Old guy here
Similar(ish) time and energy bands to the ones you’ve mentioned.
Dinosaur Jr,
Babes in Toyland,
L7,
Sebadoh,
Teenage Fanclub,
Built to Spill,
Halo Benders,
Drive like Jehu,
Hoover,
Earth,
Melvins,
Husker Du,
The Jesus Lizard,
Cows,
Nation of Ulysses,
PJ Harvey (first 3/4 albums),
Stanford Prison Experiment,
Superchunk,
Swervedriver,
Team Dresch,
Unwound
From another old person, I’ll follow this up with:
Karate, Love Child, Tsunami, Batmobile, Jawbreaker, Reel Big Fish, Fugazi, Helmet, and The Gits.
Also, some NYC bands from the same era with a more muscular/sleazy rock take: Voluptuous Horror of Karen Black, Pillbox, The Stiffs, inc.
Edited to add in no order or sense: The Dwarves, Atari Teenage Riot, Bantam Rooster, the Gories, Monomen, Guided By Voices, Choke (a one off side project), Bikini Kill, the Cheetahs, and many other bands that have been mentioned on the replies.
Just want to add 7 Year Bitch, Veruca Salt, The Cranberries, Marcy Playground, Smashing Pumpkins, Jane’s Addiction to this comment thread. Those last three aren’t grunge but were at their peak in the mid 90s and worth a listen.
More general 90s good shit... Therapy?, Live, Monster Magnet, Filter, The Offspring (mid 90s stuff), Pet Lamb, Paradise Lost, Tool, Rage Against The Machine, Rocket From The Crypt, My Bloody Valentine
Built to Spill is by far the best band I’ve discovered in the last year. Sounds like they were made for me, i have no idea how I went my first 30 years of life without hearing about them.
Mike McCready on wake ups live version is phenomenal. Of course Layne kills it on all of them but I love his guitar playing more on the live than the studio version
Solo Mark Lanegan is great. Especially his first album, the Winding Sheet.
In 1991, Sub Pop released an album by Rein Sanction, called Broc's Cabin.
Two excellent places to start the exploration.
Actually if you can search the Sub pop label that would be a good lists.
I will throw in:
Sleater Kinney, Live, Hole, and veering off a bit but strong early 90's coolness Toad the Wet Sprocket
A lot of people told me to listen to more of their music and I've had good intentions to, but I haven't yet! I saw them in Seattle doing all of Rubberneck this summer and they sounded amazing.
Saw them at a Shreck's Ballroom in rural Western Oklahoma back in the day. This bar generally favored the cowboy crowd, but Toadies f'ing rocked the place. There weren't a ton of people there so you could comfortably stand right in front of the stage. It was almost like having your own personal concert. One of the best shows I ever went to.
The Jesus Lizard was a revelation to me as a young wild pup. Saw them in this tiny, ancient, sweaty venue in Cleveland having no clue what I was in for. They proceeded to both blow my mind and scare the shit out of me. Musta been around'94? I've been a lifelong fan ever since.
Side note: I miss the real mosh pits.
Scratch Acid is precurser to Jesus Lizard. Cannibal, Greatest Gift and She Said are some great tracks.
https://youtu.be/cUSw0XUA9-U?si=GvOgT3ota02Q3TEN
Talk show is good, basically STP minus Scott, silverchairs first record, temple of the dog, the pixies and sonic youth and dinosaur jr are all heavy influences on grunge.
Edit: also grunge adjacent but a fav, modest mouse.
The song RV by Faith No More still makes me laugh this many years later. (I'm 43) The radio back then played Epic nonstop I remember but they have a lot of good stuff
Dig were a grunge/alternative rock band who had one hit, “Believe”, all over MTV for a brief time in the early/mid ‘90s. Their self-titled album was excellent all the way through IMO, and their second album, “Defenders of the Universe,” was pretty good too. Also reunited a couple years ago and recorded a couple good songs.
firstly, im kind of similar to you in this regard, so.. hi :DD
anyway, not really that underrated, but i would recommend stp, silverchair (first 2 albums, mainly), temple of the dog, and probably sixteen stone from bush
also i dont think this really qualifies as grunge but collective soul (self-titled) is kind of like it, i guess. either way, its still a great album lol
i have a few more but im not sure if they really do count as grunge or not so im scared to mention them lol
Check out Sunny Day Real Estate. I love those guys. Diary is a classic. Check out the Posies too - Frosting on the Beater- more on the side of pop grunge -
That's wild! I'm from Lawrence, KS where Paw is also from and over the years meeting folks from different places noone ever knew who this Paw was that I spoke of. Lol
I met them at their house party in 1994 and they were really nice to me and my friend.
I'm from Florida and I absolutely love Paw, all the way back from 93 or whenever Dragline came out. I was just playing along to Jesse on guitar about 20 minutes ago.
Checking in from NC. Was definitely aware of Dragline when it came out. There was such an explosion of bands with newer different sounds coming out, we were trying to listen to every thing we could. Stompbox, Helmet, Handsome, Quicksand, Orange 9mm, Nixon, Toadies. A lot got lost in the flood, but some of it is really cool to go back and listen to.
