As the lead guitarist for grunge metal outfit Soundgarden, Kim Thayil undoubtedly had a hand in helping chart the path of the explosion of the grunge scene in the early 90s. His band alone certainly reaped the rewards, accruing several platinum albums and attaining worldwide success.
However, what constitutes being a grunge band was quickly diluted among the mainstream exploitation of the Seattle, WA scene it sprang from. While it came to reflect more of a marketing catchall than a defining umbrella for like-minded bands, Thayil feels there’s one band that perhaps embodied the most defining traits of the genre: Mudhoney.
Speaking with LifeMinute, Thayil recently said of that:
“Grunge was this generic label that referred to bands from Seattle in general, but also included bands like [The] Smashing Pumpkins, and Stone Temple Pilots get thrown in with grunge a lot – they were in LA and Pumpkins were in Chicago. There’s certainly a cultural aesthetic that we shared with all those bands, but I think musically, the idea of a big power chord that’s all fuzzy and distorted.
I think Nirvana might embody the musical identity of grunge, maybe – the band that’d best embody grunge, I would think, is Mudhoney, Mudhoney‘s sound, and their style and attitude. That’s, that’s like the archetypal grunge band.
The Pumpkins certainly had those elements, and Nirvana. It was only grunge in that we came from the same place and we were friends of those guys. And we played the same venues, we played the bills together.”
[via Ultimate-Guitar]
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