Results tagged “grunge”

So yesterday it was announced that Elton John was collaborating with Alice in Chains on their new album. AT LONG LAST, THE WAIT IS OVER. Umm, this makes absolutely no sense for more than a few reasons: 1) Grunge with pianos is a thing now? 2) Alice in Chains is still making music, seven years after their lead singer died? 3) Elton John is still making music, twelve years after Princess Diana died? Consider us officially confused. For the record, Black Gives Way to Blue, complete with Elton tickling the ivories on the title track, will be released September 29th, with a show at the Moore on September 24th.

It’s premature to judge the latest incarnation of the famed Second Avenue venue from one loud night there...but we will anyways. Pleasantly, there were less hipster types this time around, but then again Friday night’s sound wasn’t boring indie pop, so the rock may have scared some away.

Four mentions trumps Milwaukee or Nashville, similarly sized cities with no direct mentions in Harper's Index. The Index (before we kicked the habit entirely, the only reason we subscribed to the magazine) has a fresh new search interface, which inspired us to go looking. The four mentions make an interesting snapshot of Seattle in highbrow pop culture since 1984: our high rate of CPR training, grunge-a-mania, the cult of Kurt Cobain, and the trumped-up charges against WTO protesters. Of course, our culture spreads indirectly, as well: Starbucks has hit the Index 5 times, Bill Gates 13 times, Microsoft 21 times, Amazon 4 times (though "amazon.com" only pulls up one of those mentions), and Boeing twice.

It was seventeen years ago today, Nevermind made its record store debut, and rock music would never be the same. Nirvana's second full-length album (and the first on Geffen rather than indie Sub Pop), Nevermind solidified the band's trademark loud-quiet song structure and marked a shift in their sound to something bigger than just grunge. While it took months for Nevermind's first track "Smells Like Teen Spirit" to become a surprise hit on the MTV, today's the anniversary of that seminal album being released unto the world. Take the time to give it another listen.

From across the pond, and courtesy of NME, comes news that Seattle's own Alice in Chains will be recording their first record in 13 years.

"Quite a few people in the world have seen my penis. So that's kinda cool." We've known for a while (thanks to Kirsten Anderson) that the naked baby on the cover of Nevermind is all grown up and basically normal. But last night, NPR's All Things Considered aired an interview with the now-17-year-old Spencer Elden, sharing his story with comfortable liberals nationwide. Spencer still seems like a normal high school kid, and, as seen above, is perfectly willing to deploy the best conversational icebreaker we can imagine. (Seattlest Clint's alternate suggestion: "The penis that gave international rise to the Seattle Sound.") He's officially eclipsed Dolores Erickson (the woman slathered in whipped cream on Herb Alpert's Whipped Cream and Other Delights) as the northwest's most famous album cover model, even if he is from California.

Sup Pop is well-known for unabashed self-promotion and grandiose overstatement. Thing is, most of that (tongue-in-cheek) hyperbole is deserved. The much-touted reunion of Green River, one of the label's first signees, was no different. It truly was the highlight of Sub Pop's two-day 20th birthday bash.

Seattlest told you about the Sub Pop Big Deal and a bunch of other live music happening this weekend, but we neglected to mention the acts appearing at West Seattle's Summer Fest. Shame on us, too, because the best (in this Seattlest's opinion) already came and went Friday night.

Without Green River in 1984, there might be no Sub Pop Records today. Without Sub Pop in 1987, there might be no Mudhoney—or even Pearl Jam—in 2008. (Green River begat Mudhoney and Mother Love Bone; MLB begat PJ.) And without either in the 80s, there likely would have been no "Seattle Sound" explosion in the early 90s.

NPR's quiz show Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me! hasn't taped an episode in Seattle since 2001, but last night at the Paramount, they had a sold-out venue full of Seattleites dressed up in their best fleeces eager to clap and guffaw on cue. Apparently, a radio show that runs about forty-five minutes on the air takes more than twice that live, including a humorously eerie segment at the end of the night where the cast quickly records disembodied do-overs of the lines they flubbed the first time around.

Pearl Jam is touring (nowhere near Seattle) this month—they’re kicking off a 13-stop trip tonight in West Palm Beach, actually—and that means more official bootlegs of Pearl Jam shows.

Last month, four-fifths of Pearl Jam touted their own Obama-song, unofficially signaling the band's endorsement of the (delegate) leading Democrat. Unofficially, because Eddie Vedder wasn't involved. Then Ralph Nader—Eddie's favorite former candidate—joined the presidential race. Would the frontman split from his bandmates or maintain political solidarity?

Musicians who remain active in the recording industry for over 20 years usually become internationally famous and aim to save the world, or quietly cultivate a devout fan base by emancipating humanity one pair of ears at a time. Mark Pickerel—drummer, vocalist, and Ellensburg native—has followed the latter career path.

If you weren't lucky enough to nab a pair of tickets to an April Eddie Vedder show via Pearl Jam's fan club presale or Ticketmaster's sale last Friday, you're only screwed if you aren't extremely wealthy—and charitable.

We think of Kurt Cobain’s short, violently-ended life like Clarence Worley does The King’s: "In Jailhouse Rock he was everything rockabilly's about. I mean, he is rockabilly. Mean, surly, nasty, rude. In that movie he couldn't give a fuck about nothing except rockin' and rollin', living fast, dying young and leaving a good-looking corpse."

What with his recent Into the Wild success, it's not a huge surprise that Eddie Vedder's embarking on his first solo tour—announced today—up and down the West coast. What is surprising is that he's not playing Seattle.

Well, not exactly. Eddie Vedder wasn't involved. And it's a "new rendition of an old-school tune"—a cover of the 1955 ditty "Rock Around the Clock." The "new rendition" doesn't amount to much more than a single-word swap; "Clock," in both title and refrain, has been replaced by "Barack."

So the Sonics won last night. Kevin Durant scored a bunch of points and stuff. The biggest highlight, though, came from the seats, when Pearl Jam bassist—and die hard Sonics fan—Jeff Ament donned a headset for a chat with announcer Kevin Calabro.

Before there was Soundgarden or Mudhoney or Alice in Chains, there was Skin Yard and Gruntruck, two late-80s-spawned bands that foretold and influenced Seattle's grunge phenomenon. Ben McMillan, who died here yesterday of complications stemming from diabetes, fronted both bands. He was 46.

Has it really been over four years since you've taken a stage in Seattle, Mark? We could be wrong, but your late 2003 Showbox show—a great one, by the way—is the last we heard about. (QOTSA appearances don't count.) Assuming we're right, that's just silly.

Happy Monday, Pearl Jam/Eddie Vedder fans. The frontman-gone-sometimes-solo can be seen on VH1 today in the video for “Guaranteed,” his acclaimed song from the (brief, but really effing great) Into the Wild soundtrack.

Vedder’s first solo music video—for his critically lauded and Grammy-nominated Into the Wild song “Guaranteed”—airs on VH1 (and VH1.com) on Monday. Perfect timing, then, for the ever-more-famous guy to bump into his 1992 self while browsing Easy Street’s vinyl bins. Serendipity!

After suffering decades of rocker-inflicted damage and debauchery, hotel rooms are finally fighting back. Their first victim: Former Soundgarden frontman Chris Cornell.