Green River - Dry As A Bone

Expanded deluxe edition double LP

Includes their first Sub Pop EP plus additional LP of all of their single and compilation tracks

The story of Seattle's rise to global rock supremacy in the late '80s and early '90s begins with Green River. Made up of Jeff Ament (bass), Mark Arm (guitar/vocals), Bruce Fairweather (guitar), Stone Gossard (guitar), and Alex Shumway (drums), the quintet put out three 12"s and a 7" single during its brief existence. But Green River's influence on Seattle's music scene spread far and wide-thanks to the members' dispersion into bands including Pearl Jam, Mudhoney, and Love Battery, as well as the punk-glam-sludge-rock songs they left behind.

Green River's sound straddled a lot of different genres-blues, punk, boozy straight-ahead rock. The mini-LP Dry As A Bone, which came out in 1987, and the LP Rehab Doll, which came out in 1988, were released as a single CD with a few bonus cuts, including their sneering cover of David Bowie's "Queen Bitch" and their marauding version of Dead Boys' "Ain't Nothin' to Do," in 1990-but they've been unavailable on vinyl for years. Now, these slices of Seattle music history are not only back in print, they're accompanied by items from the from the vaults that had been forgotten about for decades.

Dry As A Bone, originally released as a mini-LP, was recorded at Jack Endino's Reciprocal Recording in 1986, and it shows the band in furious form, with Arm's yowl battling Fairweather and Gossard's ferocious guitar playing on "This Town" and "Unwind" opening as a slow bluesy grind then jump-starting itself into a hyperactive chase. The deluxe edition includes Green River's cuts from the crucial Seattle-scene compilation Deep Six, as well as long-lost songs that were recorded to the now-archaic format Betamax. "Jack actually got his hands on one of those old players and was able to revive and mix them," says Arm.

 

Side 1

This Town

PCC

Ozzie

One More Stitch (Bone Bonus)

Side 2

Unwind

Baby Takes

Searchin' (Bone Bonus)

Hangin' Tree (Bone Bonus)

Side 3

Together We'll Never

Ain't Nothin' To Do

Bleeding Sheep

Bazaar

Side 4

Thrown Up

This Little Boy

10000 Things (Deep Six)

Your Own Best Friend (Deep Six)

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