Pearl Jam and the Secret History of Seattle

by Jo-Ann Greene 

With the release of their debut album, Ten, Pearl Jam became a major musical force. They've headlined 
tours across two continents, and they stole the show at last year's Lollapalooza. A new album is 
imminent, and expectations are high. But then, they would be; Ten actually outsold Nirvana's Nevermind, 
the other major debut from a Seattle rock band, and reviews were terrific. Or at least, some of them were. 
Others weren't so kind.

"Annoying," wrote Robert Hilburn in the L.A. Times. "Offensive," added Bob Keyes of the Argus-Leader.

"(They) flail about in search of a groove and a song," concluded David Browne in Entertainment Weekly.

Even more damning was Nirvana's Kurt Cobain: "There are a lot of really mainstream bands, who sound 
just like Poison or resemble Poison very much, and they're being promoted as alternative bands. I find 
that really offensive. I think one of the biggest examples of that would be Pearl Jam."

And from the offended to the disgusted: "Pearl Jam — a hopeless Seattle Sub Pop wannabe band. Ick," 
courtesy of Steve Bojanowski, a Triangle staff writer.

The band had barely arrived, and the backlash was in full swing. But Pearl Jam — Jeff Ament, Stone 
Gossard, Mike McCready, Eddie Vedder and original drummer Dave Krusen — just laughed and added a 
quip of their own: "Pearl Jam Press love 'em," then put them all on an official promotional black and white 
T-shirt.

But who are these Seattle upstarts? They've been accused of having no history, of paying no dues. 
They've even been called "manufactured." But few bands come out of nothing, and while one of the few 
pieces of information they have volunteered (that Mike McCready and drummer Dave Abbruzzese were 
once members of Seattle's Cheap Ones) is erroneous, to say the least, Pearl Jam formed from the rich 
stew that was Seattle's pre-Grunge scene, following a tangled skein of incestuous paths that would 
include members of virtually every major Seattle band of the '80s. The final result would be some of 
today's best known names: Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Mudhoney and a slew of lesser-knowns ready to 
step up to the big leagues.

The story of Pearl Jam, then, is the story of a particular segment of the Seattle scene, tracing the 
individual band members through a maze of relationships which, no matter how far from the point they 
may seem to stray, inevitably reconnect at some point. For the fan, simply contemplating this maze is an 
introduction to some great music. For the committed collector, who has already traced Pearl Jam back to 
the band's most famous antecedents (Green River and Mother Love Bone) — hey, you're not even 
halfway through yet!

Deranged Diction - Enter Jeff Ament 

Strangely, the Pearl Jam story begins not in Seattle, but in Missoula, Montana, where Jeff Ament, a 
native of Big Sandy, was now living. His band, Deranged Diction, was formed in 1982, by a group of 
skateboarding, basketball-playing, University of Montana friends. At one point, the group had the 
distinction of being the only non-Top 40 band in the area.

Tom Kipp first saw them at their third or fourth gig, and Diction was in serious trouble. Being a hardcore 
band, they had run through their entire set at an embarrassing pace, a miserly 20 minutes.

A quick thinker, Kipp (previously vocalist with another Missoula band, the Renobs) made his way to the 
stage, and offered to sing "Johnny B. Goode" and "No Fun" with the band, two songs they all knew. "And 
in the aftermath of that very brief performance," Kipp recollects, "they decided to immediately throw out 
the singer they had, although they didn't get around to telling him for a month or two."

Aside from Ament and Kipp, Deranged Diction also featured drummer Sergio Avenia and guitarist Bruce 
Fairweather, himself a newcomer to Missoula. From a military family, Bruce had been living in Hawaii, 
then in California, before finally making his way to the University of Montana.

With a repertoire whose influences included California hardcore, Ament's personal love of Boston 
hardcore and Kipp's predilection for Flipper, Diction amassed a considerable local following. Early covers 
included the Dead Kennedys' "Holiday In Cambodia," Circle Jerks' "Back Against The Wall" and "Jealous 
Again" (Fairweather's favorite song at the time) and Black Flag's "No Values." After Kipp introduced the 
band to Flipper, their "Sex Bomb," too, was added to their set, and eventually became a Missoula classic.
In spring 1983, Diction headlined Missoula's Third Annual New Wave Festival-of-sorts, then prepared to 
enter the studio to record one side of the No Art, No Cowboys, No Rules cassette. (The other side was 
live, recorded at a show in Missoula over Memorial Day weekend, 1983.)

Kipp's most enduring memory of the cassette remains its appalling sound quality The studio side suffered 
from "a completely trebly mix"; the live side was absolutely hopeless. "It's about a tenth as good as the 
Heartbreakers' live album," he said.

This now hopelessly obscure cassette Jeff Ament's recorded debut was a limited edition of less than 100 
copies — featured 11 studio tracks: "Pruning," "So Bad," "I'm An American," "Have A Nice Day," "Aspirin," 
"Periscope," "Kill Or Be Killed," "Only," "Letters" (the alphabet song performed hardcore style), "What You 
See On TV" and "Not Fair" (with lyrics by Fairweather). The live side was comprised of "Cowboys," 
"Listen," "My School" (with lyrics by Ament), "Unknown," "Video Wars," a KGB cover "Dying (In The 
U.S.A.)," "Kokaine," "Kill (Or Be Killed)" and three songs retitled from the studio side, "Telescope" 
("Periscope"), "Pruned Again" ("Pruning") and "Tylenol" ("Aspirin").

Ament also designed the cassette cover, setting the stage for a virtual second career: throughout his 
musical life, Ament has received credit for virtually all the artwork, posters and T-shirts for every band 
he's passed through, including the jacket of Pearl Jam's Ten.

Diction was also included on a compilation released jointly by Mystic Records and the We've Got Power 
fanzine (Mystic MLP 33125) in 1983. The premise of the album was for each song to be a minute or less 
in length. Diction contributed "Pruning," incorrectly labeled as "Crooning" on the record; also featured on 
the record were Seven Seconds, Nip Drivers, White Flag and Red Cross.

With Diction already planning a move to Seattle to pursue fame and fortune, Kipp bowed out of the band. 
A replacement singer, Tim Healy, was brought in for their final Missoula gigs; he also recorded over some 
of Kipp's vocals on the Cowboys cassette. By June, Diction was on their way west.

Once in Seattle, the band went through an amazing transformation. In the early days after their arrival, 
Ament occasionally appeared on stage in a kilt. As time went on, he would grow his hair, although the 
eyeliner he first sported in Montana remained. ("In Missoula we wouldn't have survived the night with any 
more make-up," Kipp states.)

And then there was the music. Gradually, Diction shifted from hardcore into something else entirely. 
Daniel House, now head of the Seattle C/Z label, refers to them as "a pretty cool punk band," but not all of 
Seattle was so keen. Dale Crover, drummer for Aberdeen, Washington thoroughbreds the Melvins, 
recalls, "Jeff Ament was a Venom fan; we used to make fun of him."

Mark Arm (now of Mudhoney) adds, "Diction one of the fastest bands around, then they became the 
slowest band on earth ... and the weirdest."

"They sounded like Paranoid-era Black Sabbath," concludes Tom Kipp.

Deranged Diction folded in June 1984; Seattle had not brought fame or fortune ... yet.

Early Days in Seattle: Limp Richerds, Mr. Epp, Spluii Numa

When Ament moved to Seattle, it was still just a dot on the northwest corner of the map, and most 
everybody who considered themselves hip was into the Stooges, local legends the Sonics and hardcore. 
Or so Ben Sheppard (now bassist with Soundgarden) remembers: "Seattle was a guitar town. Kids would 
rather buy guitar strings or books than clothes."

Dale Crover agrees. "We were into obscure bands like the Stooges and Queensryche (which Jeff Ament 
really liked). Mark (Arm) was also into Ted Nugent."

This clash of musical cultures didn't stop the local kids from forming their own bands, even if variations on 
the hardcore theme was the order of the day. And so it would begin, with a handful of young bands, all of 
whom would eventually intertwine.

For Mark McCullough (now Arm), it began by, "hopping around with a broomstick to Beatles' songs, when 
I was six." Pushing the fast forward button, we arrive at his first band, Mr. Epp and the Calculations.
Named after a math teacher ("It was just a stupid name," Arm admits), Mr. Epp began as "a theoretical 
band," dreamed up by pupils at Bellevue Christian High School. According to legend, Mr. Epp landed their 
first record deal when the owners of the newly-founded Pravda label came across Arm and fellow band 
member Joe Smitty, posting details of a "forthcoming" (but nonexistent) show by the still imaginary group. 
Impressed by the pair's irreverence, Pravda offered them a deal on the spot. Arm responded, "Gee, I 
guess we'd better get some instruments!"

Mr. Epp underwent several line-up changes; according to vocalist/guitarist Smitty, however, the 
"definitive" Mr. Epp comprised himself, Arm (guitar and a couple of lead vocals), bassist Todd Why and 
drummer Darren Mor/x (now a member of Steel Pole Bathtub). The band's greatest influences, says Arm, 
were Flipper and Minor Threat.

Arm joined a second band shortly after Epp "formed." The Limp Richerds were based in the suburban 
town of Federal Way, and boasted, as Arm delicately puts it, "the spazziest, freaked out singer you could 
imagine, Dave Middleton." The Richerds' band logo, appropriately, took the medical symbol for mate, 
custom drawn to include a decidedly droopy arrow.

Beginning in 1982, both Mr. Epp and the Limp Richerds would record. Mr. Epp was by far the most active 
of the two; aside from a handful of compilations, the only significant Richerds release was a cassette 
which paired with another local band, A Rancid Vat.

Mr. Epp, on the other hand, has made a number of vinyl and tape appearances, the most important being 
the five track 7-inch EP Of Course I’m Happy, Why? In 1982 (Pravda PRO 711). Released in a hand-
drawn picture sleeve, this was also the first release on Pravda, and Smitty remembers there being talk of 
the EP being released in Europe, as a 12-inch, by Statik. That release fell through, but several of the 
tracks were possibly included on Statik (or related) compilations of the period.

The EP was followed by a compilation cassette titled Pravda Volume One. Epp contributed two tracks, 
"Mohawk Man" (from the Happy EP) and "Mr. Epp Talks To Youngsters." A live "Mohawk Man" is one of 
two Epp tracks to be found on the Bad Compilation Tapes sampler.

The Public Doesn't Exist, another cassette compilation released on Smitty's own Dog Tapes label (008), 
featured another two Mr. Epp tracks, "Spooky" and "Genocide," plus several Epp spin-offs: Mice 
Magnetic, which did not feature Arm, and Speed 20, which did. Arm, incidentally, sings and plays 
synthesizer on this track. The cassette also features an Arm-less Limp Richerds.

The following year, Mr. Epp's "Out Of Control" featured on the Seattle Syndrome Volume Two compilation 
(Engram 012); Epp also joined the Limp Richerds (again without Arm) on the What Syndrome cassette 
compilation (Deux Machina CSD 4), a response of sorts to the better known Seattle Syndrome series. 
The Epp tracks were "Strong Arms Of The Law" and "Keep On Smiling Til The End."

A who's-who of current Seattle talent, "at Syndrome also features Silly Killers, 10 Minute Warning and 
Hobo Skank, all of which feature future Guns N' Roses guitarist Duff McKagan on drums; Big Machine, 
the Rejectors, Firing Squad, the Accused, Solger and the Drills.

Another fascinating selection of early Seattle bands can be found on Basic Sampler (Basic Tapes CSV 
10). Mr. Epp contributed "What's Right" to an album which, aside from such northwestern acts as Maggot 
Brains, Solger, the Accused and the Fartz, also featured Meat Puppets, D.O.A. and Cheetah Chrome 
Motherfuckers.

Another Epp appearance was on Local Product, the debut release for the Green Monkey label (GM001). 
This cassette-only compilation featured Epp's "Falling" (Seattle heroes the Fastbacks are also present), 
and is remarkable for its pioneering use of a bar code as the sleeve design. Passed over a scanner, the 
code rang up "Beer Beer"!

Mighty Feeble (New Alliance NAR 013), says Smitty, was "a compilation of weird bands with names like 
Severed Head In A Bag." Again there was just one Epp track, "Jaded."

1983 also brought Epp's one and only album, the 27-track Mr. Epp Live As All Get Out, released jointly by 
the Dog Tapes and Deux Machina labels (Dog Tapes 13/Deux Machina CSV 7). Side one was recorded 
at Seattle's Metropolis on August 12, 1983; side two was drawn from a variety of shows, including several 
recorded previous to Arm's arrival. On this release, amusingly, Arm is credited as Mark Mahavishnu 
McLaughlin.




Since the band's demise, Smitty has released several further Epp recordings, including the 15-song 
compilation Irish Potato Famine: Prerequisite To Enlightenment (Introductory Course One) (Dog Tapes 
DS 14), in 1985. Arm appears on around half the album, which comprises studio demos, amongst them 
the immortally titled "Mack Truck from Mars," "The Common Cold" and "The Ballad Of John (Hinkley) and 
Jodie" (Foster).

Two years later, Smitty released Mr. Epp Tapes From The Dead, a collection drawn from live shows and 
band practice sessions (side one) and further studio recordings (side two). Included among its 24 tracks 
are two versions of the Beach Boys'/Regents' "Barbara Ann," two more of "Louie, Louie," "Mohawk Man," 
"Wild Youth On Money," "Moral Majority" and, finally, "Stairway To Heaven" — not, Smitty assures us, the 
Led Zeppelin classic, but a collection of what he calls "bad rock cliches."

Perhaps the ultimate release, however, was 1990's Hoop Skirt/Loop Yarn (Boxed Dog DV-1), a video 
compilation directed by Joe Blow and featuring both Mr. Epp ("What's Right" and "Keep On Slamming To 
The End") and Limp Richerds, with Mark Arm. Also featured were the Melvins, plus a number of short 
films by local directors.

In the pipeline, meanwhile, is a possible CD compilation, a joint release between Boxed Dog Tapes (as 
Smitty's label is now known) and Supra-Electra.

Bob Wittaker (who graduated from working at Sub Pop to managing Mudhoney, and has a further 
convoluted connection — his mom once dated Pearl Jam's Stone Gossard's dad!) remembers the Limp 
Richerds as a weird band, playing "spasmodic music." Soundgarden's Ben Sheppard recalls that they 
were "a little more structured than Mr. Epp, and a little more jokey, whereas Mr. Epp were way wigged-out 
Pere Ubu, loud, cleverly stupid, really weird." It remains Mark Arm's proud boast that "Mr. Epp were the 
worst band in Seattle."

"Not true," retorts Daniel House. "The worst band in Seattle was my band, Death of Marat, who had the 
distinction of being the suckiest band ever in Seattle. We were art fags, we couldn't play, we blew! Other 
bands have claimed the title, but we blew harder than they did — whoever they were."

He admits, however, that Mr. Epp was "definitely the most infamous band around. I loved them on record, 
hated them live. They were truly the full embodiment of snide rock." If Death of Marat had any rival 
whatsoever, House would go for Limp Richerds."

Arm says, "We kind of enjoyed the fact that people thought we were the worst band in the city," but House 
counters, "they probably think they were the worst band in town but they were wrong. There are awful 
bands and there are great awful bands. Limp Richerds and Mr. Epp were truly great awful bands. The 
Richerds played one show with Death of Marat — what a bill!"

