November 2, 2023 • 32 mins
A city with a legacy and cloudy culture that has given us authentic artists for decades. Some known around the world who arrived on the shoulders of those like Mudhoney and the Sub Pop beginnings. It’s still hard to escape the bubble of grunge but maybe the next Seattle is just Seattle?
Produced, Created, Written, Scored by Will Dailey Head writer: Caitlin White
Executive Producers Brady Sadler & Jake Brennan
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Double Elvis question, has there ever been another geographical location
to take over the musical landscape in the same way
grunge did in the early nineteen nineties. When mud Honey's
nineteen eighty eight EP super Fuzz Big Muff was reissued
twenty years after its release in two thousand and eight,
(00:25):
which is almost twenty years ago now, blogger, podcaster and
zine maker and all around grunge and underground punk expert
Jay Himmon had this to say. My feeling, and I
know I'm not alone in this one, is that for
all the play in worldwide attention several Seattle bands got
during the nineteen eighty eight to nineteen ninety two period,
at the end of the day, and even at the
(00:47):
same time, there was mud Honey and there was everybody else.
To me, you and everyone else paying close attention to
underground rock music during those years, mud Honey still sounds
like the under disputed kingpins of roaring, surging, fuzzed out
punk music end quote. So why do these undisputed kingpins
(01:09):
never get their due? And where do these loose threads
and unresolved credits leave the Seattle scene. Now it's one
of those movements where the further away it gets, the
larger it seems to loom. These days, Grunge is the
long shadow that emerging musicians in the Pacific Northwest have
to shake off before they can do anything else Where
does the hype of a moment that echoes and echoes
(01:31):
leave the creators living there now?
Speaker 2 (01:33):
It's hard to be the next.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
Anything when the story of a genre is so entrenched
in your city. Mud Honey were the original stokers of
the grunge fire, but what would their influence lead to
post grunge? Seattle still has a story to tell, and
there is a sound to this town, as tangled up
as it might be in the shadow of the past.
Speaker 3 (01:54):
Hit a cardboard Town and Buget Sound. A cracker jack
was jacking up the bottom over frown while the little
wooden man in his tiny paper mate danced a crazy
jigsaw puzzle. And they left at all. They hate Harry
Nilsen Puget Sound.
Speaker 1 (02:16):
The band mud Honey isn't even a household name. In fact,
depending on who you ask, they're not even close. Eleven albums,
steam fans like Kurt Cobain and pre eminent status on subpop,
the flagship label of the Seattle Sound, and yet aside
from aficionados and deep listeners, the band remains largely unknown.
Without mud Honey, though, there's no grunge scene in Seattle,
(02:39):
no fuse to light the fireworks that exploded into the
most legendary music movement on the West Coast. No Nirvana,
no Sound Garden, no Pearl Jam, no unrelenting decade of
rock brilliance. Mud Honey took their first steps as an
anti establishment act exactly because of what came before them,
hair metal, glam rock, the unblinking, polished to nothing sheen
(02:59):
of the nineteen eight eighties, in the emptiness that lurked
below the emptiness. Actually, maybe the Seattle Sound started right
before mun Honey, because before them, there was Jimmy, Yes,
that Jimmy, Jimmy Hendrix, the only jim the unspeakable god
of all that is holy among guitarists, especially since his early,
untimely death affords him the generosity of being in case
(03:21):
in amber at the golden age of twenty seven, when
everything is beautiful and nothing hurts, and that legendary guitar
tone never had to pass through the nineteen eighties. Now,
naysayers might brate this line of thinking insisting Jimmy was
not grunge. But go listen to Stone Free again and
remember the first act of any band that was heavy
in the grunge scene was to deny that they were.
Speaker 2 (03:41):
Grunge, So maybe it works.
Speaker 1 (03:44):
Still, Jimmy did not come up in Seattle as a musician,
since his entitlement in the army took him to the South,
and he headed to Nashville once he was discharged. The
direct linkage is hard to draw, but.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
Faint as it might be. Was there literally.
Speaker 1 (03:57):
Something in the water up in Seattle that caused people
to grow up ready to perform? Does the proximity to
the longitudinal and latitudinal fuzz of his guitar germinates something
yet and unheard in the creative minds of Cobain, Cornell
or mark On Mudhoney started messing around together in the
nineteen eighties. All the original members were in their late
(04:17):
twenties when Super Fuzz came out. This is a year
before twenty one year old Kirk Cobain and twenty two
year old Chris NOVACELLK form Nirvana. Eddie Vedder was twenty
six when he moved to.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
Seattle to form Pearl Jam. That was two years later.
Speaker 1 (04:30):
Do these bands have enough in common to create a scene?
Not in most places, but in Seattle. Are coming from
a place that has given us quite a lot of music.
Jimmy Hendrick, Mother Mud, Honey, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Nirvana, Alison James, Hard,
(04:50):
Audio Slave, Temple of the Doll, Screaming Trees, Melvin Desk,
cab for Q, Band of Horse, Sunny Day, Real Estate,
The Postals, Complete.
Speaker 4 (04:58):
Fox, Noah, Gunners, Palaces.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
Cave Singers, Thunderbush, Bikini Kill, v Satisfactor, Taco Cat, The
sonos A, Kimbo, Allan Stone, Brandy Carr, car Seat, head Wreck,
Chris stap Ca, The Head in the Hearts, the Presidents
of the United States of America, The pos Nico Cave,
The Modest Mouse, and Kenny g just to name a few.
(05:25):
At the heart of grunge is an inexplicable paradox. What
in the world does a grunge?
Speaker 2 (05:30):
What is grunt? How did it come to be?
Speaker 1 (05:33):
Why are we still searching for it thirty years later?
On the other side of the coin, Why does everyone
associated with it insist on bocking that label? In order
to understand how grunge emerge in the first place, It's
important to know what was going on in Seattle as
a whole as the city. Seattle cycled through the boom
and bus patterns that played a lot of port focused economies.
(05:54):
Volatility and shipping markets has existed for as long as
shipping markets have in This along with other seasonal industries
like logging in construction, meant that the bulk of workers
in Seattle were.
Speaker 2 (06:05):
Regularly in and out of work.
Speaker 1 (06:08):
That kind of instability breeds a certain kind of attitude,
and it helps people see through the facade of capitalism.
A lot easier industries like the railroad, boeing, and the
continued expansion of shipyards yielded terrible working conditions, so strikes
were common in the early nineteen hundreds, fostering a spirit
of rebellion that continued to grow in the city over
(06:28):
the next several decades. Even in the early twentieth century.
Seattle is one of the most progressive and forward thinking
American cities in mindset and action. Miles away from any
other big cities to the east, and still a solid
two hundred mile trip from the smaller Portland to the south,
Seattle was thoroughly isolated from the rest of America. That,
combined with the influx of struggling workers, meant free time,
(06:50):
cheap spaces, and fewer concerts from major acts. Some locals
will complain they still get stiffed on national touring schedules,
but decades ago Internet the seclusion was real. However, underground
punk bands had less trouble touring up North, as they
typically played to tiny rooms up and down the coast
and traveled by car.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
That accounts for.
Speaker 1 (07:11):
A lack of pop and mainstream influences and a heavy
dose of punk influences in the area. With gloomy weather
three fourths of the year and not a lot else
to do, disenfranchised youth in the eighties began to form bands,
and most of these early groups knew and influenced each other.
