Ongoing History Daily: Remembering Tina Bell (and why you should)
There are all sorts of sad examples of important people being left out of music history. For example, there’s Tina Bell a Black woman who fronted a very grunge-sounded band from Seattle. They were called Bam Bam who sounded a lot like the Seattle bands to come—except that Tina and Bam Bam were doing their thing in 1983.
The group featured Tina out front, her husband, another guy named Scotty Buttocks, and a drummer named Matt Cameron. Yes, THAT Matt Cameron who would later play with both Soundgarden and Pearl Jam.
There was one album, something called Free Fall from Space, but it’s been out of print for years. If you really dig into music history, Bam Bam might have been the very first grunge band. They were perhaps just too far ahead of their time. Something to investigate, yes?