Matt Cameron (of Soundgarden) insists, "Limp Richerds were pretty bad, but they were trying to be bad. 
The worst bands were those new wave bands that were around at the time, those really Weird new wave 
bands that I really liked to laugh at.

"I always thought that Mr. Epp sounded pretty tight and techno. I thought they were the Seattle version of 
Kraftwerk!" There again, Cameron never saw the band live.

Another future Mudhoney member, Steve Turner, considered the Limp Richerds and Mr. Epp his favorite 
bands, even if the Richerds did "look like suburban nerds, and the punks would yell 'art fags' at Mr. Epp."

In 1982, while Turner was still a junior in high school, a school friend, Alex Shumway, introduced him to 
the older Arm at a TSOL gig. Turner himself would join both Mr. Epp and the Richerds in 1983; prior to 
that, he formed his own band, the Ducky Boys, with another friend, Stone Gossard. (Stone is his real 
name, incidentally; his sisters are Shell and Star.)

It was to be a short-lived project, lasting around six months; when it was over, Shumway offered Turner a 
spot in his band, Spluii Numa. "But then Mark asked me to join Epp, and they sounded a lot better." One 
assumes he means as a proposition, not musically.

Turner also joined the Limp Richerds just in time to catch the band's death throes. Three months later it 
was history; Turner never even performed live with them.




As for Mr. Epp. Their sound was changing."They played really fast, and they didn't know how to play," 
remembers Turner. "But when I joined, Mark was learning, and it began to sound more like rock 'n' roll."

Arm is more dismissive. "When Steve came in, he was just another guitarist that couldn't be heard over 
the bass, either."

By 1984, Mr. Epp, too, had bitten the dust, to the relief of eardrums throughout Seattle.

Spluii Numa, too, were no more. "They were fun," laments Turner. "They were kind of modeling 
themselves after southern California hardcore bands, like Social Distortion and Bad Religion." But, "they 
weren't anything great."

As always, Arm prefers a more direct approach. "They were a cheap attempt to reach the kids by playing 
songs that sounded like Social Distortion or GBH. They had two kinds of songs: their GBH songs and 
their Social Distortion songs. The whole point was to make kids like them, which was not the point of Mr. 
Epp or Limp Richerds."

Bob Whittaker has happier memories. "Spluii Numa were an awesome punk band, although they also 
dressed up as preppies. (Spluii's bassist, Keith Strobel, incidentally, is now Mudhoney's accountant!)

Ben Sheppard has fond memories of the band as well. "They were melodic punk rock. And Alex 
Shumway wore a kilt" — which was Daniel House's immediate recollection as well, along with Shumway's 
mohawk. "They were a riot, really fun, irreverent. They had an awesome 'fuck you' attitude. They played 
with the kind of energy that only young men with an inordinate amount of testosterone raging through 
their bodies can muster."

With the collapse of their bands, it was inevitable that Arm, Turner and Shumway, now operating under 
the name Alex Vincent, would start thinking about putting together another group to terrorize the 
neighbors. But there was one thing that both Arm and Turner demanded: a bass player with a distortion 
box, "like the one we had in Mr. Epp, but preferably one that could actually play."

There was only one guy in Seattle that fit that bill, and according to Arm, "he jumped real high." He was 
former Deranged Diction bassist Jeff Ament.

There was only one problem, as Turner explains. "I got a job where Jeff worked, and I talked to him about 
the band. But he didn't like Mr. Epp. He thought we were horrible! He didn't want to be in a band with us!" 
So they just kept hounding him and finally, their persistence paid off. The seminal Green River — named 
for a notorious local serial killer — was born during the summer of 1984.

Green River

Green River, comprising Ament, Arm, Turner and Vincent, debuted at a party on Seattle's 12th Ave., a 
slot Ament arranged through the headlining PMA's guitarist, who worked alongside Turner and himself. 
The band played several more gigs as a four-piece over the next six months, but with Arm having given 
up playing guitar to concentrate on his vocals, the band's sound needed filling out. Finally, Green River 
recruited a second guitarist, Stone Gossard.

Since the demise of the Ducky Boys, Gossard had moved briefly into March of Crimes, formed by a group 
of Bainbridge Island musicians (Gossard himself was from Seattle's Capitol Hill). Crimes' bassist Ben 
Sheppard labels the band as "speed core"; the omnipresent Daniel House adds "metal-influenced 
hardcore punk" to the mix.

Matt Cameron, now playing alongside Sheppard in Soundgarden, adds, "They were fucking awesome! 
They sounded extremely raw, inspired punk-rock. It was high school kid punk-rock that's onto something. 
They were very abrasive sounding."

But Gossard's involvement was to be short-lived. Sheppard recalls, "I brought him in because he was a 
great guitarist, but he just didn't get on with the others." Soon after Gossard's arrival, the rest of the band 
fired him. At loose ends, he was ripe to fall into Green River.

It's interesting to note that Gossard was heavily influenced by Kiss. Some time before he joined Green 
River, Bob Whittaker recalls Gossard taking a pair of Capezzios and by nailing 2 x 4s to them, creating 
his own platform shoes. "I don't know if he ever wore them outside the house though!"



He was in good company. According to Tom Kipp, "Jeff had really huge, billowing hair, and with the 
scarves and his facial structure he really did look like Jon Bon Jovi." Photos of Green River also bring the 
New York Dolls and Hanoi Rocks to mind, admittedly with a much lighter touch in make-up.

Gossard made his Green River debut at the Gray Door in Seattle. Chris Friel (then a member of Shadow, 
alongside future Pearl Jammer Mike McCready) remembers, "I was pretty blown away. I was the only 
Green River fan in Shadow. I told the rest about the gig, and they all started laughing."

In October 1984, Green River opened for the Dead Kennedys at Seattle's Moore Theatre. Their reception 
was mixed: half the crowd seemed to enjoy it, the rest pelted the band with popcorn, ice and shoes.

Two months later, in December 1984, Green River entered Crow Studios with producer Chris Hanzsek, to 
record their debut album, the six-track Come On Down, for the independent Homestead label (Green 
River was actually discovered by the label's A&R man, Gerard Cosloy).

Come On Down was to remain in the can for a year, finally appearing in late 1985. In the meantime, in 
January 1985, the band took another shot at a large audience, when it opened for Sonic Youth and local 
heroes the U-Men, at Gorilla Gardens (an old Chinese theater in Seattle's International District). It then 
continued working the northwest in readiness for its first U.S. tour, scheduled for early fall. It was on the 
eve of this outing, in August, 1985 that Steve Turner announced he was leaving the band.

Unlike Ament and Vincent, Turner had never been into hardcore or metal; his tastes ran towards the 
Pebbles compilations of raw '60s garage band music. And while it was one thing to have friends with 
diverse musical tastes, it was quite another to be in a band with them. As far as Turner was concerned, 
Green River was becoming far too metallic for his liking.

"Stoney and Jeff," Turner relates, "were like heavy metal kids. They were into Motorhead, and Stoney 
was really into Kiss. I was into the California hardcore, but I also liked the Clash, Devo and 999."

Turner returned to school for two years, attending Western Washington University and working part-time 
"at such high-powered jobs as parking cars." Former Diction member Bruce "Bootsy" Fairweather was 
quickly drafted in to replace him, and in October 1985, Green River embarked on a disastrous tour.

Mark Arm provides the details, "While Steve was safely in school we were stuck in the midwest. We had 
seven shows altogether; it was kind of like a vacation; we all worked and saved up money for the tour.

"The problem was, no one knew anything about us." Scheduling problems had pushed Come On Down 
back a little, "so we didn't have any records out. We did two shows opening for Big Black: they had 
records, but there was still only 30 or 40 people there. We headlined CBGB, playing to six people: four 
Japanese tourists and two people that worked there. I guess they liked us; all six stayed for the entire 
show. Maxwell's, in Hoboken, New Jersey, was pretty good as well.

"But Detroit was the worst. We opened for Sam Haig (now of Danzig) on Halloween, and everyone had 
this bad-ass attitude. We’re thinking it’s going to be great — 'Yeah, the Stooges, MC5.' But these people 
just wanted everything fast. Jeff was wearing a pink tank-top with 'San Francisco' in purple letters, and 
with his hair (big and flowing), well you can imagine.

"This one girl kept spitting at me, and Jeff put his foot out to block the spit. But this guy thought he was 
kicking her in the face. He was huge, and pulled Jeff right into the crowd. In the past, I’ve been pulled into 
the crowd, and Jeff rescued me, so now was my chance to help him out. But Jeff is a big guy, and I’m not. 
Still, I jumped in. The guy was a seven-foot-tall brick of a man; the only thing that saved our asses was an 
armed policeman."

So, the tour wasn't a great success. But its very occurrence was, for Green River was one of the few 
Seattle bands to actually make it out of the area.

"Back then," reminisces Daniel House, "even going to Portland was a big deal. The first two bands to go 
on tour were the U-Men and Green River, and they got full stories in The Rocket (Seattle's premier music 
paper). They had big going away shows!"




Come On Down finally made it into the stores just in time for Christmas 1985; The Rocket described it as 
"a mixture of Metallica and Lynyrd Skynyrd with Henry Rollins as lead singer." Early pressings of the 
album appeared on a now very collectible green vinyl (black vinyl pressings remain common); more 
recently, Come On Down has been made available on CD.

Green River celebrated by organizing their second U.S. tour. Once again they played CBGB, and this 
time there was more than a handful of people present, including Aerosmith's Joe Perry. Immediately, 
rumors flooded the Seattle scene that he would produce their next record. But the Dry As A Bone EP, 
recorded in June 1986 (but, characteristically, not released for another 13 months) found Jack Endino, 
not Perry, behind the control board.

There were two new Green River releases during 1986. First, the C/Z label included "10,000 Things" on 
Deep Six, a limited (2,000)-edition vinyl compilation album which also featured Soundgarden, the Melvins, 
Skin Yard, the U-Men and Malfunkshun.

This was followed, in November, by a single coupling, Green River's own "Together We'll Never" with the 
Dead Boys' classic "Ain't Nothin' To Do," released on the band's own ICP label. (According to Dale 
Crover, Arm also wanted Green River to adopt another seminal punk classic, the Stooges' "Dirt." The 
session ended with Jeff Ament refusing to play the bass line; "he thought it was too easy." The same 
band's "Search And Destroy" was, however, a regular in Green River's set.)

Recorded eight months earlier, in March 1985, "Together We'll Never" appeared in a limited edition of 800 
green vinyl copies, which were given away at the record's release party at the Vogue. This is the scarcest 
Green River release, although black vinyl passings of the same single come a close second.

Green River continued to play locally, including a show with Agent Orange on August 8th, then embarked 
on their third and final tour. But it was their Seattle shows that ensured the band's legacy would live on.

During one memorable gig at the Central, for instance, the audience threw Spam and bread at the band. 
Lunch may have been served, but the gunk also got stuck in the monitors, and not only was Green River 
fined, they were banned from the club. In retaliation, the band started throwing things at the audience: 
cooking oil was Nils Bernstein's (publicity director at Sub Pop Records) favorite projectile.

July 1987 brought the release of Dry As A Bone, the five-track EP recorded with Jack Endino a year 
previous. This record is of particular interest, both to Green River fans and students of the Seattle scene 
in general, as it marked the first individual band release on the now legendary Sub Pop label. (Earlier 
issues, dating back to label founder Bruce Pavitt's days as a fanzine editor, were nationwide 
compilations.)

Bone originally appeared as a 12-inch single, and has gone through several different pressings over the 
years, the most collectible being the first, characterized by a yellow printed insert. When this edition of 
2,000 was exhausted, a pink insert was produced for subsequent releases.

Well-received locally, Dry As A Bone made little impression elsewhere. But that did not stop Sub Pop 
from wanting more, and in August 1987 Green River set to work on what would become the Rehab Doll 
EP. Before this could be released, however, Sub Pop had to reconstitute itself: between them, Dry As A 
Bone and the debut release by Soundgarden (the Screaming Life EP) had all but bankrupted the label. It 
was to be another year before Sub Pop was ready to start releasing records again, by which time Green 
River was no more.

The band's run of bad on-the-road luck showed no sign of abating, coming to a head at a gig in L.A. In an 
interview with Rocket editor Grant Alden, Arm explained, "We went down to L.A., and had a guest list of 
10 people, all of whom were from major labels. Only two of them came. Meanwhile, I wanted to get my 
friends in and they [the band] said 'No, it's really important that we get these industry people in.' But these 
people didn't give a shit about us; I'd rather have had my friends come in for free."

Musical clashes, too, haunted Green River. "They were trying to play Guns N' Roses and the brand new 
Aerosmith," Arm shudders. "None of them had any interest in the tape I wanted to play, rockabilly and 
Thee Milkshakes."'

The crunch came on Halloween [19871, when Arm went down to practice. He already knew that the rest 
of the band had been working casually with Malfunkshun's vocalist, Andy Wood; tonight, it transpired that 
the relationship was casual no more. "They said, 'This is the end.' I said, 'Okay, cool.' I could see it 
coming for a long time."



Rehab Doll was released in June 1988 close to nine months after Green River disintegrated. The first 
thousand copies were pressed on green vinyl, while cassette versions of the EP featured a bonus track, a 
cover of David Bowie's "Queen Bitch." (Rehab's title track, incidentally, was cowritten with 10 Minute 
Warning's Paul Solger; another album track, "Swallow My Pride," dated from Steve Tumer's time with the 
band.

Since that time, Sub Pop has done a remarkable job of repackaging Green River's legacy. In July 1988 
Dry As A Bone and Rehab Doll were combined for a 16-track CD (and cassette) release, augmented with 
"Queen Bitch," an alternate mix of "Ain't Nothing To Do" and the Dry As A Bone outtake "Searchin'."

Another outtake, "Hangin' Tree," was included on the Sub Pop 200 triple 12-inch compilation, released in 
December (and subsequently repackaged on CD). This remarkable glimpse into the past also includes 
the Fastbacks' cover of "Swallow My Price;" plus two contributions from Mark Arm and Steve Turner, in 
the guises of the Thrown-Ups and, of more lasting renown, Mudhoney.

1989 saw two hitherto unreleased Green River tracks, "Bazaar" and "Away In A Manger," included on a 
second C/Z compilation, the wryly titled Another Pyrrhic Victory — The Only Compilation Of Dead Seattle 
God Bands. This release, incidentally, is a collection in its own right; according to label supremo Daniel 
House, a limited edition of 2,000 CDs was accompanied by 3,000 vinyl pressings, of which 300 were 
pressed in orange vinyl and 300 in yellow. The record itself had a large hole in the middle, requiring a 45 
rpm adaptor, even though the disc itself spun at 33.

Finally, 1992 saw the Dry As A Bone cut "Baby Takes" included on the Sub Pop love songs sampler, 
Aftemoon Delight (SP 153).

For a band with so little recorded history behind it, it would seem that Green River was just another local 
band that never made it to the Big Time. However, although they may have had little influence nationally, 
they would have a profound impact on the Seattle scene.

Sub Pop's Nils Bernstein summed it up this way: "Green River was one of the first bands to merge metal 
and glam into punkrock. Jeff and Bruce dressed like joke glam, while Mark wore ripped spandex; it was 
all very tongue-in-cheek. And it all metamorphosed into what is now called grunge. They were the New 
York Dolls go hardcore."

