Everything is Connected 27 September 2013
Welcome back to Everything is Connected where usually we take one artist and follow a chain of connections and see where it leads but this week we’re doing something different. Every once and a while we feature a nexus point, a point where it seems all connections flow from… okay maybe not all but a huge amount and this week’s nexus point is no exception. Today we feature Green River.
Green River (named after a river that a serial killer was dumpin bodies by in the 80’s) was a proto grunge band from Seattle. They kind of set the stage for the sound that was to come but where you get the wealth of connections from is who was in the band. Mark Arm served as vocalist to Green River and later went on to form Mudhoney. Jeff Ament and Stone Gossard went on to form Mother Love Bone and then Pearl Jam. Between these three men, everyone in music is connected.
Let’s start with Mark Arm.
After Mudhoney broke up, Mark went on to form Mudhoney and one of the first members was bass player Matt Lukin formerly of The Melvins. After Lukin left the band, The Melvins eventually hired Kevin Rutmanis for the role. Rutmanis eventually played in a band called Tomahawk with Mike Patton of Faith No More fame. Patton has a habit of working with a wide variety of artists including songstress Norah Jones for his Peeping Tom project.
Green River – Mudhoney – Melvins – Tomahawk – Norah Jones
Pretty wide range there isn’t it?
Now for Stone and Jeff, before Pearl Jam started making a name for themselves, they worked on a project with Chris Cornell called Temple of the Dog. Chris is best known for Soundgarden and Audioslave. In Audioslave, Cornell worked with Tom Morello. Morello has worked with a stellar array of artists and has even show up and played with Bruce Springsteen a few times. A lot of acts have covered Bruce in the past but one of my favourites is a live cover of Dancing in the Dark as performed by Tegan and Sara
Green River – Temple of the Dog – Audioslave – Bruce Springsteen – Tegan and Sara
Pearl Jam is arguably one of the biggest rock bands around and at the center of the attention is singer Eddie Vedder. Eddie has been a guest on a lot of albums and songs and worked on a few soundtracks but most recently he did the chorus vocals for Jimmy Fallon’s song “Balls in your Mouth” Fallon’s late night show house band is The Roots who have worked with a ton of people including recording an album with Elvis Costello.
Green River – Mother Love Bone – Pearl Jam – Jimmy Fallon – The Roots – Elvis Costello
So as you can see, the potential for more connections is pretty expansive. From Costello you can go to Diana Krall for instance.
So let’s see how you do. Take Green River (you can get a head start at their wiki here) and let’s see where you readers go. Please leave you chains in the comment section and I’ll pick out my favourites for next week’s column!