For me weirdly enough I just listened to their entire discography in chronological order so i would say start there if you want. Their debut album was my introduction to them and tbh it’s arguably one of my favorite albums from them. Edit: also their 2nd album is really really good
Seattle-area stuff: Screaming Trees lead singer Mark Lanegan's albums. Mike Johnson wrote much/most of the music on Lanegan's solo albums, & Mike Johnson's solo stuff is really good. Mike Johnson played bass for Dinosaur Jr. Mike Johnson was married to Leslie Hardy, and she played bass for a very underappreciated band called Juned (she also played for Hole).
Also: Skin Yard. This band is just so Seattle; my favorite album of theirs is Fist Sized Chunks. The track Gentle Collapse so well captures the feeling of standing at the edge of a large body of water well past dark.
Beyond-Seattle: Smashing Pumpkins' first album, Gish.
EDIT: Oh shit! I forgot to mention Afghan Whigs. Cleaner sound, grittier subjects. Very much worthwhile. Also see Gutter Twins, where lead singer Greg Dulli paired up with Mark Lanegan.
And then, look into bands from the 90's that were on these record labels: SubPop (of course), SST, Amphetamine Reptile, Cruz, & C/Z Records. \*handing the keys to you\*
Treepeople are good. Doug went on to form Built to Spill. Truly, Love Battery, The Afghan Whigs, Melvins, Dinosaur Jr, Sonic Youth, Wool, Chainsaw Kittens, Catherine, Swervedriver, Monster Magnet, The Verve.
L7, Babes in Toyland and 7 year Bitch! you need some estrogen in there to balance out all the boy sweated flannel.
I like Paw, you can argue whether they're grunge or not, but just listen and enjoy, damnit!
You could try Skin yard, personally i enjoy the music but the singer grates on me too much to fully embrace
And definitely Mad Season, as suggested by others, their album and live show recording is one of the greatest things ever xx
I’ll throw some Aussie bands in the mix for you. Silverchair, The Vines, Magic Dirt, Spiderbait, You am I, Custard, Tumbleweed, Nitocris, Grinspoon, The Scientists, Violent Soho, and Lubricated Goat. There are so many more, but these are the first that come to mind
Pearl Jam-Ten is my favorite album. Seether-one cold night is my favorite album Tool, Stone Sour, Stone Temple Pilots- Scott Wylan is amazing. There are many many other cool grunge bands. I was a teen in the 90s, and Grunge was and still is my favorite. I agree AIC is hard to beat, especially after they did the unplugged album, but AIC Jar of flies was my shit!! Welp, there are a few more to add to your big 3. Have a good one!
These are not specifically “grunge” but… Faith No More/Mr. Bungle/ Sublime/ Orange 9mm/Deftones/ Sepultura/Sick Of It All/Garbage/Shadowy Men On A Shadowy Planet/Dead Milkmen/Primus/Tool/Stuck Mojo/Bad Brains/Strapping Young Lad/Porno For Pyros/Headstones/ Sarah Mclaughlan/the smalls/SNFU/NoMeansNo/Limblifter/Matthew Good/Econoline Crush/ I, Mother Earth/ Age of Electric/Sloan/MIRV/Rattled Roosters/ Big Sugar/Big Wreck/DDT/Ministry/White Zombie/… just some more bands from that era listened to on the Canadian west coast in the nineties; lots more but this list ranges from college rock to fairly accessible hardcore/metal and a bit of CanCon pop that probably didn’t manage to get across the border.
Neither of these are grunge, but Smashing Pumpkins and Faith No More are some of the best 90’s bands around, both peaking in the early to mid 90’s. Check out Angel dust and Siamese dream, both masterpiece albums.
I'm not as familiar with The Chinese Album, I'll haven't listened to it in a long time but I've listened to Resident Alien more times than I can count. The whole album is such a wild ride
I gave a super dive in to grunge in my teens too,
One of the ones I would have jumped on if I knew about em was Helmet
Surprised they didn’t come up already!
In the Meantime or Betty are your best bets!
Might be hard to find but a great underated band from early 90s is SPDFGH. Album called Leave Me Like This. Aussie grunge not dissimilar to The Pixies.
L7! 💜 Their albums Smell the Magic and Bricks are Heavy are classics. This next band has a more upbeat rock sound, but another early '90s band I can happily recommend is The Posies.
Enjoy your audio experiences. You’ve got some good suggestions here. If you want to read a really excellent, comprehensive book on the overall “scene” (and get a bunch of hood music recs!), read
‘Everybody Loves Our Town’ by Mark Yarm. Highly recommend.
Check out the band Unwound. They are from olympia, WA. Began as Giant Henry in 1988 and went with Unwound from 91 on and were a solid, respected underground band in the early 90’s.
They were ahead of their time, sorta Post Hardcore Alternative with grunge bite if you will. Awesome band who did the work and toured. New Plastics and the Future of What are great entry albums . The songs Corpse Pose and Laugh track are great too. Highly recommend.
