANTRY: The Sonics were astonishing — they were, like, the best rock band. There was always this jealousy between the Wailers and the Sonics, because the Wailers wanted to be big stars, and the Sonics were becoming big stars — even though they couldn’t play their instruments. Now, the Wailers are a great band, but the bulk of their output was pretty drecky — they had a lot of bad records and bad songs. But the Sonics were much more consistently great. It was the difference between musicianship, the Wailers, and passion, the Sonics.

  KENT MORRILL: Basically, it was geography. In those days, people thought the Northwest still had covered wagons and Indians. So if something was popular in the Northwest, they didn’t look at it the same as if it were number one in New York or Hollywood. It was mainly isolation. But that isolation was the reason why we could come up with such an original sound.

  BUCK ORMSBY: We released several singles from the Sonics and two albums — [1965’s] Here Are the Sonics and [1966’s] Sonics Boom. I was always in the studio; Kent was always in the studio. Sometimes background singing on the Sonics was the Wailers. We basically ruled the roost here for a while — unt
il ’69.

  KENT MORRILL: They had a little dissension amongst [the Sonics]. The Parypa brothers didn’t get along. Gerry is a very shy person, so he had all these reservations before he would perform — he wouldn’t go on an airplane, he wouldn’t go on a boat. He’s still that way. In 1969, [the Wailers] decided that “if we want to make it, we have to move to Hollywood.” We moved and got nowhere. We wound up having to commute to San Francisco to even work. The guys wanted to go back — I decided to stay in L.A. and do production work. We took a sabbatical for about ten years.

  BUCK ORMSBY: The one thing that slowed us down was the British invasion. Everybody — even American bands — started talking with an English accent. The label was dormant for a while, and then I started it back up again. We started reunions with the Wailers in the ’70s. Kent dropped out of the label, Rockin’ Robin was killed in a car wreck in San Francisco.

  ART CHANTRY: I’m a little older than a lot of the guys. The first concert I went to was Jimi Hendrix — I was of that generation that was too young to be a hippie and too old to be a punk. I was an outsider no matter where I stood.

  BRAD SINSEL: It was basically tavern-based — club scene cover tunes. Hideous. By the time I got there, we found one band that was able to combine their original tunes with a lot of “butt rock” stuff — Mojo Hand. Some of us from my hometown of Yakima glommed onto that, and took that band over. But before we got there is where it gets confusing. Our lead guitarist, Rick Pierce, joined up with Ze Whiz Kidz. I remember in ’73 hearing tales of him doing some festival with Aerosmith — with Ze Whiz Kidz at the bottom of the rung — in Eastern Washington. Next thing I know, we start our own band, Ze Fabulous Pickle Sisters — glam rock/Bowie stuff. We sucked. But we got absorbed with Ze Whiz Kidz — we opened for the New York Dolls at the Moore Theatre.

  ART CHANTRY: Ze Whiz Kidz are extremely important. They were a musically glam gay theater troupe that lived in the Northwest, and most of the guys in the band were at one point or another part of the Cockettes, in San Francisco. A lot of really interesting people came out of Ze Whiz Kidz. For instance, Satz from the Lewd, and Tomata [DuPlenty], who was in the Screamers and the Tupperwares. Tomata is a fascinating character, because he was the one who pioneered Northwest punk. He was producing honest-to-God DIY punk posters in 1972 for Ze Whiz Kidz. And he put on the earliest punk shows in the Northwest.