Green River - Come On Down

The return of LP Sunday. Thanks to lots of snow days.

There's been a lot of Seattle stuff this week. Gorilla, Mark Arm, Love Battery, tons of Sub Pop singles...

So I figured I'd go way back, and rip this album, which  marks the unofficial beginning of the whole Seattle thing. The first "grunge" album. This band is two parts Mudhoney (Mark Arm, Steve Turner) two parts Pearl Jam (Jeff Ament, Stone Gossard), and one part some random guy. (Alex Vincent).

Kind of a crazy mix, since Mudhoney didn't take themselves (or anything) too seriously, and Pearl Jam was a serious band. And of course, that's why the band split. "Artistic differences" and all. Basically, Turner wasn't fond of the musical direction of the band as they veered toward metal in their later days, and Arm seemed to think that Gossard (who played with Turner since high school) and Ament were too driven for a major label deal and were in it for the money. Alex Vincent bailed on life in the US and fled for Japan. Everyone seemed to wind up where they belonged. Pearl Jam was a wildly successful big label band, Mudhoney kept their independence far longer than most Seattle acts, and bombed as a major label act because of they just weren't mainstream enough, and Alex got to eat soba and drink sake. They're apparently doing the occasional reunion show, and there have been rumors of a new album in the works for a couple of years now.

I got this used in Amherst somewhere in the early 90's. Al Bum's maybe? I fully understood the cultural significance of the album, especially since the whole Seattle things was front and center at the time, and figured I should have it for that alone. I honestly can't remember ever listening to it though.

It clearly skews towards the Mudhoney side of the equation. I guess that's what happens when Mark Arm writes a lot of stuff. It's noisy. Come On Down and Swallow My Pride could have been on Superfuzz Bigmuff if you changed up the guitar settings and effects. I can see why Turner was complaining though. Not quite his sound.

A: Come On Down, New God, Swallow My Pride, Ride Of Your Life
B: Corner Of My Eye, Tunnel Of Love
Enjoy!

Also, while I know she's not reading this, happy 41st to my big sister.