Another observer, Greg Gilmore, was similarly horrified by their clothes. "Jeff wore satin material, shiny 
shirts and vertically striped pants." They had the big stadium rock influence ("UFO!" chortles Gilmore), as 
exemplified by Jeff s dress, but the others had the punk-rock look, black jeans and T-shirts. "So, a slightly 
slowed down Pearl Jam. They had the flair, not the hair."

At the time in Seattle, only Soundgarden could rival Green River's fame. The Rocket called them "a 
throbbing sonic unit. Their hardcore/metal/greasy rock fusion is a double-barreled attack of audio 
destruction, and their onstage ferocity is legendary."

Dale Crover was less impressed. "The first time I saw Green River, Jeff had 'Venom' taped to his guitar. 
Their first demo tape was the best; they went downhill from there." Nevertheless, the Melvins still play 
Green River's "Leech" live, and included it on their Gluey Porch Treatment album (Alchemy CZM 103) in 
1987. Green River's own version, incidentally, exists only in demo form.

Jonathan Poneman, now joint head (with Bruce Pavitt) of Sub Pop, was equally unimpressed. Throughout 
1987, he was the booking agent at the local Scoundrel's Lair club, where Green River staged the Dry As 
A Bone record release party. He was also investing in the Sub Pop label, but when Pavitt approached him 
for money to record another Green River album (the eventual Rehab Doll), Poneman was horrified.

"I thought they sucked! In fact the first show I saw them do, where I didn't think they sucked, was the 
record release party. While I could appreciate their sensibilities and their sense of humor, live, they 
always came to a point which I associated with Jock Rock.

"Originally they were a post-hardcore rock band, but as they developed, they became something which 
was more immediately derivative of the '70s. I just didn't get it. But the party was one of those events 
when it was total anarchy and total control at the same time. You had a feeling that if Mark said, 'Destroy 
the room,' people would have. There was a real rapport between band and audience.




"The great thing that started to happen ' which Green River came to represent, was a sense of humor and 
panache. They used to practice and practice and practice; and it didn't help. That's what made them 
great! Basically, they were the band that dared to suck."

Mudhoney and more... Arm and Turner Revisited

With the break-up of Green River, the members would finally split down musical lines. Jeff Ament, Stone 
Gossard and Bruce Fairweather would continue playing together in a new project, Mark Arm would rejoin 
Steve Turner, and Alex Vincent would leave music behind altogether, eventually moving to Japan.

Like his Green River bandmates, Arm had also been involved in sundry extra-curricular activities, 
including the Thrown-Ups, an ad hoc project which kept him in contact with Steve Turner.

Even during the early days of Green River, Turner had been involved in the Thrown-ups. Arm joined him 
there about six months later, the only two constants in a band which otherwise underwent numerous 
personnel changes before arriving at the "classic" lineup of Turner, Arm, singer Ed Fotheringham and 
drummer Scott Schickler. (Schickler played both drums and guitar in Limp Richerds, while Fotheringham 
is an accomplished artist whose work graces the last two Mudhoney album covers.)

The Richerds and Mr. Epp may have been awful, but at least they rehearsed. The Thrown-ups did not, 
they just gigged and recorded, and perhaps the strangest thing of all was, people let them do it. By late 
1988, the Thrown-Ups had three 7-inch EPs released by Amphetamine Reptile: Felch, Smiling Panties 
and Eat My Dump. They also contributed one track to Sub Pop 200, "You Lost It," which is remarkable in 
that Arm plays drums.

It may sound like a strange concept for a band, but it gets weirder. "The only thought that went into the 
band was what sort of stupid-ass gimmick we were going to use," Arm confirms.

In the December 1986 issue of The Rocket, the band explained that their music — in keeping with their 
name — "sounds like vomit looks.

Fotheringham continued, "We call it Barf Music," while Leighton, bassist at the time, described a typical 
Thrown-Ups rehearsals: "It will consist of us sitting around and making up song titles. And, oh yeah, we 
like to talk about the concept of the band, not really practice or anything, but talk."

Most of the concepts came from the creative genius behind the group, Ed Fotheringham, who had 
emigrated to Seattle from Australia. There was the Zip Bag show, where the Thrown-ups dressed in 
garbage bags, cut to look like leather trousers. Fotheringham made up packets, filled them with whipped 
cream, and they were inserted in the band's pants. The highlight of the show came when the group shot 
the whipping cream out of their pants, 20 to 30 feet into the audience.

Then there was the time they decided to be the dirtiest band in town, and after spraying themselves with 
shaken-up Pepsi, covered themselves in dirt. Or the show they dressed up as flowerheads, utilizing 
daisies cut out of cardboard.

But perhaps the best was a Christmas show. The Thrown-ups were supposed to be the three wise men 
and baby Jesus, with Fotheringham playing the infant Lord. Unfortunately, he was unable to actually 
construct a manger, but the props that were being used as sheep looked pretty good. So, Fotheringham 
covered himself with spray glue and cotton balls ... three wise men and a sheep!
Still, all good things must come to an end, and around 1990, Turner and Arm were fired from the group. 
Given two days notice of an upcoming show, and with no time to hatch a suitable gimmick, they declined 
to play. They were sacked there and then.

Although the Thrown Ups were fun, Arm and Turner had more than enough on their plate to keep them 
fully occupied. No sooner had Green River run dry than Arm and Turner were piecing together 
Mudhoney, with ex-Melvins bassist Matt Lukin and Bundle of Hiss drummer Danny Peters.

Signing, perhaps inevitably, to Sub Pop, Mudhoney made their vinyl debut in August 1988, with the 
"Touch Me I'm Sick" single (SP 18). Further 45s, the Superfuzz Bigrnuff EP (SP 21), and two albums, 
Mudhoney (SP 44) and Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge (SP 105), released over the next four years, 
conspired to establish Mudhoney as perhaps the Seattle band-most-likely-to, a prospect which was in no 
way diminished when the band signed to Reprise last year. Their major label debut, Piece Of Cake, has 
already spawned one alternative radio evergreen, "Suck You Dry."

Also consuming Tumer's time were the Fall Outs, a band described by Sub Pop's Jonathan Poneman as 
"fun, a Mod-Jammish thing." The Fall Outs so impressed Turner that he played bass on their first album, 
then released it on his own Supra-Electra label. (A second Fall Outs album has just been released on 
Estrus Records ESCD 128.)

Turner has also worked with Love and Respect, and the Sad and Lonelies, the latter reuniting him with Ed 
Fotheringham (the first record to come out on the SupraElectra label), while Bush Pig added Arm to the 
brew for a four-song single recorded in Australia on the advice of two of the members of King Snake.

Arm has also been busy. In 1990 he released a solo single, The Free Wheelin' Mark Arm (SP 87), its 
cover a tribute to the Dylan album of the similar name (the A-side is a version of "Masters Of War"). Most 
recently, Arm can be heard playing guitar on the new album by Adelaide outfit Blood Loss, and with 
Turner, as one half of the Monkeywrench rhythm section (Arm plays drum, Turner bass). Formed when 
Mudhoney passed through Austin, Texas on tour, and featuring songwriter Tim Kerr (ex Poison 13), 
Gashuffer's Tom Price (ex-U-Men) and Martin Bland (of Lubricated Goat), Monkeywrench has released 
one album, Clean As A Broke-Dick Dog (SP 129).

Malfunkshun

Jeff Ament, Stone Gossard and Bootsy Fairweather, meanwhile, were about to embark upon a 
remarkable career of their own, one which would see them hook up with two of the most important names 
on the Seattle scene: drummer Greg Gilmore and Malfunkshun's bassist/vocalist extraordinaire Andrew 
Wood. 

"The first time I saw Malfunkshun," says Dale Crover, "there was this girl in a furry coat. She was walking 
up to the front of the stage, and people were trying to pick her up; I was looking at her, and she was pretty 
huge. Then she got on stage and started playing bass."

"She" was Andrew Wood.

Malfunkshun's story begins on Easter Sunday, 1980, when Andrew and his oldest brother Kevin bowed 
out of a family dinner, at their Bainbridge Island home, and joined drummer David Hunt for their first 
practice/ recording session.

Andrew had long been writing and recording songs on his own; in fact, Kevin can't remember a time when 
he hadn't. "He wrote a song at age three that got recorded! My father was in Vietnam, and we used to 
make conversation tapes to send over, and Andy sang a song on it. He was always performing and 
singing."

Dave Reese soon joined on bass, but Malfunkshun played only one show as a four-piece, at a party. By 
summer, 1980, Reese and Hunt had quit (they went on to join Skindiver); Andrew took over bass duties 
(he was also the singer); Kevin remained on guitar, and Andrew's school friend, Regan Hagar, joined as 
drummer.

Hagar was already playing with a band, the Maggot Brains, alongside future Accused/Gruntruck bassist 
Alex Sibbald; the group which gave him "the impetus to actually join a band" was 10 Minute Warning. 
(Interestingly, Hagar did the cover for the Warning's earlier incarnation, the Fartz' album, World Full Of 
Hate; band member Steve Hoffman shares credit.)

The Maggots "were not a very musical band, we just played anything we wanted." At one show, for 
example, Hagar handled lead vocals, "and I don't sing at all." Nevertheless, they created enough of a stir 
to get covered by the New York Rocker, even if the piece did say the band didn't have a clue. (They didn't 
really have songs either, although they did have some covers, including the ubiquitous "Louie, Louie.") It's 
not surprising then, that Hagar opted to go full-time with Malfunkshun.

The new-look Malfunkshun's first show was Bainbridge Island's Blackberry Jam festival in August 1980. 
At the time, remembers Kevin Wood, the group was still learning how to play, and their sound was "pure 
punk rock with lots of screaming and loud chords, total hardcore."

Soon Malfunkshun started playing around the "local Seattle dives," as Kevin puts it, although, at the time, 
options were severely limited, particularly for bands like Malfunkshun, with under-age members. There 
was only a handful of clubs operating on the circuit; parties and high school dances aside, the only other 
alternatives were renting out halls (a favorite among the hardcore set), and bars, which limited audiences 
even further.

By 1983-84, Malfunkshun's sound had begun to change. Andrew was being heavily influenced by Marc 
Bolan, says Kevin, "and we started to become more melodic, although we were still a very heavy band."

During Malfunkshun's early days, Andrew created an on-stage persona, "Landrew the Love Child." Clad 
in white face makeup and a flowing cape, Landrew was the antithesis of the multitude of metal bands that 
bedecked their songs and album jackets with satanic references. "We were an anti-666 band," explained 
Landrew in The Rocket in 1986, "because that's when the Satan thing was becoming really big. So we 
were a 333 band and did anti-devil songs.

"But it's called 'love rock' because we love to play it. I thought of what to call it day at work — we're a 
Deranged Gypsy Hard Rock band."

With all this activity, things seemed to be looking up for Malfunkshun. But a problem loomed: Andrew 
himself. Extremely, shy, he created a persona which he seemingly never, removed. But beneath this 
perpetual onstage personality, something dark haunted him, a darkness that eventually saw him turn to 
drugs.

In 1985, Andrew entered a rehab program. The band was put on temporary hold until his return, then 
swung back into action when it made its recorded debut.

Although Malfunkshun was constantly making tapes of their music, it was Daniel House who would first 
record them for posterity, on C/Z's Deep Six compilation (alongside Green River, et. al). It was an album 
which left Kevin, at least, dissatisfied., "We just had a few hours in the studio (a restriction that applied to 
all the bands included), but we pulled it off."

The band's two contributions to the set were "Stars 'n' You" and "With Yo' Heart (Not Yo' Hands)," the 
latter a song now more familiar from the Melvins' cover version, released on a 1990 single (Sympathy For 
The Record Industry SFTRI 81).

House describes the making of Deep Six as "one big blind date. There was a rule that only one member 
of the band could be in the studio with the producer." Time, and therefore money, was kept to a minimum, 
but, Kevin Wood continues, "It would have been better if we'd had our hands on the controls. The record 
just wasn't upfront enough."

With the release of Deep Six, Malfunkshun began landing more prestigious shows. They opened for the 
Wild Dogs, Soundgarden, Skin Yard and 10 Minute Warning (the latter at the Gray Door), but, Hagar and 
Kevin Wood agree, their biggest and best show was an earlier outing, opening for Discharge and the 
Fartz at the Showbox, in 1982. Numbers-wise, however, Kevin describes it as "a bit of a I fizzle." Held up 
at the Canadian border, Discharge was forced to delay the show until the following night. Virtually nobody 
showed'.

Malfunkshun also performed on a now near-legendary billing, alongside the U-Men, Soundgarden and 
Skin Yard. Perhaps the greatest line-up ever, though, was a, Tacoma gig, around 1986-87, that also 
featured Red Cross, Green River and Soundgarden.

Part of the reason for the band's live popularity was Andrew's dynamic stage presence. "We'd be on 
stage," Kevin explains, "and everybody would be looking at Andy, paying attention to every little thing he'd 
do, even Regan and I."

"We were the big flamboyant concert in a small club setting," Hagar relates. "We were really tongue-in-
cheek; people found us amusing. I think people came to see Andy as much as to hear the music."

Even so, the band would only headline a grand total of four or five times, all at local Seattle clubs like the 
Vogue and Gorilla Gardens. Their audiences never got above a couple of hundred people, depending 
upon the opening act, but the group was gaining a small but loyal following. Still, there were other 
problems. The band never owned a p.a., and was reduced to borrowing Green River's (they also shared 
Green River's practice space on and off for many years; the Fastbacks, too, sublet their space to 
Malfunkshun at times.)

The Deep Six material aside, Malfunkshun's, recording ambitions remained largely confined to four-track 
demos until as late as 1987, when the band began thinking more seriously about such things.

According to Kevin, "We have maybe 10 songs in high quality demo form which Regan and I are currently 
considering [record company] offers for." These include "Miss Liberty," "Winter Bide," "I Wanna Be

Your Daddy" ("I can never understand Andy's lyrics!" admits Kevin), "Make Sweet Love," "Bangladesh 
Jam," "Rocketship Chair" and Ted Nugent's "Wang Dang Sweet Poontang."


Another two tracks, "My Only Fan" and "Shotgun Wedding," were recorded, in 1987 and 1988 
respectively, with producer Jack Endino, and released on another C/Z cornpitation, Another Pyrrhic 
Victory (again alongside Green River).

However, a number of Andrew's compositions, from this period exist as solo recordings. Beginning 
around 1984, and lasting throughout the remainder of the band's career, he would occasionally perform 
solo, accompanied by backing tapes. Hagar recalls one particularly memorable show at the Ditto, which 
started off normally enough with Andrew singing and playing on his electric piano. Then, he took a break, 
produced a bowl of milk and a box of Cocoa Puffs (Andy was a big cereal fan), and began holding forth 
on its virtues, before throwing the bowl, and its contents, over the audience.

"Andy threw stuff for years," Hagar chuckles, "but people never retaliated! He had this thing about 
throwing fluids on the audience. It happened at every show. It used to amaze me. I'd talk to him, and say, 
'People are going to get mad,' but he'd just answer, 'No, they won't,' and he was right, the audience loved 
it. Everyone knew he was so good-natured that he didn't mean it in a bad way."

As Andrew's fame spread, he added another aspect to his career: emcee. Over time, he would host many 
local shows and benefits. But still he found time to write and record songs on his home four-track, using 
an emulator, a drum computer, an acoustic guitar and his ghetto blaster for overdubbing.

