Mark Yarm's Blog, page 766

"The hostile publicity campaign that the record label, in particular [Nirvana's A&R rep]..."

"The hostile publicity campaign that the record label, in particular [Nirvana's A&R rep] Gary Gersh, had waged against me actually did have an effect on my business. They made me seem like I was poisonous, so none of the bigger mainstream bands, certainly no one on Geffen, considered using me for their records. On the other end of the spectrum, all the smaller bands that had been my bread and butter started to associate me with this mainstream culture that had been creeping into the undergrou...

Mark Lanegan's cover of the Afghan Whigs'...

Mark Lanegan's cover of the Afghan Whigs' "Tonight," from Summer's Kiss: A Tribute to the Afghan Whigs

Watch the Foo Fighters live on YouTube tonight (August 7) at 8 p.m. CDT

The link is here.

"Soundgarden was a band we wanted to get on [Lollapalooza] the year before, but we couldn't, because..."

"Soundgarden was a band we wanted to get on [Lollapalooza] the year before, but we couldn't, because they were out of cycle. I was a huge fan of theirs. And then [Lolla cofounder] Don [Muller] said, 'We gotta put Pearl Jam on.' I said, 'It's the same thing as Soundgarden.' And he said, 'No, it's not. You're an idiot.' I didn't want two Seattle bands on the bill. But Don was a hundred million percent right, and I realized it quickly. I remember going to the first show, and Don's standing next ...

Grunge fans, let your voice be heard! Help me with my book's Amazon playlist...

Speaking of playlists, Amazon has asked me to submit a list of grunge songs for my book's page. I have some tracks in mind, but I'd love to hear your suggestions here or on Facebook. What songs should I include?

Pearl Jam's Jeff and Stone share their playlists

Pearl Jam's Jeff Ament and Stone Gossard share the songs that have influenced them. Guess which one of them picked Chaka Khan's "I'm Every Woman."

Nirvana, "Oh the Guilt," from the Jesus...

Nirvana, "Oh the Guilt," from the Jesus Lizard/Nirvana split single

Have a great weekend, everybody!

Have a great weekend, everybody!

"Kurt Cobain did used to buy hair dye [at my store]. Some kid would come in and ask, 'Do you..."

"Kurt Cobain did used to buy hair dye [at my store]. Some kid would come in and ask, 'Do you know what color Kurt bought recently?' And if we had a lot of, say, cherry red, we'd go, 'Cherry red!' It was probably a bit awful, but they didn't know the difference!"

- Linda Derschang, former owner of the clothing store Basic (and longtime owner of Linda's Tavern), from the upcoming book Everybody Loves Our Town: An Oral History of Grunge

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