A New Punk-Grunge Legacy

View at 2:07 Lighton Beezer of The Thrown-Ups schools us on Punk and Grunge (by the way Hype! is a wonderful documentary on Seattle History).

It is often stated the Modernest movement died when Pollack died in 1956 in an alcoholic induced car collision with a white picket fence.  I remember thinking punk died in 1994 when Green Day performed at the resurrection of Woodstock. Eddie Vedder announced the death of Grunge in 2000 after seeing 70's pop teen idol Leif Garrett perform with Kurt Cobain's favorite band the Melvins a cover of Smells Like Teen Spirit.


We all have seen the pop culture establishment be taken and then mutate cultist purities as they assimilate them into capitalist conglomerate establishments for the broader market consumption.  In this case it rendered punk rock without its anti-establishment powers and grunge (a product of punk and metal) was left without its "whatever" ironic apathy.  So we are left with albums, bootlegs, t-shirts, you tube, reunion tours and memories.  We all walked away with this mind set that the scene is dead, the industry has taken and spit, polished and packaged our identity, that new "punk" band is a carbon copy at best and doesn't get it at worst. 


Perhaps though, there is a lasting imprint on the musical landscape that has lead to a current feel in the new underground scene.  Something just as edgy, with just as much dignity.  Something that is current and undefinable, but unmistakeably takes a quality from these memories.



Josh Homme and his many projects clearly have maintained the vibe, with a clear influence from the landscape of his western desert roots.



Another California ensemble, Hella, has taken the ball and blown it apart while swinging for the fences.



Tobacco is just one example of a marriage made in controlled chaos when you place punk and grunge aesthetics in a electronica groove.





Baroness birthed out of the humidity and seduction in Savannah, plays to the metal origins and the sympathetic line that Homme took post Grunge.


Some of this lasting landscape change may also be maintained by aesthetically like minded jazz influences initiated during the Post Modernist inception John Cage, and influenced by Mikes Davis, and maintained by John Zorn and friends currently.


The current state of the Rock Underground: While Indy rock has experienced a Phoenix effect highlighted by Pixies reunion tour.  Ska survived a scare in the 90's, but it is still no shame to be a Fishbone soldier.  Like Ska and Indy, despite Korn and Limp Biskit with FNM's reunion tour that undefinable Hip/Hop.Metal/Funk/Clown thing is still going strong.  Mod seems to be best at passing the mic with Morissy and the Cure acting like the Stones and bands like Interpol improving on their predecessors.  Hardcore will always be, as long as Rollins, Biafra, Exain and Buzz Osborn are walking. But Punk has been to embedded in the mainstream.  And sorry Vedder and Cornell, I would take a Cobain resurrection to recuperate Grunge.


Nevertheless, you can find a reverberant throughout the musical landscape...once you put your head to the ground.

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