apple

Mother Love Bone transcended grunge with crystal-sheen dance electra and golden words of faded glory.   The band initially came together from various Seattle bands in 1988 when Andrew Wood (from Malfunkshun) joined with Jeff Ament and Stone Gossard (from Green River) as Lords of the Wasteland.  They changed their name to Mother Love Bone when Bruce Fairweather (also from Green River) and  Greg Gilmore (from Ten Minute Warning) joined the fold.  The buzz over their live shows led to a deal with PolyGram subsidiary Polydor in which the label created the Stardog Records imprint just for them.  Their debut EP Shine only increased their profile and began to create a stir over the Seattle music scene.  

'Apple' was recorded over three months at The Plant in Sausalito, California and London Bridge Studios in Seattle, Washington with production by Bruce Calder, Terry Date, Mark Dearnley, and Mother Love Bone.  The sessions featured  Andrew Wood on vocals and piano;   Bruce Fairweather on lead guitar;   Stone Gossard on rhythm guitar;   Jeff Ament on bass guitar, backing vocals, art direction, and concept;   and  Greg Gilmore on drums.   As the album was being finalized, Wood overdosed on heroin and was left braindead, effectively ending the band.  The album release was delayed for several months.  

Wood would express in his final interview:   "There were some mixes that were sent to us, and we sent them back to be remixed; and there was still, like, four or five songs that still had to be remixed again. Now it's all settled and ready to be pressed. Apple is nearly an hour long...I guess there's still a little grunge in the guitars from the Green River days. We didn't lose any of the grunge we needed, but we may be right in throwing some of the ugly grunge away. It's called stale grunge... I'm pretty content with the sound right now. I think I'm a bit more mellow than anybody else in the band. The whole set is pretty mid-tempo. We're not like a real "head swinging" type of band..."Stardog Champion" is a kinda...fake, kinda patriotic rock anthem of sorts. That's gonna be the first single and video. When I wrote "Holy Roller," I didn't even know what a holy roller was. I just thought it was a cool term. Actually, I was thinking of a Paul McCartney and Wings song "Let Me Roll It." I don't know why it made me think of holy rollers. "Captain High-Top" is just a total rock propaganda kinda thing. I kinda see "Heartshine" as our "Achilles' Last Stand" of the album. It's long and real powerful. I was kinda depressed about leaving Malfunkshun for a long time. Still am, kinda. I feel like, you know, I left them stranded. I've got a brother besides Kevin who, ah, is kinda insane in a way, and he makes the whole family worry about him, so "Heartshine" is a little about both of my brothers...Nobody else has really brought any in. I think I'd find it hard to sing someone else's lyrics. I've got a guitar but I've written most of my songs with keyboards as of late. I wrote "Stargazer" on guitar. I don't really consider myself a songwriter but, rather, a guy who makes up music. I don't know chords. I don't know notes. I can't even tell the guys in my band what I'm playing. I can't say, "Well, it's G-A-C-D," or whatever. They have to come and watch me and figure it out... just kinda making up my own method of playing. That's been my whole thing...[Rehab is] a total struggle. When you first get out, you're on this pink cloud, and it's pretty easy. After a while things start getting more real, and you have to just stay straight a second at a time."










Stargazer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9n9gW1wCks



Stardog Champion
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7CPIXnaeeQ



Chloe Dancer / Crown Of Thorns - Live 1989
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAF3BksqxZ0







'Apple' 
full album:




