Over the last few months there's been a great deal of reminiscing on the Seattle music scene of the early 90s with celebrations of the 20th anniversaries of Nirvana's “Nevermind” and Pearl Jam (written about here) taking center stage. I was lucky enough to have been living in Seattle at that time having arrived just as the tsunami was building. This was before the point when the clothes I bought at thrift stores (or took from the “free” bin) were appearing on runway models and selling for laughably large sums of money. Back then, I was occasionally writing articles and reviews for Seattle's bi-weekly music paper The Rocket. I've been thinking about those years a lot lately with a range of emotions, much of them driven by being a guy in his early 40s trying to figure out how I got from long hair, flannel and Doc Martens to middle age. At times, I've been unsure if the mantle on which I place that era is simply due to the fact that Seattle is merely where I happened to be in my 20s. Other times, I see those years as the last run of good alternative music, just prior to the collapse of the record industry and the changes that have been wrought as a result. With “Everybody Loves Our Town”, Mark Yarm captures the full arc of the Seattle music scene. Through an immense oral history spread out over 544 pages, Yarm paints a comprehensive view of what I've been bragging about for 20 years to those who missed out on the party. If someone played even a small role, whether as a musician, promoter, manager, receptionist, etc., Yarm has that person covered.
One major theme I was happy to see in “Everybody Loves Our Town” is that the scene was much larger than the Big 4 bands that everyone rolls off their tongues when they hear the word “Seattle”. (Just so you know, not everyone in the city was drooling over Pearl Jam or Nirvana back then.) Yarm starts things off in the mid-80s with The U-Men and seemingly covers everyone in that town who ever put out a record. In the years that Seattle was changing from backwater town to Major City of Cool, there was a lot of unity and mutual support among musicians whose paths crossed as bandmates and drinking buddies. As Yarm unravels the family tree of Seattle music, it seems almost incestuous how these musicians' lives and careers were intertwined. For those who think that the scene was full of big-time wannabe posers, many of the musicians in the book were big punk rock fans and met each other at shows. It's also wonderful to see a lot of print devoted to bands like Mudhoney and The Melvins who got swept up in the undercurrents of Seattle hype but never got the due that I think they deserved (especially The Melvins who, in my opinion, were the foundation of much of Seattle's music). As I went through these pages, so many memories jumped out at me: seeing Soundgarden off-shoot band Hater opening at the OK Hotel for Dead Moon; buying the latest issue of Peter Bagge's “Hate” comic at Fallout Records on Capitol Hill; Tad Doyle egging on the crowd from the stage of The Crocodile Cafe. Ever since I started reading this book, I cannot prevent Mudhoney's “In 'N' Out Of Grace” from rattling around my noggin.
Yarm also unflinchingly covers the darker times of that era starting with the death of Andrew Love, whose band “Mother Love Bone” dissolved immediately thereafter and became reborn when members Stone Gossard and Jeff Ament formed Mookie Blaylock which was later re-christened as Pearl Jam. There are detailed accounts of the tragic losses that occurred: Mia Zapata; Kurt Cobain; Layne Stayley. Pearl Jam's performance at Denmark's Roskilde Festival in 2000, where nine people were accidentally killed, is also discussed in detail. Some of the stories are more of a sad fizzle, like the account of how Soundgarden faded away amidst disillusionment among the band members. Yarm's interview subjects pull no punches when they talk about their anger, sorrow, and disappointments. This is especially clear in the discussions about Courtney Love and her perceived influence on Kurt Cobain's life. (If you're a Courtney hater, there's lots here for your consumption.)
“Everybody Loves Our Town” is an essential addition to the bookshelf of anyone who has fond memories of the Seattle 90s or who wants to understand just what the hell was going on out there.
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