The Sounds of Seattle
1986 – 1995
A Gendered Perspective
“It was like one big, loud, unoiled
machine that was about to
explode.” (Kurt Danielson,
Loser, p. 138)
The new Seattle
sound was
officially
christened on
April 1, 1986,
when the Deep
Six compilation
was released on
the small
Seattle label
“We don’t really have a
Seattle sound. We think
of it as primal rock. If
the cavemen were
playing rock ‘n roll, this
is what it would sound
like.”
(Geoff Robinson, Loser, p. 125)
“Fuck what
everybody else
thinks, we’re
going to do what
we want…we’re
paying homage
to all the music
we loved as kids,
and we haven’t
denied the punkrock energy that
inspired us as
teenagers.”
(Kurt Cobain, Loser, p. 110)
Sub pop
“If we play our cards
right and get the
records out on time
it’s going to be an
invasion of unheardof proportions.
Seriously.”
(Bruce Pavitt, Loser, p. 125)
MUDHONEY
“When we say ‘World Domination,’
we’re saying, ‘Fuck you, we’re from
Seattle, and we don’t care if the
media machines are in L.A., we’re
going to create our own’”.
(Bruce Pavitt, Mudhoney, p. 437)
Screaming Trees
“The new thing: the big thing: the God
thing: a mighty multinational entertainment
conglomerate based in the Pacific
Northwest.”
(Sub Pop 100, Mudhoney, p. 420)
Sub Plop…what part of
‘we have no money’
don’t you
understand?
(Mudhoney, p. 449)
Jonathan poneman & bruce pavitt,
co-founders of sub pop
Soundgarden
Pearl Jam
“Emotionally, a lot of the music was
very menacing and intense, very
physically expressive. The way
they moved…they fell down on the
floor and who cares if you miss a
few guitar chords – the looseness
of it was really pretty
revolutionary. It really projected
a ‘fuck it’ attitude.”
(Bruce Pavitt, Mudhoney, p. 425-6)
Nirvana
Riot Grrrl – the name refers to the movement-atlarge – has forged salient connections between
musical subculture and explicitly feminist
politics; these qualities in turn transform or
revise previous paradigms of rock production
and consumption.
Bikini Kill
“Moshing is not a feminine activity but a chance for a
man to reach into himself, grab all of the anger and
hatred that has built up and bash everybody around
over the head with it. Women have their own ways of
dealing with stress…”
(Fan letter to Rolling Stone Magazine, Gottlieb and Wald, Smells Like Teen Spirit, p. 257)
7 Year Bitch
“Some people say
little girls should
be seen and not
heard. But I
say…OH
BONDAGE, UP
YOURS!”
(Poly Styrene, Smells Like Teen
Spirit, p. 261)
L7
“It was an exercise in self-destruction. We were
born to destroy ourselves and we did. It was
really fun. What I learned was uh – uh – nothing.”
(Danny Bland, Loser, p. 130)
“Say goodbye to your friends and
family/Welcome to the
menageries/ Funny how they
forget to tell you/
this is all you will ever be.”
(From The Posies’ “Definite Door”, Loser, p. 145)
References:
http://www.subpop.com/scripts/main/bands.php
http://crick.com/alex/pusa.html
http://www.thestranger.com/2003-10-23/feature2.html
http://www.washington.edu/alumni/columns/dec96/prelude1296.html
http://web.stargate.net/soundgarden/images/contrib/
http://web.stargate.net/soundgarden/images/deb/
http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/2200/pic46.html
http://www.unofficial-mudhoney.com/mudhoney.htm
http://images.google.com/images?q=gas+huffer&svnum=10&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF8&start=40&sa=N
http://www.nirvana-music.com/nirvana-pictures.html
http://www.uweb.ucsb.edu/~feiny34/nirvpics.html
http://crick.com/alex/main.html#home
http://www.miscmedia.com/Loser.html
Humphrey, Clark. (1995). Loser; The Real Seattle Music Story. Seattle,
MISCmedia.
Gottlieb, Joanne and Gayle Wald. "Smells Like Teen Spirit: Riot Grrrls, Revolution
and Women in Independent Rock" pp. 250-274
Azerrad, Michael. "Mudhoney: Loud Ballads of Love and Dirt..." Our Band Could be
your Life. Boston: Little, Brown, 2001. 411-453.