This Is Shangrila - 00:00
Stardog Champion - 03:44
Holy Roller - 08:45
Bone China - 13:15
Come Bite The Apple - 17:04
Stargazer - 22:33
Heartshine - 27:28
Captain Hi-Top - 32:08
Man Of Golden Words - 35:17
Capricorn Sister - 39:01
Gentle Groove - 43:22
Mr. Danny Boy - 47:29
Crown Of Thorns - 52:21





interview with Gossard and Ament 1990







Malfunkshun: The Andrew Wood Story

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2hupqy


Malfunkshun - The Andrew Wood Story (DVD) by AlfredoPangue

http://www.veoh.com/watch/v704980228N6Xe7X5


Watch Malfunkshun: The Andrew Wood Story (2005) in Music  |  View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

mellon collie and the infinite sadness

The Smashing Pumpkins wreaked havoc with restless resolute rage in the enchanted emptiness of sacred starlight to find meaning in the mad murmurs of this mysterious musical missive.   The band had broken through with the multi-platinum success of their second album Siamese Dream and during the exhausting thirteen month tour that followed, band leader Billy Corgan had hatched a plan for an ambitious followup:   "After Siamese Dream, I really felt that we had no future, that it was the end of the line as far as the band went, emotionally and creatively. I felt that I had completely stretched my abilities beyond the beyond. Also, I started to feel my age. And I could sense other band members starting to root down. You start to lose just that little bit of edge. I think about the attack posture that the band had in the early days, the hunger, and then you see people getting more worried about mortgages and stuff like that...The third thing was that we were reaching the end of a creative cycle. Or at least I was, where the basic format of up-and-down rock guitars, pounding drums--all these elements that are classic Smashing Pumpkins was reaching its end point It's become such a formulaic thing and not just by us. People don't even bat an eye anymore. You start to lose at your own game just from sheer imitation...So I said, 'Let's approach this like it's our last album.' Because it either will be our last album, or it will be our last album as people know the Smashing Pumpkins. And it was a very freeing decision to make. It was just a matter of pushing it as far as we could go--in harmony."


 D'Arcy Wretzky considers the pressure going in: "If you don't sell more than the last record, it means you're going downhill...We all had our own head things going on that summer.  Not so much tension within the band, but just not being able to deal with other people in general."

Jimmy Chamberlin: "After putting everybody's egos and personal shortcomings aside, you have what you love to do, which is to make music...It was the sound of four people together."

James Iha:   "It was time to make another record or disband.  Nobody wanted to go through the high dramatic b.s. anymore. It was totally necessary for everyone to do the next record...It was about going for a feel rather than editing or cutting something into shape."

The band opted out of working again with Butch Vig (who had produced Gish and Siamese Dream) and tried to change things up by bringing in Flood and Alan Moulder as co-producers.  Some tracks were started in the fall of 1994 at Corgan's home studio Sadlands as well as Bugg Studios at Iha's home; but Flood insisted that they play live together on a daily basis.  They began recording basic tracks at their Pumpkinland rehearsal space on the North Side of Chicago, which ended up forming the foundation of the album.  More work was done at the Chicago Recording Company and The Village Recorder with multiple recording booths making it easier to get more work done.  And there was a lot of work to be done, adding sythesizers, sequencers, loops, and other embellishments gave each track its own sound.   In the end, 'Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness'  had twenty-eight songs and clocked in at over two hours long.  

'Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness' features  Jimmy Chamberlin on drums, vocals on "Farewell and Goodnight";   Billy Corgan on lead vocals, lead guitar, piano, mellotron, production, mixing, string arrangement on "Tonight, Tonight", art direction and design;   James Iha on rhythm guitar; backing vocals, mixing, and additional production on "Take Me Down" and "Farewell and Goodnight"; vocals on "Take Me Down";   D'arcy Wretzky on bass guitar, vocals on "Beautiful" and "Farewell and Goodnight";    with   the Chicago Symphony Orchestra playing on "Tonight, Tonight";   Greg Leisz adding pedal and lap steel guitar on "Take Me Down";  and  Audrey Riley doing the string arrangement for "Tonight, Tonight".   

