Favorite Grunge Albums

[jon]

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Nirvana-Tour-Diary-Andy-Bollen/dp/1857828755/ref=sr_1_16?crid=2CHCRY2RSFC67&keywords=nirvana+books&qid=1659697308&sprefix=nirvana+books%2Caps%2C115&sr=8-16

This is the drummer of the Vaselines and you get a little insight into the band and Nirvana. It is quite a good read if you like Grunge and early Nirvana.
https://www.amazon.com/Nirvana-Tour-Diary-Greatest-Bands-ebook/dp/B00CBT9G80/ref=sr_1_1?crid=399I22HTN7P4P&keywords=Nirvana+-+A+Tour+Diary%3A+My+Life+on+the+Road+with+One+of+the+Greatest+Bands+of+All+Time&qid=1659698063&sprefix=nirvana+-+a+tour+diary+my+life+on+the+road+with+one+of+the+greatest+bands+of+all+time+%2Caps%2C490&sr=8-1#customerReviews

that is the US link. Also quite a lot about the band capt america.

This seems interesting. I'll get it. When I first saw the link I was like, here we go, another Nirvana book about a tour before they got famous. But this is after. So that's nice. It seems like literally everything I've seen about recounts of Nirvana tours were before they got huge.

Edit: So I see most of the times Captain America opened for them was from November 26th-December 5th, 1991. That must have been a crazy time. It was right around that time that Smells Like Teen Spirit got huge. So that's probably an interesting tour. I didn't know they played in the UK that much late 1991. Again, my memory is a bit hazy, but we got the album probably in late September since it says it came out September 24th. Like I said, we probably got the album the first week I'm almost completely positive about if not the first day. I think by late November the Teen Spirit video was already huge. So those late November and early December dates were probably fascinating. I'm still trying to pinpoint exactly when Nirvana got massive and if it was by late November. I think it was literally precisely those tour dates when they were massive.

I just saw that Nevermind was #4 on the November 23, 1991 U.S. Billboard charts and #5 for November 30th and December 7th. It's obviously well known that it got to #1 on January 11th, overtaking Michael Jackson lol. So yea, if Nevermind was already #4 on the U.S charts before the bulk of the UK tour that Captain America was one of the openers for, then they obviously were already basically the biggest band in the world. I read that the shows were dangerously oversold on that tour.

Those dates validate how I remembered things going down. I remember that fall being a fun time of going to football games and listening to Nirvana, not at the football games, but it was just a fun time. Especially because we got the album on what might have been it's first day out. Although in later years Teen Spirit would be played at football games a lot. It might have been played at those games in 1991 when UM won the National Championship. It was a great freaking time, late 1991.

[BlasteroidAli]

I think it is a third Nirvana and third CA and a third about the author and the fun of drumming. It has loads of set lists for Nirvana.

So I heard this story, the tour manager for Captain America got this woman and they were on the tour bus, so he had sex with her. He said he only lasted a minute. He was totally useless. So after he had finished doing the deed she said to him. "Thank you, Eugene!!" She thought she was getting a good time from the lead singer. Funny story.

[jon]

You gotta do what you gotta do Ok, I’m going to get that book for the holidays. The Nirvana songs I’m referring to are that Gallons of Rubbing Alcohol Flow Through The Strip and the other song that’s probably not appropriate to name. But right there that would’ve made In Utero 14 songs and about 10 minutes longer. That Gallons song is way too good to have gotten left out. They also could’ve put Marigold on it too and have Dave with a song on a Nirvana album.

[jon]

I was just listening to that Orbit album “Libido Speedway” on Apple Music. They’re that band from around 1996 that had the “Medicine” song. When the album ends Apple Music always plays something from another band thinking I’d like it if I like Orbit. And almost every time the band sucks. I’m sure I could disable that function where it just stops after the album I’m listening to’s last song. Of course I don’t have the patience or skill set for that.

But it made me realize, and I know we mentioned it in another thread how there’s so few good rock bands. I mean I listen to Spot (who has that “Moon June Spoon” song) and Orbit. And Nirvana and a very rare few others. There’s so many bands that are just atrocious from the 90’s that have followings that are kind of that alt rock sound, whatever you want to call it.