Some even shared or treated members, and a few of
these bands, mud Honey in particular, began to hone in
(07:32):
on a fuzzed out, distorted, sardonic sound, and the backlash
to the popularity of the movement was growing right alongside
the sound itself. For a city that had been ignored
for decades to suddenly be under the spotlight for clothing,
sea flannel, I guess long hair loud guitars and an
anti establishment ethos made no sense to those purveying it.
(07:55):
Really now the world cared. It was almost laughable. These
bands were making fun of the mainstream, literally wailing against it.
And still this is what made the mainstream come calling
with the attention of the world. Came in insistence that
all these Seattle bands were one thing.
Speaker 2 (08:11):
And that thing was grunge.
Speaker 1 (08:13):
If you've ever taken even an hour to listen to
some of the most popular bands from the era, it's
so clearly not the case.
Speaker 2 (08:19):
To this day.
Speaker 1 (08:19):
Reddit commenters and forum discussions regularly rack up hundreds of
threads discussing just how little in common a lot of
these groups have, from Nirvana and Soundgarden to Alice in
Chains and Screaming Trees. The guitars might be there, but
how each band uses them is entirely different. Others may
argue that particular singing style the yar, unites them more,
(08:41):
but that's a rabbit trail for another time. With the
support of local legendary label Subtop to help get these
bands overseas, regularly releasing records and hosting shows in town,
the little scene that could grew into something so sprawling
that bands are moving from other places to try to
get a piece of it. Carpetbagging was another big part
(09:01):
of why locals rejected the idea of being grunged themselves,
and watching the success of bands who are writing the
coattails of a local organic sound was another element spurring
the backlash to grunge.
Speaker 4 (09:12):
Even as it.
Speaker 1 (09:13):
Began, the bands who are involved already wanted out. They
wanted to live in a post grunge world, and now
that we do, Seattle is still thriving with a current
day underground music scene and the best place to visit
to get a sense of the past, present and future, well,
we will make that our first stop at one of
the best record stores in the entire country. The Sound
(09:40):
of Her Town is a podcast about the music that
shaped the city you are touching down in. It is
also about hearing and experiencing its best music happening right now.
What sounds and places of shape the city's culture and
what new sounds continue to define it. It's about getting
together in a room to listen and why that matters
so much right now. In each episode of Sound of
(10:01):
Our Town, I'll introduce you to the real places and
sonic stories echoing in a particular city, so that your
travel is enriched with music, and so that our time
here is fostered by the connection live music provides to
all of us, and so that maybe you can find
that special someone on the road who's attracted to the
same sounds you are.
Speaker 2 (10:18):
You never know. I'm your host, Will Daily.
Speaker 1 (10:21):
I'm an independent DIY songwriter and touring artist. I've been
doing this a while and frankly, this show is also
a reminder to myself how important live music is in
our existence. And in this episode, we are going to Seattle, Washington, Okay.
(10:41):
First stop, Easy Street Records in cafe, well known for
hosting free in all ages listening events at the shop
consistently cited as one of the best record stores in
the country. Easy Street has been opened since nineteen eighty
eight and shows no signs of slowing down. If you
are new to the city, it's an easy first stop
to get the hang of the scene. Yes, they did
open the same year mud Honey was founded, which feels auspicious,
(11:05):
and since then the shop has evolved to sell its
original wares of both new and used vinyl records, as
well as CDs, DVDs, new books, magazines, t shirts, and
plenty of merch. But the trick is really that despite
all the books and CDs, they sell not just new vinyl.
Speaker 2 (11:21):
But old stuff too.
Speaker 1 (11:22):
That's what gets the collectors and heads in the door,
because I feel like you can get a new vinyl
at Duncan Donuts these days, all the way out in
West Seattle, which you'll learn as you spend time in
the city is really figuring far away. The neighborhood would
also give you a sense of the splendid isolation that
a kid growing up in this city might feel. Surrounded
by trees, mountains, rain, the looming Puget Sound a million
(11:43):
miles from nowhere, and living under a constant cloud. To
hear a guitar or screaming through the night was like
a tiny glow that awakens something deep within. Grunge wasn't
just a sonic movement, It was an emotional one. And
what do emotional pilgrims need most get to gather and
find one another to share their love for the super unknown?
(12:04):
Squint real hard at Easy Street, or if you're lucky,
attend a free live show there and you can still
see the specters of other wanderers gathering.
Speaker 2 (12:11):
In the wings.
Speaker 1 (12:13):
Still independently known, the Storre has hosted over five hundred
live sessions in its thirty odd years of existence, including
the likes of Lou Reed, Elvis Costello, Patti Smith, Paul Westerberg,
Robin Jurassic Five, Damien Gerardo, The Head and the Heart,
The Sonics and Mud Honey, and so many more. They
came because it was a rite of passage. It was
(12:33):
the place that honored the spirit of real artists, whether
they were grunge or not. It is now, for all
intents and purposes, still that mecca, and if you come
between seven am and three pm you can get a
taste of the diner they opened up to serve all
the kids, collectors and wanderers who came their way. And
there's plenty of music nerd jokes to be had in
the names of each plate, so to treat any way
(12:53):
you spin it. Once you've acquired a few old records
and had your fill of a Hank Williams Western omelet,
it's time to see some live music. The Showbox Room
has been opened in some shape or form since nineteen
thirty nine, so even though it was acquired by ag
(13:15):
and O seven, who are definitely the devil in a
town like Seattle.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
The history of the venue still makes it beloved.
Speaker 1 (13:21):
At just over eleven hundred capacity, it's one of the
bigger venues in the city, but still has enough to
make it feel like an intimate spot to see your
favorite band. The oldest theater in Seattle is the More Theater,
which was built in nineteen oh seven, but the showbox
isn't that far behind. The building was constructed just a
decade later in nineteen seventeen. It wasn't officially opened as
a venue until a few more decades went by, when
(13:43):
it was transformed into a streamline modern performance venue in
nineteen thirty nine, but it's racked up quite a following
in the last one hundred and ten years or so,
so much so that a few years ago the whole
city banded together to keep the thing open. Back in
the day, early shows in the ballroom were focused on
jazz bookings, including legends like Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, Sammy
(14:04):
Davis Junior, and Muddy Waters, and later on down the line,
grunge icons like Soundgarden, Pearl Jam and Yes, Mud Honey
graced its stage. In the summer of twenty eighteen, progress
did as progress does, and a developer announced their plans
to tear down the theater and build a forty four
story condo thing on the site, but the city reacted.
(14:26):
A petition gained over one hundred and ten thousand signatures
in an official proposal to turn the showbox into a
historical landmark was submitted and accepted. One line item that
helped the building prove its merits, aside from the lengthy
history and important architecture, the revelation of a secret backstage
room that contains graffiti by none other than Neil Young,
(14:47):
who the press deemed the godfather of grunge. If that
isn't enough to stop a condo building, what is. Thankfully,
this Art Deco relic was saved despite its proximity to
pipe place mark in the unstoppable march of tourism related development.
Speaker 2 (15:04):
They will be.
Speaker 1 (15:05):
Preserved for history's sake for the foreseeable future.
Speaker 2 (15:08):
So you are set for your trip.
Speaker 1 (15:17):
The Blue Moon Tavern is not a spot that a
lot of locals will tell you to go to, even
if you ask them. I mean, for the locals who
don't regularly go there, they might not even see the
spot in a positive light. Maybe that is what contributed
to the tagline Seattle's most infamous dive bar causing a
ruckus since nineteen thirty four.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
For this bar, Grunge never died.
