One of the first so-called grunge bands to lift its head up out of the Seattle dirt, Screaming Trees was a great rock and roll band. Anchored by the volatile-tempered Connor brothers, Gary Lee and Van – 300-plus pounds each – the band’s history is littered with drunken fist fights and wildly unpredictable performances. But through all the tension and the ever-present possibility of a sudden breakup, the band still somehow managed to churn out some terrific slices of vinyl. This is one of them.
There’s a so-called audiophile version of this on 180-gram vinyl on the Music On Vinyl label (which is not an audiophile label), but this pressing is the "one foot in the grave" 1992 pressing - it has a different cover than the one almost everybody else has - and it sounds beyond great! Butterfly and Dollar Bill are terrific little tunes - my two favourites. I don't think an audiophile version of this record was warranted, and truth be told I don't think one exists. This record sounds better than all of the later pressings I've heard, and I'm pretty sure it's as good as it gets. The sound is grungy but clean, distorted but not overly so. The needles are pushed right to the limit, but I do believe this to be an analogue recording and it's easy to hear, too.
Formed in Ellensburg, Washington, in 1985, with friends Mark Lanegan and Mark Pickerel, Screaming Trees' sound incorporated rock as well as some psychedelic elements. They recorded a demo tape that year called Other Worlds and talked the owner of the studio where they recorded it into releasing it as a cassette on the local indie label, Velvetone Records. It got noticed and seven albums and five EPs followed. A fluke of timing positioned the band - along with The Melvins, Soundgarden, Alice In Chains, Mudhoney, Pearl Jam and Nirvana - in the front lines of the grunge movement in the early 1990s.
But the band couldn't shake off their cult identity, and Van Conner eventually left the band and toured as the bass player for Dinosaur Jr.
This record was the band's breakout album and included the hit singles Nearly Lost You, Dollar Bill, and Shadow of the Season. Nearly Lost You was included in the soundtrack for the film Singles and became an overplayed MTV and radio staple, reaching number five in the charts. Sweet Oblivion would sell a respectable 300,000 copies in the U.S.
Highlights of this record, in my opinion as previously stated, are the songs Dollar Bill and Butterfly. They both have very pretty melodies and Mark Lanegan's gritty vocals fit the music sandpaper-perfect. The lyrics to the latter song are dark but also beautiful. They may even be a bit autobiographic for a band that had several monkeys riding in the van with them:
Cry, cry butterfly
Heard it on the wings that you're going to die
Cry, cry butterfly
Well I'm sick and I want to go home
And the band spent a lot of time in their van criss-crossing the continent. Tensions developed and tempers flared, particularly between the brothers Connor, and as a result of all the infighting the band took an extended hiatus after the Sweet Oblivion tour concluded.
They would reconvene for a short tour of Australia in 1995, and in 1996 their next record, Dust, was released. Again the band toured - and fought - behind it. They took another hiatus after that tour, during which Lanegan began recording his third solo album. The Trees recorded some demos for a followup LP, but by then their reputation preceded them and no labels were interested in releasing it. At this point Screaming Trees more-or-less called it quits, although they would reunite for sporadic shows here and there.
In 2001 Lanegan became a member of Queens of the Stone Age, a gig which lasted four years. Gary Lee Conner started the bands The Purple Outside and Microdot Gnome and has done session work with other musicians. Van Connor turned his attention to solo side projects and drummer Barrett Martin has toured with several other bands including Stone Temple Pilots and R.E.M.
You can still find this pressing in the wild, but it'll cost you a couple of hundred bucks.
One of the first so-called grunge bands to lift its head up out of the Seattle dirt, Screaming Trees was a great rock and roll band. Anchored by the volatile-tempered Connor brothers, Gary Lee and Van – 300-plus pounds each – the band’s history is littered with drunken fist fights and wildly unpredictable performances. But through all the tension and the ever-present possibility of a sudden breakup, the band still somehow managed to churn out some terrific slices of vinyl. This is one of them.
There’s a so-called audiophile version of this on 180-gram vinyl on the Music On Vinyl label (which is not an audiophile label), but this pressing is the "one foot in the grave" 1992 pressing - it has a different cover than the one almost everybody else has - and it sounds beyond great! Butterfly and Dollar Bill are terrific little tunes - my two favourites. I don't think an audiophile version of this record was warranted, and truth be told I don't think one exists. This record sounds better than all of the later pressings I've heard, and I'm pretty sure it's as good as it gets. The sound is grungy but clean, distorted but not overly so. The needles are pushed right to the limit, but I do believe this to be an analogue recording and it's easy to hear, too.
Formed in Ellensburg, Washington, in 1985, with friends Mark Lanegan and Mark Pickerel, Screaming Trees' sound incorporated rock as well as some psychedelic elements. They recorded a demo tape that year called Other Worlds and talked the owner of the studio where they recorded it into releasing it as a cassette on the local indie label, Velvetone Records. It got noticed and seven albums and five EPs followed. A fluke of timing positioned the band - along with The Melvins, Soundgarden, Alice In Chains, Mudhoney, Pearl Jam and Nirvana - in the front lines of the grunge movement in the early 1990s.
But the band couldn't shake off their cult identity, and Van Conner eventually left the band and toured as the bass player for Dinosaur Jr.