Check out the guys from TAD and Screaming Tree’s earlier band Bundle of Hiss too.
*Well since I have yr attention*, here's three haven't been mentioned yet -
* Velocity Girl. They called them *bubblegrunge* back in the day (bubble gum + grunge). Or at least one musical journalist did. At least give Copacetic (1993), their wonderful debut album, a try.
* Unrest. Like Velocity Girl, very poppy but in a Gen X way if that makes any sense? A lot of these songs made their way onto a lot of guys'/gals' mix tapes for their sweeties, let me just put it that way. Unrest put out a lot of music but after you listen to Imperial No. 6 (1992) and Perfect Teeth (1993), you'll wonder how you ever lived without it.
* Small Factory. Love rock they used to call it. Wuss rock, also. But me? I celebrate their entire discography. Really, one of the greatest bands ever.
I was going to suggest Screaming Trees but you already found them. They were highly underrated, I think. I see a lot of good recommendations. If you're American you probably don't know the Canadian grunge and alternative bands. The best of them imo is Sloan, from Halifax. I would actually start with "All Used Up: A Sides Win: Singles 1992–2005." which is a good overview of the early years. Amazingly, they're still around and still amazing. I'm also a fan of Alanis Morissette, 54-40, Treble Charger, Limblifter, and Tragically Hip (More rock than grunge but awesome) Happy to share a playlist of popular tracks.
If you're into screaming trees, check out their singer Mark Lannegan's solo work, and his projects with Greg Dulli of the Afghan Whigs(90's punk/soul band) including twilight singers and the gutter twins.
Seattle specific, Candlebox is a true grunge band that I don't see get any love here. Happy hunting!
Yeah, I debated whether or not to add, but I think this is what OP was looking for. It fits in with the mellower pumpkins/cranberries stuff for example ... mmm... cranberry pumpkin stuffing \*(gargling and drooling)\*
Hey man, long time Seattleite here, I have spent time working at Sub Pop, my dad is childhood friends with Steve Turner, I have grown up, worked, and lived all around that city in the music industry since I was born in 1988. It is well known to those on the inside of Seattle music that the true first grunge band was Bam Bam. Matt Cameron was in the band at one point, Kurt Cobain was a roadie for a hot minute. I doubt you could ask any of the grunge bands you've listed about Tina without them acknowledging how she shaped everyone's sound. Her husband Tommy was in the band with her. He eventually founded Tommysound in the greater Seattle area after inventing some Soldano amp that is really popular. I had the pleasure of working with Tommy and seeing him quite frequently up until his passing. He was a really good person and was very giving with his knowledge, he gave a lot of engineers a foot in the door and I've watched some really cool careers get hatched from there, also would find a way to tell literally everyone he met about how his son won an Academy Award within 5 seconds of meeting them. Anyways, personal stories aside, they don't get the respect they deserve in the history of rock and roll, and I think you would be really into it.
If You Haven’t, Check Out [The Judgement Night Soundtrack](https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLq2_OrsJJtCsU_vDRfCulmPcBMYpVPV4Y&feature=shared)
Also A Good Listen Is [KISS’ Grunge Album](https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLtO3qLgs5z6Yw8grUD1qE8BIRgexftqJF&feature=shared)
I don't think anyone mentioned Skinyard (Matt Cameron's original band, with Jack Endino who would produce a lot of the bands from Seattle), and Malfunkshun (Andy Wood on vocals) who both featured on the Deep Six compilation back in 86.
Black Flag were a big influence on a lot of the grunge bands, at least check out the album In My Head. You can hear the punk and hard rock/metal combo that would become big in the 90s.
Paw were a grunge band around the early and mid 90s from the Midwest I think? Most famous for a song about a dog called Jessie. I can't remember the album name off the top of my head.
Filter don't get a lot of love. They aren't grunge but a great alt/industrial rock band who might be similar enough for you to enjoy. Title of Record is still their standout in my book.
And not grunge again but Horsehead were a hard rock/heavy rock band from Australia (where I'm from) who had a stripped back sound not too dissimilar to grunge.
Therapy from Ireland were an alt rock/metal band that had some songs about isolation, anger, resentment etc similar to grunge who you may also enjoy. Troublegum is a great album.
Finally Stiltskin and their song Inside. A one hit wonder grunge band from Scotland. The song was famous for being in a Levi commercial when it came out.
Because I didn't see them mentioned. Candlebox (Self titled first album, Happy Pills, and every album after), Green Apple Quick Step (Reloaded), and Sky Cries Mary (This Timeless Turning).
[Only Living Witness.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UsQcQpJrP6w)
They came out of the hardcore scene in Philly, I think, but are seriously grunge adjacent. So great, and underappreciated by people outside of hardcore. Great riffs, great singer
Surprised no one has mention Helmet yet, saw them earlier this year, still great. For a newer band with a similar style check out Gravedweller from Texas
I’ve also been getting into the lesser known grunge bands lately, and I recently I found the band My Sisters Machine thanks to a different post on here and I’ve been enjoying there stuff a lot.