Speaker 1 (15:39):
Located in the U District aka the University District, this
spot was the preferred hang for one Theodore Retkey, a
noted American poet who moved to Seattle and taught at
the University of Washington for fifteen years. You can imagine
the literati crew who accompanied a famous poet, winner of
both the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize, whatever
(16:00):
watering hole he wanted to visit for a break from
the throes of academia. Even though wreck he died in
the sixties, that air of artists and poets lingers around
the bar. Dylan Thomas and Allen Ginsburg, you said, drain
pints and pens here.
Speaker 2 (16:12):
Fair warning.
Speaker 1 (16:13):
This bar is about as divy as they come. But
the no cover live music can't be beat will start
up almost every night. The current owner, Tim Dooley, was
a longtime bartender at the joint before he purchased it
in twenty twenty two, so he knows what this place needs.
There is also an art night where artists are encouraged
to come through and bring their sketch books, and no
shortage of welcoming vibes for folks of any background or stripe.
(16:36):
Back in the thirties and forties, this was one of
the few bars in the area that would serve black
servicemen during World War Two, and its inclusive attitude continues
to this day. In some ways, the Blue Moon feels
the most indicative of what grunge was supposed to be about,
going against the status quo of shiny lacquered, commercialized culture
that keeps us separated from each other a wink and
(16:57):
a nod at the mainstream, while providing us spot for
counterculture art to flourish and grow. Mainly based on connecting
with one another first and foremost and expressing real emotions.
But if you want to sidetrack the expression of emotions
and just get your face melted, there's plenty of places
to get that In Seattle. The Crocodile is a mainstay
(17:22):
in the Seattle music scene. The original five hundred and
fifty capacity room hosted Nirvana and Pearl Jam, giving it
bonafide chops that will last another lifetime. More recently, they've
booked guests like Billie Eilish, so it's still a desirable
spot for a touring musician to get on stage. I
maintain that the name a truly excellent title for a
music venue, continues to add to its popularity, but that's
(17:45):
just conjecture, not a fact. Located in Belltown, which is
just north of the touristy, high trafficked area around Pipe Place,
this venue manages to be central without actually being in
the thick of the most commercialized part of the city.
Its location is definitely part of its continued popularity. Nirvana
spoofed Attende's one Memorial Night by booking a show as
Penn cap Chew and then getting up to play in
(18:08):
all their cobaane front of glory. This was nineteen ninety
two and the last time Nirvana ever played the Crocodile,
but still a talked about show to this day. Mud
Honey played here since well, mud Honey played just about
everywhere around the city. They wore Seattle's local band for
a while there, and even celebrated their tenth anniversary as
a band at the venue in a nineteen ninety seven show.
(18:28):
About a decade later, the venue came under the ownership
of a host of Seattle Music Royalty, Alison Chains, drummer
Sean Kinney, Alison Chain's manager, Susan Silver, Portugal The Man,
guitarist Eric Hauch, and Capitol Hill Block Party co founder
Marcus Charles born that block party later. Under their stewardship,
the venue thrived until the twenty twenty era, when they
(18:49):
were forced to close down and move locations about three
blocks away. Fortunately, that move ended up as a boon,
as more space in the building opened up in The
entire venue complex now boasts a signature seven hundred and
fifty capacity state of the art showroom, a smaller three
hundred capacity venue, as well as in ninety six capacity
sit down theater and a restaurant, and a seventeen room hotel.
(19:15):
For those of you who are truly enamored with the
grunge scene, there is no hotel more relevant to your
interests than Hotel Crocodile.
Speaker 2 (19:30):
So what was that Capitol Hill Block Party I mentioned?
Speaker 1 (19:34):
Well, it's pretty much the best party Seattle throws all year.
Originally founded it as a one day festival by Jen
Gaypey in nineteen ninety seven. Marcus Charles and David Miner
took the event over in two thousand, adding a second
day and a second stage. They charged eight bucks for
a ticket and got sponsorships from local businesses like The Stranger,
(19:54):
slowly reinventing the festival from a local five ban day
show to a full on on three day festival that
attracts thousands of people every year. The block Party is
always held in July, which is probably the perfect time
to line up your calendar for a visit to Seattle anyways,
So if you were thinking of planning a trip this summer,
lock up the dates and get the stars to align.
(20:17):
You won't be surprised to learn that mud Honey played
the festival.
Speaker 2 (20:20):
Capitol Hill is.
Speaker 1 (20:21):
Basically the Williamsburg or the Silver Lake of Seattle, and
for those who have not been, Capitol Hill Block Party
is very much an in town festival. The Gorge one
of the most beautiful, infamous, and rare venues in the world. Yes,
(20:43):
it is a two hour drive from Seattle, Yes the
city claims it, anyway. Even Red Rocks is an hour
outside of Denver. There is probably no music venue more
famed on the West coast. Even if the Hollywood Bowl
and Santa Barbara Bowl would both love to take.
Speaker 2 (20:58):
That honor, they simply can't.
Speaker 1 (21:00):
Neither of them have a magnificent ravine plummeting into the
depths behind the stage.
Speaker 2 (21:05):
Even a slight ocean view or the center of Hollywood
Hills can't compete with that.
Speaker 1 (21:10):
Originally open in nineteen sixty eight with a capacity of
just three thousand people, the Gorge Amphitheater has since expanded
to accommodate nineteen thousand.
Speaker 2 (21:18):
True to its name, the.
Speaker 1 (21:19):
Venue offers sweeping views of the Columbia River in the
Columbia Gorge Canyon, and those sites were in full view
in the fall of nineteen ninety three when the double
bill to surpass all double bills was presented, a joint
Pearl Jam and Neil Young gig. For those who attended
the show, there simply is nothing more Pacific Northwest than
seeing Pearl Jam, Seattle's dedicated sons play the Gorge. Same
(21:43):
goes for the Dave Matthews Band, who has turned the
venue into their home base. But there's something to be
said about the connection between Neil and Eddie in the
passing of the torch that seemed inevitable. Between the rebellious
counterculture classic rockers and the era of grunge or whatever
you want to.
Speaker 4 (21:59):
Call it, they were skipping straight over the eighties.
Speaker 1 (22:01):
It was the bands of the nineties who took it
up again with art for art's sake, in a refusal
to be run into the ground by the plutocratic, capitalistic
technology that wanted to milk whatever dollars it could out
of the music pearl jams pressing a fight with Ticketmaster
long before the rest of us, including Taylor Swift, got
wise to it. Their decision to stop making music videos
(22:21):
and not slot neatly into the MTV model. It'd be
like Ed Sheeran not doing social media anymore, and Neil
Young who made an album just to connect with his
disabled son, or his recent abandonment of Spotify, or his
own failed attempt by creating an MP three player that
would play hi Res music rip pono. The connection is
the real value in the music, as it is in life.
(22:45):
These decisions by the artists insisting something else is more
important than marketing, that the way audiences consumed art actually mattered.
Speaker 2 (22:53):
More than making money anyway.
Speaker 1 (22:56):
Probably none of this was obvious when the bands shared
the stage in Washington that night.
Speaker 2 (23:00):
Or maybe it was either way.
Speaker 1 (23:02):
If Pearl Jim ever plays the Gorge again, you should
suck up the ticket fees and absolutely plan a trip
around that no questions asked. We haven't talked about Ballard yet,
which is a real shame because it might just be
the neighborhood where you end up spending the bulk of
your time if you're a music lover. Ballard the home
(23:24):
of the beloved Tractor Tavern, a two room venue where
I like to make my stops and underground favorites like
the Damn Wells would hold court, and right across the
street lies connor Burn Pub, the venue almost single handedly
responsible for the discovery of The Head and the Heart.
