Seattle Special: I – Sleepless In Seattle

Welcome to Seattle

A city situated in the Pacific North West of the USA in Washington state, a city founded by the early pioneers established around trade and logging, over modern history this city also hosts one of the oldest Markets on the west coast at “Pikes Market” since the 1800’s, now also a hub of technology what with Microsoft being hosted over at Redmond, it’s a city built around the people, and as their peoples evolve a cultural construct builds around them, music, arts, crafts, film and celebrating the new and old traditions and festivities.

This city has been the home for various bands even before the alternative or grunge scene of the 90s, going back to the 70s/80s rock bands such as “Heart” who formed over in Vancouver (recently celebrating 50 years of their seminal debut album ‘Dreamboat Annie’), and not to forget guitar virtuoso ‘Jimi Hendrix‘ who was born and grew up here for the most part in the 40s/50s before moving to London to find success and sadly his journey ended there. Currently in there “Museum of Pop Culture” next to the “Space Needle” there is an exhibition dedicated to Jimi, which had taken over from the long standing ‘Nirvana’ exhibition of 13 years, well worth a see but not too many exhibits featuring Nirvana are left, there is a huge at display with a picture taken by photographer “Charles Petersen” as you walk up the stairs of Kurt Cobain crowd surfing with his guitar.

A melting pot of people, music and dreams, and trees

So the city has been a congregation point for centuries acting as a regional hub to showcase the music from communities all over the Pacific North West, It’s a thoughtful conscientious city acknowlegding the atrocities and mass displacement of the indigenous inhabitants when the founders took over, with landmarks, rivers and streets named after old families and tribes people keeping the legacy of the native inhabitants alive amongst the names of founders. Seattleans are proud of their corner of the world, the Americin Football Superbowl had not long been finished with the local heroes Seattle Seahawks winning the prized Lombard trophy and so on all of the buses and trams you can see the slogan “Go Seahawks!” proudly embazed on the front of them.

City-folk are welcoming, usually i’m careful to not stick out too much when discovering a new place but when exploring the city on day one proudly wearing a Kurt Cobain prominent t-shirt several folks stopped me to have a talk, from the homeless, to kids walking with their parents, to fellow fans and shockingly people that actually knew him growing up, he is still a talking point in the city and a much loved figure. I was taken aback slightly

When flying in to Sea-Tac (the main International airport situated in the area laying in between Seattle and Tacoma) you can understand why Seattle bands (including that of Lead belly‘s’ interpretation of “Where Did You Sleep Last Night” an old folk-blues song) wanted to sing and celebrate the trees surrounding them, the same song that ‘Nirvana‘ covered – singing about ‘In the Pines’ (the original artists name of the song actually), the city buildings are barely recognisable being surrounded by the expansive tall evergreen giants (inspiration for “Krist Novoselic’s” band ‘Giants in the Trees’?) peering down over the people and buildings, with the main headland city surrounded by lakes, rivers and and green landmasses like pine covered fingers stretching northwards, this is a city connected by ferries as well as tunnels, roads, trains and the metro train links, it’s situated not far from Vancouver, the Snoqualmie mountain ranges and cities and towns of Southern-west Canada near Seattle.

Head south-east out of the city and you will find yourself heading towards locations where Twin Peaks was filmed but you will no longer see the iconic “Welcome to Twin Peaks” signboard as that kept on being stolen, the same as you will never find the infamous Nirvana ‘666’ road sign that was also stolen and replaced many times over with authorities giving up in replacing it.

Whilst trundling through the airport it was great to see cultural displays of indigenous textiles and patterns using traditionally made inks made by the local artists and tribes people to commemorate the lives of people before there was the Seattle of today.

The totem poles scattered around the city all have stories to tell, check out “Pioneer Square” if you ever go. Seattleans of today are proud of their past and try to atone for the injustice that happened, you can see various community displays , on one day i saw a traditional Chinese dance and parade of school children and young persons dancing holding a huge traditional Chinese dragon overhead with steel drums and cymbals to accompany the display.