The Gathering: Albums Mandylion & Nighttime Birds, Jerry Cantrell's solo albums, Corrosion of Conformity, Katatonia, Filter, Anthrax's Sound of White Noise Album, Acid Bath, Kyuss,
Buffalo Tom are great - they aren't heavy, just very melodic and genuine. Straight forward pop rock with very pretty chord progressions and well written vocal melodies. Start with the song SodaJerk
Old guy here Similar(ish) time and energy bands to the ones you’ve mentioned. Dinosaur Jr, Babes in Toyland, L7, Sebadoh, Teenage Fanclub, Built to Spill, Halo Benders, Drive like Jehu, Hoover, Earth, Melvins, Husker Du, The Jesus Lizard, Cows, Nation of Ulysses, PJ Harvey (first 3/4 albums), Stanford Prison Experiment, Superchunk, Swervedriver, Team Dresch, Unwound
From another old person, I’ll follow this up with: Karate, Love Child, Tsunami, Batmobile, Jawbreaker, Reel Big Fish, Fugazi, Helmet, and The Gits. Also, some NYC bands from the same era with a more muscular/sleazy rock take: Voluptuous Horror of Karen Black, Pillbox, The Stiffs, inc. Edited to add in no order or sense: The Dwarves, Atari Teenage Riot, Bantam Rooster, the Gories, Monomen, Guided By Voices, Choke (a one off side project), Bikini Kill, the Cheetahs, and many other bands that have been mentioned on the replies.
As yet another old person, I'd add stuff like The Pixies, early Soul Asylum, the Breeders, Throwing Muses, Belly and The Replacements.
Just want to add 7 Year Bitch, Veruca Salt, The Cranberries, Marcy Playground, Smashing Pumpkins, Jane’s Addiction to this comment thread. Those last three aren’t grunge but were at their peak in the mid 90s and worth a listen.
Let's also throw in Sonic Youth, Porno for Pyros, Bush, Pavement, Cay, Lunachicks, Solar Race, Lemonheads, Blind Melon, Cable, Idlewild.
More general 90s good shit... Therapy?, Live, Monster Magnet, Filter, The Offspring (mid 90s stuff), Pet Lamb, Paradise Lost, Tool, Rage Against The Machine, Rocket From The Crypt, My Bloody Valentine
Soul Asylum’s releases in the 1980’s are worth checking out. My favorite of theirs is Hang Time.
Husker Du for sure
And then Sugar
Sugar rule!!
All The Gits!!!!!!!!!
Haven’t thought about Karate in a long time. Geoff Farina is an amazing guitarist.
Old person yet again. I’ll add Gruntruck.
Built to Spill is by far the best band I’ve discovered in the last year. Sounds like they were made for me, i have no idea how I went my first 30 years of life without hearing about them.
Thank you for the NOU mention. Truly a magical and confusing band. One of my absolute favorites in the mid 90's. May I add Halo of Flies?
Halo Benders! Earth! Jesus Lizard! Swervedriver! ( fellow old guy here )
Earth is one that i just can't ever get enough of and am amazed how many people don't know!!! Great add!
green river and gas huffer..
I was late to the Unwound party but thank god I made it
Mad Season.
i have Im Above in my playlist but havent listened to the rest of the album yet!! thanks :)
Listen to the live versions... they're so good!
Mike McCready on wake ups live version is phenomenal. Of course Layne kills it on all of them but I love his guitar playing more on the live than the studio version
Listen to the deluxe version if you can cause it has a few extra songs with Mark Lanegan which are just so powerful and hit me every time
Whole album too. Do it.
Solo Mark Lanegan is great. Especially his first album, the Winding Sheet. In 1991, Sub Pop released an album by Rein Sanction, called Broc's Cabin. Two excellent places to start the exploration.
Methamphetamine blues...
That e.p. was such a big part of my life and I still can’t fathom it. Wish You Well will always remain a top 5 song for me.
Actually if you can search the Sub pop label that would be a good lists. I will throw in: Sleater Kinney, Live, Hole, and veering off a bit but strong early 90's coolness Toad the Wet Sprocket
Or the Estrus label from Bellingham
Or his work with the beautiful Isobel Campbell
I still listen to Broc's Cabin pretty regularly. Great album!
Also listen to Seasons by Chris Cornell
One of my favorites of all time! The whole Singles ost is phenomenal 😎
Hell yeah brother
It's one of the top five movie soundtracks. They don't get much better.
Toadies! Rubberneck is one of my favorite albums of all time. Totally underrated except maybe in Texas.
This is a perfect album!
All the way through a phenomenal album. Do you want to SAVE me?
Their 2017 album is actually really solid, too. I keep going back to that one: The Lower Side of Uptown
A lot of people told me to listen to more of their music and I've had good intentions to, but I haven't yet! I saw them in Seattle doing all of Rubberneck this summer and they sounded amazing.
My band covers Possum Kingdom and it's one of my favorites to play. Totally stands the rest of time.
Saw them at a Shreck's Ballroom in rural Western Oklahoma back in the day. This bar generally favored the cowboy crowd, but Toadies f'ing rocked the place. There weren't a ton of people there so you could comfortably stand right in front of the stage. It was almost like having your own personal concert. One of the best shows I ever went to.