I recommend both, but if you only have time to choose,
one step through the double doors at connor Burn, another
(23:46):
of the oldest bars in the city, and soak up
the room where a vanguard of New Seattle found their way.
Connecting and honing their craft at the regular open mic
night at Connorburn led to the Head and the Heart,
eventually getting a record deal with sub Pop and then
receiving international acclaim from that debut album. If you've ever
been to an open mic, then you know not all
of them end that way. Good beer and whiskey might
(24:09):
even be necessary to get through some of them. Luckily,
Burns has got plenty of both of those on offer.
If you want to get a real locals experience, then
this pub is the spot. There's almost nothing more Seattle
than the seaside neighborhood of ballad as all mug of
beer and an undiscovered guitars trying to get the attention
of the room. It might be the next icon, or
(24:30):
it might just be a nobody that happens to be
the somebody you need to hear to prep for your
trip to Seattle. There are actually countless docks out there
on various bands and subsets of grunge, but one of
(24:50):
the best is the Hype documentary that came out in
nineteen ninety six. Because it was made when grunge and
was still grunging, this doc gives a very unique look
at what was happening at the time and how the
members of the still emerging scene actually felt about all
of it. To name just a few appearances, Mark Arm
of Mud Honey, Jeffament of Pearl, Jam Nils Burn's scene
(25:11):
of Subpop, Matt Cameron of Soundgarden later Pearl Jam, and
plenty of archival footage of Kurt Cobain. This two hour
film is worth taking in before trip out to Seattle.
If you do plan to go to a short The
Gorge and you're a diehard Pearl Jam fan or Dave
Matthews band fan, then it might be worth it to
watch Enormous The Gorge Story. It's a brief one hour
(25:31):
documentary on the history of the venue, and it very
prominently features Pearl Jam in Matthews not in a film
viewing mood. Log into your streaming service of choice and
scroll back to the archives of sub pop's late eighties
and early nineties releases.
Speaker 2 (25:46):
Work your way through.
Speaker 1 (25:47):
Some of the more seminal grunge releases to get into
the PMW spirit and maybe even pick up a new
favorite along the way. If Mud Honey taught us anything
it's that some of the best bands don't always rise
to the top. Sometimes they stay mired and local legend,
only to be discovered by those who really put in
the time to find the gold that is there. Mud
(26:18):
Honey is and was the best representative of what came
to be known as a Seattle sound, but never really
got credit for paving the way, same as it ever
was right the first through the gates are met with
the most resistance, They clear a path, and then others
can ride on that path.
Speaker 2 (26:35):
A little easier.
Speaker 1 (26:40):
The stories we tell ourselves with art overall can provide
more influence on the popularity of the work than the
work itself. Every true artist has a story, a point
of view. When the mechanics of art commerce find an
opportunity to market that story, it doesn't matter if it's
grunge or k pop. If those stories can be juiced
up to tell more of something than they will find
(27:02):
a vein. Maybe grunge was just the story the world
was ready to adopt. The first Gulf War, Reagan economics
falling apart, Rodney King, the children of Boomer is wondering
where the hell all that peace and love went. The
real world is always waiting to rain down on us.
No matter how much hairspray we used in the decade prior,
(27:23):
the music that comes out of Seattle sticks around. It's authentic. Now.
Every day we see diatribes about artistic authenticity fly by
us under our thumbs and adorable memes on ig and TikTok,
find your true self with gardening right for the sake
of writing, dance like nobody's watching, Sing for your soul,
paint only what.
Speaker 2 (27:42):
You can see, and on and on. But that shit
is easy.
Speaker 1 (27:47):
The biggest band in the world telling MTV they are
no longer doing videos because the music is more important,
is true inspiration and example setting. But all the artists
out of Seattle, from Jimmy to Brandy Tenttole, is that
this life is better.
Speaker 2 (28:03):
When you share your true vision.
Speaker 1 (28:04):
The distorted pop masterpieces of Cobaine's Gems Vetter, Sincere Howell,
Cornell's Banshee Whale Over Grooving seven eight bars. These were
artists that didn't create a brand. They put their whole
selves on the line. Some paid for it with everything
while breaking down the artifice of an industry that was
just starting to swallow itself whole. Their resistance to the
(28:28):
behaviors of the industry was wildly prescient, because that version
of the music business has indeed devoured itself whole, not
before birthing the next version, which has grown up, consisting
of algorithms, bullshit playlists in AI that once again rob
us of our connection, so we find ourselves currently begging
a new class of artists to rage and whale against it.
(28:57):
And one more thing, I guess you can't do apisode
about Seattle with the focus being grunge music and not
mention all those that are no longer with us for
many bearing your soul and then others being employed by
that exposure that you are sharing with the world can
be a very, very risky proposition. Add to the fact
(29:19):
that there's now millions of people out there who have
a connection to you, who think they know you. They've
been sold a story, a genre, a flannel, two situations
that I can leave you feeling even more alone than
you started. And then never mind the fact that sometimes
a dead artist is worth more. Everyone gets to tell
(29:41):
your story again and make another dollar, only now you
have no voice in the matter. And we see this
all the time. Elvis in a state that will forever
make millions, Prince no one wanted to tell him to
stop working, take care of his body. In his mind.
Now Paisley Parker is worth a lot more than when
he was alive. Michael Jackson, Tom Petty, the list goes on,
(30:03):
and then we get to encase them in these futures
they don't get to have and over analyze albums that
didn't get to happen, and if they did, wouldn't have
happened in the way you or I dreamed. That's why
we love those artists. Remember Jimmy didn't pass through the eighties?
Do you love every sixties and seventies act that passed
through the eighties. Kurt Cobain didn't live through Brittany and Christina.
(30:26):
He might have changed his whole sound once he heard that.
You don't know, but yet we all pretend we do.
I don't know why, but maybe Rolling Stone, instead of
ranking the one hundred greatest records of all time, could
make a list of ways that we could all keep
an eye on each other better, celebrate the times we've
(30:47):
asked for help and received it and are here today
because of it.
Speaker 2 (30:52):
Make that list next.
Speaker 4 (30:59):
Well, we did it, episode nine, season two.
Speaker 2 (31:06):
That was Seattle.
Speaker 1 (31:08):
Thank you to everyone who's followed the show, and an
extra special thanks to those who have reviewed it. That
is how we even got to Seattle is your word of.
Speaker 2 (31:16):
Mouth, your effort with the show.
Speaker 1 (31:17):
So thank you, thank you, thank you keep it coming.
Thank you for all the nice messages about it. Let
me know where you want us to go next. DM
me on just wherever, wherever you feel comfortable on social media.
I'll find it one day, so you can hit me
up on Instagram. Will Daily Official just spelled Daily dai
l e y, and we'll talk. Sound of Our Town
(31:39):
is a production of Double Elvis and iHeartRadio. You can
hit up Double Elvis on IG at Double Elvis and
Twitter at Double Elvis FM. The show is executively produced
by Jake Brannon and Brady Sadler for Double Elvis. Production
assistants by Matt Bowden Es especially on my computer crashed
on this one while recording. The show has created, written, hosted,
and scored by me Will Daily. This is me playing
(32:01):
all the music. You can hear that wherever you like
to hear music, or you can go to will Daily
dot com and get your own vinyl. This episode's head
writer Kaitlin White, all right, well, I'm off to the
next town.
