Who likes Grunge?

[marnold***]

Amen. I think another reason I hated grunge is that it's such a downer. I never liked country music either as it was always about prison, divorce, loosing your job etc. Same type of stuff with grunge. Who want's to listen to all of that, over and over. Give me a band that writes about chicks, partying and having a great time. Now that I can listen to.

You could make the same argument about the blues: "My woman done left me so I'm gonna jump in the river and drown." Of course I tend to prefer the "my baby came back" blues to the "my baby done left me" blues.

Reminds me of the comedian who talked about how there are no good blues Christmas tunes. So he wrote one called "My Woman Is Dead."

"Woke up Christmas mornin'
*duh DUH duh duh duh*
My woman was dead
*duh DUH duh duh duh*
Reindeer came down the chimney
*duh DUH duh duh duh*
And stepped on her head"

[Eric***]

For example: Limp Bizkit, Linkin Park, Papa Roach, Korn

The sad thing is that it started out with something infinitely cool: a collaboration between Anthrax and Public Enemy. It went rapidly downhill from there.

Ooh yeah, I think the concept is OK, but the execution leaves something to be desired.

However...shameful though it is, I have to admit to liking a few Linkin Park tunes. I can't help it.

[Commodore 64***]

Soul on a roll but you treat it like soap on a rope cuz the beats and the lines are so dope!

Anthrax and Public Enemy...that was a great collaboration.

[sunvalleylaw]

I liked it, and still sometimes do. I lived there during that time, and got what they were saying at the time. Part of it was frustration at californication of the PNW, part of it was the hypocrisy of the hippy/yuppy boomers, part was the aftermath of old growth logging which was being closed down due to environmental concerns, loss of fisheries, general economic depression in those areas where those guys were from, as opposed to the emerging tech economies of King County (Seattle/Bellevue/Redmond). (Nirvana was an Olympia band, Cobain was from Aberdeen/Hoquiam. Alice in Chains was from Spanaway). So it expressed stuff I felt. But I could not stay in that place for too long. I liked a lot of other stuff too.

Also, after a while, and particularly after the media made a big deal out of it, it started getting ruined. Obviously some of the artists (Cobain, Staley, and some others that got lucky and didn't kill themselves), were on unsustainable life paths. But those comments are about the side show, not Robert's question about the music. I did and do enjoy the music when I am in the mood for it.

My opinions were previously collected here.

http://www.thefret.net/showthread.php?t=8638

and more recently here:

http://www.thefret.net/showthread.php?t=15435

[bcdon***]

Sure, I like grunge.. Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, &c. Good music, but lacking in guitar solos. It is, what it is..

[bcdon***]

I'm still waiting for that air. Is there anything good out now in rock?

Certainly. In a word: METAL!

[sunvalleylaw]

Yeah, too bad I never liked metal. So there is less out there now for me other than the new blues guys, and a few isolated garagey punky indie bands, at least that I can find easily. Re: metal and shred, unless it is soulful, melodic, and fits the song, I just am not a big shred or guitar solo guy. I did enjoy the VanHalen singing about girls with DLR doing his thing and Eddie doing his thing. It is fun to listen to that once in a while, but most of it is just big hair, big ego wankery to me. I could just never get into it. Vai, Satriani, Malstreem, those guys too.

I have the same problem with jam bands and endless weedely weedely ala Jerry Garcia. I saw Santana open up for the Dead in 1988 in Tacoma, and Santana's sound, and playing in the context of the music, wiped the Dead all over the floor in my opinion.

I do like extended songs sometimes, and albums that have a story to them. So that opens the door to some prog for me. But mostly, I like songs to have a beginning and an end, and not have too much endless soloing. Some blues jams or jazz improv excepted. The group experimentation there makes that more interesting to me.

Grunge to me was hard rock with a punk edge musicially and lyrically. Like strip zeppelin down some, dial back the solos, replace Page's vocals with something newer, give it some relevant lyrics that talk about something, . . . to me you had something kind of fun, and that was rebelling against the stuff I did not like at the time.

[Eric***]

Yeah, too bad I never liked metal. So there is less out there now for me other than the new blues guys, and a few isolated garagey punky indie bands, at least that I can find easily. Re: metal and shred, unless it is soulful, melodic, and fits the song, I just am not a big shred or guitar solo guy. I did enjoy the VanHalen singing about girls with DLR doing his thing and Eddie doing his thing. It is fun to listen to that once in a while, but most of it is just big hair, big ego wankery to me. I could just never get into it. Vai, Satriani, Malstreem, those guys too.