Some of these songs then made it onto a cassette titled Melodies And Dreams; according to Kevin, what 
was particularly interesting about this "release" was that every tape featured different songs, and a 
different hand-made cover. Hagar estimates 33 copies were sold through local record stores; another 
dozen were given away to friends, and an indeterminate number sold via mail order.

"He didn't actually pursue selling them," Kevin says, "but if someone sent him money, he'd tailor-make a 
cassette for them." A write-up on Malfunkshun in The Rocket in December 1986 included Andrew's post 
office box number; $3.33 (remember his turnaround on 666?) would get you a cassette. Andrew also 
requested gifts; apparently, the band "like red herrings."

Neither Kevin nor Hagar could put a number on the amount of tapes that Andy had sold this way. Kevin 
ventured a dozen, but it was probably higher. As each tape was individually made, and Andy was 
constantly writing new songs, there's no way to determine which tracks are on them.

By now, Andrew was living in Seattle and hanging out with Jeff Ament and Stone Gossard. It wasn't long 
before the three were jamming together and writing songs, and as time went by, their friendship 
deepened, leading to the eventual dissolution of both Green River and Malfunkshun.

In late 1987/early 1988, under the name Lords of the Wasteland, Ament, Gossard, Wood and Hagar 
started playing occasional shows in between their regular band commitments. The first two or three gigs 
took place in the basement of Luna, — a Seattle shoe store.

The Lords' entire repertoire comprised covers; Hagar remembers performing the Stones' "Stray Cat, 
Blues," Led Zeppelin's "When The Levee Breaks," and the James Gang's "Funk 49." The early gigs, he 
says, "Were just a novelty, these people from different bands playing in a shoe store." Eventually, 
however, it would become something else entirely. By the time of their final show, both Green River and 
Malfunkshun had folded, and Bruce Fairweather had joined the Lords.

(Coincidentally — or otherwise — one week after the Lords' final gig Mark Arm and friends played a show 
under the name of the Wasted Landlords. "I think the concept was the key," Bob Wittaker delicately 
suggest.)

Kevin Wood relates the last days of Malfunkshun, "Andrew got kind of anxious for success, and Green 
River was breaking up. They already had labels interested in them, and a successful underground career. 
I always felt Green River was a good band, but their singer (Arm) didn't quite fit the mold of what they 
were trying to do. I thought they needed more of a rocking singer, and as it happened they got one."

Andrew Wood originally intended working with both bands, but it was not to be. The Lords were taking up 
too much of his time. Malfunkshun struggled on for another show or two, before playing their final gig 
supporting Skin Yard at Tacoma's Community World Theatre in 1988.

Toying with the notion of keeping Malfunkshun together, Kevin and Hagar auditioned bass players, but 
without success. As Kevin says, "Andy had taken over so much of the writing, including all of the lyrics 
and a lot of the music, not only was it depressing to try do it without him, it just didn't work."

Instead, Kevin and the third Wood brother, Brian, joined forces with a friend, drummer Joe Abrams. They 
never gigged, or even found a name, and when the project fizzled out, Kevin joined Two Bit Gypsy, a 
band whose claim to fame came when Jack Endino cut a four-song demo with them. The titles say it all: "I 
Want Your Love," "Teaser," "Lick Your Lips" and "Spinning Wheel."

"It was total cliche rock", Kevin says.

Kevin Wood would continue mixing and matching with a succession of musicians, including Abrams, 
Steve Nelson (of the Accused), and ex-Feast vocalist Tom Mick, before finally piecing together the Fire 
Ants in March 1991.

Together with brother Brian, ex-Native Messiah bassist Dan McDonald and former Nirvana drummer 
Chad Charming (who met the rest of that band at the final Malfunkshun gig-small world!), the Fire Ants 
released two records, a single, Ant Acid (Dekema 200101), and the Stripped EP (200102), before Brian 
Wood left earlier this year. (The current Fire Ants vocalist is Lee Compton. The Woods brothers have 
continued working together on a separate project, while Brian alone appears on Matt Cameron and Ben 
Sheppard's forthcoming Soundgarden spin-off project, Hater, contributing vocals to one track.)

Like Green River, the numbers belie the splash that Malfunkshun had created in the Seattle area. Kevin 
recalls a small group of loyal fans, but in reality, the group seemed to be a "band's band."

Ben Sheppard says, "Most musicians in Seattle were Malfunkshun fans. Sometimes they were great, 
sometimes they weren't. They were cavemen on acid. Kevin used to solo the whole time, and Andy used 
to do his hair out, add glitter, and don a trench coat." Matt Cameron echoes the sentiment. "Malfunkshun 
frightened me; they were so good, so heavy and trippy, they had the whole fucking insane element going. 
They were one of my favorite bands."

Chris Friel, whose own band, Shadow, was playing Seattle around the same time as Malfunkshun, adds, 
"Malfunkshun was awesome. If you play them alongside Green River, you definitely see who has the 
upper hand!"

Journalist Richard White, now head of the Washington Music Industry Coalition, continues: "Malfunkshun 
was like nothing you've ever seen before, a cross between Kiss, T. Rex and Cheap Trick. Those were 
Andy's influences, and he wore them on his sleeve."

But Dale Crover sums them up best. "They were the godfathers of grunge!"

10 Minute Warning, Feedback, Skin Yard and more

Drummer Greg Gilmore, from nearby Gig Harbor, had a lengthy career behind him when Gossard, Ament 
and Wood offered him a place in their band. Indeed, many locals insist his band, 10 Minute Waming, was 
the influence behind Green River, a claim Steve Turner admits wasn't far from the truth. "Warning were 
really a great band. They were totally slippery psychedelic."

Mark Arm was equally impressed. "They were great, they were one of my favorite bands at the time." He 
neglects to mention his predilection for wearing paisley shirts to 10 Minute Warning shows, something 
Daniel House, at least, has yet to forget. (They were House's favorite band too; he saw them every 
chance he got, which certainly made life easier when he joined the band!)

Gilmore joined Warning, just after their name change (previously they were the Fartz) in late 1983, 
making waves when they opened for the Dead Kennedys (Mr. Epp opened the show).

Gilmore joined his first band, Eternity, around 1980-81, linking with future Patti Labelle sideman Kenny 
Cummings (now with Seattle Flu), Japanese exchange student Kenichi Ogiwara, Bobby Beaulieu (now 
with the Beatniks) and Paul Jackson, both of whom went on to the Boibs and Agent Boy, alongside Dave 
Krusen.

Then came speed-poppers the Living, which included friend Duff McKagan (of Guns N' Roses fame). 
When McKagan quit, to become 10 Minute Warning's new drummer, Gilmore soon followed, at which 
point



McKagan switched to guitar. (McKagan also drummed for another local band, the Fastbacks.) Other 
members of the band included guitarist (and erstwhile Green River songsmith) Paul Solger, bassist David 
Garrigues and vocalist Blaine Fart (previously, all the band members were surnamed Fart!).

At this point, 10 Minute Warning was "still pretty punky," according to House, but following the departure 
of Fart (to the Accused) and his replacement by ex-Swad Steve Varewolf, "The sound began to change to 
a more sinister and dark psychedelic thing." McKagan and Garrigues quit in late 1983, and through his 
acquaintance with Steve Varewolf, House was recruited on bass. His dream had come true: he was now 
an official Warning.

Gilmore recollects, "Daniel was solid, and inadvertently he became incidental to how the band worked. At 
that point it became more of a jazz-punk-rock thing. We had a lot of sections that were pretty free form.

In early 1984, the band went into Star Track studios to record its first album, an outing paid for by its 
"sugar daddy, Swan," as House describes the band's mentor. Eleven tracks were taped, including a 
version of Pink Floyd's "The Nile Song," plus the band compositions "Last Dream," "Again," "Life," 
"Stooge," "Necropolitan Affair," "Echoes," "Disraeli," "Heaven," "Woke Up Dreaming" and "Memories 
Gather Dust."

"It was meant to be a record," says Gilmore, "but it turned out to be an abortion." Strangely enough, 
House's precise words too.

Last year, Jack Endino made an attempt to salvage those old tapes, remixing and remastering them, with 
Steve Varewolf recutting some of the vocals. House is now threatening to release the album on his own 
C/Z label, an action that would please a lot of people no end.

During his time in 10 Minute Warning, House was also involved in another band, Feedback, a three-piece 
that included bassist Tom Nerm and future Soundgarden drummer Matt Cameron. Feedback was an 
instrumental band, "Red-era King Crimson type of thing," is how House describes it.

Cameron adds, "We played some parties, we learned some King Crimson covers, and we just played 
kind of dorky weird prog-rock for keggers. We were a learning band. Then Jack Endino (a friend of 
Nerm's) came over and played with us."

Feedback recorded an album's worth of material, the 11 tracks constituting their entire repertoire: "The 
Blush," "The Haha," "Whats'r name," "Tomorrow Is Sunday," "Alpha 50," "On Hold," "My Time," "Soul 
Doubt," "Squirm," "Transition" and "Vertigo," but beyond a cut on a C/Z compilation, Feedback remain 
unheard.

Both 10 Minute Warning and Feedback fizzled out in December 1984. For Feedback, the problem was 
their inability to get shows — no one wanted to book an instrumental band. Warning collapsed when 
Gilmore and Solger quit; for Gilmore, the band simply wasn't going anywhere.

Solger left for New York (he is now a member of Meddaphysical); Gilmore reunited with McKagan and 
headed for L.A., where they started answering ads and attending auditions together. It was through one 
ad, in the Recycler, that McKagan met Slash and Steve Adler of the nascent Guns N' Roses. But while 
Gilmore attended a few of their practices, "not being a drinker or partyer, I felt like a fish out of water." He 
moved back to Seattle; McKagan moved into the spotlight.

Meanwhile, House and Endino's relationship continued. House was in the process of forming a new band; 
in February 1985, Skin Yard emerged with a line-up that included House (bass), Endino (guitar), Jason 
Finn (drums) and vocalist Ben McMillar (now in Gruntruck). Finn quit soon after later reappeared in Love 
Battery) and was replaced by Matt Cameron.

Skin Yard debuted on June 7, 1985, opening at the U-Men's Leave Home show (they were about to 
embark on their first tour). In the six years of Skin Yard's existence, until their demise in 1991, the band 
would go through several musical changes, as well as see a steady progression of new faces.

"Skin Yard," says House, "went through a whole lot of transitions; from art grunge-heads, art fags to very 
competent art grunge-heads. People used to accuse us of being progressive, which meant we knew bar 
chords. We were the King Crimson of the grunge scene. We did a Crimson cover, 'One More Red 
Nightmare,' and 'Tales Of Brave Ulysses' (by Cream), which we dropped because people liked it too 
much."



"Skin Yard was a foundation band," adds Cameron. "They were always there. It was basically guitar-riff 
rock, that was really hard to sing over. Our singer didn't have very much luck with these incredibly weird 
songs we'd come up with. They're really dissonant, angular kind of dorky prog-rock.

"Before Ben [McMillan] came on board, we were just an instrumental thing in Jack's basement. He 
recorded us a lot; he was learning how to do his engineering while we were doing instrumentals."

Cameron left Skin Yard in 1986, and went onto a series of other projects; "I always had two to four things 
going at once; by that time, I'd just about had enough. I said to myself, 'Fuck. I just don't want to do 
anything.' Then I saw Soundgarden, and I decided, I have to be in this band."

When Cameron heard drummer Scott Sundquist had quit, he immediately called Soundgarden. "They'd 
heard me with Skin Yard, and they were into it." The rest is history.

In one of those weird coincidences, Soundgarden's vocalist, Chris Cornell actually contacted Gilmore as a 
possible replacement for Sundquist. Gilmore, however, was in the process of moving, and couldn't make 
Soundgarden's rehearsal; Cameron could.

Instead, Gilmore replaced Cameron in Skin Yard, but stayed for just two gigs, and while Skin Yard was to 
record on numerous occasions, he did not take part in this either. "My feeling was 'Why?'"

Gilmore did, however, continue working with Jack Endino throughout 1985-86, contributing to two Endino 
solo albums: Angle Of Attack (Bobok 4) and Jack Endino's Earthworm (Cruise 021). His next move would 
be out of the U.S. entirely. For five months, he traveled throughout the Far East, visiting Bali, Indonesia, 
Nepal, India and Hong Kong. He arrived home on December 22, 1987, with a dollar in his pocket, and 
took a walk up Seattle's Broadway that would change his life.

Mother Love Bone

For the Lords of the Wasteland, everything was about to fall into place, as Greg Gilmore came walking up 
the street. He ran into Stone Gossard, who asked him if he wanted to come and jam with Jeff Ament, 
Bruce Fairweather, Andrew Wood and himself.

Intrigued, Gilmore agreed. Today, he describes Malfunkshun as a "psychedelic Kiss or Black Sabbath," 
adding that he remembers Andrew (and Hagar) from his days with 10 Minute Warning, "back when they 
were just little fans."

For now, Gilmore's role was merely to help the rest learn the songs. "I'd not played for so long, it was kind 
of weird dealing with it." More rehearsals followed over the next few days, until one afternoon after a 
practice, Regan Hagar showed up. Gilmore was totally unaware that Hagar had also been playing with 
the group, but sensed that something was wrong: "All of a sudden everyone got real quiet."

No one said a thing at the time, but eventually, Hagar learned the truth, as did Gilmore, who took virtually 
two months to realize he really was in the band.

Now, they just needed a name. One suggestion was the Dum Dum Boys, taken from an Iggy Pop song. 
But it was Andrew Wood who would come up with the clincher: Mother Love Bone. He then spent a week 
trying to convince the rest of the group.

By February 1988, the newly christened MLB was in Reciprocal studios, recording their first demo. The 
tracks included "Showdown," "Holy Roller," "Jumping Jehovah," "Lubricated Muscle Jive," "Capricorn 
Sister," "Half-Ass Monkey Boy," "One Time Fire," "Stargazer," "The Other Slide" and "Lady Godiva 
Blues."

Jeff Ament, acting as the band's manager, sent this first demo out to try to get some shows. One copy 
found its way to Mark Allen Productions, and landed on the desk of Kelly Curtis, a partner in the firm 
whose past management career included such local talents as Maurice and the Cliches.

Formerly in charge of Heart's fan club, Curtis had also worked as a tour manager for a time, and 
according to Gilmore, now offered his expertise gratis. (A particularly amusing error in the recently 
published Pearl Jam An Illustrated Biography, by Brad Morrell, gives Curtis a sex-change, repeatedly 
referring to him as a woman. This same book rechristens Greg Gilmore Gary Gilmore, scrupulously noting 
he is no relation "to the notorious murderer"!)

Shortly after Curtis's arrival, MLB returned to Reciprocal to record another demo. Much of this simply 
reprised the first: "Capricorn Sister," "Half-Ass Monkey Boy," "Lady Godiva Blues," "Holy Roller," 
"Stargazer" and "The Other Slide"; there were also five new songs: "Stardog Champion," Chloe Dancer," 
"Mind Shaker Meltdown," "Savoy Far Slide" and Elijah."

This demo, as well as cassettes combining songs from both sessions, were not only used to get more 
gigs, but were also sent around to record labels. Anna Statman, who Ament had met when she worked at 
Slash Records, but who was now at Geffen, was particularly impressed, so much so that she convinced 
the company to finance yet another MLB demo.