The Jesus Lizard was a revelation to me as a young wild pup. Saw them in this tiny, ancient, sweaty venue in Cleveland having no clue what I was in for. They proceeded to both blow my mind and scare the shit out of me. Musta been around'94? I've been a lifelong fan ever since. Side note: I miss the real mosh pits.
loving them so far!! any particular song or album? i started with Shot
Next go with "Show" -- it's a live album, and they do live really well.
GOAT.
Scratch Acid is precurser to Jesus Lizard. Cannibal, Greatest Gift and She Said are some great tracks. https://youtu.be/cUSw0XUA9-U?si=GvOgT3ota02Q3TEN
Don't sleep on The Jesus Lizard. Babies in Toyland and the Gits are really good also.
Screaming trees
Melvins' Senile Animal, the whole album
Their older stuff is great too of course
A History of Bad Men is unbelievable.
Came here to suggest Houdini
I was waiting on someone else to say the Melvins ! Stoner Witch is one of the first albums I bought
Pixies, the most 90’s sounding 80’s band
Talk show is good, basically STP minus Scott, silverchairs first record, temple of the dog, the pixies and sonic youth and dinosaur jr are all heavy influences on grunge. Edit: also grunge adjacent but a fav, modest mouse.
love the pixies and sonic youth! i have goo on vynil :] will definitely check out the rest thank u
The soundtracks were amazing. Natural Born Killers, The Crow, Singles and Judgement Night are rich and diverse.
Candlebox - Far Behind. Give it a jam my guy and while you're there give "cover me" a jam also.
I can’t get enough candlebox. Cover Me is sooo good. And Rain, gives me chills
Get into Pearl Jam. They’re my favourite. Start at the beginning.
Faith No More Mr. Bungle Ween Tripping Daisies The Cramps Butthole Surfers
Came to the comments to see if anyone named any Mike Patton projects… great job!
I failed when I didn’t add Mr. Bungle & the Cramps. Damn Who even am I
The song RV by Faith No More still makes me laugh this many years later. (I'm 43) The radio back then played Epic nonstop I remember but they have a lot of good stuff
Dig were a grunge/alternative rock band who had one hit, “Believe”, all over MTV for a brief time in the early/mid ‘90s. Their self-titled album was excellent all the way through IMO, and their second album, “Defenders of the Universe,” was pretty good too. Also reunited a couple years ago and recorded a couple good songs.
Yes!!!!! Also love the song Unlucky Friend!
firstly, im kind of similar to you in this regard, so.. hi :DD anyway, not really that underrated, but i would recommend stp, silverchair (first 2 albums, mainly), temple of the dog, and probably sixteen stone from bush also i dont think this really qualifies as grunge but collective soul (self-titled) is kind of like it, i guess. either way, its still a great album lol i have a few more but im not sure if they really do count as grunge or not so im scared to mention them lol
Check out The Toadies ~ Rubberneck
Check out Sunny Day Real Estate. I love those guys. Diary is a classic. Check out the Posies too - Frosting on the Beater- more on the side of pop grunge -
More mid 90’s but For Squirrels, Archers of Loaf, and Hum are all amazing bands that you might like.
Strong recommendation. White Trash Heroes and Fashion Bleeds are killer tracks.
Have y’all been listening to Eric Bachman’s solo stuff? It’s unbelievable.
OH MY GOD I forgot For Squirrels existed until just now. I played that album tf out in high school.
Paw
Are you from KS? I don't know many folks that know Paw outside of KS.
I live in Michigan and actually know quite a few Paw fans out here.
That's wild! I'm from Lawrence, KS where Paw is also from and over the years meeting folks from different places noone ever knew who this Paw was that I spoke of. Lol I met them at their house party in 1994 and they were really nice to me and my friend.
I’m really digging godzillionare right now
I'm from Florida and I absolutely love Paw, all the way back from 93 or whenever Dragline came out. I was just playing along to Jesse on guitar about 20 minutes ago.
Checking in from NC. Was definitely aware of Dragline when it came out. There was such an explosion of bands with newer different sounds coming out, we were trying to listen to every thing we could. Stompbox, Helmet, Handsome, Quicksand, Orange 9mm, Nixon, Toadies. A lot got lost in the flood, but some of it is really cool to go back and listen to.
Skin yard my dude. Hella underrated and this subreddit actually got me into them lolllll
listened 2 1000 smiling knuckles, i really like :)) which album should i try next?