It was a painstaking process.  Corgan admits:   "I know it looks anal...It is a means to an end  It's not the best means to an end. It's not the shortest distance between two points. But it is a means to an end. In a weird kind of way, music has afforded me an idealism and perfectionism that I could never attain as me...It's really the end of an era.  Most people don't know us except for Siamese Dream. In their minds this is our second album. But for me, it's seven years of playing in clubs, dragging your equipment upstairs, dealing with my dad, all those doubts, people writing stuff about us, the band almost falling apart--you look at all those things, and you can't help but go, 'We fucking did it.'...We finally managed to manifest everything I always thought we could do...Somehow we managed to get a lot of blood out of the stone...We've talked about it as a band.  It's a pretty amazing war horse, a great accomplishment. Fuck, nobody can take this away...It will be totally misunderstood by plus-30-year-old rock critics.  I'm not writing it for them, even though I'm on the edge of losing my connection to youth, as is anyone entering their late 20s, and you've got a house, you get married, and the things that are important in your life begin to change. But I wanted to communicate from the edge of it, an echo back to the generation that's coming, to sum up all the things I felt as a youth but was never able to voice articulately."


'Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness' soared to number thirty-six in Austria;  thirty-three in Japan;  twenty-one in Germany;  eighteen in Italy;  fourteen in Finland;  eight in Scotland and Spain;  seven in Norway;  six in France and the Netherlands;  five in Portugal;  four in the UK;  two in Belgium;  and number one in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Sweden, and the US.   In the US, the album made its debut at number one.  

'Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness'  earned The Smashing Pumpkins Grammy nominations for Album of the Year, Record of the Year ("1979"), Best Alternative Music Performance, Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal ("1979"), Best Hard Rock Performance with Vocal ("Bullet with Butterfly Wings"), Best Pop Instrumental Performance ("Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness"), and Best Music Video, Short Form ("Tonight, Tonight").  The band won only one:   Best Hard Rock Performance with Vocal for "Bullet with Butterfly Wings".   

'Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness' has sold over ten million copies in the US alone.  








http://www.smashingpumpkinsnexus.com/








"Tonight, Tonight" went to forty-six in the Netherlands, thirty-nine in Belgium, thirty-six on the US pop chart, twenty-one in Australia, thirteen in Ireland, seven in the UK, five on the US alternative chart, four on the US mainstream rock tracks chart, and number two in New Zealand. 






"1979" became the band's biggest hit, reaching number thirty-eight in France, twenty-nine in the Netherlands, twenty-one in Belgium, sixteen in Australia and the UK, twelve on the US pop chart, nine in New Zealand, six in Ireland, two in Canada, and number one on the US alternative chart and the US mainstream rock tracks chart.






"Bullet with Butterfly Wings" reached number forty-one in New Zealand, thirty-three in Australia, twenty-two on the US pop chart, twenty in the UK, eighteen in Canada and the Netherlands, seventeen in France, number four on the US mainstream rock tracks chart, and number two on the US alternative chart.  It gave the band their first top forty hit and their first Grammy.  





"Thirty-Three" hit fifty-one in Australia, thirty-nine on the US pop chart, twenty-four in Canada, twenty-one in the UK, eighteen on the US mainstream rock tracks chart, seven in New Zealand, and number two on the US alternative chart.  






"Zero"  found value at number fifteen on the US mainstream rock tracks chart,  nine on the US alternative chart, and number three in New Zealand.  

smashing pumpkins - zero by aquarius3





'Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness' 
full album:




All songs written by Billy Corgan, except where noted.

Disc one – Dawn to Dusk
1. "Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness"     2:52
2. "Tonight, Tonight"     4:14
3. "Jellybelly"     3:01
4. "Zero"     2:41
5. "Here Is No Why"     3:45
6. "Bullet with Butterfly Wings"     4:18
7. "To Forgive"     4:17
8. "Fuck You (An Ode to No One)"     4:51
9. "Love"     4:21
10. "Cupid de Locke"     2:50
11. "Galapogos"     4:47
12. "Muzzle"     3:44
13. "Porcelina of the Vast Oceans"     9:21
14. "Take Me Down"   Iha 2:52

