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Oct 12, 2010 Hercules and Love Affair reveal new album details Jesu to release double-EP in November New Releases: 10/12 Video: Torche 'U.F.O.' Oct 11, 2010 Video: Frightened Rabbit 'The Loneliness and the Scream' Deerhoof signs to Polyvinyl, announces new album R.I.P. Solomon Burke Oct 08, 2010 The Dutchess and the Duke break up Ballet based on Shins' music being performed in SF Reviews In Brief Oct 07, 2010 Junior Boys, Gold Panda featured on Caribou remix album Avey Tare debuts "Lucky 1" video by Chris Morgan 09.23.2010 Though it was Nirvana's efforts that made it able for grunge-and by extension all alternative/fringe culture-to break into the mainstream, I've always found it more than a little amusing that such a break was made possible by Nirvana's least-grunge album. For all of Nevermind's screaming, angst, and irony, it remains to this day little more than a solid arena rock record filtered through the Pixies. Indeed, for Nirvana to break with a grunge album was impossible for two reasons. First, in addition to being polished to the point of blinding, Nevermind's greatest asset was its ability to amalgamate the styles of its direct ancestors, long shunned by the mainstream, creating a sound that "the kids" could enjoy within reason (other examples of "amalgamation" include U2, At the Drive-In, and William F. Buckley, Jr.). Soundgarden, Alice and Chains and even Screaming Trees all released major label albums before Nirvana, but without Nirvana to provide proper context they would remain a provincial blip. Secondly, Nirvana really sucked at playing grunge. So that I don't get unnecessary accusations of contrarianism for the sake of contrarianism, I implore any reader of this list who owns Bleach, the band's only bona fide grunge record, to stop reading now and listen to it. Once you've returned, having found it a chore to get beyond "Blew," you should have no reason to disagree with me. Had it not been for Nirvana's later efforts I can't imagine that, as far as grunge enthusiasts go (assuming they ever existed and/or continue to exist), Bleach would not figure highly on must-have lists. But I suspect the following would. While not altogether on top of their game in the alternative world (with obvious exceptions), these records exemplify rather pristinely this isolated genre's eccentricities. Green River - Come On Down EP (1985, Homestead) Mark Arm and Steve Turner cut their teeth in hardcore before melding with hard rock enthusiasts Stone Gossard and Jeff Ament to form Green River making the penultimate grunge band; they were named after a serial killer, they dressed like the New York Dolls, and opened for Sonic Youth. In hindsight it would appear that the members felt this to be an uneasy compromise having eventually split up into the radically divergent acts Mudhoney and Mother Love Bone (more on them later), but for a time that artistic conflict birthed one of the weirdest rock bands imaginable at the time (before the Pixies, that is). Turner and Gossard created stripped down rock riffs of a masterful sleaziness, melding Aerosmith with The Stooges. Mark Arm's wailing vocals conjured an Iggy Pop of the schoolyard gawking persuasion.

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