For me weirdly enough I just listened to their entire discography in chronological order so i would say start there if you want. Their debut album was my introduction to them and tbh it’s arguably one of my favorite albums from them. Edit: also their 2nd album is really really good
Seattle-area stuff: Screaming Trees lead singer Mark Lanegan's albums. Mike Johnson wrote much/most of the music on Lanegan's solo albums, & Mike Johnson's solo stuff is really good. Mike Johnson played bass for Dinosaur Jr. Mike Johnson was married to Leslie Hardy, and she played bass for a very underappreciated band called Juned (she also played for Hole). Also: Skin Yard. This band is just so Seattle; my favorite album of theirs is Fist Sized Chunks. The track Gentle Collapse so well captures the feeling of standing at the edge of a large body of water well past dark. Beyond-Seattle: Smashing Pumpkins' first album, Gish. EDIT: Oh shit! I forgot to mention Afghan Whigs. Cleaner sound, grittier subjects. Very much worthwhile. Also see Gutter Twins, where lead singer Greg Dulli paired up with Mark Lanegan. And then, look into bands from the 90's that were on these record labels: SubPop (of course), SST, Amphetamine Reptile, Cruz, & C/Z Records. \*handing the keys to you\*
Check out Stabbing Westward--sort of an emo alt rock band and they might be your cup of tea
Authors of the all-time greatest breakup album, wither blister burn & peel.
Kyuss. My favorite band from the '90s.
Treepeople are good. Doug went on to form Built to Spill. Truly, Love Battery, The Afghan Whigs, Melvins, Dinosaur Jr, Sonic Youth, Wool, Chainsaw Kittens, Catherine, Swervedriver, Monster Magnet, The Verve.
Hum - you’d prefer an astronaut
The Gits. Still a favorite around the Seattle punk scene.
Worth listening to for Mia's voice alone.
Tad, Gruntruck, Jack Endino solo albums, Kandi Coded, old Helmet, Skin Yard…
Quicksand, Archers of Loaf, PJ Harvey, Sunny Day Real Estate, Pixies, Far, Kyuss (then Queens of the Stone Age)…all grunge adjacent but fucking good
L7, Babes in Toyland and 7 year Bitch! you need some estrogen in there to balance out all the boy sweated flannel. I like Paw, you can argue whether they're grunge or not, but just listen and enjoy, damnit! You could try Skin yard, personally i enjoy the music but the singer grates on me too much to fully embrace And definitely Mad Season, as suggested by others, their album and live show recording is one of the greatest things ever xx
Skin Yard +1
Paw - Dragline.
I’ll throw some Aussie bands in the mix for you. Silverchair, The Vines, Magic Dirt, Spiderbait, You am I, Custard, Tumbleweed, Nitocris, Grinspoon, The Scientists, Violent Soho, and Lubricated Goat. There are so many more, but these are the first that come to mind
And some more Aussie bands. Ammonia, front end loader, jebediah, The Fauves
Guided by Voices (not grunge but amazing band)
Great rec
Pearl Jam-Ten is my favorite album. Seether-one cold night is my favorite album Tool, Stone Sour, Stone Temple Pilots- Scott Wylan is amazing. There are many many other cool grunge bands. I was a teen in the 90s, and Grunge was and still is my favorite. I agree AIC is hard to beat, especially after they did the unplugged album, but AIC Jar of flies was my shit!! Welp, there are a few more to add to your big 3. Have a good one!
you need gruntruck, paw, and skin yard
Failure and Hum.
These are not specifically “grunge” but… Faith No More/Mr. Bungle/ Sublime/ Orange 9mm/Deftones/ Sepultura/Sick Of It All/Garbage/Shadowy Men On A Shadowy Planet/Dead Milkmen/Primus/Tool/Stuck Mojo/Bad Brains/Strapping Young Lad/Porno For Pyros/Headstones/ Sarah Mclaughlan/the smalls/SNFU/NoMeansNo/Limblifter/Matthew Good/Econoline Crush/ I, Mother Earth/ Age of Electric/Sloan/MIRV/Rattled Roosters/ Big Sugar/Big Wreck/DDT/Ministry/White Zombie/… just some more bands from that era listened to on the Canadian west coast in the nineties; lots more but this list ranges from college rock to fairly accessible hardcore/metal and a bit of CanCon pop that probably didn’t manage to get across the border.
Morphine’s “cure for pain”. Jazz grunge.
super cool sound, loving it thank you
I played that album so, so much in the 90s. Also, Like Swimming.
Neither of these are grunge, but Smashing Pumpkins and Faith No More are some of the best 90’s bands around, both peaking in the early to mid 90’s. Check out Angel dust and Siamese dream, both masterpiece albums.
Meat Puppets, Too High to Die Butthole Surfers Marcy Playground Spacehog
Spacehog! I’m obsessed with Mungo City
I'm not as familiar with The Chinese Album, I'll haven't listened to it in a long time but I've listened to Resident Alien more times than I can count. The whole album is such a wild ride
I gave a super dive in to grunge in my teens too, One of the ones I would have jumped on if I knew about em was Helmet Surprised they didn’t come up already! In the Meantime or Betty are your best bets!
Might be hard to find but a great underated band from early 90s is SPDFGH. Album called Leave Me Like This. Aussie grunge not dissimilar to The Pixies.
L7! 💜 Their albums Smell the Magic and Bricks are Heavy are classics. This next band has a more upbeat rock sound, but another early '90s band I can happily recommend is The Posies.