Speaker 2 (32:15):
Find out what that is soon. Thank you for your ears,
and be good to each other out there.
Double Elvis question, has there ever been another geographical location
to take over the musical landscape in the same way
grunge did in the early nineteen nineties. When mud Honey's
nineteen eighty eight EP super Fuzz Big Muff was reissued
twenty years after its release in two thousand and eight,
(00:25):
which is almost twenty years ago now, blogger, podcaster and
zine maker and all around grunge and underground punk expert
Jay Himmon had this to say. My feeling, and I
know I'm not alone in this one, is that for
all the play in worldwide attention several Seattle bands got
during the nineteen eighty eight to nineteen ninety two period,
at the end of the day, and even at the
(00:47):
same time, there was mud Honey and there was everybody else.
To me, you and everyone else paying close attention to
underground rock music during those years, mud Honey still sounds
like the under disputed kingpins of roaring, surging, fuzzed out
punk music end quote. So why do these undisputed kingpins
(01:09):
never get their due? And where do these loose threads
and unresolved credits leave the Seattle scene. Now it's one
of those movements where the further away it gets, the
larger it seems to loom. These days, Grunge is the
long shadow that emerging musicians in the Pacific Northwest have
to shake off before they can do anything else Where
does the hype of a moment that echoes and echoes
(01:31):
leave the creators living there now?
Speaker 2 (01:33):
It's hard to be the next.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
Anything when the story of a genre is so entrenched
in your city. Mud Honey were the original stokers of
the grunge fire, but what would their influence lead to
post grunge? Seattle still has a story to tell, and
there is a sound to this town, as tangled up
as it might be in the shadow of the past.
Speaker 3 (01:54):
Hit a cardboard Town and Buget Sound. A cracker jack
was jacking up the bottom over frown while the little
wooden man in his tiny paper mate danced a crazy
jigsaw puzzle. And they left at all. They hate Harry
Nilsen Puget Sound.
Speaker 1 (02:16):
The band mud Honey isn't even a household name. In fact,
depending on who you ask, they're not even close. Eleven albums,
steam fans like Kurt Cobain and pre eminent status on subpop,
the flagship label of the Seattle Sound, and yet aside
from aficionados and deep listeners, the band remains largely unknown.
Without mud Honey, though, there's no grunge scene in Seattle,
(02:39):
no fuse to light the fireworks that exploded into the
most legendary music movement on the West Coast. No Nirvana,
no Sound Garden, no Pearl Jam, no unrelenting decade of
rock brilliance. Mud Honey took their first steps as an
anti establishment act exactly because of what came before them,
hair metal, glam rock, the unblinking, polished to nothing sheen
(02:59):
of the nineteen eight eighties, in the emptiness that lurked
below the emptiness. Actually, maybe the Seattle Sound started right
before mun Honey, because before them, there was Jimmy, Yes,
that Jimmy, Jimmy Hendrix, the only jim the unspeakable god
of all that is holy among guitarists, especially since his early,
untimely death affords him the generosity of being in case
(03:21):
in amber at the golden age of twenty seven, when
everything is beautiful and nothing hurts, and that legendary guitar
tone never had to pass through the nineteen eighties. Now,
naysayers might brate this line of thinking insisting Jimmy was
not grunge. But go listen to Stone Free again and
remember the first act of any band that was heavy
in the grunge scene was to deny that they were.
Speaker 2 (03:41):
Grunge, So maybe it works.
Speaker 1 (03:44):
Still, Jimmy did not come up in Seattle as a musician,
since his entitlement in the army took him to the South,
and he headed to Nashville once he was discharged. The
direct linkage is hard to draw, but.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
Faint as it might be. Was there literally.
Speaker 1 (03:57):
Something in the water up in Seattle that caused people
to grow up ready to perform? Does the proximity to
the longitudinal and latitudinal fuzz of his guitar germinates something
yet and unheard in the creative minds of Cobain, Cornell
or mark On Mudhoney started messing around together in the
nineteen eighties. All the original members were in their late
(04:17):
twenties when Super Fuzz came out. This is a year
before twenty one year old Kirk Cobain and twenty two
year old Chris NOVACELLK form Nirvana. Eddie Vedder was twenty
six when he moved to.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
Seattle to form Pearl Jam. That was two years later.
Speaker 1 (04:30):
Do these bands have enough in common to create a scene?
Not in most places, but in Seattle. Are coming from
a place that has given us quite a lot of music.
Jimmy Hendrick, Mother Mud, Honey, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Nirvana, Alison James, Hard,
(04:50):
Audio Slave, Temple of the Doll, Screaming Trees, Melvin Desk,
cab for Q, Band of Horse, Sunny Day, Real Estate,
The Postals, Complete.
Speaker 4 (04:58):
Fox, Noah, Gunners, Palaces.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
Cave Singers, Thunderbush, Bikini Kill, v Satisfactor, Taco Cat, The
sonos A, Kimbo, Allan Stone, Brandy Carr, car Seat, head Wreck,
Chris stap Ca, The Head in the Hearts, the Presidents
of the United States of America, The pos Nico Cave,
The Modest Mouse, and Kenny g just to name a few.
(05:25):
At the heart of grunge is an inexplicable paradox. What
in the world does a grunge?
Speaker 2 (05:30):
What is grunt? How did it come to be?
Speaker 1 (05:33):
Why are we still searching for it thirty years later?
On the other side of the coin, Why does everyone
associated with it insist on bocking that label? In order
to understand how grunge emerge in the first place, It's
important to know what was going on in Seattle as
a whole as the city. Seattle cycled through the boom
and bus patterns that played a lot of port focused economies.
(05:54):
Volatility and shipping markets has existed for as long as
shipping markets have in This along with other seasonal industries
like logging in construction, meant that the bulk of workers
in Seattle were.
Speaker 2 (06:05):
Regularly in and out of work.
Speaker 1 (06:08):
That kind of instability breeds a certain kind of attitude,
and it helps people see through the facade of capitalism.
A lot easier industries like the railroad, boeing, and the
continued expansion of shipyards yielded terrible working conditions, so strikes
were common in the early nineteen hundreds, fostering a spirit
of rebellion that continued to grow in the city over
(06:28):
the next several decades. Even in the early twentieth century.
Seattle is one of the most progressive and forward thinking
American cities in mindset and action. Miles away from any
other big cities to the east, and still a solid
two hundred mile trip from the smaller Portland to the south,
Seattle was thoroughly isolated from the rest of America. That,
combined with the influx of struggling workers, meant free time,
(06:50):
cheap spaces, and fewer concerts from major acts. Some locals
will complain they still get stiffed on national touring schedules,
but decades ago Internet the seclusion was real. However, underground
punk bands had less trouble touring up North, as they
typically played to tiny rooms up and down the coast
and traveled by car.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
That accounts for.
Speaker 1 (07:11):
A lack of pop and mainstream influences and a heavy
dose of punk influences in the area. With gloomy weather
three fourths of the year and not a lot else
to do, disenfranchised youth in the eighties began to form bands,
and most of these early groups knew and influenced each other.
Some even shared or treated members, and a few of
these bands, mud Honey in particular, began to hone in
(07:32):
on a fuzzed out, distorted, sardonic sound, and the backlash
to the popularity of the movement was growing right alongside
the sound itself. For a city that had been ignored
for decades to suddenly be under the spotlight for clothing,
sea flannel, I guess long hair loud guitars and an
anti establishment ethos made no sense to those purveying it.
