Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
ager named Johnny Allen Hendrix took to the stage in the basement of a local syn-
agogue in the Central District (CD) in 1960. Hendrix's band fired him mid-set for
showing off - a personality trait he would later turn to his advantage. Ignored and in
trouble with the law, Hendrix served briefly in the US army before being honorably dis-
charged. After a stint in Nashville, he gravitated to New York, where he was 'dis-
covered' playing in a club by Keith Richards' girlfriend. Encouraged to visit London,
the displaced Seattleite was invited by bassist Chas Chandler to play in a new nightclub
for his mates Eric Clapton and the Beatles, whose jaws immediately hit the floor.
Heart was another band that had to travel elsewhere - in its case, to Canada - to gain
international recognition. The band recorded its first album in Vancouver and followed
it up with a second, which produced the hard-rock million-seller 'Barracuda.' Enjoying
a comeback in the mid-'80s, Heart is probably best remembered for the soft-rock hit
'These Dreams.'
Grunge - Punk's West Coast Nirvana
Synthesizing Generation X angst with a questionable approach to personal hygiene, the
music popularly categorized as 'grunge' first dive-bombed onto Seattle's scene in the
early 1990s like a clap of thunder on a typically wet and overcast afternoon. The anger
had been fermenting for years - not purely in Seattle but also in its sprawling satellite
towns and suburbs. Some said it was inspired the weather, others cited the Northwest's
geographic isolation. It didn't really matter. Armed with dissonant chords and dark,
sometimes ironic lyrics, a disparate collection of bands stepped sneeringly up to the mi-
crophone to preach a new message from a city that all of the touring big-name rock acts
serially chose to ignore. There were Screaming Trees from collegiate Ellensburg, the
Melvins from rainy Montesano, Nirvana from the timber town of Aberdeen, and the
converging members of Pearl Jam from across the nation.
Historically, grunge's roots lay in West Coast punk, a musical sub-genre that first
found a voice in Portland in the late 1970s, led by the Wipers, whose leather-clad fol-
lowers congregated in legendary dive bars such as Satyricon. Another musical blos-
soming occurred in Olympia, WA, in the early 1980s, where DIY musicians Beat Hap-
pening invented 'lo-fi' and coyly mocked the corporate establishment. Mixing in ele-
ments of heavy metal and scooping up the fallout of an itchy youth culture, Seattle
quickly became the alternative music's pulpit, spawning small, clamorous venues
where boisterous young bands more interested in playing rock music than 'performing'
could lose themselves in a melee of excitement and noise. It was a raucous, energetic
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