Customer Reviews

Dry As a Bone / Rehab Doll

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This CD captures the early days of the Seattle "grunge" scene, which to me was just a hybird of metal and punk, infused with a 70s rock ideal (see classic Van Halen or The Stooges). Needless to say, in the late 80s and early 90s, this was refreshing stuff. Green River features members of Muhdhoney and Pearl Jam, but the music definitely sounds more like what Mudhoney would later produce. If you're a fan of later Pearl Jam recordings, don't purchase this on the grounds that PJ members were in it. But if you like sloppy, rocking, and heavy guitar rock, this is definitely for you.

Green River ... just the band's name alone conjures up fond memories for those who were there and for those of us who wish we had been there.

Except possibly for the (early) Melvins, Green River was the most inventive hybrid hard rock band on certainly the Seattle scene, if not on the national scene. These two recordings, especially taken together, are sopping wet with ominous, threatening, in-your-face aggression and doom and gloom. Rife with both filthy punk vitriol and over the top 70's heavy metal pomposity, both mini-albums assualt the listener mercilessly, from one second to the next, literally.

Steeped in what sound like Hells' Angels-esque Black Sabbath and Motorhead tributory (and celebratory) riffs, and with enough pent-up and pumped-up blues angst to make John Lee Hooker's head spin, you might wonder what twisted, demented roadhouse these boys crawled out of. There is so much darkness and mayhem within each song, it is almost overwhelming. After all, what could you expect from a group named after the fog-shrouded spawning ground of America's most prolific serial killer?

"This Town" is almost amazing in itself. It should be Green River's aural manifesto, had it not been for the preceding EP "Come on Down". As such, it is full of what made this band so great - the unrelenting, complex (for a garage band) melding of punk, metal, and white boy blues. Mark Arm has never sounded so angry and suicidal.

"P.C.C" is overblown metal at its best. The lyrics are disturbing and comical at the same time.

"Ozzie" is a stroke of genius. From the quirky opening sample of what sounds like some 1940's Humphrey Bogart film to Arm's ear-numbing werewolf impersonations, it is a testament to the band's disturbingly skewed take on the art of rock n roll, as they try to get into the head of the serial murderer who had just started to gain infamy in 1980's Seattle. Great solo, too.

"Unwind" is without a doubt the most original blues update I have ever heard from any group of guys of European-American descent. What starts as an apparent tongue-in-cheek blues reference smolders and then detonates with Arm's decapitated growl. Stone Gossard is absolutely brilliant throughout this CD, and this track especially is his showcase. Amazing.

"Forever Means" is probably my favorite Green River song. This one track is probably the pinnacle of everything the band stood for - all of the rock hybridization that would become synonymous with early 90's Seattle rolled seamlessly into 4 minutes and 20 seconds of screeching, cathartic, buzzsaw bliss. Nihilistic rock at its finest. Absolutely incredible.

"Swallow My Pride" is almost just as good, with a sexy female vocal to boot. One of the best songs of personal and sexual alienation I have ever heard.

"Porkfist" is perhaps what Motorhead would have sounded like if they traded the moors of England for the evergreen forests of the Pac Northwest. Jeff's inventive, proto-funky bass lines keep this one thrumming and thumping. Sounds like early Soundgarden, or should that be the other way around? (No disrespect to Soundgarden, also one of the greatest, or to their fans).

The rest of the tracks are not as groundbreaking, but still distortion pedals full of fun. Stone and Bruce's (Fairweather) guitars blister white hot, churning up the air like a chainsaw blade. Mark screams bloody murder lyrics like no one else before or after him, making Johnny Rotten and Stiv Bators nearly pale in comparison. Jeff's bass is unobtrusive on all the tracks, but really shines on the above, as well as "Take a Dive".

So, no. Mudhoney or Pearl Jam this most assuredly is not. For a start, Green River was much more complex musically and interesting than Arm's later aspirations and is far more punky and aggressive than PJ. This is is rock history on laser-inscribed plastic and it is a great, great listen from start to finish. Hugely influential and original at the time, the band's members took chunks of Green River with them. Mark brought the aggression, attitude, "grunge", and atonal catterwalling to Mudhoney. Stone and Jeff brought their complex craftsmanship, impeccable teamwork, and adoration of 70's rock to Mother Love Bone, and later - you guessed it - to a little ol' band some of us have heard of called Pearl Jam.

I usually oppose giving bad ratings for the product as opposed to the music but Amazon screwed up on this one. Its a good CD (a compilation of what is essentially the earliest recordings of the grunge movement) but all of the tracks that have the artist listed as "Soundgarden" are actually either bonus tracks or from the Dry as a Bone half of the CD. Check it out, but Amazon, fix the screw-ups.

If it weren't for Mudhoney, I would give this five stars. Grunge at its best. It sounds like it was recorded in a garage and that is the heart of this album.

If you're interested in Northwest music, this is the place to start. For almost four years Green River assaulted Seattle audiences with a unique blend of punk and hard rock, later codified with the dreaded "g" word. "Dry As A Bone" is certainly their best sonic statement, led by my personal faves, "This Town" and "PCC". The unreleased track "Searchin'" is another standout on this great compilation. BUY THIS NOW!

this is just a great album buy some of the best names in seattle the band members are to be what is mudhoney, mother love bone and pearljam.this album does not sound like really any of those bands but if you listen closely you can hear a litte stooges and newyork doll influence.this is the secound album realise the first was a little more metal with steve turner on guitar(mud honey)but this has some of the best sounds from that area know as seattle .it was a creative peck and you can see why the band fell apart thet did what they had to do start a revolution.the falling did help pave the way of all the other bands to follow the trend of grunge rock.so if you dig the history of seattle grunge or just like raw punk intense rock. but if you are looking for other bands that might sound like pearl jam or mud honey go find the real thing instead!!!!!!!1

Green River was an excellent band! They were the FIRST to play what became known as 'grunge' music. Mark Arm invented it, not Kurt Cobain! If you like Nirvana, you'll love Green River ^-^

If you wanna listen to grunge at its best then listen to this. Many people make the miscalculation that pearl jam and Nirvana are the epitemy of grunge. Well their not. Their brilliant in every way besides the fact that they werent really grunge.You can really see how much Gossard and ament have changed while jamming out to Green river. Songs like "Queen bitch", and "ozzie", exemplify what grunge was really about. check it out you ll like it. And why your at it pick up a mother love bone, or tad record. discover true grunge.

I think it's easy for people to write this CD off as horrible after only listening to it once or if they aren't big fans of the grunge scene. But if you love the sounds of early Soundgarden and early Nirvana or Mudhoney, there's no doubt in my mind that you'd love this as well (eventhough no Nirvana or Soundgarden members are in this band, I'm just using them as comparisons).

So if you're a fan of early grunge, this is an absolute must-have. With catchy songs like P.C.C and Baby Takes; powerful songs like Together We'll Never and Forever Means; and obscure gems like Smilin' and Dyin' and One More Stitch, you just can't go wrong. This CD has quickly become one of the most-played CDs in my collection.

On this album you have some of the best songs Mark Arm ever sang ("This Town", "Unwind", the cover of "Queen Bitch") with punk guitars, and I'd easily take it over Superfuzz Bigmuff or any Pearl Jam album. Too bad the band had different goals and had to break up.