A cultural musical sleeping giant awaits

People growing up here in the late 1980s and the 1990s – Generation X – will know all too well of the excitement of their home town bands making incredible music with many bands deciding to tae it upon themselves to make the music that they wanted to hear but it just didn’t exist, defying the lame-stream mainstream bands of cliché big hair rock, a new scene evolved out of the determined limitless youthful creativity mired by boredom they took matters in to their own hands.

Okay so maybe some of the bands were not polished to begin with or was just noise as most young bands don’t sound great off the starting block when they are learning their instruments and what it means to be a player, but bands here were getting noticed and the big record labels and their talent scouts flooded in.

A the local record label “Sub Pop” was founded in the early eighties with Bruce Pavitt distributing zines and cassettes from his home in Olympia, capturing and sharing an unfolding scene evolving around him and he wanted to be a part of that journey keeping things local, later moving to Seattle and working with local bands to create singles and EPs to host them on their own SubPop singles club it was evident that the kids were wanting more. The Record label garnered humble success and the Singles club is still going strong to this day. One of the most important bands to have surfaced from the Seattle aera is “Green River” where many of the key people responsible for Grunge or whatever its known as – originated.

Popularity, cross-pollination and an eternal influence

Many local bands started signing deals and then in most cases leaving town to relocate to LA or to tour relentlessly across the states and in Europe, being launched in to the stratosphere in the worldwide explosion of a scene sending cultural shockwaves that were sent around the world several times over rippling like a stone thrown in a lake, and still to this day these bands and the Grunge scene shines a light for all aspiring genre-defying bands and musicians aspiring to imitate their heroes and bring joy to the masses.

There were and still remain some key figures of the Seattle scene today but to focus on just one of many creative outpourings and not to forget one of the most ardent hardened trailblazers, he knowingly and largely unknowingly shaped the Seattle sound of the 90’s, he was a loveable, talented, infectious and charismatic musician to have ever graced the scene: ‘Andrew Wood’ – co-founder of ‘Malfunkshun’ with his brother ‘Kevin Wood’, ‘Jeff Ament’, ‘Regan Hagar’,

Just who was “Andrew Wood”, and his impact on the scene

Andrew was the lead singer and guitarist front man between 1980 and 1988 up until his new project ‘Mother Love Bone’ manifested and looking to find a new sound Andrew left ‘Malfunkshun’ and was joined by Jeff Ament, accompanied by new member ‘Stone Gossard’ and others performing glam punk rock akin to the LA scene but with a local twist. This project gained significant momentum and popularity performing on the local club circuit and a few festivals, with 2 released EPs in the pocket they were found by a record label and they secured a record deal.

So the band hit the studio and created their album ‘Apple’, their music was evolving somewhat towards what we know as Grunge but MLB were able to perform the heavier punk songs and show a vulnerable side to their music, a more humanistic side with lyrics so captivating. In a tragic event toward the release of the record Andrew took a fatal overdose on heroin and lost his life, he never got to see the album released which had a massive appeal, nor did he ever get to reach his potential or fulfil his dreams, but the music he wrote on the album was fantastically well written.

After attempting several auditions to replace Andy it was evident that his shoes, persona, voice and charisma were simply too irreplaceble so this marked the end of ‘Mother Love Bone’, Jeff Ament commissioned a bronze sculpture of Andrew which now proudly stands in the Museum of Pop Culture at Seattle.

From tragedy to rememberance to new beginnings

An unexpected musical side project manifested from the ashes of the demise of MLB, with songs conceived in the grief for the monumental loss of their friend the project ‘Temple of the Dog’. was created, with the band name inspired by one of the “Mother Love Bone” songs ‘Man of Golden Words’

The brainchild from “Chris Cornell” of another Seattle powerhouse band “Soundgarden”, he was also a roommate of Andrew and so knew him really well and was undoubtedly shaken and hurt by his passing, he was joined by some of the members of “Mother Love Bone” crew at the time; ‘Jeff Ament’ and ‘Stone Gossard’, as well as other musical friends (and soon to be members of Pearl Jam) ‘Mike McCready’, ‘Eddie Vedder’ and ‘Matt Cameron’; this was created as a musical tribute to Andrew, it was also a way for everyone at the time to find a coping mechanism for grieving for their lost brother such was the giant character that Andrew was, a force of fun, determination, love, spirituality and of course music – he was a naturally gifted musician,, flamboyant and full of ideas.