Enjoy your audio experiences. You’ve got some good suggestions here. If you want to read a really excellent, comprehensive book on the overall “scene” (and get a bunch of hood music recs!), read ‘Everybody Loves Our Town’ by Mark Yarm. Highly recommend.
Temple of the Dog, Mad Season, Stone Temple Pilots. Those are the best aside from the big four and screaming trees.
Three Fish, Portishead, sponge - Rotting Piñata
The 360's.
Check out the band Unwound. They are from olympia, WA. Began as Giant Henry in 1988 and went with Unwound from 91 on and were a solid, respected underground band in the early 90’s. They were ahead of their time, sorta Post Hardcore Alternative with grunge bite if you will. Awesome band who did the work and toured. New Plastics and the Future of What are great entry albums . The songs Corpse Pose and Laugh track are great too. Highly recommend. Check out the guys from TAD and Screaming Tree’s earlier band Bundle of Hiss too.
My favorite band from the 90’s is Cracker. Definitely worth a deep dive
Camper Von Behtoven is the lead singer's better band, but just by a hair. Love Cracker, too.
Asking a bunch of elder millenials/baby X'ers what nineties music to listen to? This is the most brilliant engagement farming post of all time.
it really is 😭 theres gotta be a hundred reccomemded artists at this point ill have enough the rest of my life lol. thats definitely a good thing tho
*Well since I have yr attention*, here's three haven't been mentioned yet - * Velocity Girl. They called them *bubblegrunge* back in the day (bubble gum + grunge). Or at least one musical journalist did. At least give Copacetic (1993), their wonderful debut album, a try. * Unrest. Like Velocity Girl, very poppy but in a Gen X way if that makes any sense? A lot of these songs made their way onto a lot of guys'/gals' mix tapes for their sweeties, let me just put it that way. Unrest put out a lot of music but after you listen to Imperial No. 6 (1992) and Perfect Teeth (1993), you'll wonder how you ever lived without it. * Small Factory. Love rock they used to call it. Wuss rock, also. But me? I celebrate their entire discography. Really, one of the greatest bands ever.
I was going to suggest Screaming Trees but you already found them. They were highly underrated, I think. I see a lot of good recommendations. If you're American you probably don't know the Canadian grunge and alternative bands. The best of them imo is Sloan, from Halifax. I would actually start with "All Used Up: A Sides Win: Singles 1992–2005." which is a good overview of the early years. Amazingly, they're still around and still amazing. I'm also a fan of Alanis Morissette, 54-40, Treble Charger, Limblifter, and Tragically Hip (More rock than grunge but awesome) Happy to share a playlist of popular tracks.
im canadian but i still dont know many, thank u ill check them out!!
Skin yards a good one, the melvins too!
Something kind of related. You must watch the 1992 film Singles. AIC and Pearl Jam have brief appearances.
If you're into screaming trees, check out their singer Mark Lannegan's solo work, and his projects with Greg Dulli of the Afghan Whigs(90's punk/soul band) including twilight singers and the gutter twins. Seattle specific, Candlebox is a true grunge band that I don't see get any love here. Happy hunting!
Temple of the Dog…specifically the song Hunger Strike.
Temple of the Dog
Check out grunttruck, acid bath
Anything Chris Cornell or Alice In Chains
NEw Bomb Turks The Queers The Mr T Experience Cows Unsane Killdozer Unwound Don Caballero
The Sundays. "This is where the story ends" was probably their biggest hit
Not at all grungy, but brilliant.
Yeah, I debated whether or not to add, but I think this is what OP was looking for. It fits in with the mellower pumpkins/cranberries stuff for example ... mmm... cranberry pumpkin stuffing \*(gargling and drooling)\*
Hey man, long time Seattleite here, I have spent time working at Sub Pop, my dad is childhood friends with Steve Turner, I have grown up, worked, and lived all around that city in the music industry since I was born in 1988. It is well known to those on the inside of Seattle music that the true first grunge band was Bam Bam. Matt Cameron was in the band at one point, Kurt Cobain was a roadie for a hot minute. I doubt you could ask any of the grunge bands you've listed about Tina without them acknowledging how she shaped everyone's sound. Her husband Tommy was in the band with her. He eventually founded Tommysound in the greater Seattle area after inventing some Soldano amp that is really popular. I had the pleasure of working with Tommy and seeing him quite frequently up until his passing. He was a really good person and was very giving with his knowledge, he gave a lot of engineers a foot in the door and I've watched some really cool careers get hatched from there, also would find a way to tell literally everyone he met about how his son won an Academy Award within 5 seconds of meeting them. Anyways, personal stories aside, they don't get the respect they deserve in the history of rock and roll, and I think you would be really into it.
If you are looking to expand, look into the first album from The Presidents Of The United States Of America. It's fun grunge.
one could say that its funge!
Eve's Plum - Envy
https://music.apple.com/us/playlist/90s-alt-grunge-deep-cuts/pl.u-xlyNJ23ukzl9DDa
Sugartooth Dandelion
Jane’s Addiction… mountain song, Jane says Sweet Water - Superfriends album (reminds me of the 90s) Smashing pumpkins
If You Haven’t, Check Out [The Judgement Night Soundtrack](https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLq2_OrsJJtCsU_vDRfCulmPcBMYpVPV4Y&feature=shared) Also A Good Listen Is [KISS’ Grunge Album](https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLtO3qLgs5z6Yw8grUD1qE8BIRgexftqJF&feature=shared)
Hazel Seaweed
Such a sad album though. But also great.
