Smells Like Alternative

Attention All Seattle Grunge & Alt Rock Fans: Mother Love Bone

by acostill on March 6th, 2008

So we all know and love and live and breathe Pearl Jam. Okay, maybe not all of us do, but I can think of one b5 Music blogger who does, and he be damned if I didn’t mention the band during the week of his absence. However, this post won’t be the usual brown nosing of the said gods of Seattle, but rather the band that lies it’s origins.

I won’t cover the band known as Green River, the first band Stone Gossard and Jeff Ament were a part of back when they were we young lads in the early formations of what became the alternative Seattle grunge movement.

Rather, we’ll mention the band that really started putting the guys on the map: Mother Love Bone.

Starting in 1988 with guitarist Bruce Fairwhether, drummer Greg Glimore, and glam-rocker Andrew Wood, Mother Love Bone arrived on the scene and quickly became the darling of Seattle. Wood, known for his exuberant personality and stage presence, had already achieved some notoriety with his earlier band Malfunkshun. Mother Love Bone would secure a major label deal and soon release the EP Shine

However, as hype for the band’s full length debut began to develop, so did singer Wood’s heroin addiction (must be what all the cool kids in Seattle were doing at the time). Days before the release of Apple, Wood died of a heroin overdose, and the band-that-could-have-been were no more.

Mother Love Bone really had an original, awesome thing going for them. The bands only two records would eventually be released a compilation a few years later, after the band split and our two fathers of grunge formed a new band, Pearl Jam.

An interesting note: Andrew Wood was roommates of none other than Soundgarden commander-in-chief Chris Cornell, who started the Temple of the Dog project which would introduce Mike McCready to brothers grunge, who would then recruit Mr. Into The Wild and the rest they say is history.

Share This

Related Stories

FYI: Mother Love Bone
Stone Gossard Interview on Integral Life
FYI: Green River
Pearl Jam Quick Hits: Mike McCready on Crohn’s, Eddie Vedder and the Oscars, Brad & Green River
Pearl Jam Quick Hits: Mike McCready on Crohn’s, Eddie Vedder and the Oscars, Brad & Green River

POSTED IN: Pearl Jam