Green River
Seattle band Green River may go down in history as the first 'grunge' band, and were certainly the first to release a record on the Sub Poplabel. They first came together in 1984 with Jeff Ament (ex-Deranged Diction) on bass, drummer Alex Shumway, guitarist/vocalist Mark Arm and former Mr Epp guitarist Steve Turner. Soon the line-up was expanded with the addition of ex- Ducky Boys/March Of Crimes guitarist Stone Gossard and they began to air their wares on the local Northwest scene. By 1985 they had appeared alongside the Melvins on the DEEP SIX compilation album on the C/Z label, released a six song EP, COME ON DOWN, for Homestead, and were playing the same clubs as another local band, Soundgarden. Both bands came to the attention of Sub Popowner Bruce Pavitt, who decided to expand his cassette-based fanzine into a full record label and worked with them in producing the 12-inch EP, DRY AS A BONE, which was released in June 1987. Turner left soon after and was replaced by another Deranged Diction member, Bruce Fairweather. In May 1988 they released the mini-album, REHAB DOLL (cassette and CD vesions adended DRY AS A BONE) but the band were already falling apart with musical differences between Arm and Ament which led to them splitting in June. Arm joined Turner with ex-Melvins' bassist Matt Lukin and drummer Dan Peters to form Mudhoney. Ament, Gossard and Fairweather regrouped with ex-Malfunkshun vocalist Andrew Wood and drummer Regan Hagar and formed Lords Of The Wasteland, who quickly evolved into Mother Love Bone. After the death of Wood in March 1990 that band fractured with Gossard and Ament forming the hugely successful Pearl Jam. Green River thus became an important footnote in the development of the '90s strongest rock movement, though their light was re- ignited temporarily on 30 November 1993 at the Aladdin Hotel in Las Vegas when Pearl Jam ended their live set early to make way for a one-off reformation of Green River with Gossard, Arm, Turner and Ament joined by Chuck Treece (bassist from Urge Overkill) playing drums. REHAB DOLL (1988)Sub Pop, mini-album.