Disc two – Twilight to Starlight
1. "Where Boys Fear to Tread"     4:22
2. "Bodies"     4:12
3. "Thirty-Three"     4:10
4. "In the Arms of Sleep"     4:12
5. "1979"     4:25
6. "Tales of a Scorched Earth"     3:46
7. "Thru the Eyes of Ruby"     7:38
8. "Stumbleine"     2:54
9. "X.Y.U."     7:07
10. "We Only Come Out at Night"     4:05
11. "Beautiful"     4:18
12. "Lily (My One and Only)"     3:31
13. "By Starlight"     4:48
14. "Farewell and Goodnight"   Iha 4:22

demos



01 - Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness [0:00]
02 - Lily (My One and Only) [2:34]
03 - To Forgive [5:53]
04 - Bullet With Butterfly Wings [9:40]
05 - Here Is No Why [14:10]
06 - Galapogos - [17:50]
07 - Frantic Ab Groove [22:05]
08 - Autumn Nocturne [24:57]
09 - Ugly [26:27]
10 - Wishing You Were [29:14]
11 - Thirty-Three [32:21]
12 - Beautiful [36:35]





The album cover was done by illustrator John Craig, using a composite of images from classic paintings.   The face is Greuze by French painter Jean-Baptiste.

The body is from a Raphael painting of Saint Catherine of Alexandria.

Moon demo

ragged glory

Neil Young + Crazy Horse took a chance on love to overcome hate with the healing light of a psychedelic grunge resurgence.    Young had endured numerous stylistic changes with twenty-three albums  (Neil Young in 1968,   Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere in 1969,   After the Gold Rush in 1970,   Harvest  in 1972,   Time Fades Away in 1973,   On the Beach in 1974,   Tonight's the Night  and  Zuma in 1975,   Long May You Run  in 1976,   American Stars 'n Bars in 1977,   Comes a Time in 1978,   Rust Never Sleeps and  Live Rust  in 1979,   Hawks & Doves in 1980,   Re-ac-tor  in 1981,   Trans  in 1982,   Everybody's Rockin' in 1983,   Old Ways in 1985,   Landing on Water in 1986,   Life  in 1987,   This Note's for You  in 1988,   and   Eldorado   and  Freedom in 1989)  released over twenty-one years; but his work over the past decade had not been well received by critics or fans.  With the political fire of the hit single "Rocking in the Free World" from Freedom, he had found renewed respect and a renewed sense of direction.  


His next album 'Ragged Glory' was recorded during April of 1990 at Plywood Digital in Woodside, California (except "Mother Earth" which was recorded live at The Hoosier Dome).  The sessions were produced by Young and David Briggs and featured   Neil Young on guitar and vocals,  Frank Sampedro on guitar and vocals,  Billy Talbot on bass guitar and vocals,  and  Ralph Molina on drums and vocals.  

The sound harkens back to the aggressive guitar rock of albums like Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere.  Young would express:    "Things just keep cycling around.  I really don't know what brought me back to it. I woke up one morning and all I could hear was the loudest . . . drum I ever heard in my life in my head -- so I knew that wasn't country!...We did the whole thing in three months, from before the songs were written until the album was mastered and turned in,  It happened kind of fast. It was like something comes along and you have to jump on and do it. You can't stop until it's done because obviously we knew we were onto it. And we've learned over the years that when the wave comes along, you'd better grab it. So that's what we did, and we just stayed on it until it was up on the beach. It wore me out, but in a real good way. I feel real lucky to have caught that one...With Crazy Horse, it's all one big, growing, smoldering sound, and I'm part of it.  It's like gliding, or some sort of natural surfing, or something. . . . It's like a long ride...They've been around a long time.  In some ways, they're related to roots of other families of my music in my past and even other music in my past that I didn't make myself. I don't go through this album without hearing Hendrix, Cream and the Doors as well as my own roots...I don't know. I just do what I do. I like to make music, and I feel real lucky to have made this one here, which has really attained a height of some sort. There's definitely some kind of height to this I haven't felt in some time."


