Essential Early Grunge/Proto Grunge

[Sorlag]

but Swallow, Monomen, Cat Butt, Blood Circus etc. are like grunge-grunge.

But, from another point of view, the grunge-grunge bands can be considered proto-postgrunge.

Nooo, nooo, who would think that? Blood Circus ain't nothing like Creed!!
Okay, it's somewhat like - but it's so insignificant it appears like nothing, why am I telling you this haha?

[SKUNCHBAG]

I'm afraid to inform you that they are part of the crowd.

[KristinNirvana]

Hmm some of those bands aren't exactly early grunge/proto grunge, are they? Sure, Fastbacks, Green River, Malfunkshun, Bundle of Hiss and those are but Swallow, Monomen, Cat Butt, Blood Circus etc. are like grunge-grunge.

Yeah but I figured neither are a few you guys posted so I might as well add some more that were related. Though I would say Fastbacks aren't, and I'd add Green River, Malfunkshun, Bundle of Hiss in the same category as Swallow, Cat Butt, and Blood Circus, see now I'm glad I added more because the boundaries are never totally clear and people have different opinions.

I know that took you a while, Kristin, and I will get through all of it (eventually!), but could you, I don't know, maybe write down some essential bands, with brief descriptions, and maybe download links to full releases (be it EPs, LPs, maxisingles, minialbums)

Actually I haven't finished researching these bands myself, though I could probably at least do some of that. Some of those bands only came out with singles, or might not have anything easily available on the internet, because despite what people say, the internet doesn't have everything, and these bands are underground. Actually, that's probably how I found out the internet doesn't have nearly everything, by searching for hours and hours for any info or music in these bands. I doubt they actually have download links to that much. Well the Northwest Noise blog has some. Seriously, go through that whole blog, as it will tell you more info than I could, and that's where I got most of this stuff anyway http://myhairsprayqueen.blogspot.com/, and the Lamestain blog as well http://lamestainnorthwest.blogspot.com/. Ok I updated the first post I posted a bit. Oh you know what, there are a few facebook pages for this sort of thing, I'll add you to them. I need to look around them more, maybe they have more info.

[johnwaynewasanazi]

wait? proto-post-grunge.. so like just a long way of saying grunge?.. cool

[Canucker]

Your very right Daria. The net really really doesn't have everything. There are quite a few old Canadian bands lacking online as well as from other countries... sometimes the issue is that bands sign to major labels...have a hit or two and are dropped...then years down the line since the majors don't consider them all that major they don't bother reissuing anything and the prevent the bands from posting the official videos online...so there is a trail of dead links. Its really bad when a big label buys a small one so they prevent the entire back catalogue of bands from having a net presence....sometimes when the band wasn't even on the label after it was purchased! So crappy.

[SKUNCHBAG]

Imagine all the angry punks that just played a couple of gigs and didn't make it to CD and therefore never transcended. There must be thousands.

[Canucker]

Imagine all the angry punks that just played a couple of gigs and didn't make it to CD and therefore never transcended. There must be thousands.

Exactly! or those that changed their style to be more commercial once a label was involved...I'm thinking about the GoGo's on that one. Or those that were in studios that knew nothing about the rawness that made punk good so they cleaned things up to the point of sterile....the scene that I was in in the early 2000's was amazing with huge shows but it was the dawn of home recording in a BIG way...in a not good way...bands put out some awful stuff (self included) just to race to put something out while the scene was happening. History is really the edited version of the real story!

[KristinNirvana]

Not to mention lots of stuff eventually gets taken down off of the internet, especially with youtube. Looking up some of those bands, I couldn't find some of the youtube videos I knew of. I don't think I've seen anything on the internet pre-2008 in a while, besides places like this board, but things like forums get hacked and can have posts deleted, people can take down all sorts of stuff, I imagine even full websites can get taken down, especially if you have to pay for it and then stop paying or forget about it, and social media stuff like blogs or facebook pages people take down all the time. I've had so many times where i looked for something I knew was there, and it wasn't there anymore. The internet is very fluid. Practically everything that goes on it gets taken off at some point. I wonder what it looked like when it started. I bet virtually nothing from the early or mid 90s is there now.

[Canucker]

I remember way back in the 90s when I went to the computer labs at school the internet was so new and like only one of every two people (maybe less?) had a computer at home I looked up music stuff. There were a million sites for Greenday and Presidents of the United States that were all taken down. I don't even know what kept leading me to those two bands LOL

[duds]

how about The Leaving Trains

...singer was married to Courtney love, so that makes them grunge by default.(well, maybe...)

also how about a bit of King Kong

[Sorlag]

Hmm some of those bands aren't exactly early grunge/proto grunge, are they? Sure, Fastbacks, Green River, Malfunkshun, Bundle of Hiss and those are but Swallow, Monomen, Cat Butt, Blood Circus etc. are like grunge-grunge.

Yeah but I figured neither are a few you guys posted so I might as well add some more that were related. Though I would say Fastbacks aren't, and I'd add Green River, Malfunkshun, Bundle of Hiss in the same category as Swallow, Cat Butt, and Blood Circus, see now I'm glad I added more because the boundaries are never totally clear and people have different opinions.

I should have answered this a long time ago
Well, if we're gonna discuss protogrunge, we'd better define it. I'd say it is bands that started before the term was coined, important for the scene, influencing grunge bands to come and also having common influences with other bands at the time. Fastbacks started as early as 79 and was active in the underground music of early 80's seattle, they sounded very pop but had a wilder live approach than other pop punk bands and had some pessimistic/angry lyrics similar to Green River which they also covered Swallow My Pride of. Green River, Malfunkshun and Bundle of Hiss all fit into the definition and are all a band generation away from Swallow, Cat Butt and Blood Circus, bands who showed up in the late 80's when Grunge was coined and started thanks to bands like Fastbacks, Soundgarden etc. that were there before them proving rock music from Seattle was possible.

[KristinNirvana]

Technically grunge was coined in '81 though. It's a bit fuzzy as to when it was said next after Mark Arm in The Rocket, but I have heard they stared to pass it around after that, and then the dudes from Subpop picked it up in the late 80s, and Everett True with that article. I always connected those bands because they sounded similar. Deep Six and a few years before and after give you that 80s grunge sound, more heavier and raw, more straightforward metal to the punk without the alternative and politics added in that came a bit later. Fastbacks I always just thought of as a pop punk bad, but they did have an indie vibe, but I admit I could probably look up more of their music, so I guess I can't say totally, but I had always heard them labelled as punk anyway. If by protogrunge we mean earlier grunge, I'd say all the bands like Skin yard, Malfunkshun, Green River, Blood Circus, Bundle of Hiss, Tad, 64 Spiders, Feast etc., if by protogrunge we mean non-grunge that was there right before and perhaps influenced it, I'd say Little Bears From Bangkok, Student Nurse, The Squirrels, Red Dress, The Fartz, Mr. Epp, Vexed, Yeast, A Western Family, possibly Overlord depending on if you see them as grunge or just metal, and so on and so forth.

[CurlyFry]

Threadnomancy I know but, I feel like I should mention Cosmic Psychos.
They aren't exactly Grunge (Australian Band) but they have a pretty Grunge-y sound.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gyq9pi8QTBw (L7 later covered this one)

[XsInMyEyes]

I bet Soundgarden really liked this song.