Dave Thompson - The Grunge Diaries: Seattle, 1990–1994

Thanks to Amy Hanson and Jo-Ann Greene, who lived it... Jason Bober, Roderick Wolgamott, Gordon Raphael, Art Chantry, Grant Alden, Wally Hargrave, Peter Bagge, Robert Roth, Bill Rieflin, Ivan Kral, Jen Knox, and Rick Friel, who helped me remember it, and everybody else who, knowingly or otherwise, threw something in to the great grunge pudding and sat back while the rest of us stirred it.

Thanks also to Jo-Ann and Jason for access to their archives of flyers, posters, and memorabilia.

And thanks, too, to Oliver, Trevor, George, Fishley, Snails, and more for forbearance.

Finally, a big thank you to all at Backbeat Books, for allowing me to wander so far down memory lane: Carol Flannery, Barbara Clare, and Jessica Thwaite.

David Loucks (owner of Alternative Productions1995)

John Baker Saunders (Walkabouts1999)

Layne Staley (Alice in Chains2002)

Michael Dahlquist (Silkworm2005)

Andy Capps (Built to Spill2006)

Ben McMillan (Skin Yard, Gruntruck2008)

Andrea Sursley (the Wasters2008)

Chris Slats Harvey (Silly Killers2010)

Mike Starr (Alice in Chains2011)

Dale Yarger (Fantagraphics/The Stranger2012)

Tina Bell (Bam Bam2012)

Kim Thompson (Fantagraphics2013)

Rick Parashar (producer of Temple of the Dog, Alice in Chains, Pearl Jam2014)

Mike Vraney (Showbox promoter2014)

Marius Minwaller (Posies2015)

Tom Gnoza (Uncle Dirt Nap2015)

Detonator Beth Lawrence (artist/performer, Black Cat Orchestra2015)

George Romansic (The Rocket2015)

James Atkins (Hammerbox2016)

Chris Cornell (Soundgarden2017)

Geoff Cooper (Jangletown2018)

Frankie Sundsten (artist2019)

Shawn Smith (Bliss, Satchel2019)

Tommy Martin (Bam Bam, Mommy2019)

Bill Rieflin (The Telepaths, Blackouts2020)

Ivan Kral (Sky Cries Mary2020)

And also...

Timmy Orangehead (the Disappointed)

Mike Pitts (Kent 3)

Joe Howard (Sky Cries Mary, etc.)

Mike Dees (Fitz of Depression)

The following interview was conducted on July 16, 1993, at Eileens on Capitol Hill. Excerpts were published in Alternative Press in October 1993. The following is the full transcript, appearing for the first time in book form.

We met at a downtown Seattle hotel as arranged, made our way to a restaurant he chose on Capitol Hill, sat and ordered our meals, and then Kurt leaped up to announce I just need to go and do something... and off he trotted. We spend thirty minutes watching his chicken dinner congeal on the plate, and then Kris Novoselic departs as well. Which means its the first interview Nirvana has given in ten months, and Im talking antique clocks and Patsy Cline with Dave Grohl.

Cobain finally returns an hour, an hour-and-a-half later. Luke, the Geffen press officer charged with nursemaiding the evenings proceedings, looks cheerful for the first time since we sat down, but thats more than can be said for Cobain. First he apologizes for his absence (sorry, I had to see my chiropractor); he inspects, then rejects, his still chilling meal; and finally he notices that Novoselic is absent.

Wheres Kris?

He went home.

Why?

He was waiting for you...

... and he thought I wouldnt be back, Fucking Cobain the junkie pissing off to score. I was feeling like shit, I needed to relax. I had a fucking massage. And even if I hadnt, what business is it of his? Have I ever missed a show, or missed an interview, or not done anything I said I would do, because of anything else? Kris really pisses me off sometimes.

You know, I run into him backstage at gigs sometimes, and he pretends he doesnt know me, or doesnt want to know me. Its like Oh shit, the junkie; if we dont look his way, he may be too stoned to see us. All this crap. I cannot understand his fucking attitude. I know I shouldnt be saying this in front of a journalist, but...

Nirvana have a new album coming. In Utero has not been released; has barely even been heard outside of a handful of strictly regulated promo cassettes. But already the grapevine is adamant. They screwed up. They deliberately screwed up.

Charged with recording a megabillion selling follow-up to the biggest album of the decade so far, the two-year-old Nevermind, they instead turned to noise n nastiness maestro Steve Albini, and taped an impenetrable din packed with titles like Rape Me, Tourettes, Serve the Servants, Frances Farmer Will Have Her Revenge on Seattle, and, most ironic of all, Radio Friendly Unit Shifter. Allegedly about the kind of songs that label and management wanted them to write. Allegedly. And already, Cobain is sick of hearing the stories.

People dont want to listen. We didnt actually need to make a record, we could have just put out a press release saying this is what its called, these are the songs, and theyre all about... and wed get the same reviews. I know a lot of people want to see us fail, particularly journalists, and thats fair enough.

Maybe theyre jealous, maybe theyre jaded, maybe they simply dont like us. What upsets me is that they go about it in such an underhanded fashion. Before he worked with us, everyone said Albini was a genius. Now hes slipping and fading and getting too clever, and its not just one writer saying it, its a lot. Maybe I really am paranoid, but I dont think its Albini theyre getting at, really. Theyre just setting the stage for hammering us.

Q. In Utero feels a lot more cohesive than Nevermind... it flows really nicely.

A. I hope so! When I listen to an album, I listen to it as a solid body of work, forty minutes in a life, rather than ten four-minute excerpts. Theres always songs I like more than others, but the point is, they all have their place on the album, and if they dont, then the album doesnt work. Not as an album. So we worked really hard to make In Utero sound like an album, with a beginning, a middle, and an end.

For instance, we were going to do Verse, Chorus, Verse [the song originally suggested as the albums title track], but it didnt fit with what we wanted... but we did include Tourettes, even though it isnt that good a song, but it fit the mood. And originally the album started with Rape Me, but then we moved it because it has a similar intro to Teen Spirit, and if people have to say weve just repeated Nevermind, wed rather they dont get that chance straight away.

Q. And what about people who complain that you havent just repeated Never-mind?

A. Hopefully, they wont listen to it. But why would they even want that? I have albums I love by bands I love but when they bring out a new one, I want to hear something new, because otherwise Im just buying the same thing again, which is a waste of everyones time.

Q. Audiences like familiarity.

A. Then let them buy... I had to promise to stop saying things about other bands, the other Seattle bands because... I promised, but you asked, and there are groups who have come along, theyve seen this thing that the media call grunge and they think they can do it, and everyone else hears them and says, Ah yes, its grunge, and a lot of them are making the same record over and over. Pearl Jam could never write a song like Territorial Pissings, but maybe they wouldnt want to. I wouldnt want to write Jeremy.

Q. So do you feel any responsibility for grunge?

A. None, it was just some journalist stuck for a word and he used that, he could have called it anything but he came up with grunge.... I dont want to talk about labels because some of them mean something, punk rock means something because its an attitude more than a musical thing. Grunge isnt an attitude, its not even music, its a zip code.

Q. How about for your fans?