[Stalvern]

But it made me realize, and I know we mentioned it in another thread how there’s so few good rock bands. I mean I listen to Spot (who has that “Moon June Spoon” song) and Orbit. And Nirvana and a very rare few others. There’s so many bands that are just atrocious from the 90’s that have followings that are kind of that alt rock sound, whatever you want to call it.

It's the commercialized, mainstream version of alternative rock, to which the word "alternative" no longer applied in any sense. Third Eye Blind was as "alternative" in 1998 as Bon Jovi was in 1988, but the term stuck because it was convenient for marketing. The real alternative at that time started being called indie rock, which itself became commercialized and mainstream in the following decade (compare Weezer in 1996 with Weezer in 2008).

Edit: Here's one of my favorite local (Missouri) bands from the late '90s. I hope this is a better recommendation than what Apple has been giving you.

[jon]

But it made me realize, and I know we mentioned it in another thread how there’s so few good rock bands. I mean I listen to Spot (who has that “Moon June Spoon” song) and Orbit. And Nirvana and a very rare few others. There’s so many bands that are just atrocious from the 90’s that have followings that are kind of that alt rock sound, whatever you want to call it.

It's the commercialized, mainstream version of alternative rock, to which the word "alternative" no longer applied in any sense. Third Eye Blind was as "alternative" in 1998 as Bon Jovi was in 1988, but the term stuck because it was convenient for marketing. The real alternative at that time started being called indie rock, which itself became commercialized and mainstream in the following decade (compare Weezer in 1996 with Weezer in 2008).

Edit: Here's one of my favorite local (Missouri) bands from the late '90s. I hope this is a better recommendation than what Apple has been giving you.

What happened was "alternative rock" in the beginning, in late 1991, was Nirvana, and all the bands that got popular immediately after like Red Hot Chili Peppers, Smashing Pumpkins, Pearl Jam, etc. It was probably called "alternative" bc it was a rebellion against hair metal. But by the late 90's alternative was only wimpy bands like Poe and bands like Third Eye Blind and Matchbox 20. Nothing against the last 2, but alternative sure got wimpy.

But going back to late 1991 is weird because I remember it vividly. Nirvana and all those bands were called alternative first. Was it a couple years later it became grunge? Was grunge a known term in 1991? That's where it gets muddied. But anyways, all those bands, Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins, Red Hot Chili Peppers, etc. had their best albums by around early 1992. But what a time it was. I remember it very well. I remember in 1992 thinking, wow,, what a time to be alive for rock music, with all these great bands and songs on the radio. Oh and my Hurricanes were the Goat.

[VideoGameCritic]

Alternative dates back further to the mid-late 80s with bands like The Cure, R.E.M., The Replacements, 10,000 Maniacs, and a bunch of other bands that only college students listened to. Of course, a lot of those would be considered mainstream later on.

[Stalvern]

When I think of '80s alternative, I think of bands like Hüsker Dü or the Minutemen or the Meat Puppets. Less popular than even the "college rock" the Critic mentioned but much more strongly connected to what was about to get big after Nirvana.

Grunge specifically also started in the '80s with bands like Green River (which did not make it to the '90s), Mother Love Bone (which did make it to the '90s but broke up before Nevermind), and Screaming Trees (which managed to last through the decade).

[jon]

I've been listening to The Lemonheads. And it's kind of astonishing to me how they weren't more popular. I think "it's a Shame about Ray" should've been a lot more popular of an album than it was. People dog Evan Dando for getting popular because of cover songs mostly, but I think there are some songs like "Rudderless" that could've been hits as well. And Ben Deily, the co-front man who quit in the late 80's, wrote a decent amount of exceptional songs on their first 3 albums, that should be way more remembered.

[lynchie137]

I don't know if you'd necessarily label this band Grunge or not. But I always thought that The Odds, who were a Canadian band, kicked a ton of ass back in the day. Specifically on this song called "Eat my Brain", in which the video for it also has cameos by members of the bands Junkhouse and The Pursuit of Happiness. Who were also Canadian and also had some really rocking tunes between them

Anyhoo, here's the vid:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZFPiG8dEBk