#skin yard | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

krispyweiss · 4 months

Text

Book Review: “The Greatest Band that Ever Wasn’t: The Story of the Roughest, Toughest, Most Hell-raising Band to Ever Come out of the Pacific Northwest, The Screaming Trees - A Comedy/Tragedy in 3 Acts” - by Barrett Martin

Screaming Trees nearly reunited in 2015 for a string of European and U.S. festival dates that would’ve featured Peter Buck on auxiliary rhythm guitar and represented the band’s largest payday.

But singer Mark Lanegan pulled the plug the day before an announcement was due. And with the subsequent deaths of Lanegan and bassist Van Conner, in 2022 and ’23, respectively, the Trees, who split in 2000, were left as an increasingly rare band that breaks up and stays that way.

This is the biggest revelation in Barrett Martin’s “The Greatest Band that Ever Wasn’t: The Story of the Roughest, Toughest, Most Hell-raising Band to Ever Come out of the Pacific Northwest, The Screaming Trees - A Comedy/Tragedy in 3 Acts.” That unwieldy title inadvertently encapsulates the main problem with the otherwise-interesting book from the man who replaced Mark Pickerel as drummer for the Trees’ during their final decade.

Namely, Barrett needed a co-writer and/or a strong editor. As published, “The Greatest Band that Ever Wasn’t” is messy and littered with grammatical errors, typos, redundancies and a tendency to be verbose for verbosity’s sake. The comedy/tragedy addendum, meanwhile, is a misnomer, as the book by the multi-instrumentalist who also has played with Skin Yard; co-founded Mad Season and Tuatara; and was a touring member of Buck’s R.E.M., reads like a traditional rock memoir, albeit a poorly written one.

All of this said, Barrett presents 33 enlightening stories about the poorly documented Trees across 204 pages and it’s refreshing to read a rock ‘n’ roll memoir by a musician whose memories are all fond and who has no desire to settle scores in public. That Martin loved his band and respected his bandmates, also including guitarist/composer Gary Lee Conner and latter-day rhythm guitarist Joshua Homme, is obvious.

Martin also reveals that Lanegan recorded two a cappella Blind Willie McTell covers - not named - for a soundtrack, also not named, the drummer-cum-author is producing. A good editor would’ve done something to close the gaping hole in this tantalizing tidbit and ensured readers were not left with terrific content presented poorly.

Grade card: “The Greatest Band that Ever Wasn’t: The Story of the Roughest, Toughest, Most Hell-raising Band to Ever Come out of the Pacific Northwest, The Screaming Trees - A Comedy/Tragedy in 3 Acts” - by Barrett Martin - C+

1-3-24

#the greatest band that ever wasn’t #screaming trees #barrett martin #mark pickerel #mark lanegan #van conner #gary lee conner #skin yard #mad season #tuatara #joshua homme #queens of the stone age #peter buck #r.e.m.#blind willie mctell

4 notes · View notes

bestgrungealbum · 5 months

Text

#hole #skin yard #grunge #poll

2 notes · View notes

nuagederose · 1 year

Text

on sunday, this song^ came onto my shuffle, completely out of the blue (came in between the trio and death, too, all the more jarring): like visiting an old friend after 10+ years, and you wonder how they’re doing, but you move on (especially when sandwiched between alex and chuck 🤪). then you’re faced with them firsthand. i discovered skin yard and gruntruck when i was 18–i remember i used to listen to this song and crucifunkin’ in my auto-cad class whenever we did assignments: every so often, the line “get off your cross and dance!” will cross my mind when i’m drawing digitally. i asked some people on facebook about ben mcmillan because i want to know some things when i discover something new, given i grew up in california and nevada in the new millennium (the closest we have to grunge is stone temple pilots and hole, and i consider both more their own thing). info about both is scarce, aside from skin yard being OGs in the scene—a recurring theme i’ve noticed with grunge bands outside the big ones: info is a crapshoot, ranging from a gold mine or finding out that their albums are out of print (like in the case of paw). but i’ve always been curious about ben. i like the underrated and the underdogs, the “buried treasures” if you will, but i feel like he never had a chance to fully shine, especially when you find gruntruck were in the video for “alive” (yes, THAT alive), and they toured with alice in chains and pantera. a quick google search led me to jack endino’s old newsletter and the story does make you ponder the fragility of humanity: from what jack says, it sounds like he had factor v leiden thrombophilia, a hereditary disease that causes blood clots, and it nearly killed him c. 2000, and then he succumbed to complications from that plus diabetes and kidney failure in january 2008. another thing that’ll happen when i’m reading about musicians (cartoonists and authors, too), especially when they experienced a difficult period like metallica, anthrax, or testament, or they were a bright star burned out too soon like chuck or pete steele, is i’ll ask, “how the hell am i just now hearing about this?” and it makes me want to tell their story more. 🖤

(drawn with my gold colored pencil)

ig: badmotorartist

#ben mcmillan #gruntruck #skin yard #grunge #seattle grunge #drawings #metallic gold #gold #metallic colors #colored pencil #ink and colored pencil #cartoon art #cartoon artist #artists on tumblr #badgalnirvhannahart #Spotify

7 notes · View notes

beefwizard91 · 2 years

Text

TO ALL MY GRUNGE FANS, THIS WHOLE ALBUM IS JUST SO GOOD PLZ LISTEN

https://open.spotify.com/album/73KvohZHMoL7I6jC4sOQum?si=y3GKmHFiRd6z7oPJZpHyTQ

#based #grunge #skin yard

2 notes · View notes

toffeethief · 2 years

Text