This third session took place in June 1988, and featured versions of "Half-Assed Monkey Boy," 
"Stargazer," "Holy Roller," "Stardog Champion," "Chloe Dancer," "Capricorn Sister" and one new track, 
"Time Fade Away."

In July, with Kelly Curtis in tow, MLB visited L.A. to meet with Geffen; returning home, they then invited 
Curtis to become their manager. At first, he wasn't interested, but the band finally got its way.

Now came the waiting. The meeting with Geffen had gone well; the label wanted to sign them, and the 
contract was meant to go off that week. So they waited, and waited and waited, all through the summer. 
Finally in September, MLB went back to Reciprocal and recorded yet another demo, debuting six new 
songs: "Bone China," "Captain Hightop," "Heartshine," "Crown Of Thorns," "Zanzibar" and "Red Hot 
Shaft."

Meanwhile, their telephones were ringing off the hook. Somehow, one of their demos had found its way to 
a host of other record companies. Gilmore says, "It took six months for a contract to arrive, and when it 
did, it was from another label entirely. When Geffen finally did make an offer, so had a lot of other labels."

"We loved the band so much that we actually bought the Stardog label to get them," was how PolyGram 
touted its new signing. In reality, the company Created Stardog specifically for the band, to give the EP 
that important "underground" feel.

In January 1989, MLB entered Seattle's London Bridge Studios to begin work on their debut Shine EP. 
Officially comprising six tracks, CD pressings of the EP are interesting in that they include a secret bonus 
track which doesn't index. After a lengthy break following "Capricorn Sister," the September 1988 demo 
version of "Zanzibar" appears. (One track from Shine was also lifted, posthumously, for the Singles movie 
soundtrack, "Chloe Dancer/Crown Of Thorns.")

Shine's record release party was held March 20th at the Oxford Tavern in Seattle. For the event, 
PolyGram made special rawhide chewbones with GET BONED/ MOTHER LOVE BONE printed on them. 
About 75-100 of these very rare promotional items were sent out.

Another amusing item was the original MLB T-shirt. Using leftover Green River stock, the band 
superimposed Andrew Wood's head over Mark Arm's. (Nils Bernstein from Sub Pop adds this interesting 
insight: "Andy brought an even more glammy metal sound to the band; Mark was more the sarcastic punk 
while Andy was very tongue-in-cheek.")

Ten days later, MLB was at the Channel in Boston, the first date of a nationwide tour, opening for Dogs 
D'Amour. The outing would take them across the nation, and into Canada, before climaxing at Seattle's 
Oz on May 4th, where they headlined (Alice in Chains opened) to rave local reviews.

Gilmore recalls, "We played a lot of empty halls, because Dogs D'Amour didn't have much more of a draw 
than we did. The tour was a success on some levels, but commercially and financially it wasn't. It cost us 
a lot of money."

Still, numbers aren't everything, and one of Gilmore's favorite shows was in front of 10 people in 
Rockford, Illinois, a last-minute booking, replacing a canceled St. Louis gig. Even better, as far as Gilmore 
was concerned, were the two nights at the Club With No Name in L.A.

The first night, Dogs D'Amour, obviously fed up with Wood's onstage antics, positioned their equipment to 
ensure that he would be unable to move around as much as he normally did. Wood took his revenge the 
following evening. Using a wireless mike, not only did he take over the stage, he now had the entire club 
at his disposal. (A bootleg of an excellent show at Providence, Rhode Island on March 31 captures the 
excitement of Mother Love Bone live.)

Returning home, the waiting began anew. MLB had a long break from spring into the fall, relieved only by 
the occasional local gig. Gilmore couldn't believe "how painfully strung out the whole process seemed to 
be."

Finally, it was back to the studio, where MLB recorded a cover of Argent's "Hold Your Head Up." 
PolyGram was considering releasing a compilation featuring modern bands playing '70s covers. Sadly, 
the album never came to fruition, although MLB's contribution has recently appeared on a bootleg EP, 
backed with two live tracks, presumably taken from the Providence show.

MLB also re-recorded "Bone China" and "Holy Roller" with producer Davitt Siegerson. These tracks, too, 
remain tantalizingly unreleased.

Finally, in September, MLB started work on their debut album, Apple, at the Plant in Sausalito, California. 
Gilmore remembers finishing his contribution in five days, spending the next two months riding his 
mountain bike while the rest of the band continued slogging away in the studio.

Virtually everything the band recorded appeared on the album, including a rerecording of the Shine track, 
"Capricorn Sister." According to Gilmore, only one outtake exists: "Seasons Of Change."

"We did a couple of takes, but never finished it, because it was terrible," he says. Journalist Richard White 
adds that two loose instrumental tracks, "Smile And Lick It" and "Very Special Music," were also recorded, 
although strangely, Gilmore has no recollection of either.

Apple was completed at the London Bridge Studios in Seattle around November, although a final remix 
would take place in London, England, without the band. And now they would have to wait some more, as 
PolyGram felt that a spring release date was more appropriate for a new act.

In the meantime, a video was produced for "Stardog Champion," directed by Josh Taft, at a cost of 
$70,000. It was not an experience Gilmore relished. "There was some live footage involving children 
looking disenfranchised, but the thing that really iced the cake was this little animated Stardog that leapt 
from one side of the screen to the other, leaving behind a rainbow arc. It was a joke. But the joke was on 
us, because we had to pay for it!"

With the band on another unwelcome hiatus, Wood once again checked into a drug rehab program. For 
him, November and December 1989 were spent trying to come to grips with his problem. He returned 
home with even more creative energy than ever, and threw himself back into his music.

Wood's constant writing and taping had continued unabated throughout MLB. In fact, he had been 
discussing a solo project with PolyGram, which had expressed interest. Brother Kevin remembers, 
"Working with his emulator, he was putting together his own songs, quite a bit apart from the rock thing. 
Stone and Bruce also did some work with him, and Andy and I were working on the pre-production 
phase."

By March 1990, the band was eagerly awaiting the imminent release of Apple. One final show was 
scheduled at the Central, before the record release party. Gilmore has one lasting recollection of that 
night. "A pitcher flew up from the audience, directly into Andy's hands. He just caught it; I don't think he 
even saw it coming!"

On Thursday, March 15th, Wood did an interview with Seattle journalist Michael Browning. Reading it 
today, there's not a hint that anything was wrong. One gets the impression, as Wood talks about his drug 
problem, that for the moment he had it licked. No one expected the moment to be just that.

The following evening, Wood's fiance, Xana La Fuente, came home around 10:30. She found Wood 
collapsed on their bed; he was rushed to Harborview Hospital and immediately put onto a life support 
system. But the damage caused by lack of oxygen meant that recovery was out of the question. On 
March 19th, the machines were turned off, and one of Seattle's brightest lights was extinguished forever. 
Wood was 24.

On March 24, 1990, the Paramount Theater hosted a memorial service for Wood. A beautiful Memorial 
program was produced, featuring numerous photos of Wood, plus reproductions of pages from his 
notebooks. Included were the handwritten lyrics to "The Diamond Hand Shoot," "Love B Strong," 
"Brightness and Splendir" (sic), "Free Spirit" and "Chloe Dancer."

Another, less than legitimate, tribute appeared later in the year, a Melvins/Malfunkshun bootleg single 
which claimed to be a Special Melvins Fan Club/Andrew Wood Memorial Edition. Pressed on both black 
and yellow vinyl, the single featured Malfunkshun's two Deep Six contributions, plus four Melvins tracks. 
Packaged in a box, the release also included a condom, a pair of earplugs, a fold-out poster of the cover 
and, displaying an alarming lack of taste, a bag of white powder (either baking soda or sugar).

In the chaotic days following Wood's death, PolyGram proved itself to be a corporation with a heart. It 
gave the band time to think things through, as Gilmore remembers. "PolyGram was pretty cool; they sat 
back and asked us what we wanted to do."

The easiest decision was the fate of Apple. There was no question here: the band wanted the album out. 
Everyone had worked so hard on it; if nothing else, Apple would stand as a testament to Wood's talent. It 
finally appeared later that same year.

But what of the band itself? Rumors have circulated in Seattle that Ament wanted to recruit a new singer 
and go out on the planned tour, a scenario which outraged many local onlookers. In actual fact, it was 
Gilmore who wanted to continue.

This is not as heartless as some people think it sounds, Gilmore envisioned recruiting a new singer, 
recording some new songs, and including them on the album —one has to remember that at the time, 
MLB was virtually unknown outside of the Seattle area. The rest of the world had neither heard them, nor 
heard of them. Gilmore saw it as a fresh start.

But it was not to be. When Gossard announced he did not want to continue, Mother Love Bone ceased to 
be. It would be left to their recorded legacy to continue the band's name. Having lain dormant since its 
original release, Apple was reactivated in 1992, following Pearl Jam's breakthrough. Retitled simply 
Mother Love Bone, it appeared on CD and cassette with bonus tracks drawn from the Shine EP (repeated 
here in near-entirety the original bonus "Zanzibar" was omitted), and a very early demo of "Lady Godiva 
Blues."

Why this latter track was picked remains a mystery: "Hold Your Head Up," or the Siegerson session 
would have been of far more value. Gilmore himself was horrified: "What a dog!"

"Everything Soundgarden didn't want to be!" is how Gilmore laughingly sums up MLB. Then continuing on 
a more serious note, "Mother Love Bone was definitely groove conscious. Live, though, we were 
inconsistent. On a good night we could be just incredible."

Kelly Curtis echoes this sentiment. "To me, Mother Love Bone was great songs and the cool '70s thing, 
not glam rock, but Bowie. They could be amazing, and they could be not amazing as well. They were a 
very young band."

Chris Friel, on the other hand, had no doubts, "I am still a huge MLB fan, and I still think they're one of the 
greatest things ever to come out of Seattle. I think the fragility of the whole band was what made them so 
great. If they'd all been best friends, I don't think they'd have been such an incredible band. You could feel 
the energy on stage."

Kevin Wood adds, "A good rocking band that probably would have gotten as big as Pearl Jam. You've got 
to hand it to Stone and Jeff for keeping the ball rolling."

Other people, of course, automatically compared MLB to Matfunkshun. Ben Sheppard states, "Mother 
Love Bone was a little more refined and their guitarists were a little more structured."

Matt Cameron adds, "It wasn't as good or as appealing as Malfunkshun. Live, it just seemed kind of 
standard." Other critics complain that Wood was far more flamboyant in Malfunkshun.

Finally, there were some people who really didn't like MLB at all. Steve Turner delicately opines, "I was a 
lot happier when Pearl Jam got going." Sub Pop's Jonathan Poneman is equally candid: "With all respect 
to the memory of Andy, because he was a very sharp and funny guy, the Mother Love Bone vibe rubbed 
me the same way as Green River did, only more so." But then given more time, maybe both would have 
come around, just as Poneman finally did with Green River.

The latest addition to the MLB discography has been the The Love Earth Affair video, directed by Troy 
Smith. Including live footage filmed at the Club With No Name in L.A., the Central in Seattle, and the 
band's practice space in the International District, it also features the "Stardog Champion" video, as well 
as interviews with the band members.

Bootleggers have also been busy in the band's name. A recent trip to New York unearthed a cassette 
titled Live In Seattle, recorded during June 1989, and a CD single featuring what appeared to be a demo 
recording of "This Is Shangri-La." The most exciting news, however, comes courtesy of the July issue of 
ICE magazine, where it was reported that the Italian label MGR is planning an Andrew Wood compilation, 
including Malfunkshun and MLB demos, plus several of Wood's home demos.

Farewells

Following Mother Love Bone's untimely demise, Bruce Fairweather took a job at a photo lab, returning to 
music with Blind Horse (the name was inspired by the play Equus), a band started by vocalist Chris 
Tilden, and including bassist Mark Patterson and drummer Richard Stuverud.

Jonathan Poneman caught some early Blind Horse shows. "The first couple of times I saw them they 
were mind-blowing, and I was very interested in working with them [at Sub Pop]. They were akin to Black 
Crowes, but it wasn't 'Lead Singer Rock.' It had a very rootsy Rory Gallagher / Stones/ Humble Pie vibe. 
But they did it so effortlessly, so unpretentiously at first."

It wasn't long before Blind Horse was recording a demo; soon after, however, Stuverud left. Greg Gilmore 
remembers, "I was around when Blind Horse was being formed: I went and jammed a bit, but I was not 
moved at all. But then I saw them a few months later, and they were alright. A lot more time passed and 
when I saw them at RCKNDY, they were taking on a whole direction, making noise and creating chaos, a 
Stones kind of thing which I saw could be heavier, darker."

Gilmore promptly joined the band, but it was not to last. The Sub Pop deal fell through, and Gilmore 
played no more than five shows with Blind Horse before both he and Fairweather quit. Tilden followed, 
moving on to Native Messiah, with future Fire Ants bassist Dan McDonald. (Tilden would later audition for 
the Fire Ants.)

Only one Blind Horse recording would ever be released; "Black Sun" crops up on the Young And The 
Restless compilation album, released in 1991 by the Art Institute of Seattle's music department's own 
3:23 label (323001). A limited edition of 1,000 CDs, the album also features the Monomen, Slam 
Suzanne, Slobberpocket, Damn Bam, and Inspector Luv and the Ride-Me Babies, who grabbed another 
piece of history when they headlined over the future Pearl Jam, at that band's first-ever gig.

Fairweather, meanwhile, would eventually make his way into Love Battery (the band's name comes from 
a Buzzcocks' song), But instead of playing his usual guitar, he was brought in to replace bassist Jim 
Tillman. (Strangely enough, Tillman left because he wanted to play guitar.) Battery's drummer, Jason 
Finn, of course. was a founding member of Skin Yard, and was introduced to Battery guitarist Kevin 
Whitworth by Daniel House. The band—which The Rocket describes as "a pop-punk-psychedelic 
monster", also includes guitarist and singer Ron Nine, ex-Room Nine (a band best remembered as the 
winner of MTV's first Basement Tapes competition.)

By the time Fairweather signed on, in early 1992, Love Battery already had a sizable back catalog, 
including the Dayglo album (Sub Pop SP 131). A second album, Far Gone (Sub Pop SP208), has 
recently been released, and does feature Bruce Fairweather. "Love Battery," says Poneman, "are very 
guitar heavy, but very listener friendly. They write durable, memorable songs, with a '90s pop psychedelia 
feel, definitely containing a strong element of '60s influences."

Greg Gilmore, meanwhile, was cutting a swath through the Seattle scene, playing with so many people 
and bands that he would swiftly earn the title of "Seattle's premier pick-up drummer." As Ben Sheppard 
confirms, "Greg Gilmore is a goddamn good drummer, but nobody's discovered him yet." Prior to joining 
Blind Horse, Gilmore worked briefly with Shawn Smith, a local talent who had previously kept away from 
the incestuous band scene, preferring to write and play at home. CBS's Guy Ekstein was impressed, and 
arranged a session in L.A., with Smith accompanied by Gilmore, Paul Hinckland (from Son of Man and 
Sadhappy) and Pete Droge. Their efforts were in vain; according to Gilmore, the session was ruined by 
"Guy and his L.A. coke-head engineer. "

(Peter Droge is another big name around Seattle. mining a singer/songwriting vein. Mike McCready is a 
big fan and occasionally jammed with him onstage.)

