SOUNDGARDEN guitarist Kim Thayil recently spoke with Lifeminute (transcribed by Ultimate Guitar), and discussed the term “grunge”, which his band, and numerous others, fell into the classification of in the early nineties.
Speaking about who he believes were the true embodiment of grunge, Kim said: “Grunge was this generic label of referred to bands from Seattle in general, but also included bands like Smashing Pumpkins, and Stone Temple Pilots get thrown in with grunge a lot – they were in LA and Pumpkins were in Chicago. There’s certainly a cultural aesthetic that we shared with all those bands, but I think musically, the idea of a big power chord that’s all fuzzy and distorted.
“I think Nirvana might embody the musical identity of grunge, maybe – the band that’d best embody grunge, I would think, is Mudhoney, Mudhoney’s sound, and their style and attitude. That’s, that’s like the archetypal grunge band.
“The Pumpkins certainly had those elements, and Nirvana. It was only grunge in that we came from the same place and we were friends of those guys. And we played the same venues, we played the bills together.”
For those who don’t know, MUDHONEY is a band who formed in Seattle in 1988, following the dissolving of GREEN RIVER. The band is made up of singer and rhythm guitarist Mark Arm, lead guitarist Steve Turner, bassist Guy Maddison and drummer Dan Peters.
Despite finding little commercial success and remaining somewhat ‘underground’, the band are looked upon as very influential by their “grunge” counterparts.
MUDHONEY have released ten studio albums to date and remain an active unit as of the time of this writing.
You can check out the full interview with SOUNDGARDEN’s Kim Thayil below.