(07:55):
Really now the world cared. It was almost laughable. These
bands were making fun of the mainstream, literally wailing against it.
And still this is what made the mainstream come calling
with the attention of the world. Came in insistence that
all these Seattle bands were one thing.
Speaker 2 (08:11):
And that thing was grunge.
Speaker 1 (08:13):
If you've ever taken even an hour to listen to
some of the most popular bands from the era, it's
so clearly not the case.
Speaker 2 (08:19):
To this day.
Speaker 1 (08:19):
Reddit commenters and forum discussions regularly rack up hundreds of
threads discussing just how little in common a lot of
these groups have, from Nirvana and Soundgarden to Alice in
Chains and Screaming Trees. The guitars might be there, but
how each band uses them is entirely different. Others may
argue that particular singing style the yar, unites them more,
(08:41):
but that's a rabbit trail for another time. With the
support of local legendary label Subtop to help get these
bands overseas, regularly releasing records and hosting shows in town,
the little scene that could grew into something so sprawling
that bands are moving from other places to try to
get a piece of it. Carpetbagging was another big part
(09:01):
of why locals rejected the idea of being grunged themselves,
and watching the success of bands who are writing the
coattails of a local organic sound was another element spurring
the backlash to grunge.
Speaker 4 (09:12):
Even as it.
Speaker 1 (09:13):
Began, the bands who are involved already wanted out. They
wanted to live in a post grunge world, and now
that we do, Seattle is still thriving with a current
day underground music scene and the best place to visit
to get a sense of the past, present and future, well,
we will make that our first stop at one of
the best record stores in the entire country. The Sound
(09:40):
of Her Town is a podcast about the music that
shaped the city you are touching down in. It is
also about hearing and experiencing its best music happening right now.
What sounds and places of shape the city's culture and
what new sounds continue to define it. It's about getting
together in a room to listen and why that matters
so much right now. In each episode of Sound of
(10:01):
Our Town, I'll introduce you to the real places and
sonic stories echoing in a particular city, so that your
travel is enriched with music, and so that our time
here is fostered by the connection live music provides to
all of us, and so that maybe you can find
that special someone on the road who's attracted to the
same sounds you are.
Speaker 2 (10:18):
You never know. I'm your host, Will Daily.
Speaker 1 (10:21):
I'm an independent DIY songwriter and touring artist. I've been
doing this a while and frankly, this show is also
a reminder to myself how important live music is in
our existence. And in this episode, we are going to Seattle, Washington, Okay.
(10:41):
First stop, Easy Street Records in cafe, well known for
hosting free in all ages listening events at the shop
consistently cited as one of the best record stores in
the country. Easy Street has been opened since nineteen eighty
eight and shows no signs of slowing down. If you
are new to the city, it's an easy first stop
to get the hang of the scene. Yes, they did
open the same year mud Honey was founded, which feels auspicious,
(11:05):
and since then the shop has evolved to sell its
original wares of both new and used vinyl records, as
well as CDs, DVDs, new books, magazines, t shirts, and
plenty of merch. But the trick is really that despite
all the books and CDs, they sell not just new vinyl.
Speaker 2 (11:21):
But old stuff too.
Speaker 1 (11:22):
That's what gets the collectors and heads in the door,
because I feel like you can get a new vinyl
at Duncan Donuts these days, all the way out in
West Seattle, which you'll learn as you spend time in
the city is really figuring far away. The neighborhood would
also give you a sense of the splendid isolation that
a kid growing up in this city might feel. Surrounded
by trees, mountains, rain, the looming Puget Sound a million
(11:43):
miles from nowhere, and living under a constant cloud. To
hear a guitar or screaming through the night was like
a tiny glow that awakens something deep within. Grunge wasn't
just a sonic movement, It was an emotional one. And
what do emotional pilgrims need most get to gather and
find one another to share their love for the super unknown?
(12:04):
Squint real hard at Easy Street, or if you're lucky,
attend a free live show there and you can still
see the specters of other wanderers gathering.
Speaker 2 (12:11):
In the wings.
Speaker 1 (12:13):
Still independently known, the Storre has hosted over five hundred
live sessions in its thirty odd years of existence, including
the likes of Lou Reed, Elvis Costello, Patti Smith, Paul Westerberg,
Robin Jurassic Five, Damien Gerardo, The Head and the Heart,
The Sonics and Mud Honey, and so many more. They
came because it was a rite of passage. It was
(12:33):
the place that honored the spirit of real artists, whether
they were grunge or not. It is now, for all
intents and purposes, still that mecca, and if you come
between seven am and three pm you can get a
taste of the diner they opened up to serve all
the kids, collectors and wanderers who came their way. And
there's plenty of music nerd jokes to be had in
the names of each plate, so to treat any way
(12:53):
you spin it. Once you've acquired a few old records
and had your fill of a Hank Williams Western omelet,
it's time to see some live music. The Showbox Room
has been opened in some shape or form since nineteen
thirty nine, so even though it was acquired by ag
(13:15):
and O seven, who are definitely the devil in a
town like Seattle.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
The history of the venue still makes it beloved.
Speaker 1 (13:21):
At just over eleven hundred capacity, it's one of the
bigger venues in the city, but still has enough to
make it feel like an intimate spot to see your
favorite band. The oldest theater in Seattle is the More Theater,
which was built in nineteen oh seven, but the showbox
isn't that far behind. The building was constructed just a
decade later in nineteen seventeen. It wasn't officially opened as
a venue until a few more decades went by, when
(13:43):
it was transformed into a streamline modern performance venue in
nineteen thirty nine, but it's racked up quite a following
in the last one hundred and ten years or so,
so much so that a few years ago the whole
city banded together to keep the thing open. Back in
the day, early shows in the ballroom were focused on
jazz bookings, including legends like Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, Sammy
(14:04):
Davis Junior, and Muddy Waters, and later on down the line,
grunge icons like Soundgarden, Pearl Jam and Yes, Mud Honey
graced its stage. In the summer of twenty eighteen, progress
did as progress does, and a developer announced their plans
to tear down the theater and build a forty four
story condo thing on the site, but the city reacted.
(14:26):
A petition gained over one hundred and ten thousand signatures
in an official proposal to turn the showbox into a
historical landmark was submitted and accepted. One line item that
helped the building prove its merits, aside from the lengthy
history and important architecture, the revelation of a secret backstage
room that contains graffiti by none other than Neil Young,
(14:47):
who the press deemed the godfather of grunge. If that
isn't enough to stop a condo building, what is. Thankfully,
this Art Deco relic was saved despite its proximity to
pipe place mark in the unstoppable march of tourism related development.
Speaker 2 (15:04):
They will be.
Speaker 1 (15:05):
Preserved for history's sake for the foreseeable future.
Speaker 2 (15:08):
So you are set for your trip.
Speaker 1 (15:17):
The Blue Moon Tavern is not a spot that a
lot of locals will tell you to go to, even
if you ask them. I mean, for the locals who
don't regularly go there, they might not even see the
spot in a positive light. Maybe that is what contributed
to the tagline Seattle's most infamous dive bar causing a
ruckus since nineteen thirty four.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
For this bar, Grunge never died.
