Aaron and Santa Cruz

[MLB.MB.PJ]

We lived on the east hill in Kent. Rented a 5 bedroom house in a little housing development filled with people who did not want a houseful of young people living on their block. Five bedrooms but sometimes there would be more than one person living in a room and once, for a short time, we had 3 people living in one room. So with all those people living there if only a couple friends showed up on any given night it was a small party. Once Brian’s band, Bathtub Gin, was being interviewed on KISW. It was kind of a big deal. Bathtub Gin was not signed but KISW was playing a Bathtub Gin song “Flick of the Hand” in regular rotation. It was kind of a big deal. At least it was for them at that time of their lives right? They had a song on the radio!!! That’s fucking cool. Anyway, he’s being interviewed on KISW and he says “we’re having a party this weekend at my house, here’s my address, here’s my phone number…come on down”. Our phone (home phone. land line. pre-cell phones) rang off the hook for days. It was the biggest party I have ever been to and it was at my house.

One day Brian walked in with a pre-release of Nevermind. About 3 weeks before it was in stores. Teen Spirit had not yet invaded mtv. We played it over and over again. Non stop for days. Come as you are. Lithium. Stay Away. It was a masterpiece and you knew it the first time you listened to it no matter when the first time you heard it was. It was liberating and haunting and viscous.

Then one day Sean Kinney and Mike Starr from Alice walk in and sit down on our couch. They had been in LA recording Dirt and asked us if we wanted to hear it. They played us 5 songs from Dirt. It was miles from the Facelift stuff. Angry Chair, Godsmack, Damn that River, Down in a Hole, Rain When I Die.

I was standing in Easy Street Records in West Seattle. Looking for anything odd ball I might find. In comes Stone. You must know, Stone Gossard WAS Pearl Jam to me. His work in Mother Love Bone and how he took his style to a much higher form with Pearl Jam all the way through to his work in Temple. This body of work affected me like no other at the time. I couldn’t see what records he was buying but he wore a Big Black shirt. So I bought a Big Black CD. It was horrible, by the way, this real heavy industrial shit that was poorly produced. I doubt I listened to it more than twice. It’s still in my collection after all these years and all those cuts. It’s still there.

I’m at the Frontier Room with my cousin Michelle. My cousin who just months before had no interest in seeing live music in the city is now joining me and my friends on nights out. Anyway, I’m in line at the Frontier Room and up walks Jerry Cantrell. From my point of view: he walks up nods at me. I think he knows me from seeing me around. I say “hey Jerry” he says” hey man will you get me a couple beers too?” I think he actually recognizes me. For years I told this story like Jerry Cantrell recognized me. When in reality and in hindsight, he may have seen a somewhat familiar face but really what he wanted was not to wait in line and me get him a couple beers. So I get him his beers and I have a story and he got two beers he has totally forgotten about. My cousin Michelle by the way was as cool as ice. Until he stepped away with his two beers (he paid for his) and then she practically orgasmed right there at the bar in the Frontier Room.

It was an amazing time to live in Seattle. The Huskies were national champs. Ken Griffey Jr is the best player in baseball. Gary Payton has just been drafted to the Sonics. When Rick Mirer was drafted by the Seahawks number two overall (Mirer, although he was rookie of the year his first year, never panned out and is widely regarded as one of the biggest busts in Seattle sports history) when he was drafted he was asked what he thought about going to Seattle he said “They have some good music over there”. It was a good time to be in Seattle. Sleepless in Seattle. Singles. The 2nd season of the “Real World”. Frasier was in Seattle. It was fun. And I knew it when I saw it happening. I collected little stuff along the way. Like signs and guitar picks and playlists and demos and bootlegs. Show Bills and t shirts. I saved them all.

[MLB.MB.PJ]

almost zero feedback...maybe I'll stop here...

[arq]

almost zero feedback...maybe I'll stop here...

Please continue, all this is amazing.

[do.the.evolution]

Go on, please...I love to read this

[MLB.MB.PJ]

thanks...I will...I appreciate the feedback. Its like standing in a dark room talking...

I appreciate your interaction...so umm, interact when you want

[arq]

thanks...I will...I appreciate the feedback. Its like standing in a dark room talking...

I appreciate your interaction...so umm, interact when you want

It's like a time machine, I was into baseball back then and your comments about it made my day, and Ken Griffin Jr will always be one of the best ever!

[norman-grunge]

This is a lot of fun to read. Please go on...

[MLB.MB.PJ]

theres something I really want to stress. And I'm biased, I know. I want to kind of reminisce and paint a picture but I don't want to romanticize it too much either. All I have is my point of view. And for many things that happened around me my point of view was just about the horizon. I was a little to the left, just down the street, kinda kitty corner over in the basement. What I'm trying to say is that by no means was I in the center of anything. but I was just a little to the left...

