30 years in the waiting.
This record had not been released on vinyl since 1991. And it is kind of unacceptable because for me this album is a great testimony to that very short period of time when we were actually living through, and discovering, the origins of grunge.
Let’s face it: grunge is not, in my view, represented by the awful stadium bands I will not name here, in order not to alienate half the rock community, and even some speakers at The Record Club. But if you read between the lines, you’ll know exactly who I mean.
Hear me out: grunge, in my personal definition, is strictly limited to a very short chronology: Babes in Toyland’s To Mother, Hole’s Pretty on the Inside, Nirvana’s Nevermind and L7’s Bricks Are Heavy. And that’s it.
So there will probably never be a Grunge Special at The Record Club: we simply don’t have enough material for one.
What happened afterwards was something different. “Grunge” became a convenient label for the record industry, used to package and promote almost any heavy alternative band that happened to be around at the time and, eventually, push them towards arenas and stadiums in the wake of Nevermind.
But the grunge I remember was almost the exact opposite of stadium rock. It came from the underground, from punk and hardcore, from bands playing tiny venues.
I missed Hole in Nancy, France, because I had a crucial college exam the following day. I still know the venue very well: a bar called La Plage, which has since closed. If Hole played in front of 40 people that night, that was probably close to maximum capacity.
That’s what I mean.
So when I listen to Pretty on the Inside, I don’t think first about MTV playing Smells Like Teen Spirit endlessly. We were already dancing to it at indie-rock parties months before MTV seemed to discover it. I still remember wondering: what happened? Why did MTV arrive so late?
And these bands were not even all from Seattle. They did not share the same producers or recording studios. Nirvana and L7 worked with Butch Vig; Hole recorded Pretty on the Inside with Kim Gordon and Don Fleming; Babes in Toyland recorded To Mother in London.
So, to me, it was not really one clearly defined “scene” either.
It was a handful of bands whose paths crossed. They liked one another, toured together, influenced one another, sometimes became friends, and, in the most famous case, Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love married.
For me, grunge begins with those four records and ends with them.
And now I’m simply incredibly happy to finally own this record for life, with songs such as “Teenage Whore” and “Good Sister/Bad Sister” that I have been listening to for almost 35 years.
I’m only missing Babes in Toyland’s To Mother now.
But I suspect I may have to wait quite a while for that one…
Photo and review by Laurent – Speaker at The Record Club and founder of concertandvinyl.com