Speaker 1 (15:39):
Located in the U District aka the University District, this
spot was the preferred hang for one Theodore Retkey, a
noted American poet who moved to Seattle and taught at
the University of Washington for fifteen years. You can imagine
the literati crew who accompanied a famous poet, winner of
both the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize, whatever
(16:00):
watering hole he wanted to visit for a break from
the throes of academia. Even though wreck he died in
the sixties, that air of artists and poets lingers around
the bar. Dylan Thomas and Allen Ginsburg, you said, drain
pints and pens here.
Speaker 2 (16:12):
Fair warning.
Speaker 1 (16:13):
This bar is about as divy as they come. But
the no cover live music can't be beat will start
up almost every night. The current owner, Tim Dooley, was
a longtime bartender at the joint before he purchased it
in twenty twenty two, so he knows what this place needs.
There is also an art night where artists are encouraged
to come through and bring their sketch books, and no
shortage of welcoming vibes for folks of any background or stripe.
(16:36):
Back in the thirties and forties, this was one of
the few bars in the area that would serve black
servicemen during World War Two, and its inclusive attitude continues
to this day. In some ways, the Blue Moon feels
the most indicative of what grunge was supposed to be about,
going against the status quo of shiny lacquered, commercialized culture
that keeps us separated from each other a wink and
(16:57):
a nod at the mainstream, while providing us spot for
counterculture art to flourish and grow. Mainly based on connecting
with one another first and foremost and expressing real emotions.
But if you want to sidetrack the expression of emotions
and just get your face melted, there's plenty of places
to get that In Seattle. The Crocodile is a mainstay
(17:22):
in the Seattle music scene. The original five hundred and
fifty capacity room hosted Nirvana and Pearl Jam, giving it
bonafide chops that will last another lifetime. More recently, they've
booked guests like Billie Eilish, so it's still a desirable
spot for a touring musician to get on stage. I
maintain that the name a truly excellent title for a
music venue, continues to add to its popularity, but that's
(17:45):
just conjecture, not a fact. Located in Belltown, which is
just north of the touristy, high trafficked area around Pipe Place,
this venue manages to be central without actually being in
the thick of the most commercialized part of the city.
Its location is definitely part of its continued popularity. Nirvana
spoofed Attende's one Memorial Night by booking a show as
Penn cap Chew and then getting up to play in
(18:08):
all their cobaane front of glory. This was nineteen ninety
two and the last time Nirvana ever played the Crocodile,
but still a talked about show to this day. Mud
Honey played here since well, mud Honey played just about
everywhere around the city. They wore Seattle's local band for
a while there, and even celebrated their tenth anniversary as
a band at the venue in a nineteen ninety seven show.
(18:28):
About a decade later, the venue came under the ownership
of a host of Seattle Music Royalty, Alison Chains, drummer
Sean Kinney, Alison Chain's manager, Susan Silver, Portugal The Man,
guitarist Eric Hauch, and Capitol Hill Block Party co founder
Marcus Charles born that block party later. Under their stewardship,
the venue thrived until the twenty twenty era, when they
(18:49):
were forced to close down and move locations about three
blocks away. Fortunately, that move ended up as a boon,
as more space in the building opened up in The
entire venue complex now boasts a signature seven hundred and
fifty capacity state of the art showroom, a smaller three
hundred capacity venue, as well as in ninety six capacity
sit down theater and a restaurant, and a seventeen room hotel.
(19:15):
For those of you who are truly enamored with the
grunge scene, there is no hotel more relevant to your
interests than Hotel Crocodile.
Speaker 2 (19:30):
So what was that Capitol Hill Block Party I mentioned?
Speaker 1 (19:34):
Well, it's pretty much the best party Seattle throws all year.
Originally founded it as a one day festival by Jen
Gaypey in nineteen ninety seven. Marcus Charles and David Miner
took the event over in two thousand, adding a second
day and a second stage. They charged eight bucks for
a ticket and got sponsorships from local businesses like The Stranger,
(19:54):
slowly reinventing the festival from a local five ban day
show to a full on on three day festival that
attracts thousands of people every year. The block Party is
always held in July, which is probably the perfect time
to line up your calendar for a visit to Seattle anyways,
So if you were thinking of planning a trip this summer,
lock up the dates and get the stars to align.
(20:17):
You won't be surprised to learn that mud Honey played
the festival.
Speaker 2 (20:20):
Capitol Hill is.
Speaker 1 (20:21):
Basically the Williamsburg or the Silver Lake of Seattle, and
for those who have not been, Capitol Hill Block Party
is very much an in town festival. The Gorge one
of the most beautiful, infamous, and rare venues in the world. Yes,
(20:43):
it is a two hour drive from Seattle, Yes the
city claims it, anyway. Even Red Rocks is an hour
outside of Denver. There is probably no music venue more
famed on the West coast. Even if the Hollywood Bowl
and Santa Barbara Bowl would both love to take.
Speaker 2 (20:58):
That honor, they simply can't.
Speaker 1 (21:00):
Neither of them have a magnificent ravine plummeting into the
depths behind the stage.
Speaker 2 (21:05):
Even a slight ocean view or the center of Hollywood
Hills can't compete with that.
Speaker 1 (21:10):
Originally open in nineteen sixty eight with a capacity of
just three thousand people, the Gorge Amphitheater has since expanded
to accommodate nineteen thousand.
Speaker 2 (21:18):
True to its name, the.
Speaker 1 (21:19):
Venue offers sweeping views of the Columbia River in the
Columbia Gorge Canyon, and those sites were in full view
in the fall of nineteen ninety three when the double
bill to surpass all double bills was presented, a joint
Pearl Jam and Neil Young gig. For those who attended
the show, there simply is nothing more Pacific Northwest than
seeing Pearl Jam, Seattle's dedicated sons play the Gorge. Same
(21:43):
goes for the Dave Matthews Band, who has turned the
venue into their home base. But there's something to be
said about the connection between Neil and Eddie in the
passing of the torch that seemed inevitable. Between the rebellious
counterculture classic rockers and the era of grunge or whatever
you want to.
Speaker 4 (21:59):
Call it, they were skipping straight over the eighties.
Speaker 1 (22:01):
It was the bands of the nineties who took it
up again with art for art's sake, in a refusal
to be run into the ground by the plutocratic, capitalistic
technology that wanted to milk whatever dollars it could out
of the music pearl jams pressing a fight with Ticketmaster
long before the rest of us, including Taylor Swift, got
wise to it. Their decision to stop making music videos
(22:21):
and not slot neatly into the MTV model. It'd be
like Ed Sheeran not doing social media anymore, and Neil
Young who made an album just to connect with his
disabled son, or his recent abandonment of Spotify, or his
own failed attempt by creating an MP three player that
would play hi Res music rip pono. The connection is
the real value in the music, as it is in life.
(22:45):
These decisions by the artists insisting something else is more
important than marketing, that the way audiences consumed art actually mattered.
Speaker 2 (22:53):
More than making money anyway.
Speaker 1 (22:56):
Probably none of this was obvious when the bands shared
the stage in Washington that night.
Speaker 2 (23:00):
Or maybe it was either way.
Speaker 1 (23:02):
If Pearl Jim ever plays the Gorge again, you should
suck up the ticket fees and absolutely plan a trip
around that no questions asked. We haven't talked about Ballard yet,
which is a real shame because it might just be
the neighborhood where you end up spending the bulk of
your time if you're a music lover. Ballard the home
(23:24):
of the beloved Tractor Tavern, a two room venue where
I like to make my stops and underground favorites like
the Damn Wells would hold court, and right across the
street lies connor Burn Pub, the venue almost single handedly
responsible for the discovery of The Head and the Heart.
