Most musical critiques of Seattle inevitably centre around the achievements of either Jimi Hendrix and/ or Kurt Cobain/ Nirvana and the Grunge explosion of the early 1990s. Fair enough, I guess. My own record collection would be considerably poorer without the contributions of Messrs. Hendrix and Cobain, not to mention the likes of Mudhoney, Green River, The Screaming Trees and many more.
But while this writer's no intention of arguing the toss where such seismic artists are concerned, it's also important to remember that a city's musical heritage is much richer and more diverse than the recognised hubris might suggest. And if you want to delve into Seattle's seethingly creative history in the days before Grunge put the city on the world map for good (and you should) I'd suggest you grab hold of a copy of a stunning 2CD collection called 'It Crawled From The Basement': a generous 47-track compendium gathering together many of the city's underground movers and shakers firing on all cylinders during a remarkable period circa 1983 to 1991.
All 47 tracks were originally released on a Seattle imprint called Green Monkey Records. They had 44 releases on mostly vinyl and cassette (most of the tracks here are new to CD) and nearly all of 'em crawled from the basement studio of one Tom Dyer: Green Monkey MD, impresario, musician, producer, engineer and all-round good guy who has re-animated the GM label once again for the 21st Century.
We can only marvel at the way Tom corralled so much talent from the narrow confines of his tiny 8-track subterranean empire. 'It Crawled From The Basement' is (accurately) sub-titled 'Post-Punk/ Pre-Grunge Seattle' and judging by this amazing, 'Nuggets'-style ride, one can only wonder how on earth this fine city continued to beaver away under the radar for so long.
You might be surprised by how many people here you already know too. THE WALKABOUTS (whose '1 + 1' is typically classy and edgy) have long since garnered a sizeable following Europe. The rudimentary, but compelling garage-rock teeth-cutting of MR. EPP & THE CALCULATIONS features a pre-Green River/ Mudhoney Mark Arm on guitar. THE HITMENS' bassist is actress Hilary Swank's brother and in THE GREEN PAJAMAS, Tom hit upon one bunch who can genuinely be referred to as a worldwide cult item.
But even if many of the fascinating characters peopling Green Monkey's shifting roster never broke outta the confines of local hero status, that does nothing to diminish the quality of their contributions.Certainly bands like THE LIFE, THE BOMBARDIERS, THE QUEEN ANNES and Dyer's own charges THE ICONS had more than enough going for them to have impacted on a much bigger stage.CD1 opens with a slice of superior, anthemic teen angst called 'Hangin' Around' from Bombardiers' bassist AL BLOCH and he also pens the dramatic, driving pop-rock of THE BOMBARDIERS' excellent 'What Do You Know About Love?' THE QUEEN ANNES' vitriol-spewing Mod-inspired freakbeat sound garners great results on songs like 'If You Could Only See Me Now' and the supercharged R'n'B of 'You've Got Me Running' while THE ICONS veer from hilarious, 50s-style set-pieces like 'Work Ethic Rock' to stretches of genuinely hard rocking on tracks like 'Write Back to Me'. Yet perhaps the most mystifying near-miss are THE LIFE. With singer Jimm McIver's Morrison-esque looks, guitarist Tony Bortko's amazing Robert Quine-ish playing and a knack for stunning, hard-edged radio pop like 'If It Works (Don't Fix It)', they should have simply cleaned up. What the hell went wrong?
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The closest thing Green Monkey ever got to a 'hit single' was THE GREEN PAJAMAS' 'Kim The Waitress'. It's included here in its' full, 6-minutes plus majesty complete with guitarist Steven Lawrence's Brian Jones-y sitar and gorgeous psych-tinged longing. It's a thing of great beauty, but by no means dwarfs the band's other contributions, not least the lovely 'Peppermint Stick' and the energised 'Suzanne'. This later was recorded live-in-the-studio with 'Bleach' producer Jack Endino and showed how hard Jeff Kelly's band could rock in a one-take, no overdubs situation. All of these make it clear just how cool The Green Pajamas are/ were and their sadly late guitarist STEVEN LAWRENCE also weighs in with a major highlight courtesy of the elegant, Julian Cope-ish 'Julia.' All of these have you salivating with the knowledge Green Monkey are hoping to release more of The Green Pajamas catalogue in the near future. Drool.
This being such a far-reaching, eclectic compilation, there's the inevitable spotty moment or two.ME THREE'S 'Alien Breakfast' is unashamedly one-take, drunk-as-a-skunk experimentalism, while ARMS AKIMBO'S 'This Is The Place' has dated so badly it reminds me of the cod-Latin sounds Modern Romance owned the charts with for a perilous twelve months or so. Oh dear. However, the fearless diversity also encourages a slew of unlikely successes. Some of the coolest examples being THE GLASS PENGUINS' surreal, Robyn Hitchcock-style pop, THE FALL-OUTS' breathless amphetamine energy, JON STRONGBOW'S herky-jerky Beck-isms and - perhaps best of all - RICH HINKLIN'S claustrophobic, sample-assisted Cold War commentary 'Crows Come & Go' which is so unsettling and fractured, it could almost be from David Byrne & Brian Eno's pioneering 'My Life In The Bush of Ghosts' album.
Aside from overseeing almost all Green Monkey's releases, TOM DYER'S own work is more than worthy of scrutiny too. Aside from THE ICONS' marvellous 'Work Ethic Rock', he's also responsible for such offbeat genius as '(Half The World Is Made of) Women' (imagine Bertholt Brecht collaborating with Stephin Merritt and you're almost there), the jubilant 'Life Is Perfect' and the heart-melting romantic pop of 'I Call Your Name' which closes CD1 in truly sublime style.
It's ironic that Tom Dyer should wind Green Monkey down at the very moment when the world's press began to take a tangible interest in Seattle's creative gene pool, but 'It Crawled From The Basement' is a testament to his single-minded ability and determination to conjure genius from often the most limited of financial constraints. It's also a timely reminder that there was always much more to the city than merely the celebrated Sub Pop imprint. I wouldn't mind betting that a young Mr. Cobain took many of these little gems home and treasured them back in the day too.
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