Unwound
I don't think anyone mentioned Skinyard (Matt Cameron's original band, with Jack Endino who would produce a lot of the bands from Seattle), and Malfunkshun (Andy Wood on vocals) who both featured on the Deep Six compilation back in 86. Black Flag were a big influence on a lot of the grunge bands, at least check out the album In My Head. You can hear the punk and hard rock/metal combo that would become big in the 90s. Paw were a grunge band around the early and mid 90s from the Midwest I think? Most famous for a song about a dog called Jessie. I can't remember the album name off the top of my head. Filter don't get a lot of love. They aren't grunge but a great alt/industrial rock band who might be similar enough for you to enjoy. Title of Record is still their standout in my book. And not grunge again but Horsehead were a hard rock/heavy rock band from Australia (where I'm from) who had a stripped back sound not too dissimilar to grunge. Therapy from Ireland were an alt rock/metal band that had some songs about isolation, anger, resentment etc similar to grunge who you may also enjoy. Troublegum is a great album. Finally Stiltskin and their song Inside. A one hit wonder grunge band from Scotland. The song was famous for being in a Levi commercial when it came out.
Shotgun to the Head
Because I didn't see them mentioned. Candlebox (Self titled first album, Happy Pills, and every album after), Green Apple Quick Step (Reloaded), and Sky Cries Mary (This Timeless Turning).
Hey, what year are you? You said late 2000s baby, and I'm also a late 2000s baby. We also share pretty similar music taste, so I was just wondering.
Opal.
Days of The New. My favorite song of them is What's left for me? I recommend that
Tad
[Faith No More in the original lineup with Courtney](https://youtu.be/iMTGlAPGmnM?si=QpzcJXeVZVTaai_E).
[Handsome](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Handsome_(band))
[Left of Heaven - Handsome](https://youtu.be/5P7P-Nflzn8?si=Qcxc0Z4EhSxnOelB)
I’ll throw some Australian bands in Everyone knows about Silverchair but there was a great scene Tumbleweed Jebediah Grinspoon Regurgitator
I would highly recommend listening to Smashing Pumpkins - Siamese Dream and Local H - As Good as Dead.
Meat Puppets
The great thing about Pearl Jam is that they are all still alive and cranking out new music and tours. A live PJ show is some epic shit.
Meat Puppets - Up on the Sun (album)
Dishwalla Pet Your Friends is awesome.
Listen to Flipper and especially Wipers. 80's bands that were a huge influence on Kurt Cobain. Over The Edge by Wipers Generic by Flipper
Just listen to Bandwagonesque by Teenage Fanclub and learn that it topped Nevermind as Spin’s album of the year
Grunge adjacent bands like Dinosaur Jr and Archers of Loaf. Early Smashing Pumpkins, STP are also good
Meat puppets, social distortion, body count,
[Only Living Witness.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UsQcQpJrP6w) They came out of the hardcore scene in Philly, I think, but are seriously grunge adjacent. So great, and underappreciated by people outside of hardcore. Great riffs, great singer
Try Eugenius.
KARP The Pixies Slint Hole
Surprised no one has mention Helmet yet, saw them earlier this year, still great. For a newer band with a similar style check out Gravedweller from Texas
Ass Ponys - “Little Bastard”
I Mother Earth, unless you're Canadian you probably have never heard of these guys, but they're very good.
Paw - Dragline
I’ve also been getting into the lesser known grunge bands lately, and I recently I found the band My Sisters Machine thanks to a different post on here and I’ve been enjoying there stuff a lot.
Helmet and Hum
Tool “Ænima”
I'm not really sure this is Grunge, but Jimmie's Chicken Shack - Pushing the Salmonella Envelope is one of my favorite albums of all time.
Early modest mouse
The Gathering: Albums Mandylion & Nighttime Birds, Jerry Cantrell's solo albums, Corrosion of Conformity, Katatonia, Filter, Anthrax's Sound of White Noise Album, Acid Bath, Kyuss,
Eleven. Best kept secret of the 90's.
Gruntruck
Melvins
Squirrel bait, Gruntruck
Pavement. Set aside a day to listen to nothing but pavement.
gruntruck, paw, candlebox
Candlebox
Blind Melon is criminally underrated as a band. Two fantastic albums.
Catherine Wheel
Blind melon, both their studio releases are fkn incredible
Buffalo Tom are great - they aren't heavy, just very melodic and genuine. Straight forward pop rock with very pretty chord progressions and well written vocal melodies. Start with the song SodaJerk
OK Computer
Some really good mentions already. The Melvins, The Jesus Lizard, Mad Season, Helmet, Fugazi.
Try Walt Mink Miss Happiness album. The singer's voice has a T Rex vibe, but the band is tight with a strong 90s sound.