Biography
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Years Active
1983 – 1987 (4 years)
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Founded In
Seattle, King County, Washington, United States
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Members
- Bruce Fairweather
- Jeff Ament
- Mark Arm
- Steve Turner
- Stone Gossard
Green River is an influential Seattle grunge band, named after the Green River Killer (not the CCR album, as is a common misunderstanding). They are considered one of the first grunge bands, forming in 1984 in Seattle, Washington.
Green River had little impact outside of Seattle, but their influence within Seattle's music scene would eventually be felt around the world. Their influence reached to both of their contemporaries (Soundgarden, The Melvins) and later Seattle bands (Nirvana, Alice in Chains) sharing the Sub Pop label. Green River's impact continued to live on through the bands who formed after their break-up in 1988: Mother Love Bone, Pearl Jam, Love Battery, and Mudhoney.
They were possibly the first band in Seattle to mix metal, punk, and glam, leading to the sound known later as "grunge." Mark Arm, the group's singer, is widely credited as being the first person to use the term, although in a different manner that is widely used. He has since shown contempt for the label.
They were heavily influenced by the still-obscure Californian proto-grunge/hardcore punk band Tales of Terror, something Green River themselves were not ashamed of or subtle enough not to wear on their sleeves; as they covered Tales of Terror's song 'Ozzy' (re-titled 'Ozzie') from their sole album on their 1987 EP, Dry as a Bone. Tales of Terror, at some point; through touring, wound up in Seattle during the early 80s and played gigs Green River members attended. Apparently they were so 'blown away' by the band that they derived a significant amount of their own style from Tales of Terror. Kurt Cobain himself, as a fan of Green River; also ended up acknowledging Tales of Terror's music as an influence, as evidenced by their presence on his Top 50 albums ever. This influence even still reached Mark Arm and Steve Turner's subsequent band Mudhoney, as decades later, they named a song after Tales of Terror for their 2008 record 'The Lucky Ones'.
Green River had three official releases: Come On Down (EP, 1985), Dry As A Bone (EP, 1987), and Rehab Doll (Full-length 1988). They have an anthology album as well from 1990 entitled Dry as a Bone/Rehab Doll that as its name suggests, combines the two releases plus some bonus material. They have also been included on nine compilations, spanning from the late 80's to the mid 90's.
A Green River reunion occurred on November 30, 1993 during a Pearl Jam concert in Las Vegas, Nevada. Participating in the reunion were Arm, Turner, Gossard, Ament and Chuck Treece, who filled in on drums for Vincent, who at that time was living in Japan. The band performed the songs "Swallow My Pride" and "Ain't Nothing to Do" before leaving the stage.
Green River reunited for four shows in 2008. The line-up for the shows included Ament, Arm, Turner, Vincent, Gossard, and Fairweather. The first show was a warm-up show on July 10, 2008 at the Sunset Tavern in Seattle. The band next played on July 13, 2008 at Marymoor Park near Seattle to honor Sub Pop's 20th anniversary. Green River played another live show on November 28, 2008 at Dante's in Portland, Oregon. Afterward, the band played on November 29, 2008 at the Showbox in Seattle to celebrate The Supersuckers' 20th anniversary. Green River played on May 22, 2009 and May 23, 2009 at the Showbox in Seattle to celebrate the Melvins' 25th anniversary.
Green River was said to have tentative plans to record a new studio album when the band members' schedules permit, to possibly tour and to release remixed and remastered versions of the band's output containing bonus material.
So far only the latter has occurred. In 2016 they released a remixed and remastered version of their 1984 Demo Tape that was never officially released. Most notably, it contains the Green River original song 'Leech' that was subsequently given (or 'stolen' by) to the Melvins and re-titled 'Leeech' because they felt the song 'wasn't of much use' to them but that some people actually consider to be one of or simply their 'best' (hence the Melvins wanted it).
2018 saw the reissue of their debut EP, Come on Down with a demo version of their Deep Six compilation song 'Your Own Best Friend' from that same session as a bonus track. A year later, in 2019, Deluxe versions of Dry as a Bone and Rehab Doll were released; which included a good amount of unreleased material as well as a third release from their personal archive: A live recording from their 1984 era entitled 'Live at the Tropicana 1984'.
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