I had this conversation with my buddy Jed...who was my guest at the 10th anniversary show in Vegas...Jed grew up in Chicago and he is a few years younger than me so he was in high school in the Chicago suburbs when I was going to bars in Seattle. He fell in love with pearl jam his junior year of high school. The radio or mtv he doesn't recall which first. But he says it was JUST as Alive was starting to be pushed, so pretty early for a kid in the Chicago suburbs. That led him to Temple of the Dog. Temple of the Dog led him to Mother Love Bone. It was different for me. I remember going into the record store, Bubble Records in Kent, and seeing the Green River record on display. I didn’t buy it but I remember seeing it on the shelf. What do you want from me? I couldn’t buy everything. And it was a record mind you, not CD, record.

Hendrix and Heart. That’s what we had. Lets face it, that’s a pretty damn good twosome. Hendrix. Iconic. I mean really, lets face it there are few images/people/musicians more iconic than Jimi Hendrix. And Heart? Pioneering artists. Powerful. Who could deny their mark on rock and roll? So that was our rock and roll heritage.

Side bar…historians will point out the Sonics and The Kingsmen and “Louie Louie”. Some extremists will point to Portland’s Quarterflash who had only one hit, but a hit nonetheless “Going Down for the Last Time”. Even more geeks will mention Quincy Jones, Ray Charles and Bing Crosby (Crosby was really from Spokane).

[MLB.MB.PJ]

Hendrix and Heart. Van Halen first tour through Seattle with Hagar. Look, say what you want about Van Halen with Roth and how it wasn’t Van Halen without Roth. Whatever. Van Halen was the biggest band in the country when Roth left and Sammy Hagar was a great solo artist in his own right. So when they are at the end of the show. A great show, btw, this is when all the players actually liked each other. And Ann Wilson steps out and they do a screaming rendition of Led Zep’s Rock and Roll…Van Halen plus Sammy Hagar plus Ann Wilson on vocals? Everyone at the top of their game? Ann Wilson is a world class, once in a lifetime talent. Hands down. Listen to Barracuda. Stunning talent.

Hendrix and Heart. The building that once housed the pawn shop that Hendrix bought his first guitar? The back of it could be seen as you passed on the freeway. And it was decorated with a giant purple memorial of Hendrix. It was iconic. (unfortunately that block was sold to a builder who built giant condos on the lot. The building doesn’t even physically exist anymore). How many Iconic images do you want? Jimi at Woodstock? Jimi at Monterey? Jimi doing Wild Thing? Jimi doing Watchtower or the star spangled banner. That hair all crazy. Playing his guitar upside down and backwards because he was left handed? Lighting his guitar on fire? How many Iconic images do you need?

Hendrix and Heart. Some other historians will say Rail has some success. And yes they did, a little. They won MTV’s basemant tapes and were on MTV for a minute. I will tell you that the coolest obscure Seattle band reference is The Allies who’s song “Emma Peel” was fucking fantastic. Go look it up on youtube right now.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kskwZW9iQNM

I’ll wait…

[MLB.MB.PJ]

The Allies were great but barely scratched the surface of popular culture. Now there is another division of folks who would tell you that Metal Church was THE band who really did it. They build a national following by endlessly touring and recording for whatever indie label would put their record out for them. That’s true too. And the most hardnosed Seattle music geek will tell you that Faster Pussycats singer Taime Downs is from Seattle. And everyone knows Duff McKagan of Guns and Roses is from Seattle.

But still…Hendrix and Heart. Then Green River. Soundgarden. Queensryche. The first Soundgarden song I heard was “Flower”. I actually saw the video on a local tv show called “Basement Video”. I think. Queensryche “The Lady Wore Black” EP. I didn’t do the Sub Pop Singles Club. My friend Josh did and I’ll be his collection is worth quite a lot of money these days. I didn’t know about the all ages shows at Gorilla Gardens. If I had know I would have gone.

Hendrix and Heart. Nirvana. The Melvins. Mudhoney. Kgrg had been early supporters of Nirvana before my time. kgrg played Love Buzz a lot. I don’t want to overstate it because its just a little community college radio station but it had a listenership. It had its place in the local alternative culture that was at that very time, those exact moments, that very local alternative culture was becoming an international cultural phenomenon. Kgrg had its place in that. I honestly didn’t and don’t know much about the melvins but “Touch Me I’m Sick” changed my life. No other way to say that.

[MLB.MB.PJ]

Hendrix and Heart. Mother Love Bone. Alice in Chains. Ramadillo. I am surprised that Andrew Wood hasn’t taken on more of a Mark Bolan stature. And maybe he has, I don’t know. Early Alice in Chains demos with songs like “King of the cats” and “queen of the rodeo” did not hint at the depth of the talents of Layne and Cantrell. Ramadillo was Pete Droge’s band. I doubt much Ramadillo exists digitally. If it does let me know, I would love to have copies of it. I may have a Ramadillo cassette around here somewhere. Ramadillo was good. Really good. Excellent band.