 'Ragged Glory' went to number thirty-one in the US, twenty-five in Sweden, twenty-two in New Zealand, twenty in Canada, and fifteen in the UK.  







http://www.neilyoung.com/

http://neilyoung.warnerbrosrecords.com/music-1/ragged-glory-cd.html







"Farmer John"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXOeNLs0EBY




"Mansion on the Hill" 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c1WpgTzf8nk




"F*!#in' Up"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKaDCP-wKr8




"Love to Burn"  
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9wceu6Qxb0




"Mother Earth (Natural Anthem)" 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQCcMisYSLw





 'Ragged Glory' 
full album:





All songs written by Neil Young except as noted.

1. "Country Home"   7:05
2. "White Line"   2:57
3. "F*!#in' Up"   5:54
4. "Over and Over"   8:28
5. "Love to Burn"   10:00
6. "Farmer John" (Don Harris, Dewey Terry) 4:14
7. "Mansion on the Hill"   4:48
8. "Days That Used to Be"   3:42
9. "Love and Only Love"   10:18
10. "Mother Earth (Natural Anthem)"   5:11


bonus
 "Don't Spook the Horse"    7:36

vitalogy

Pearl Jam wrestled with fame and each other to find the truant tremors of this restless rapture.  During the tour for their sophomore album 'Vs.', the band worked on new material in between shows and recorded at different studios around the US during breaks in performing.  'Vitalogy' was produced by Pearl Jam with Brendan O'Brien at at Bad Animals Studio in Seattle, Washington; Southern Tracks Recording and Doppler in Atlanta, Georgia; and Kingsway Studio in New Orleans, Louisiana.  The sessions featured Dave Abbruzzese on drums;   Jeff Ament on bass guitar, standup, vocals, and black and white photography;   Stone Gossard on guitar, vocals, and mellotron;   Jack Irons on drums for "Hey Foxymophandlemama, That's Me";  Mike McCready on guitar, vocals, and slide guitar;  and Eddie Vedder on vocals, guitar, accordion, book concept, theory of Vitalogy, and typing;   with Brendan O'Brien on pipe organ and Hammond organ;  and Jimmy Shoaf on drums for "Satan's Bed".  

Ament considers: "Probably more so on the 'Vitalogy' or 'No Code' era, I wish I had more time with those songs. Those records, Ed would show us a song and play it twice and that’s sort of what would end up going out there. Luckily you get to play those songs live and there’s lots of pretty good versions of those songs live."
Stone Gossard:   "You can kind of fix your part live if it’s pretty subtle. There’s things you can do to be better for some of those old songs where somebody wouldn’t necessarily pick up on it. But it’s probably about leaving more space, or those songs came pretty quick so you didn’t have a lot of time to hear what was going on. You were flying by the seat of your pants, you know those songs now and can be better for them. I don’t think that we’ve made a perfect Pearl Jam record, like oh there’s not a moment that could be better."

