Green River: The Band, Not the Murderer

There’s a pretty deep pedigree that runs through most of Seattle’s ‘80s and ‘90s rock scene - bands that no one is gonna ever really hear again, some bands that you should hear (U-Men) and some bands that you’re gonna hear even if it might wind up being nothing more than a brief history lesson.

Green River is of that latter category. And while it can’t be said that the music is horrendous, only the most voracious of Seattle music fans need to take a listen. Figuring that all out, though, still allows for the band to be as historically important as the Gits, who much like Green River are cooler to think about then listen to on a regular basis.

Formed in 1984, Green River was at its inception already a collection of top tier players from Seattle’s rock scene. No one had as of yet become nationally known so early in the decade – and beyond that, the basic infrastructure that would soon allow every half ass band in town to release an album was just getting solidified.

At the time that Green River formed C/Z Records hadn’t as of yet released the Deep Six compilation, which was basically the first salvo of whatever folks would come to term the Seattle sound. More important in some respects and less so in others, the Sub Pop label hadn’t as of yet coalesced. That would all soon change, though.

Comprising Mark Arm screaming some downer nonsense, Stone Gossard and Steve Turner on guitar, Jeff Ament  plying bass strings and Alex Vincent behind the drums, Green River was the grazing grounds for Pearl Jam (through Mother Love Bone, of course) and Mudhoney. The prior (with Gossard and Ament) would obviously go onto international success while Mudhoney (with Arm and Turner) garnered underground rock respect that it might not necessarily deserve considering its spotty discography.

Regardless of that, Green River was everything that Mudhoney and Pearl Jam were. It’s just that this earlier group wasn’t able to distill an singular identity. There’s still that punk inflection as can be heard on the group’s Dead Boys cover of “Ain’t Nothin’ To Do” where Arm actually approaches Stiv Bators’ Cleveland snarl. Unfortunately, seeing as the band was a creature of its time, there’s also a bit too much of ‘80s styled rock and roll stuffs.

“Unwind” arrives sounding like something that might accompany a wet t-shirt contest. Even if the musicianship is nothing short of on point, it can’t rectify such a shoddy mélange of nonsense. Fortunately, Arm’s vocals are basically what they would be while in Mudhoney – and that means there’re moments when it just sounds like Kurt Cobain screaming along with the track.

With the Seattle thing being a through line for all of these groups, Green River even set down an Alice in Chains styled downer rocker here on “Smilin’ and Dyin’.” It’s not comical at all, but the bleakness of the future for a relatively small scene that would briefly capture the world’s attention was already present. Odd, but true.