Green River - again?

[Smallstone]

Ok on a lighter note:) Not sure if this should be in this section or Mudhoney section...but anyway....

Not sure if there has been much discussion about this pre-Mudhoney band before on this board.
I've been re-listening to Green River a bit recently and trying to figure out what it is I like/don't like about them. They've never grabbed me like the 'Honey I have to admit and to me the best thing about them is Mark Arms vocals! I can remember after buying Superfuzz Bigmuff going back and buying Rehab Doll in about 1989 and kinda digging it, but none of their stuff has ever really made me want to, you know, kick the jams out!! I like Swallow My Pride though (did Stevie Turner co-write this one?)! It's just all the things that I don't really like about Pearl Jam seem to be so prominent in Green River. I guess that's Stone Gossards guitar playing! I have to say I'm not a fan of his work....or Pearl Jam in general really. I can kind of understand why Turner left after the 1st EP/LP. You can see which direction the band wanted to go in. There are tracks on Rehab Doll that you hear that classic LA metal sound coming through. That clipped/muted Guns & Roses guitar sound. Do folks know what I mean?

There's that possibly apocryphal story that the band split because they wanted M Arm to take singing lessons and become, more 'rock' I guess!.... Not sure how true that story is. But I was thinking/imagining where Green River could have gone after Rehab Doll. More metal? Funk Metal!!!! Can you imagine!! If you think about it at the time the bands that were doing business or at least starting to break out of the clubs (what a horrible term!) at this time (1988/89) were groups like Janes Addiction, the Chilli Peppers, Faith No More etc etc. How awful would that have been!

What do you folks think anyway? Any Green River fans out there who think they're the bees knees? Am I talking a lot of rot? Let me know! The thing is I also picked up on Ebay a copy of the Green River single 'Together We'll Never / 'Ain't Nothing To Do on Tasque Force Records a week or so ago....It cost me a few Bob from a very nice man in Switzerland....and I haven't played it yet...sad Mudhoney completist that I am.....

[Mudhoney1988]

Smallstone said:

Ok on a lighter note:) Not sure if this should be in this section or Mudhoney section...but anyway....

Not sure if there has been much discussion about this pre-Mudhoney band before on this board.
I've been re-listening to Green River a bit recently and trying to figure out what it is I like/don't like about them. They've never grabbed me like the 'Honey I have to admit and to me the best thing about them is Mark Arms vocals! I can remember after buying Superfuzz Bigmuff going back and buying Rehab Doll in about 1989 and kinda digging it, but none of their stuff has ever really made me want to, you know, kick the jams out!! I like Swallow My Pride though (did Stevie Turner co-write this one?)! It's just all the things that I don't really like about Pearl Jam seem to be so prominent in Green River. I guess that's Stone Gossards guitar playing! I have to say I'm not a fan of his work....or Pearl Jam in general really. I can kind of understand why Turner left after the 1st EP/LP. You can see which direction the band wanted to go in. There are tracks on Rehab Doll that you hear that classic LA metal sound coming through. That clipped/muted Guns & Roses guitar sound. Do folks know what I mean?

There's that possibly apocryphal story that the band split because they wanted M Arm to take singing lessons and become, more 'rock' I guess!.... Not sure how true that story is. But I was thinking/imagining where Green River could have gone after Rehab Doll. More metal? Funk Metal!!!! Can you imagine!! If you think about it at the time the bands that were doing business or at least starting to break out of the clubs (what a horrible term!) at this time (1988/89) were groups like Janes Addiction, the Chilli Peppers, Faith No More etc etc. How awful would that have been!

What do you folks think anyway? Any Green River fans out there who think they're the bees knees? Am I talking a lot of rot? Let me know! The thing is I also picked up on Ebay a copy of the Green River single 'Together We'll Never / 'Ain't Nothing To Do on Tasque Force Records a week or so ago....It cost me a few Bob from a very nice man in Switzerland....and I haven't played it yet...sad Mudhoney completist that I am.....

Yeah Turner wrote Swallow My Pride and they wanted mark to take singing lessons and stuff. I have to say i agree with you that they have never worked as good as mudhoney worked for me, and i don't like pearl jam either, but i do think they made some good songs, but hardly any of them are as good as the mudhoney songs

[Thurston_Whore]

Yeah i can totally understand what you'r saying smallstone,but i myself adore green river i mean they were kinda unique in a way i find i think alot of the bands out around that time were more rock (guns n roses) or kinda had that funky element there (chilli peppers,janes addiction) and i always looked upon green river as the non-commerical type band who kinda mixed punk and metal together as one and i thought they were damn good at what they did to,but all in all i love them,but yeah i think mudhoney are more of what i was looking for.

''PURE GRUNGE,PURE SHIT''

[thorn]

totally agree smallstone and green river look like utter shit next to the ultimate genius of mudhoney!!!!!!!!

[greesyrice]

Yeah Green River's the best but it dosnt come close to the magnificence and majesty of Mudhoney

[thorn]

amen!!!!!!!!!!!

[Smallstone]

To Thurston_Whore:
I can dig the metal/punk hybrid idea/concept. T'was pretty radical I guess for the mid 80s, especially post hardcore to start referencing more 70s metal ideas. Black Flag were doing it too as were your Killdozers and the whole nascent Am Rep/underground scene too. I guess this is why Green River piqued scenesters attention in the US though. Sonic Youth championing them so much etc. Over here in the UK it wasn't until Mudhoney had their 1st blast of success that anyone really kinda got wind of them. All the albums got posthumously reviewd in the press. Favourably though!

But not sure it really works all the time with Green River. To me you can hear the split kinda occuring on Rehab Doll. It must have been hard to reconcile the 2 musical moods in the camp.... To me why Mudhoney work is that they started off so cleary as a band who wanted to strip away the more overblown metal pretensions and go for that primal rock blast. Production wise as well, Endino is just so on the money on SFuzz/BMuff. Sonically it is SO much better then Rehab Doll.

I agree with everyones opinions here. Isn't that special:)
Lets all have a group hug:)

[RaunchHands]

it is my humble opinion that green river's best kept secret is "come on down". i haven't felt the need to listen to their later stuff in years but that one, i keep coming back to it every now and then and i never lets me down. sure, it's far from perfect. alex vincent kills at least two songs there, but then again he was young. and that version of swallw my pride... ugh! but the title track is pretty solid, and the the last two tracks (which made up the b side on the original vinyl) are both amazing and full of cool tempo changes and such. and throughout the record mark's voice is fantastic and the guitar sound is remarkable, slow, fuzzy and slighly psych, good stuff! and hangin' tree, their song off sub pop 200, that one's definitely another high point.

[Mudhoney1988]

That record sounds so damn evil, when i hear it on cd it sounds crap, but on the vinyl it's like damn these people made some evil fuzzy (some parts) record man! ;D

[MarchToFuzz]

Green River section on my website can be found from here:

www.geocities.com/sick72us/greenriver.html

"Come On Down" is my fav 2, it's awesome record.
i still remember when my friend send it to me from US,
goosh my life change a little.....