10 Most Underrated Grunge Bands Of All Time
7. Seaweed
A Washington act with an enormous amount of promise, Seaweed were signed by Sub Pop after a couple of EPs and given a real push. The potential is there from the earlier singles, a distinctive selection of punk tracks with often surprising and unusual structures.
Weak, their first full length, set them apart from much of the grunge scene in its sound, which still leaned more towards punk rock than the thick, stoner sounds of Alice In Chains or Soundgarden. Tracks like “Baggage” displayed the band at their tight best, with vocals piled above some of the best sounding drums in the scene.
They jumped to a major label in 1995 and released the successful Spanaway, whose polished sound took away some of the band’s early fire, but produced a lot of excellent tracks like “Crush Us All” and the melodic “Start With”.
Their final album, 1999’s Actions And Inactions, was a back to basics affair on venerable indie label Merge. Their commercial momentum had fizzled out at this point, but it could well be their best collection of songs, “Thru The Window” being a particular highlight.