Chris had written and completed a few tracks from what started off as dabbling with a few songs, they fleshed out quickly in to becoming a full album after being joined by the others, they all then went on to record the album and then tour as “Temple of the Dog”, performing these songs as well as other songs from their own repertoires and other influenced bands that they all enjoyed and grew up together with.

This was something of a healing process for everyone involved and gave all the band members a renewed purpose who were in various bands but all grieved for Andy, the band was a big success for the whole community, the project lasted for several years before disbanding with many members formed ‘Mookie Blaylock’ created in 1990. They also reunited for a 25th Anniversary tour later in 2016

That band was later renamed ‘Pearl Jam’ with ‘Eddie Vedder’ joining and we all know how that went with the incredible commercial success of their debut album “Ten”.

Check out the 25th Anniversary show setlists of “Temple of the Dog” and you can see the cover songs played that the musicians and Andy Wood grew up with in those earlier days, it’s noteworthy that this show on the 20th Nov 2016 was the last ever performance of “Temple of the Dog” with “Chris Cornell” who sadly died the following year.

In summary – Seattle: A community for the people by the people

It is pretty obvious that Andrew meant the world to his friends and what better a tribute than to celebrate him with love in performing music inspired by him.

This is just one of the many unpredictable incredible stories that this city has to tell and this is all thanks to the burgeoning array of trailblazing musicians growing up here that took influences from the prog, psych, blues, folk, rock and punk scenes that came before them from the 60s and 70s, they made it their own by bringing their energy and spirit in to the mix and transformed Seattle in to one of the most exciting and culturally diverse music scenes, with band-mates cross-pollinating in to other local bands with friends and fans in tow following the bands to all the venues in big and small towns and rural districts.

Some of the big hitters in the Alternative / Grunge scene

The list is not definitive and certainly not complete (this list also isn’t definitive) but below are some of the bands that shaped the sounds and souls of the 1990s, Grunge and beyond:

Band	Years Active	Band Members (past/present)	Web/Social Links
Green River	1984 – 1988 1993 2008-2009	Alex Vincent Bruce Fairweather Jeff Ament Mark Arm Steve Turner Stone Gossard	Green River (Bandcamp)
Mother Love Bone	1987 – 1990	Andrew Wood Jeff Ament Bruce Fairweather Greg Gilmore Stone Gossard Regan Hagar
Mudhoney	1988 — Present	Mark Arm Dan Peters Steve Turner Matt Lukin Guy Maddison	Mudhoney Official
Melvins		Buzz Osborne Matt Lukin Mike Dillard Dale Crover
Nirvana	1987 – 1994	Kurt Cobain Krist Novosellic Dave Grohl Chad Channing Dan Peters Arron Burckhart Dave Foster Jason Everman Pat Smear	Kurt Cobain Official Nirvana Official
Pearl Jam	1990 – Present	Eddie Vedder Mike McCready Stone Gossard Matt Cameron	Pearl Jam Official
Soundgarden	1984 – 1997 2010 – 2017 2019 2025	Chris Cornell Kim Thayil Matt Cameron Hiro Yamamoto Scott Sundquist Jason Everman Ben Shepherd	Soundgarden Official
Alice In Chains	1987 – 2002	Jerry Cantrell Layne Staley Sean Kinney Mike Starr Mike Inez Robert DuVall	Alice In Chains Official
Malfunkshun	1980 – 1988 2005 – Present	Andrew Wood Kevin Wood Regan Hagar Shawn Simth Dave Rees David Hunt Jeff Loftis Jeff Stark BT Leach Cory Kane Paul Lamb Mike Stone Thorsten Rock Guy McIntosh Jeff Loftis Rob Day Miles Freeborn Tony West	https://malfunkshun.org
Temple of the Dog	1990 – 1992 2003 2011 2014 2016	Chris Cornell Jeff Ament Stone Gossard Matt Cameron Mike McCready Eddie Vedder

Coming up in part II – The People of Seattle

Next up we talk to several people who bore witness to Seattle’s live music explosion of Grunge and alternative bands and those that help to maintain the legacy today.