Naming those bands is kind of cheating.


Hell, even Gruntruck were better than STP.

Yeah.. I grew up not liking Pearl Jam, STP, even Nirvana at the time. Grunge in the northwest was what I'd imagine ska was like in other parts of the country. For every Operation Ivy there's a million Reel Big Fishes. In both cases though, the fashion has not changed at all since the mid-90s. Fedoras and flannel.. whatevs Dead Moon's still my favorite and I hope they never change.

Bands like Gruntruck and Tad were around before Man in the Box and Nevermind went into rotation on MTV. STP was part of the diarrhea spray of second-rate grunge knockoffs that every major label squeezed out in the early to mid '90s.

Definitely earlier than STP but I thought Gruntruck was formed when Grunge became a thing as a kind of last-ditch attempt to go mainstream by ex Skinyard guys. I don't know. I have both their LPs but they're pretty samey.

I still think of the stuff that ended up being called Grunge as a mid to late 80s thing that spilled over into the early 90s after it had already passed its peak.