I have the same problem with jam bands and endless weedely weedely ala Jerry Garcia. I saw Santana open up for the Dead in 1988 in Tacoma, and Santana's sound, and playing in the context of the music, wiped the Dead all over the floor in my opinion.

I do like extended songs sometimes, and albums that have a story to them. So that opens the door to some prog for me. But mostly, I like songs to have a beginning and an end, and not have too much endless soloing. Some blues jams or jazz improv excepted. The group experimentation there makes that more interesting to me.

Grunge to me was hard rock with a punk edge musicially and lyrically. Like strip zeppelin down some, dial back the solos, replace Page's vocals with something newer, give it some relevant lyrics that talk about something, . . . to me you had something kind of fun, and that was rebelling against the stuff I did not like at the time.

Given that, there is TONS of music out there for you now. Tons.

[Robert****]

Steve, what does PNW stand for?

[sunvalleylaw]

Oops sorry, the Pacific Northwest.

more about guitar solos, I don't seem to have trouble with guys like SRV, and I certainly like Mayer, Bonomassa, etc. as well. I guess I find that more melodic than the shred or metal stuff mostly. I can always find exceptions though. Eric, I am sure there is more out there. I just don't hear it much here in Idaho. I have to get on some better internet stations.

[duhvoodooman***]

Oh, then it's not Pathetic NitWits, huh?

[tunghaichuan***]

I liked grunge when it first started. It was fresh and new sounding after the hair metal bands became a self-parody of themselves.

I think some grunge was punk inspired; e.g., Nirvana, and some bands like Soundgarden were more metal/Black Sabbath inspired. Since it all came from a specific geographic region, there was a lot of cross pollination going on.

I still remember hearing "Smells Like Teen Spirit" for the first time. It was the voice of Gen X crying out in protest against all the yuppie/boomer types.

Ultimately, it died the way a lot of musical trends die; out of nowhere the grassroots level bands become popular, then the recording industry takes notice, signs lots of bands and ultimately waters it down making it self parody.

I liked some of it, but some of it did come off as pretentious and/or whiny.

[pes_laul]

Layne Staley is actually the late lead singer of Alice in Chains. Jerry Cantrell is the guitarist. I agree that he is very good.

I always got them mixed up haha.

[FrankenFretter***]

Like Steve, I'm from the PNW. I guess I'm still there, technically, although it seems far removed from the PNW I know and love. I lived in the Seattle area from 1990 to 1994, so I was right in the middle of it. Although I was never a huge fan of Nirvana (they do have some stuff I like, just not enough to own it), I loved Soundgarden (Kim Thayill has a HUGE guitar sound, even if he doesn't wallow in solos), Alice in Chains, and Pearl Jam. To me, Ten was Pearl Jam's opus and could never be followed up on, sort of like Meatloaf's Bat Out of Hell. That's just me though.

The Grunge movement was a neccessary change, I think. The air had become stagnant, and the scene needed to be shaken. I don't listen to much of that stuff now, but I'm sure it had a hand in shaping some of my musical choices these days.

As for Grunge being depressing, that is true for some of it for sure. Steve mentioned that Kurt Cobain was from Aberdeen; if you've ever been there, you'd understand why he might have been depressed. And then there's all the rain we get in the Northwest...that can also be depressing. Maybe that's what Grunge really was...the voice of the rainclouds.

That's my opinion, for what it's worth.

[Commodore 64***]

I remember someone saying "Why don't Kurt Cobain, Billy Corgan and Eddie Vedder just commit suicide already and get it over with." It was pretty funny at the time. I thought it was hilarious given the whiny, angry, angsty, complaining nature of their songs. Then Kurt went and did it. I definitely didn't think it was funny, but I can't say that I was surprised, either.

[Eric***]

I remember someone saying "Why don't Kurt Cobain, Billy Corgan and Eddie Vedder just commit suicide already and get it over with." It was pretty funny at the time. I thought it was hilarious given the whiny, angry, angsty, complaining nature of their songs. Then Kurt went and did it. I definitely didn't think it was funny, but I can't say that I was surprised, either.

Nice. I do think that's pretty funny, although it's harder to say that since Kurt went and ruined the joke...

Makes me wonder what sort of comparable remarks I'd have about the emo scene if I bothered to pay any attention to that at all.

[pes_laul]

Nice. I do think that's pretty funny, although it's harder to say that since Kurt went and ruined the joke...

Makes me wonder what sort of comparable remarks I'd have about the emo scene if I bothered to pay any attention to that at all.

[Eric***]

Awesome.

[Kazz]

Glad you cleared that up Rev.....I was about to go back and look at my AIC collection to see if I missed Layne playing guitar somewhere.