To recover from such experiences, Gilmore left for another exotic vacation, traveling around Mexico and 
Central America; returned to Seattle for his stint with Blind Horse; then joined Crack Jockey, a trio 
comprising himself, Jack Endino and Stuart Dolquist (of the Hungry Crocodiles, and brother of Mike 
Dolquist, now a member of Silkworm, three of whom were in the Missoula-based Ein Heit, alongside 
Deranged Diction's Tom Kipp).

Crack Jockey played one gig, comprising one 45-minute improvised song, at the OK Hotel before Gilmore 
started working with El Steiner (real name: Larry Steiner) in a group that also included Shadow's Friel 
brothers, Chris and Rick, Michael Wenke and Michael Foste (now in Easy with the Friels), with a rotating 
series of guitarists. "'It was free love music," is Gilmore's glib description. 

Also known for his starring roles in both MLB's "Stardog Champion" and Pearl Jam's "Alive" videos, 
Steiner, according to Chris Friel, "is just this crazy person, who puts musicians in front of him, and lets 
them go wild."

Gilmore adds, "It's not just another Naked Guy on Stage story." Or is it? "One night he was playing in a 
rug diaper, which promptly fell off during the first song. He continued the show naked. This was at the OK 
Hotel at an all ages show."

Gilmore later helped record an El Steiner demo. He also linked up with Brian Fox (with whom he had 
briefly worked years before), in Chubby Children (the band folded in late '92). Along the way, he briefly 
replaced Chris Friel in Kristan Barry's band, and played some shows with local talent Rick De Church.

On February 2nd, 1993, Gilmore joined Son of Man. The band had been around since the days of MLB, 
surviving a house fire which destroyed all their gear in the spring of 1990, and a resultant two-year split. 
The group re-formed in the fall of 1992; typically, within the twisted Seattle scene, Gilmore replaced Dave 
Krusen.

Shadow—Enter Mike McCready

There was no question in Jeff Ament's and Stone Gossard's mind that they would continue playing 
together following Andrew Wood's death; it was just a matter of when and with whom. While waiting for 
the answer, Gossard spent the summer playing guitar with an old friend, Mike McCready. Like Gossard, 
McCready was a big Kiss fan; Chris Friel remembers that the day he met McCready, they watched Kiss 
take off their make-up live on MTV, Friel was a big Kiss fan too.

McCready's first band was Warrior, which formed somewhere around 1978-79. Originally a four-piece, the 
band also included Chris Friel and his brother Rick, and vocalist Danny Newcombe. Chris, a few years 
younger than the rest. was eight or nine at the time. Inevitably, the band played lots of Kiss covers: "Black 
Diamond," "Come On And Love Me" and "Cocaine," to name but three.

"We tried to write originals, but how do you write lyrics that young?" Chris asks.

Sometime around 1982-83, Warrior became Shadow, and the foursome was augmented by Rob Weber. 
"We were a good band, I was really proud of it," says Chris. "We were hard rock, but we had pop chords. 
We hated hardcore! Our look was somewhere between braces and spandex. To us, Kiss was everything. 
Mike was the tongue (as in Kiss's Gene Simmons); at rehearsals he would stick out his tongue and run 
around naked."

Mark Arm compares Shadow to early Def Leppard in that "they were really, really young. (The Rocket 
called them "Seattle's Menudo.") Their big thing was hoping to get signed, like Def Leppard were, at an 
early age. Stoney used to hang out with that scene as well; it wasn't really metal, it was like '80s pop-
psychedelic-metal. not trying to be like Van Halen, trying to be like Quiet Riot."

Dave Krusen's only recollection of Shadow was their old promo picture. What struck him was the Band's 
make-up and outfits. "Elvis Costello meets Menudo in slick, new wave outfits!"

Although Stone Gossard was indeed hanging out with the band during the early 1980s, Chris points out, 
"It was as a friend, not necessarily as a fan. At that point, he was learning how to play guitar. He was 
learning

'Dr. Love' by Kiss; that was the first song I ever heard him play!"

Early on, Shadow mostly played roller rinks, aiming for the all-ages crowd. That changed in October 
1984, when the Moore Theatre hosted a Headbanger's Ball, with a bill that included Culprit, Overlord and 
Shadow. Suddenly, Shadow found themselves opening in front of a packed house, and received an 
amazing response.

The following year, Halloween 1985, on a bill with TKO and Metal Church, Shadow was booed for not 
being heavy metal. Still, says Chris, "It was the pinnacle for us."

It was also the end of an era. Newcombe and Weber left following the second Headbanger's Ball, and 
Rick Friel took over the vocals. (Newcombe would rejoin briefly, before leaving for good.) On New Year's 
Eve, 1985, Shadow officially became a three-piece.

By this time, Shadow had moved onto the bar circuit, and found themselves opening for Green River at 
Gorilla Garden, noting good-naturedly that Gossard seemed finally to have come to grips with "Dr. Love."

Between 1983 and 1986 Shadow made four visits to the Kay Smith studio (now the Heart sisters' Bad 
Animals complex) to record demos. The first comprised four songs (Chris's comments are included): 
"Shadow" ("pretty great song"), "Don't Count The Tears" ("definitely our song"), "City Lights" ("pretty 
stupid") and "Gates Close On Me" ("another ridiculous song").

The second session was intended as an EP, but it was not to be. The group members were such 
perfectionists that they were never satisfied, and as they intended releasing the record themselves. 
Tracks included "Everyday," "Don't Count The Tears," "Just A Thought," "Blind Lead The Blind" ("a real 
heavy metal song") and the proposed title track, "The Kids."

The third session was done after Shadow became a three-piece, and featured "Don't Count The Tears," 
"Message Of Love," "Between 19" and "Running Straight Ahead"; the band's final studio stint produced 
"Love You So," "Don't Say Goodnight" ("a really awful song"), "Crash It Down" and "Life Goes On."

As a three-piece Shadow gained a harder edge, adding an infusion of energy and thrash. "Previously," 
Chris explains, "we'd been into being super tight. We'd practice at my mom and dad's five or six times a 
week, driving the neighbors crazy. As a three-piece we were having fun, and we definitely were not as 
perfect."

Visually, they were exhibiting an equally precocious, side. Shadow's original glammy look had now been 
replaced by "T-shirts, scarves and [orthodontic] braces," according to Chris, while Mike McCready had 
created a new stage act, bringing baby dolls on stage and smashing them. They were still heavily 
influenced by Hanoi Rocks, albeit with a heavier and funkier feel, directly attributable to local bands like 
Green River and U-Men.

A classic pose was captured in a Rocket T-shirt ad, in February 1986; Chris chews his brother's bead 
necklace, Rick looks provocatively at the camera, while McCready shrugs off his denim jacket, his 
expression evoking a startled rabbit.

Shortly after the completion of their fourth demo, Shadow relocated to L.A. At the time, they thought it 
would help their career; they secured a manager, and it seemed they were heading for the big time.

"Our sound and attitude was so different from everything else going on down there," Chris relates, " we 
really thought we'd make our mark. But we'd tell people we were from Seattle, and they'd say, 'Where's 
that? Is that an Indian village or something?"'

It wasn't long before the band's finances started running low. And without money, they couldn't practice. 
The end result was they weren't writing any music, although they did keep playing shows. Shadow's 
biggest gig was opening for Andy Taylor (ex-Duran Duran) at Fenders. "We got a really bad review from 
L.A. Weekly." Chris remembers. 'These guys are from Seattle...' They had this whole angle: 'Maybe a 
couple more shows down here and they'll get with it."'

Still, Shadow struggled on. They continued playing around town, including the Whisky, and their audience 
slowly began building. The band was having fun; the only thing missing was Danny Newcombe. They 
finally convinced him to come down and visit, but he hated L.A. so much that he refused to stay ... even 
though the band begged him.

Shadow stuck it out in L.A. for 13 months. They returned to Seattle in 1988, and resumed playing the 
local scene. Rick Friel then decided that he'd like to switch to guitar, and bring in a new bassist, an idea 
that left McCready cold. In fact, McCready was left cold by everything now; L.A. had totally burned him 
out on music. Less than six months after returning home, he left the band, at which point Shadow ceased 
to be. (The original five-piece reconvened for a reunion gig at Scattle's Hollywood Underground later that 
year.)

The split was more than amicable, says Chris. "Mike gave Rick one of his old, custom guitars. 'I can't do it 
anymore, you guys still have the energy, go for it."'

The Friels' next project was Jangle Town, formed in 1989, with Russ Reidner and Geoff Cooper. Chris 
describes them as "twangy, jangly rock with an edge. We had that Black Croweish kind of feel before the 
Crowes, but it was kind of poppy, more Stonesy." During this period, Chris also played with Kristin Barry, 
and recorded demos with her. Upon his departure, Greg Gilmore would take his place. (Barry later landed 
an Epic development deal through Michael Goldstone, who also signed Pearl Jam.)

In 1990, the OK Hotel staged a second full-fledged Shadow reunion, following a Jangle Town show. It 
was so successful that the band was requested to do a third reunion this April, opening for TKO. This time 
they said no. Besides the fact that McCready was currently off recording the new Pearl Jam album, for 
Chris, "it just didn't feel right."

From Jangle Town, the Friels, along with Michael Foster (who also played with El Stien, and had been in 
a late version of Jangle Town) and William Mueller, formed Easy, in 1992. Already one of the most 
exciting live acts on the current Seattle scene, Easy have recently completed a ten track demo album.

Tracing these musicians on vinyl is not easy. Shadow, sadly, never released anything, although Rick Friel 
reports that Mike McCready recently encountered a Shadow bootleg in San Francisco, apparently drawn 
from an early demo.

Six Shadow tracks can also be found on a two-cassette package, The Power Of Things, released 
privately by Alex Kostelnik, a friend and avid fan of the band. Shadow's contributions, two of which are 
titled "Untitled," were taped at various rehearsals in early 1984, and Kostelnik's liner notes wryly remark 
that, "Mike [McCready] is now on MTV with the old Mother Love Bone, but we still like to make light of his 
guitar antics. I don't think he minds, though."

Released in 1991, The Power Of Things was a limited edition, originally given to band members and 
Kostelnik's friends. A copy obtained by this writer is numbered #2029, but Rick Friel, for one, doubts that 
anywhere near that number was produced. In fact, he couldn't even believe that a copy had turned up. 
"That's a real collector's item," he said.

Chris Friel, meanwhile, can also be found on a couple of releases by the Squirrels' Joey Klein. Klein, who 
Friel describes as "a mellow singer-songwriter," cut a demo, from which the single "Stuck In First Gear" / 
"Making Wishes" (Pop Llama, PL57, 1992) was released. The pair is also on a local tribute album to 
coffee (before grunge, it was all Seattle was known for), Hey Joe. Chris can be heard on the aptly titled 
"Gotta Brew Another Pot" (Carving Knife, CKR 002, 1992).

Temple Of The Dog

Following the demise of Shadow, Mike McCready left music behind him for a bit, and returned to the 
community college he'd been attending on and off over the years. But it was impossible for him to 
abandon it forever, and under the aegis of a friend, Russ Reidner, he eventually returned to the musical 
fold.

In late 1988/early 1989, Reidner (who is now in the Cheap Ones, alongside former Shadow Danny 
Newcombe), Mark Patterson and McCready started playing together. The band had neither a drummer 
nor a name; rather, they would just select whatever felt right at the time. Chris Friel played one show with 
them, for instance, as the X-Men. The rest of the time, they just jammed and demoed in nameless, 
percussion-less isolation.

Around this time, McCready also started playing bluesy, Stevie Ray Vaughan-type music with another 
unnamed and short-lived group of friends, before forming Love Chile, a psychedelic blues band: "Muddy 
Waters meets Jane's Addiction," as Chris Friel puts it.

Love Chile only played two shows, both times supporting Jangle Town. One was at the OK Hotel, and 
Chris remembers Stone Gossard and Jeff Ament both being there. "That was the night," he recalls, "that 
they were reminded Mike could really play guitar. That night was probably the greatest I've ever seen him 
play, he was just on fire."

Gossard and McCready started working together almost immediately; Ament joined in later that summer, 
and soon, the three were compiling new songs. A band was slowly evolving.

While Gossard and McCready spent their time jamming, Ament was rounding up another group of friends 
to play with. Luv Company, as the aggregation was named, was not meant to be a band per se, just a 
chance for people to play together on a fun level. The gang included Shawn Smith, longtime friend Kim 
Dijulio (from Lazy Susan), Tom Gunn (of War Babies), Chris Friel, Blind Horse drummer Richard Stuverud 
(Friel played a couple of shows, Stuverud the rest), and later, McCready, who would replace Tom Gunn. 
The band's repertoire was exclusively '70s covers; Bad Company and Aerosmith songs were staples. All 
total, the band performed around five shows, all locally.

It was during this lazy summer of 1990 that Matt Cameron reentered the picture, along with fellow 
Soundgarden member Chris Cornell.Cornell had been a close friend and former roommate of Andrew 
Wood. As a release from his grief, Cornell penned two songs in tribute to Wood, "Say Hello 2 Heaven" 
and "Reach Down," envisioning them as a single. He enlisted Cameron, Ament, Gossard and McCready 
to help with pre-production, and slowly the single began growing into an album. It was not quite a tribute, 
but it was certainly inspired by Andy.

New material was constantly being brought into the sessions, not all of it for the project in hand. Some 
was destined for a demo that the trio of Gossard, Ament and McCready would use to complete their own 
band. All told, 12 songs ended up on tape, 10 with the trio augmented by Cameron, two —"Times Of 
Trouble" and what would eventually become "Black" — featuring Chris Friel.

Of these songs, the majority ("Once," "Alive" and "Black" included) would even eventually appear on 
Pearl Jam's Ten. Two more including "Times Of Trouble," would find their way onto the Cornell project, 
now dubbed Temple Of The Dog, after a lyric in Mother Love Bone's "Man Of Golden Words." (At least 
two others, including "Alone," were apparently shortlisted for the second Pearl Jam album.)

As Cameron explains it, "Some of the songs are now on Temple, some on Ten some are on both, twisted 
into combinations, like 'Times Of Trouble,' there's different lyrics.

"It was just a kind of get-together. There wasn't an agenda as far as what we were going to do. We 
wanted to try some new songs with a hand-picked group. When we got together for the demos, Stoney, 
Jeff and Mike were still getting their vibe together, it was really fun to witness. And of course, Jeff and 
Stone are full-on partners."

The Temple project was still underway when with their own demo now cornplete, Ament, Gossard and 
McCready began an active search for a singer and drummer. There was just one small problem: 
PolyGram still owned Stone and Jeff. The contract they had signed with MLB was both as a band and as 
individual artists. As soon as it became obvious that Ament and Gossard were starting to put something 
worthwhile together, PolyGram determined to hang onto them.

So the new band had a record deal already locked up—it was just with a record company they no longer 
wanted to work with. According to Gilmore, "Michael Goldstein was the A&R person who signed MLB, 
and he had moved to Epic. Now Jeff and Stone were stuck with this other guy who we all used to make 
jokes about. Everyone we knew at PolyGram had left, and Jeff and Stone had to fight to get out. And it 
was expensive." Once free, the pair and McCready signed with Epic.

For once, Gossard and Ament were to look outside the incestuous Seattle scene to make up the 
numbers, contacting someone they had no personal connection with. One of the people considered was 
drummer Jack Irons.

