10 '90s Bands Everyone Forgets About
2. Screaming Trees
In the age of irony and baggy pants, psychedelic rock making a comeback was something that should not have worked at all. Given that most people couldn't find anything better to do then turn up their amp to 11 and get back to the basics of rock and roll, the age of elongated jams and talking about astral planes seemed way too passe to be taken all that seriously. And yet the Screaming Trees managed to rise to the occasion as the alt rock answer to the Doors.
Fronted by future Queens of the Stone Age collaborator Mark Lanegan, the Trees were originally operating out of Portland before being taken in as a native son of the Northwest. Unlike the more punk tinged acts coming from Seattle like Mudhoney, the Screaming Trees were into making sonic textures with their music, as Lanegan's natural baritone sat on top of everything like hot glue.
Though they did find occasional success with one-off singles like Nearly Lost You, the Trees never managed to actually crack the mainstream in any meaningful way, which led to them collapsing and Lanegan folding himself into the stoner rock of QOTSA. For as out of place as they might seem on paper, the Screaming Trees have definitely carved out their respective niche as the adopted sons of the grunge revolution.