Hendrix and Heart. War Babies. My Sisters Machine. Sweetwater. I could go on and on. Green Apple Quick Step. Bathtub Gin. Inflatable Soule. Lazy Susan. Mookie Blaylock. Then quickly, Pearl Jam.

[MLB.MB.PJ]

The three shows that changed my life, in order:

Nov 28 1988
Paramount Theater, Seattle
KISW Rising Stars Concert; Janes Addiction. Soundgarden. Mother Love Bone.
Jane’s Addiction’s seminal recording “Nothings Shocking” had been out a few months and I loved it. I heard it played on KISW because they were promoting this show. I bought the CD earlier that day at Tower Records. I also bought the cassette EP of Mother Love Bone’s “Shine”. I had never heard of Mother Love Bone before. I signed up on the MLB mailing list that night. That would one day be my ten club membership. For what became my favorite band. That would someday have them send me tickets to fan club shows and singles at Christmas and invites to listening parties. I fell in love with Mother Love Bone that night. I had bought “Shine” earlier that day but hadn’t listened to it yet and then it was all I would listen to. Thru Fade Away. Mindshaker Meltdown. Half Ass Monkey Boy. Chloe Dancer/Crown of Thorns. That’s all we had until Apple came out.
My experience with Soundgarden was “Flower” and “Big Dumb Sex”. That’s all I knew about Soundgarden. They too were awesome. And Janes Addiction? As I walked away from the venue that night I saw two girls weeping, the show had moved them so much. This show changed my life. But it was Love Bone that I latched onto.

May 26 1989 Lindbloom Student Center, Green River Community College, Auburn
KGRG Benefit show, Nirvana
I loved “Love Buzz” which is the only song I knew. But it by no means prepared me for the show I would see that night. They played all of Bleach. Kurt stood there defiantly at his mic all night, spitting into it, cursing it, all night. Grohl was not their drummer. They were the first “real” rock band I saw THIS close. I bought Bleach, SubPop 200, anything that had Nirvana on it. Every recording I could find. Negative Creep quickly became my favorite song.

Oct 22 1990 Off Ramp, Seattle
Mookie Blaylock/Inspector Luv and the Ride Me Babies/Bathtub Gin
Two things happened. The first not so significant one, I got a postcard in the mail informing me of the show. I have that card in a box around here somewhere. I think. But more importantly it was the second thing that happened.
I was working at a pizza place and went with a co-worker to smoke some pot after our shift. I know, Its not recommended, its just how I did it. But I met his roommate Brian. Brian was in a band that was playing the next week and he told me I should come. It was the Mookie Blaylock show.
Meeting Brian is one of the pivotal moments in my life. Within 6 months of meeting him, we would be renting the 5 bedroom house in Kent. That’s where I met my wife of 20 years. Ex wife. We had two kids. This alone is worthy enough for it to be pivotal. But there is so much more. There are very few moments in our lives that we can point to of when our lives took a massive change, this is one of mine.
So I go see Brians band play. Thank god Bathtub Gin was good. They were really good. Jeff Hiatt was one of the cities premier guitar players. No doubt.
This is what I remember of Inspector Luv, Ty bending over so far, the weight of his body bending his mic stand out so far I was sure he would bust it.
Mookie Blaylock. I loved Mother Love Bone as stated above. I wanted so badly to like it. After the first couple songs I didn’t. Not because it wasn’t good but because of my own expectations. So I go to the bar at the left of the stage and get a beer and I stand about 6 feet in front of the singer. I want so badly to like them. I don’t know if it was the 3rd song in the set or the 5th song. But I’m looking at the singer and his eyes are bobbing in the back of his head. And I thought “theres something to this guy”. The melody of that song stuck with me for months. That song. The next time I saw them play I waiting for THAT song. They gave out these 3 song promotional cassettes and CD’s and it wasn’t on that. Had to wait until TEN came out to finally learn the name of THAT song. It was Black. Black. A song that would go on to be one of my favorite songs ever. Black. The song that made “Unplugged” relevant long before Kurt did “Pennyroyal Tea”. Black. That song. And I spoke to me so powerfully the first time I heard it that I couldn't stop hearing its melody in my head after hearing it once. Black. THAT song.

I want to add that I did not know that this was their first show as mookie blaylock until this very moment. I'm stunned. I looked on two feet thick to get the date. There was no other show at the Off Ramp with Inspector Luv and Bathtub Gin. I am just now realizing that it was their first ever show. I'm stunned and elated.

[arq]

Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck, you're the only person I know who was at the first show

[MLB.MB.PJ]

and the thing is, you don't know me

[arq]

and the thing is, you don't know me

I know all i need to know... you were there