Vedder would expound on their struggles with fame and with the music industry:    "I don't want credit, it's not like I'm trying to claim that. But when they start acting like they own you that they are the reason... that's something that's not true. These attitudes out there that the music is theirs that it's the industry's music... And it's not. It's mine. And it's yours. Whoever's listening to it. It's mine and it's yours. And everybody in between, they're the distributors. I think that something like a music channel can be very powerful. Sometimes they think they're the ones who decide what's heard. I think that's a dangerous situation. And, I think, what's more dangerous is that they think it belongs to them. That's probably what Not For You is about...We didn't know what we were doing at the beginning. People produced it so it came out a little more slick than we would've liked it, whatever. But, we've learnt a little about speaking our minds and having control artistically and using that control. But it's a good example, because I feel there's a lot of text in the songs. They're meaningful songs on certain levels, and another fact that people would say it's all hype, well that's actually completely separate from the music. It's not necessary and, at that point, it was not our fault ...  The only thing that worries me musically is that everything we put out is so under the microscope that it ends up seeping into the songs, and suddenly the music is bombastic just to be able to resist or survive the inspection. There are things on Vitalogy that are definitely not typical, so I'm trying to battle against that. There's two ways: You either give the people what they want, or you become cynical and that protects you...I'm not good at either. We're still just being brutally honest and giving it our best. I'd like to say I don't care what anybody thinks, and that I don't play this music to have it be liked. But I certainly don't put it out so everyone can tear it up, either. Actually, I don't know why I put it out. In the old days, it was a dream to maybe not have to work the midnight shift, and somehow pay your rent by getting a check for your art. And, believe me, the first check I got from a publishing company was an emotional moment for me, because it was given to me for something that came out of my head...A lot of times, music is like a wave, so once it starts, you get caught up in it. And if the sound on the stage is good, I can get lost in whatever we're doing, and I'm fine. But I know for sure, right before you go on or as you're pulling into a town, it starts getting heightened. I'm getting notes backstage from people who are left out in the cold, that couldn't afford the $150 that the scalpers were charging, and how could we be playing if they can't get in...This could be the cause of everything. I'm worried about everybody else, and I'm absolutely just a fucking mess myself. I think I was like this from the beginning. And it's just gotten worse and worse and worse. And now I'm the enabler for a million people. I don't feel like I can survive it right now...Three years ago, this was so new to us. I think that it's almost confidence that enables us to record "Bugs" or confidence in our listeners that they can open up to something like that. Back then I had my mind on the business at hand, and I probably wouldn't have felt so free to take up two hours of studio time working on Eddie's wank-off accordion piece. For a long time after recording it, I was playing it for friends saying it was the best thing we'd ever done. [laughs] We just decided to do something that was fun to listen to and wasn't bombastic and wasn't everything that the band had become...I can definitely listen to every song on the record and get something out of it. "Nothingman" was written in an hour, and so I like listening to that 'cause it just happened and somehow captured a mood there, at least for me in the vocal. Any time I can nail down a song, a thought, in a half hour, that feels really good. We recorded "Tremor Christ" in a very short period, one night in New Orleans, and I remember what that night was like. I can see how the lights were turned down low. I can see the room. And so I like listening to that. I wrote "Better Man" before I could drink -- legally -- on a four-track in my old apartment."

'Vitalogy' was another major success for the band, going to number twenty-eight in Japan; twenty-two in France; seventeen in Switzerland; sixteen in Switzerland; eleven in Spain; eight in Germany; seven in Austria, the Netherlands, and Norway; four in Denmark, Portugal, and the UK; three in Finland; and number one in Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, Sweden, and the US.  During its first week of release, it was only available on vinyl selling in record amounts for the time.  







http://pearljam.com/

http://www.pearljamonline.it/lyrics/vitalogy.htm









live









'Vitalogy'
full album:
https://myspace.com/pearljam/music/album/vitalogy-17501168





All lyrics written by Eddie Vedder. All music is credited to Pearl Jam with the exceptions as (*). Actual music composers listed below. 


1. "Last Exit"   Abbruzzese, Gossard 2:54
2. "Spin the Black Circle"   Stone Gossard 2:48
3. "Not for You"   Vedder 5:52
4. "Tremor Christ"   Jeff Ament, Mike McCready 4:12
5. "Nothingman" Ament 4:35
6. "Whipping"   Vedder 2:35
7. "Pry, To"   Abbruzzese, Ament, McCready, Gossard, Vedder 1:03
8. "Corduroy"   Vedder 4:37
9. "Bugs"   Vedder 2:45
10. "Satan's Bed" Gossard 3:31
11. "Better Man" Vedder 4:28
12. "Aye Davanita"   Abbruzzese, Ament, McCready, Gossard, Vedder 2:58
13. "Immortality"   Vedder 5:28
14. "Hey Foxymophandlemama, That's Me"  (AKA "Stupid Mop") Ament, Gossard, Jack Irons, McCready, Vedder 7:44