The former Red Hot Chili Pepper was certainly a talent worthy of consideration. The day they came 
knocking on his door, however, Irons was out, but his wife invited them in. She was given a tape with five 
songs ("Alone," "Once," Alive," "Black" and "Times Of Trouble"), and passed on the message, "Give it a 
listen; if you like it, call and see if you want to come up to Seattle for a little bit. Or if you know any 
singers, pass it on.

By now, of course, Irons was involved with his own band, Eleven, and had no interest in leaving. But he 
did have a friend, a singer that might be interested, Eddie Vedder.

Vedder and Irons met back in the autumn of 1989 at the Bacchanal in San Diego, when Irons was touring 
with Joe Strummer's band. A devout Strummer fan, Vedder was backstage, and was equally keen to 
meet the Peppers' former drummer. A friendship quickly formed, and Vedder would go up to L.A. once a 
week to play basketball with Irons.

And so Irons passed on the tape, telling Vedder, "These guys have been around, they were members of 
MLB. It looks like they've got a deal going, it's a serious thing, so see if there's something there for you."

Vedder took the tape home and listened to it. And there was indeed something there for him, so much so 
that he immediately started writing lyrics for the music (the demo had none), dubbed them onto the tape 
mixed it down and mailed it back.

This exchange occurred shortly before Irons left on tour with Redd Kross (coincidentally, a slot which 
Chris Friel had jus rejected). When he returned three month later, Vedder was already in Seattle.

Back in the Emerald City, McCready played Vedder's tape to Friel, and asked hit what he thought. "I said 
it was great. I told him I could hear this guy on FM radio, that he was definitely a great singer."

Originally from Chicago, Eddie Vedder family moved to Evanston, a town north the city, where they 
fostered seven younger children in a group home. Eventually, the family moved to San Diego, and it was 
there that Vedder bought his first guitar at 13 or 14. Once out of school, his life revolved around two 
things: surfing and music. At night he worked at a local club, and when wasn't working or surfing, his time 
was spent playing in a succession of local bands, including Bad Radio, Surf and Destroy, the Butts, and 
Indian Style.

The latter three bands faded into obscurity with no recorded history. Bad Radio however, did produce a 
demo between 1988-89, featuring four songs: "What," "Believe You Me," "Answer" and a live "Better 
Man." Vedder, who took over the managerial work for the group, shopped the tape around (this has now 
reportedly materialized on bootleg).

One of those tapes was sent to Marco Collins, now the music director at Seattle's KNDD, but back then 
DJing a local music show on 91X, out of Mexico. "The first time I met Eddie was in Seattle when he came 
into the studio. But he used to call and bug me to play his tapes back at 91X all the time. He told me, 'You 
were the first person to play my voice on the air. I even remember what you said about us, you said we 
were pretty thumping stuff, man."

Listening to the demo today, Collins remarks, "It sounds very Pearl Jammish; in fact, there's a tune on this 
tape that is very reminiscent of 'Even Flow' ('Answer'). They kind of have that Chili Peps thing going also." 
Hearing it, it indeed sounds as if Gossard and Vedder had joined the Peppers.

"Eddie was a contemporary of the heavy rock-funk type of thing," Jack Irons agrees. "He was very serious 
about making music; he was just younger at doing it. He got to the big leagues really fast." Today, Bad 
Radio would have been signed in a second; back then, record companies weren't interested in the San 
Diego sound. Vedder would have to come to Seattle to realize his dream.

Vedder arrived in Seattle to find Cornell, Cameron, McCready, Ament, Gossard and producer/keyboard 
player Rick Parashar preparing to record what became the Temple Of The Dog album.

Cameron explains what happened next: "When we started doing Temple, Eddie was just hanging out at 
the basement rehearsal studio that Jeff, Stone and Mike have. He wasn't totally acclimatized yet, so he 
was juststaying down there, hanging out, listening to the songs we were working on. And then he started 
singing." Vedder eventually took lead vocals on one track, "Hunger Strike," and contributed backing to 
three more.

Temple Of The Dog was recorded over a few weekends in November-December 1990, and was released 
on Soundgarden's label, A&M, in April 1991. The "band" itself played only one live show, at the Off Ramp 
in Seattle; it also convened for a video, shot to accompany the album's first single, "Hunger Strike."

Released as both a 12-inch and CD promo in the U.S., "Hunger Strike" appeared in all formats in Europe, 
spinning off a few collectibles in the process, including both 7-inch and 12-inch U.K. picture discs (the 
latter also packaged with a free poster), a cassette single and a CD digipack. The regular B-side on all 
four releases was "All Night ,Thing"; the 12-inch and CD also feature "Your Savior."

A second Temple U.S. promo CD single, coupling full length and edited (4:25) versions of "Say Hello 2 
Heaven," also exists.

The Last Piece Of The Jigsaw

With Vedder now filling their vacant vocalist position, Gossard, Ament and McCready turned their 
attention back towards a drummer. Tal Goettling, a member of Son of Man, thought he knew someone 
that would be perfect for the group, his longtime friend Dave Krusen. Goettling knew Gossard and Ament 
from the days of MLB, as Son of Man used to open from them; when he heard that the group was 
auditioning drummers, he passed the information on to Krusen. Dave auditioned, and was given a copy of 
the demo to take home. Two weeks later, he was asked to join the band.

Although he'd been playing locally since 1979, Krusen was a bit of unknown. Even Greg Gilmore, who 
seems to have played with every musician in town, didn't know him —at least, not at first. "Long ago, I did 
a gig at a high school, and there was this band of little kids, who opened. Their drummer was this little tiny 
guy — it was Dave!"

Krusen joined his first band, Outrigger, in 1979, when he was 13 or 14, The four-piece, like Greg Gilmore, 
hailed from Gig Harbor, and also included Tal Goettling, singer John Lester, and guitarist Dave Bowe. 
Playing straightforward rock 'n' roll, Outrigger performed mainly at high school dances and parties, and 
survived until 1981, folding when Bowe quit.

Krusen then enjoyed a brief stint in the Boibs, before joining Agent Boy with Gilmore's old (Eternity) hand 
mate, guitarist Paul Jackson (later of Bloodgood), keyboardist Shawn Kemp, singer Todd Stovall and 
bassist Regan Balmen. The band played what Krusen describes as "keyboard rock, progressive dance 
music." Kevo X Thomson provided keyboard sequencing.

With a repertoire which was half originals, half covers, Agent Boy received help from Steve Miller's 
personal assistant, Rick Fisher. He accompanied them to Rick Parashar's studio to record a demo 
comprising "B.O.Y.," "Beating Drum," "Prisoner" and "Stay With Me." Unfortunately, nothing happened 
with the tape, leaving Krusen so frustrated that he quit the band in 1985.

From here, Krusen would go on to play with a variety of people, beginning with Gary Willian, who played 
"straight ahead rock with a bluesy AC-DC feel." Tramps of Panic, a Tacoma band in a similar hard rock 
vein followed.
In 1988, Kevo Thomson's current band, the witty pop purists Liar's Club, invited Krusen to help out on two 
tracks from the EP Where Sinners Meet (Charlatan 41): "Where Sinners Meet" and "Suspicion," songs 
which Thomson describes as "Ultra-vox meets Oingo Boingo."

Krusen then joined Tal Goettling in the studio, to help record some of Goettling's solo material. The 
following year found him playing Top 40 hits with Hard Time, a job which lasted about six months. He 
then returned to Goettting, before linking up with hard rockers Warm Drive (with Johnny Clint, whose last 
band, HHour, featured alongside Malfunkshun and Green River on Another Pyrrhic Victory).

Pearl Jam

Krusen joined Ament, Gossard, Vedder and McCready during the fall of 1990, a mere week before the 
band played its first gig, opening for Inspector Luv and the Ride Me Babies (now Green Apple Quickstep) 
at Seattle's Off Ramp. The set comprised original songs only, and included "Alive," "Even Flow" and 
"Black," plus a number of others which remain unrecorded. Shortly after, in November 1990, the group 
recorded their first demo tape at London Bridge with Rick Parashar.

The band was currently calling itself Mookie Blaylock, after the famed New Jersey Nets guard (another 
name bandied about was Mang), and it was in this guise that the band embarked on a two-week west 
coast tour, opening for Alice in Chains. The itinerary took them from Vancouver to San Diego, and all 
points in between.

Blaylock may have felt privileged to have a band name itself after him, but it was going to lead to 
problems. He intended accepting sponsorships, and therefore had copyrighted his name. Mookie 
Blaylock the band was no more; Pearl Jam was born.

The origin of the name is shrouded in mystery, with several possible explanations, the most popular 
involving Vedder's Native American grandmother, Pearl, and her home-made peyote jam.

Following the Alice tour, Pearl Jam recorded a second demo at London Bridge with Parashar again in 
tow. Epic swiftly released three of the tracks—"Alive," "Wash," and a cover of the Beatles"'I Got A 
Feeling" — as a very limited promotional single.

This original release (Epic ZSK 4041) should not be confused with the lead song's subsequent 
appearances, and is today an expensive addition to the Pearl Jam collection. The individual tracks have, 
however, been made available on a variety of foreign releases: "I Got A Feeling" is included on Japanese 
pressings of Ten, for instance; "Wash" appears on 12-inch and CD pressings of the re-recorded "Alive" 
single in the U.K., and also as a bonus cut on several European Ten CDs.

Between December 1990 and February 1991, the band spent its time writing new songs, playing local 
shows and rehearsing. Gigs included two performances at the O.K. Hotel and three at the Off-Ramp. Two 
of these, incidentally, featured Ament's Luv Company as the opening act.

On March 11, 1991, Pearl Jam entered the studio to start recording what would become their debut 
album, Ten. (Dave Krusen's son, Micky, was born the following day.) It took a mere month to record the 
album, as most of the songs included were already written, the band, did jam some new material during 
the sessions. After a few weeks off in April (at which point the Temple Of The Dog album was released by 
A&M), Pearl Jam returned to the Off-Ramp in mid-May.

During this time, Seattle was bathing in the spotlight as the location of Cameron Crowe's movie Singles, 
with many Seattle residents landing bit parts in the film. Others would have a greater role, and then there 
were some, like Mike McCready and Dave Krusen, who virtually missed the boat altogether.

Pearl Jam met one of the movie's stars, Matt Dillon, and that night, Gossard, Ament and Vedder went 
partying with him. McCready and Krusen, unfortunately, had prior arrangements. The next day they 
learned that the partying had doubled its an audition for the movie's fictional band, Citizen Dick (led by 
Dillon), and that they were not included. Still, Krusen's drum kit would star in the film, with Vedder sitting 
behind it! Krusen eventually appeared in a crowd scene during an Alice in Chains performance. 

Matt Dillon, accustomed to being the star of his films, was a little uncertain about Singles at first. "'Then I 
met Pearl Jam," he told Entertainment Weekly, 'and that sold me. I thought, okay, I know where I'm goin'. 
These guys are cool."

Dillon needed to work hard on his role as a pivotal member of the grunge scene. His normally short hair 
was covered with a long, lank wig, and as for the clothes, well, they were the real thing, courtesy of Jeff 
Ament. The two were the same size, and Dillon felt they gave him a more realistic look. Ament's bedroom 
was also the inspiration behind Dillon's in the movie.

On May 25th, 1991, the company held a wrap party at RKCNDY, to celebrate the end of filming. 
Entertainment was provided by Pearl Jam; it was the last gig Krusen would perform with them. According 
to Krusen himself, he was suffering personal problems at the time, and knew he needed help. 
Immediately after the party, he checked himself into rehab. The timing couldn't have been worse.

The band was scheduled to leave for England in June, to mix Ten at Ridge Farm Studios in Dorking. 
They also had a video to shoot (again at RKCNDY), to accompany "Alive." Texas-born Matt Chamberlain, 
whose past credits included the second Edie Brickell album, Ghost Of The Dog, was brought in to fill 
Krusen's place. (Pearl Jam knew of Chamberlain through his work with Brickell, as well as through mutual 
friends.) Although he would not accompany the band to England, he would appear in the video.

Chamberlain was at a crossroads; he'd also had an offer to join Saturday Night Live's studio band. After 
just a few weeks with Pearl Jam, he decided to go with G.E. Smith. In his stead, he offered Dave 
Abbruzzese, an old friend from Dallas whose last band had been the immortally-titled Dr. Tongue.

Abbruzzese arrived in Seattle four days before Pearl Jam played Seattle's Mural Amphitheatre on August 
3, 1991. With a crowd of 4,000 out front, he was quickly broken in.

(Dave Krusen meanwhile, had come out of rehab, and by late summer was again working with his old 
friend Tal Goettling, in the band Purple Decade. Krusen describes them as a "basic rock 'n' roll band," 
and in early 1992, the group made a demo with Matt McClinton and Tim Bethune. A second demo 
followed that summer, before Krusen and Goettling quit that fall.)

In September, they joined the re-formed Son of Man; Krusen remained in the band long enough to record 
two demos, in December and January, with producer Rick Hinklin. Upon his departure in February 1993, 
he was replaced by Greg Gilmore.

Ten was finally released in the U.S. in September 1991. It would take nearly 20 weeks to break into the 
Top 200, but once there, there was no stopping it. It has since gone multi-platinum, and spawned a 
number of foreign collectibles, several of which, as already noted, boast bonus tracks, drawn from the first 
promotional CDs.

In addition to these aforementioned releases, the regular 11-track Ten was also issued in Britain as a 
picture disc, and separately, with a limited silk-screened sleeve. More recently, it has appeared on the 
controversial mini-disc format.

Domestically, Epic has been less generous to collectors, offering only a basketball picture disc, released 
in the U.S. just in time for Christmas 1991. They surely made amends, however, with a Pearl Jam 
promotional doormat, which was even supplied with its own catalog number (Epic D 47857).

A club tour was scheduled to coincide with the release of Ten, but plans changed dramatically when Pearl 
Jam were instead booked to appear on the Red Hot Chili Peppers' BloodSugarSexMagik tour. The tour 
opened at Michigan State University on October 22, 1991, with Pearl Jam third on the bill, behind the 
Peppers and, incredibly, Smashing Pumpkins. Tour highlights included a semi -acoustic show, alongside 
the Peppers, at Tower Records in Rockville, Maryland, compensating fans for the cancellation of a 
scheduled Pearl Jam show at the 9:30 club in Washington, D.C. (The full package also played the Bender 
Arena.)

The Pumpkins left the tour in early December, and the last few shows featured Nirvana in their stead. 
Like Pearl Jam, whose debut album had by now entered the chart, Nirvana was rapidly outgrowing a 
support slot. Their album Nevermind was already poised for the #1 position, and rather than face a home 
crowd from such a lowly billing (the tour was scheduled to end with shows in Seattle and Vancouver), 
Nirvana jumped ship following the January 2nd, 1992, show in Salem, Oregon. Pearl Jam followed, and 
entered the new year in local triumph.

Christmas 1991 brought another special treat for Pearl Jam's growing support, a special fan club-only 
single coupling two brand new songs, "Let Me Sleep (Christmas Time)" with "Rambling." The first 
installment in what the band now seem to be establishing as a festive tradition, just 1,500 copies were 
pressed, and the continued unavailability of "Rambling," at least, seems certain to ensure there will 
always be a high demand for the release. "Let Me Sleep" has subsequently surfaced on Westwood One's 
Rarities On CD Volume 12, A Holiday Happening.