This record was the band's breakout album and included the hit singles Nearly Lost You, Dollar Bill, and Shadow of the Season. Nearly Lost You was included in the soundtrack for the film Singles and became an overplayed MTV and radio staple, reaching number five in the charts. Sweet Oblivion would sell a respectable 300,000 copies in the U.S.
Highlights of this record, in my opinion as previously stated, are the songs Dollar Bill and Butterfly. They both have very pretty melodies and Mark Lanegan's gritty vocals fit the music sandpaper-perfect. The lyrics to the latter song are dark but also beautiful. They may even be a bit autobiographic for a band that had several monkeys riding in the van with them:
Cry, cry butterfly
Heard it on the wings that you're going to die
Cry, cry butterfly
Well I'm sick and I want to go home
And the band spent a lot of time in their van criss-crossing the continent. Tensions developed and tempers flared, particularly between the brothers Connor, and as a result of all the infighting the band took an extended hiatus after the Sweet Oblivion tour concluded.
They would reconvene for a short tour of Australia in 1995, and in 1996 their next record, Dust, was released. Again the band toured - and fought - behind it. They took another hiatus after that tour, during which Lanegan began recording his third solo album. The Trees recorded some demos for a followup LP, but by then their reputation preceded them and no labels were interested in releasing it. At this point Screaming Trees more-or-less called it quits, although they would reunite for sporadic shows here and there.
In 2001 Lanegan became a member of Queens of the Stone Age, a gig which lasted four years. Gary Lee Conner started the bands The Purple Outside and Microdot Gnome and has done session work with other musicians. Van Connor turned his attention to solo side projects and drummer Barrett Martin has toured with several other bands including Stone Temple Pilots and R.E.M.
You can still find this pressing in the wild, but it'll cost you a couple of hundred bucks.
BONUS TRACK
The Screaming Trees could have been contenders. But drugs, booze and infighting would do them in before anything resembling superstardom could find them. “We didn’t have a damn thing in common except insanity,” singer Mark Lanegan would say, years later. “So we fought a lot.”
As kids the Connor brothers spent every spare cent they stumbled across on records. They started a series of bands with their friend Mark Pickerel, who owned a set of drums and knew how to hit them hard. Van Connor was assigned the singing duties, but that soon fell to Lanegan when the rest of the band realized he was the better singer.
Recalling the early days of Screaming Trees, Gary Lee Connor said they couldn’t get a gig anywhere. “People thought we were complete shit," he said. "But I put some stuff on my four-track and played it for Lanegan and he thought we should actually try and do something with them.” This led to the recording of a demo, after which the band embraced the life of a touring rock band and criss-crossed the country in a van, often for months at a time. Tensions frequently boiled over and tempers frequently flared, partly due to Gary Lee's insistence on writing the lion's share of the band’s songs.
During one recording session their producer, Jack Endino, walked out of the control room to find Van and Gary Lee wrestling on the floor. “It was like Clash Of The Titans," he said. "I looked at the other guys in the band and they were, like, ‘Yeah, they do this all the time.’”
The band never took advantage of the opportunity this breakthrough record offered them. It's one of the great records of the era it was conceived in, and upon its release the band was finally in the driving seat.
But then the wheels fell off.
Lanegan was addicted to drugs, and booze was drowning the rest of the band. Their record label wanted results but the Trees didn't see eye-to-eye with them as to how to go about achieving them. After a while opportunity stopped knocking and the Screaming Trees became a grunge footnote. The world went on turning without them. But they were an incredible band while they lasted and this was - is - an incredible record.
The Screaming Trees could have been contenders. But drugs, booze and infighting would do them in before anything resembling superstardom could find them. “We didn’t have a damn thing in common except insanity,” singer Mark Lanegan would say, years later. “So we fought a lot.”
As kids the Connor brothers spent every spare cent they stumbled across on records. They started a series of bands with their friend Mark Pickerel, who owned a set of drums and knew how to hit them hard. Van Connor was assigned the singing duties, but that soon fell to Lanegan when the rest of the band realized he was the better singer.
Recalling the early days of Screaming Trees, Gary Lee Connor said they couldn’t get a gig anywhere. “People thought we were complete shit," he said. "But I put some stuff on my four-track and played it for Lanegan and he thought we should actually try and do something with them.” This led to the recording of a demo, after which the band embraced the life of a touring rock band and criss-crossed the country in a van, often for months at a time. Tensions frequently boiled over and tempers frequently flared, partly due to Gary Lee's insistence on writing the lion's share of the band’s songs.
During one recording session their producer, Jack Endino, walked out of the control room to find Van and Gary Lee wrestling on the floor. “It was like Clash Of The Titans," he said. "I looked at the other guys in the band and they were, like, ‘Yeah, they do this all the time.’”
The band never took advantage of the opportunity this breakthrough record offered them. It's one of the great records of the era it was conceived in, and upon its release the band was finally in the driving seat.
But then the wheels fell off.
Lanegan was addicted to drugs, and booze was drowning the rest of the band. Their record label wanted results but the Trees didn't see eye-to-eye with them as to how to go about achieving them. After a while opportunity stopped knocking and the Screaming Trees became a grunge footnote. The world went on turning without them. But they were an incredible band while they lasted and this was - is - an incredible record.
