10 Most Underrated Grunge Bands Of All Time
1. Green River
They weren’t the band that put grunge on the map, and they aren’t the best remembered, but Green River can lay claim to being the ones who started it all. Forming in Seattle in 1984, they released a couple of EPs and one full length album, and changed the game completely for bands in their wake.
The EPs Come On Down and Dry As A Bone feature the band at their weighty best, with a riff-rock style that belies their slightly unfashionable love of bands like Aerosmith. Standout “Ozzie” is a particularly blistering sonic attack, with an almost glamorous sleaze that stands out from the perceived sludge of typical grunge.
By their sole album, Rehab Doll, they sound like a band on the edge of a nervous breakdown, playing rolling hardcore with a Meat Puppets-style ragged charm. They re-recorded “Swallow My Pride”, the closest they got to a hit here; it’s the sneering, joyous sound of a band who know they’re good but have no intention of polishing up.
Members of Green River would go on to form Mudhoney and Pearl Jam, but neither band could ever encapsulate the DIY, noisy music of grunge better than these guys.