Pearl Jam returned to the studio around this time to cut their contributions to the Singles soundtrack, 
"Breathe" and "State Of Love And Trust." They also took the opportunity to rerecord one of Ten's more 
popular tracks, "Even Flow," for a European single, and also cut two new songs, "Dirty Frank" and "Yellow 
Ledbetter." These tracks, too, would see single release; "Dirty Frank" would also be added to the U.K., 
Dutch and German CD digipack Ten.
Pearl Jam spent much of 1992 on the road, sustaining interest not only with the continued high 
performance of Ten (and, in its wake, both Temple Of The Dog and the Mother Love Bone compilation), 
but also with a string of radio hits.

According to Kelly Curtis, there have been no official Pearl Jam singles released commercially in the U.S. 
However, both promotional and imported CD5s are readily available, each boasting a number of 
collectible variations, and otherwise unavailable B-sides.

The basic releases were the album version of "Alive," "Jeremy," the re-recorded "Even Flow" and 
"Oceans." However, as is so often the case, things are nowhere near as simple as they sound, even if 
one concentrates on U.S. promotional releases only.

"Alive," for instance, appeared as both a regular promotional CD, clocking in at 5:41, and in a limited 
edition with a silk-screened sleeve. "Jeremy" followed, first as a single track promo (with insert), and then 
with a studio version of "Alive" on the B-side. A strictly limited edition, this single was apparently deleted 
after just one day, prompting prices for the release to skyrocket correspondingly with Pearl Jam's profile.

Finally, "Even Flow" was released as a three-track edition, featuring a 4:58 radio edit, a full-length remix, 
and "Dirty Frank." (There was no U.S. pressing of "Oceans.")

So far, so good. Look toward Britain, however, and "Alive" appears in a further five variations: a 7-inch 
(b/w "Once"), in both black and white vinyl; a flip-top cassette; a 12-inch with a bonus track, "Wash," and 
a poster sleeve; and a CD picture disc (also including "Once" and "Wash"). There are, in addition, two 
collectible CD packages; a cardboard sleeve with band photographs, and a non-photographic jewel box.

The second U.K. single was the re-recorded "Even Flow," backed by a remixed "Oceans." This was 
released as a black vinyl 7-inch, a white vinyl 12-inch, and, once again, a cassette and a CD5. The bonus 
cut on the 12-inch and CD5 was again "Dirty Frank"; the corresponding Japanese release, however, 
omits "Oceans" in favor of both "Alive" and "Wash."

"Jeremy," the third European single, introduced another exclusive B-side, a live version of "Alive," 
recorded in Seattle at Dave Abbruzzese's concert debut (this also appears on the U.K., Dutch and 
German CD digipacks of Ten). This again appeared as both a black and white vinyl 7-inch and cassette 
single, and as a 12-inch picture disc with a second live track, an acoustic version of "Footsteps " recorded 
in Roskilde, Norway, on May 1lth. The CD5 and CD picture disc, meanwhile, dropped "Footsteps" in favor 
of the studio track, "Yellow Ledbetter."

These multiple releases, while popular with U.K. collectors, have nevertheless generated a great deal of 
controversy in recent months, chiefly from retailers who fear that they are somehow "cheapening" the 
U.K. chart. Once, it is argued, a Top 30 single could be expected to enjoy a shelf life of six weeks or 
more. Today, new releases tend to debut high, then plummet fast, a process which "Jeremy" illustrates 
quite dramatically. Entering the chart at #15, "Jeremy" fell to #21 the following week, and left the listing 
the week after.

Released in February this year, CD5s of Europe's fourth and final Ten single, "Oceans," introduced three 
new live tracks to Pearl Jam's discography. "Why Go," "Alive" and "Deep" were recorded at the Dutch 
Pink Pop Festival during the summer of 1992. The regular CD5 release was accompanied by a limited-
edition picture disc (3,000 copies), presented in a gatefold sleeve.

Individually, these singles are now climbing in price at a spectacular rate. Collectors can, then, take some 
solace from the All For One boxed set, which compiles the "Alive," "Even Flow" and "Jeremy" CD5s, plus 
the rare "Jeremy" picture disc CD and Temple of the Dog's "Hunger Strike." This limited edition (1,000 
copies) also contains a T-shirt, calendar, two posters and a certificate of authenticity.

Like the myriad other "limited boxed sets" which are currently flooding the import market, All For One was 
produced by a private company which purchased the singles (and other ephemera) wholesale, and is not 
part of Pearl Jam's official discography. These packages are often produced without the knowledge of 
either the band or anybody else concerned with the contents (this author was amazed to learn that copies 
of a Cure biography she co-wrote several years ago is included in a similar collection!). But they are a 
legitimate collectible nevertheless.

According to Kelly Curtis, the chaotic state of Pearl Jam's discography is wholly deliberate. "We enjoy [all 
the different formats]. We're bootlegged so heavily that collectors are going to have a problem anyway, 
but we like to do something different in each country, so they feel kind of special. It's just a really 
collectible band —some bands are, some aren't. Pearl Jam is!"

The subject of bootlegs, of course, is particularly close to the band's heart. On stage at London's Finsbury 
Park, Eddie Vedder actually told the audience to tape the show (and any others they could!), and Pearl 
Jam currently has some 50 different live CDs in circulation, including copies of the "official" radio 
recordings released to date.

Pearl Jam's first European tour, early in 1992, coincided with the gimmick-laden release of "Alive" as a 
single. They made their long-awaited U.K. debut in Southend, then moved onto an industry showcase at 
London's Borderline. Unfortunately for their record label, Epic, the expected roomful of journalists and 
record company execs was augmented by an enormous crowd of "normal" people, fans who had picked 
up on Pearl Jam from their U.S. exposure. These fans, of course, were not permitted entry.

Vedder and Abbruzzcse did their best to counter the crowd's disappointment by spending most of the 
evening outside the club, handing out free CDs and autographs. But that did not stop the U.K. music 
press (who of course got in for free) from savaging Pearl Jam's "attitude toward their fans" the following 
week.

From Europe, the band returned to the U.S. and launched straight into another tour. They also made 
several prestigious television appearances. On March 16th, they taped an MTV Unplugged show (for 
broadcast in May), their dynamic set featuring versions of "Alive," "Even Flow," "Black," "Porch" and 
"Jeremy" (from Ten), "State Of Love And Trust," from the then, stillunheard Singles soundtrack, and Neil 
Young's "Rocking In The Free World," a song with which they'd been occasionally encoring on tour.

April brought a reunion of sorts with Matt Chamberlain when Pearl Jam appeared on Saturday Night Live; 
and on May 23rd, they were set to play a free concert at Seattle's Gas Works Park.

Unfortunately, five months of planning came to naught when, five days before the event, the City of 
Seattle Parks Department withdrew its permit. Pearl Jam's "growing popularity and lack of available police 
because of Memorial Day weekend" were cited as reasons, while official concerns were also raised about 
Pearl Jarn's choice of support group, Seaweed, "a punk rock band."

In the face of growing outrage, the city offered to reschedule the show for May 27th, at which time both 
Pearl Jam and Seaweed would be in Europe. On May 20th, the band held a press conference to 
announce the show's cancellation.

Not to be defeated, Pearl Jam eventually erected a stage and skateboard ramp on private property in the 
Seattle suburb of Renton. Not only did Seaweed perform, but so did Seven Year Bitch (who, incidentally, 
had replaced Pearl Jam on the final Chili Peppers shows in January). "It was like, fuck the city," Eddie 
Vedder explained. "Fuck all the bullshit you have to go through to get a vibe going. It's a ridiculous 
situation and we still overcame it."

Pearl Jam now embarked on another European tour, highlighted by the aforementioned Pink Pop Festival 
in Holland, and, another festival in Hamburg, appearing before 50,000 fans. Support on this tour was Jack 
Irons' Eleven.

"Even Flow" had recently given Pearl Jam their second U.K. hit; now, to coincide with the British leg of the 
outing, a live version of "Alive" (identical to that later featured on the "Jeremy" 45) was included on a free 
cassette with the heavy metal magazine Kerrang!

Unfortunately, the gesture was fruitless. Although Pearl Jam did open for the Cult at an open air show at 
London's Finsbury Park (where Vedder made his famous bootlegging remark), before heading across to 
the European mainland, by the time the tour reached Roskilde, Norway, on May 11th, the band had had 
enough of life on the road. ("Footsteps," the B-side of the "Jeremy" 12-inch, was recorded at this show.)

Quoted in Kerrang! as being "dissatisfied with their increasingly tense and aggressive live performances, 
and with the touring lifestyle in general," Pearl Jam cancelled the remaining London shows, and returned 
home.

Back in the U.S., Pearl Jam now began preparing for their next outing, the much anticipated Lollapalooza 
'92. Ironically, the band had agreed to play the tour before Ten took off, in commercial terms they were 
now the hottest band on the ticket, and still they were second-to-bottom of the bill, sandwiched between 
Lush and Jesus and Mary Chain. Soundgarden, Ice Cube, Ministry and the Red Hot Chili Peppers 
completed the line-up. (A 14-track promo album, featuring two tracks by each of the performers, was 
released to coincide; there was also an Off The Record documentary CD.)

Lollapalooza kicked off on July 18, 1992, at the Shoreline Amphitheatre in San Francisco, before winding 
its way across the U.S., playing to capacity crowds at every stop. The tour finished in mid-September at 
the Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre.

September was an important month for Pearl Jam. On the 9th, they were the center of a controversy at 
the MTV awards show, when they announced they intended playing a cover of the Dead Boys' "Sonic 
Reducer," turning the proverbial wheel full circle (Green River's debut single, of course, also boasted a 
Dead Boys' cover). MTV, of course, demanded they play the more familiar "Jeremy," which they 
eventually did.

Although MTV did not honor the band, Pearl Jam would receive two accolades at the American Music 
Awards, winning both Favorite New Artist in the pop/rock category and Favorite New Artist in the hard 
rock/heavy metal grouping as well.

Pearl Jam also played at the Singles premier party in L.A., and offered up an unexpected highlight when 
the usually placid Eddie Vedder picked a fight with a security guard, which was promptly broken up by the 
usually aggressive Al Jourgensen of Ministry.

Pearl Jam rounded 1992 off in fine style, supporting Keith Richards at the Academy in New York City. 
They also released their second Christmas single, cutely titled "Who Killed Rudolph?, and including two 
tracks, the now ubiquitous "Sonic Reducer," and "Rambling Again," a successor to the previous year's 
"Rambling." As a sign of Pearl Jam's rocketing popularity, 25,000 copies of this single were pressed; its 
predecessor saw just 1,500.

Current Events

With a year of constant touring at an end, Stone Gossard was at loose ends. Accustomed to working on a 
constant basis, the much-deserved break offered relief from the road, but he still wanted to play. So, 
Gossard started attending rehearsals of Bliss, a band which included old friends Shawn Smith (ex-Luv 
Co), and former Malfunkshun drummer Regan Hagar. Out of these jams would grow Brad.

Following the collapse of Malfunkshun, Hagar had spent a year trying to put together a funk band, 
Molasses, with fellow musician John Smith. It took 12 months of auditions before he found people he 
wanted to work with. Unfortunately, he says, "They, weren't the same ones John had chosen." The two 
chose to go their separate ways, at which point Smith recorded a demo using the Molasses name. When 
it didn't pan out, he returned the band name to Hagar.

Up until late 1991, Hagar would continue in his own version of Molasses. Problems were already brewing, 
however, when Hagar hooked up with Shawn Smith. A week later, Hagar left Molasses, and joined Smith 
in Bliss.

Based around the duo's mutual love of the Motown-funk sound, the band's brand of "wintery, emotional 
rock" was soon amassing both press and shows. Within months, Bliss was big enough to open for such 
names as Bob Dylan and Blur, and big enough to come to the attention of another Bliss of longer 
standing, Hagar and Smith's outfit is now known as Satchel.

Enthused by his impromptu jams with Smith and Hagar, Gossard decided to go into the studio and see 
what developed. Also involved was L.A.-based bassist, Jeremy Toback, a friend of Gossard's roommate, 
Alex Rosenast (a partner in the Seattle club RKCNDY). Rosenast was originally from L.A., and Toback 
would often come up to visit. Even so, according to Hagar, Gossard had never heard him play.

In October 1992, the group, under the name Shame, booked into the Avast studio, and within a week, 
had completed an album. Pearl Jam's label, Epic, agreed to release it, and in early March 1993, mailed 
out a handful of promotional cassettes.

They say lightning never strikes twice. Hagar and Smith would disagree, With Shame's self-titled debut 
set for release, another band with the exact same name appeared on the horizon. A financial settlement 
was proposed, but as soon as the original Shame discovered just who constituted their rivals, they started 
adding zeros.

Finally, the situation became ridiculous. Gossard and company changed their name to Brad (taking their 
name from the other Shame's shameless leader), and christened the album Shame instead.

(In March 1993, as the first Shame promos were mailed out, Regan Hagar was implicated in a Seattle 
marijuana-growing operation. Hagar's landlord, Tom O'Neil, a partner in RKCNDY, was arrested, together 
with several of the club's employees. Both RKCNDY and O'Neil's houses were raided, leading to Hagar's 
own arrest when marijuana plants were discovered in the basement. At the time of writing, his future is 
clouded, as is that of RKCNDY. Trial is set for this summer.)

Gossard was not the only member of Pearl Jam to step outside the group structure during this period. 
insiders insist that Mike McCready is a near-anonymous guest on Lazy Susan's Twang album, on one 
track,

"Bored" (Silver Eye LS-001); he allegedly appears in the credits as "Mike the drunk guy."

Eddie Vedder, too, would find the time for a couple of outside projects and that despite the rumor, first 
circulated among users of the computer network Prodigy, that he had died of a heroin overdose. 
According to Altemative Press magazine, Vedder appears on new albums by Bad Religion, and the 
Ministry spin-off, Revolting Cocks.

Vedder also guested at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's annual induction dinner earlier this year in L.A., 
filling Jim Morrison's shoes with a specially re-formed Doors.

The holiday, however, could not last for long. In March of this year, Pearl Jam reconvened to begin work 
on their much-anticipated second album (scheduled for fall release), and to prepare themselves for the 
year or more of touring which will inevitably follow. Bearing in mind the band's existing recorded legacy, 
collectors will probably want to steel themselves as well.

The first indications of the activity to come were "Crazy Mary," Pearl Jam's contribution to Sweet Relief, 
the multi-artist tribute to singer-songwriter Victoria Williams (Thirsty Ear/Columbia), and "Better Man," to 
be included on a forthcoming Greenpeace benefit album.

In June 1993, Pearl Jam made a pair of secret appearance across the northwest. The first took place 
back in Ament's old stomping ground, Missoula, Montana on the 16th. The following night, they played 
the Met in Spokane, Washington.

With their second album now completed, insiders report that the band has surprises galore in store for 
their fans. Much less commercial than Ten, many of the songs allegedly contain no hooks, plenty of 
wahwah guitar, interspersed by some incredible speed guitar work. Rumor adds that Dave Abruzesse co-
wrote two of the tracks. One of the most eagerly awaited albums of the year might also be one of the 
most unexpected.

The last words on Pearl Jam, however, go to Dave Krusen, whose drumming, so integral to the success 
of Ten, will be sorely missed no matter how well Dave Abbruzzese acquits himself. "'Pearl Jam knew 
what they wanted to do and they did it," he says without a hint of malice. "They deserve success. Jeff 
once told me he wanted to make a living at music, and he did."