Artist Spotlight
When people think of Seattle music in the early 90’s, names such as Nirvana, Soundgarden, Pearl Jam, Mudhoney, and Alice In Chains immediately spring to mind. But lurking underneath the grunge exterior was a much more interesting and diverse collection of bands, many of whom had been rocking the Seattle circuit for years.
Young Fresh Fellows
Lets start with the Young Fresh Fellows. This seminal northwestern band is about as far from grunge as you can get. But sounding out of whack with the times seemed par for the course for these guys, just take a listen to 1987’s The Men Who Loved Music for further proof. While the rest of the country was awash in synth driven pop, watered down rock, and bad hair metal, the Fellows were churning out their own brand of unique garage rock with a humorous twist. Most notable on this album is “Amy Grant,” which poked fun at the Christian singer and became a minor hit on college radio. Other standouts are the equally humorous “Hank, Karen and Elvis,” “When The Girls Get Here,” and “TV Dream.” The CD re-issue of the album includes the Refreshments EP which is home to the nearly flawless “Aurora Bridge,” one of the Fellows best early songs.
In 1988 original guitarist Chuck Carroll left the band and was quickly replaced by local musician Kurt Bloch, whose acquisition immediately sent the Fellows in a more rocking direction. This One’s For The Ladies, released in 1989, barrels out of the gate with the combination of the hard driving title track and the most high octane song they had released to that point, the incredible “Still There’s Hope.” The fun quotient is still accounted for with the goofy instrumental “Taco Wagon,” and a revved up cover of the Kinks classic “Picture Book.” But this album is also worth a listen for a couple of the more subdued outings, such as the perfect closer “Don’t You Wonder How It Ends?” which seems to sum up the diverse album perfectly. Although the band’s next record, Electric Bird Digest, was another great effort, looking back on their catalog (which extends all the way to the 2001 offering, Because We Hate You) This One’s For The Ladies still seems like the seminal release. The impact that Kurt Bloch had on this band cannot be understated.
The Fastbacks
And speaking of Kurt, before, during and after the Young Fresh Fellows, Kurt also played guitar in the legendary Seattle trio the Fastbacks. The band released music from 1981 to 1999, a truly impressive run, and was notable for having two female singers and a revolving door membership of drummers which would make even Spinal Tap jealous. The band’s early work was decent, but they didn’t really hit their stride until the 1990 album Very, Very Powerful Motor.
The two records that followed, 1993’s Zucher and 1994’s Answer The Phone Dummy are probably the band at their peak, combining their punk and pop tendencies with excursions into more straight-forward rock. Plus, by this time, Bloch’s guitar playing was just leaps and bounds beyond that of his peers. Standouts on these two albums include “Gone To The Moon,” “Under The Old Light bulb,” “Waste Of Time,” “On Your Hands,” and, my personal fave, “In The Observatory.” If you want an excellent early to mid career retrospective, check out the outstanding 1992 compilation The Question Is No. Dig into a handful of killer early songs (“Someone Else’s Room,” “Don’t Eat That It’s Poison,” “Everything I Don’t Need”), which clearly show the bands devotion to groups such as the Buzzcocks.
Flop
And speaking of Fastbacks drummers, one gentleman to sit on that throne over the years was Rusty Willoughby: The guitarist and songwriting mastermind in one of the true unsung heroes of the Seattle scene, Flop. The group only released three albums during their short life-span, but two of them are absolutely essential. Flop And The Fall Of The Mopsqueezer! from 1992 is the more loose of the pair and is probably the most beloved by their fans. The second song on this record, “Anne,” is a standout of guitar crunching majesty and is a great primer for the group’s output. While this song veered a bit more towards pop, Flop had absolutely no problem galloping into speedier punk with the likes of “Ugly Girl Lover,” and “Zeus, My Master.”
After a rather unsuccessful foray into the world of major label releases, Flop returned to their former indie label, Frontier, with World Of Today in 1995. Overall it’s a much darker album that Fall, but damn is it one hell of a swan song. Even more apparent on this release is the excellent playing of second guitarist Bill Campbell, whose intertwining guitar lines are especially apparent in songs like “Act 1, Scene 1” and the powerful “Eggs And Ash,” the latter of which features the lyric “When the water breaks its war/Your brain’s a long way gone from the day that you were born.” Yikes! Willoughby was certainly letting some demons out with this one, just check out the even darker “North Mason Middle School” for further proof. Overall this album still stands as one of my favorites from the mid-90’s.
Of course there are plenty of other great unsung Seattle heroes from this era, such as the Posies, the grunge/punk hybrid Seaweed, and quirky Seattle mainstays The Squirrels, whose 2000 Dark Side Of The Moon tribute, The Not-So-Brightside Of The Moon has to be heard to be believed. If you want to discover even more obscure bands from this era check out Doug Pray’s 1996 documentary on the Seattle music explosion, Hype!, which is essential viewing.