I recommend both, but if you only have time to choose,
one step through the double doors at connor Burn, another
(23:46):
of the oldest bars in the city, and soak up
the room where a vanguard of New Seattle found their way.
Connecting and honing their craft at the regular open mic
night at Connorburn led to the Head and the Heart,
eventually getting a record deal with sub Pop and then
receiving international acclaim from that debut album. If you've ever
been to an open mic, then you know not all
of them end that way. Good beer and whiskey might
(24:09):
even be necessary to get through some of them. Luckily,
Burns has got plenty of both of those on offer.
If you want to get a real locals experience, then
this pub is the spot. There's almost nothing more Seattle
than the seaside neighborhood of ballad as all mug of
beer and an undiscovered guitars trying to get the attention
of the room. It might be the next icon, or
(24:30):
it might just be a nobody that happens to be
the somebody you need to hear to prep for your
trip to Seattle. There are actually countless docks out there
on various bands and subsets of grunge, but one of
(24:50):
the best is the Hype documentary that came out in
nineteen ninety six. Because it was made when grunge and
was still grunging, this doc gives a very unique look
at what was happening at the time and how the
members of the still emerging scene actually felt about all
of it. To name just a few appearances, Mark Arm
of Mud Honey, Jeffament of Pearl, Jam Nils Burn's scene
(25:11):
of Subpop, Matt Cameron of Soundgarden later Pearl Jam, and
plenty of archival footage of Kurt Cobain. This two hour
film is worth taking in before trip out to Seattle.
If you do plan to go to a short The
Gorge and you're a diehard Pearl Jam fan or Dave
Matthews band fan, then it might be worth it to
watch Enormous The Gorge Story. It's a brief one hour
(25:31):
documentary on the history of the venue, and it very
prominently features Pearl Jam in Matthews not in a film
viewing mood. Log into your streaming service of choice and
scroll back to the archives of sub pop's late eighties
and early nineties releases.
Speaker 2 (25:46):
Work your way through.
Speaker 1 (25:47):
Some of the more seminal grunge releases to get into
the PMW spirit and maybe even pick up a new
favorite along the way. If Mud Honey taught us anything
it's that some of the best bands don't always rise
to the top. Sometimes they stay mired and local legend,
only to be discovered by those who really put in
the time to find the gold that is there. Mud
(26:18):
Honey is and was the best representative of what came
to be known as a Seattle sound, but never really
got credit for paving the way, same as it ever
was right the first through the gates are met with
the most resistance, They clear a path, and then others
can ride on that path.
Speaker 2 (26:35):
A little easier.
Speaker 1 (26:40):
The stories we tell ourselves with art overall can provide
more influence on the popularity of the work than the
work itself. Every true artist has a story, a point
of view. When the mechanics of art commerce find an
opportunity to market that story, it doesn't matter if it's
grunge or k pop. If those stories can be juiced
up to tell more of something than they will find
(27:02):
a vein. Maybe grunge was just the story the world
was ready to adopt. The first Gulf War, Reagan economics
falling apart, Rodney King, the children of Boomer is wondering
where the hell all that peace and love went. The
real world is always waiting to rain down on us.
No matter how much hairspray we used in the decade prior,
(27:23):
the music that comes out of Seattle sticks around. It's authentic. Now.
Every day we see diatribes about artistic authenticity fly by
us under our thumbs and adorable memes on ig and TikTok,
find your true self with gardening right for the sake
of writing, dance like nobody's watching, Sing for your soul,
paint only what.
Speaker 2 (27:42):
You can see, and on and on. But that shit
is easy.
Speaker 1 (27:47):
The biggest band in the world telling MTV they are
no longer doing videos because the music is more important,
is true inspiration and example setting. But all the artists
out of Seattle, from Jimmy to Brandy Tenttole, is that
this life is better.
Speaker 2 (28:03):
When you share your true vision.
Speaker 1 (28:04):
The distorted pop masterpieces of Cobaine's Gems Vetter, Sincere Howell,
Cornell's Banshee Whale Over Grooving seven eight bars. These were
artists that didn't create a brand. They put their whole
selves on the line. Some paid for it with everything
while breaking down the artifice of an industry that was
just starting to swallow itself whole. Their resistance to the
(28:28):
behaviors of the industry was wildly prescient, because that version
of the music business has indeed devoured itself whole, not
before birthing the next version, which has grown up, consisting
of algorithms, bullshit playlists in AI that once again rob
us of our connection, so we find ourselves currently begging
a new class of artists to rage and whale against it.
(28:57):
And one more thing, I guess you can't do apisode
about Seattle with the focus being grunge music and not
mention all those that are no longer with us for
many bearing your soul and then others being employed by
that exposure that you are sharing with the world can
be a very, very risky proposition. Add to the fact
(29:19):
that there's now millions of people out there who have
a connection to you, who think they know you. They've
been sold a story, a genre, a flannel, two situations
that I can leave you feeling even more alone than
you started. And then never mind the fact that sometimes
a dead artist is worth more. Everyone gets to tell
(29:41):
your story again and make another dollar, only now you
have no voice in the matter. And we see this
all the time. Elvis in a state that will forever
make millions, Prince no one wanted to tell him to
stop working, take care of his body. In his mind.
Now Paisley Parker is worth a lot more than when
he was alive. Michael Jackson, Tom Petty, the list goes on,
(30:03):
and then we get to encase them in these futures
they don't get to have and over analyze albums that
didn't get to happen, and if they did, wouldn't have
happened in the way you or I dreamed. That's why
we love those artists. Remember Jimmy didn't pass through the eighties?
Do you love every sixties and seventies act that passed
through the eighties. Kurt Cobain didn't live through Brittany and Christina.
(30:26):
He might have changed his whole sound once he heard that.
You don't know, but yet we all pretend we do.
I don't know why, but maybe Rolling Stone, instead of
ranking the one hundred greatest records of all time, could
make a list of ways that we could all keep
an eye on each other better, celebrate the times we've
(30:47):
asked for help and received it and are here today
because of it.
Speaker 2 (30:52):
Make that list next.
Speaker 4 (30:59):
Well, we did it, episode nine, season two.
Speaker 2 (31:06):
That was Seattle.
Speaker 1 (31:08):
Thank you to everyone who's followed the show, and an
extra special thanks to those who have reviewed it. That
is how we even got to Seattle is your word of.
Speaker 2 (31:16):
Mouth, your effort with the show.
Speaker 1 (31:17):
So thank you, thank you, thank you keep it coming.
Thank you for all the nice messages about it. Let
me know where you want us to go next. DM
me on just wherever, wherever you feel comfortable on social media.
I'll find it one day, so you can hit me
up on Instagram. Will Daily Official just spelled Daily dai
l e y, and we'll talk. Sound of Our Town
(31:39):
is a production of Double Elvis and iHeartRadio. You can
hit up Double Elvis on IG at Double Elvis and
Twitter at Double Elvis FM. The show is executively produced
by Jake Brannon and Brady Sadler for Double Elvis. Production
assistants by Matt Bowden Es especially on my computer crashed
on this one while recording. The show has created, written, hosted,
and scored by me Will Daily. This is me playing
(32:01):
all the music. You can hear that wherever you like
to hear music, or you can go to will Daily
dot com and get your own vinyl. This episode's head
writer Kaitlin White, all right, well, I'm off to the
next town.
Speaker 2 (32:15):
Find out what that is soon. Thank you for your ears,
and be good to each other out there.
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