Green River
Come On Down

Gary Ridgway strangled his victims (all prostitutes) and after indulging his Serial Killer urges, he left them to the current of a small river that flowed near Seattle (Washington state), the Green River.

The performances of the latter also impressed the amphetamine-driven brain of a young aspiring rocker from the city of Boing. The owner of that brain is Mark Arm and the music he had in mind had to create a state of asphyxiation and unease, at times of true psychosis (Gary Ridgway would have been proud).

At the end of 1983, together with Stone Gossard, Jeff Ament, Steve Turner and Alex Vincent, they chose the name Green River for the band, after the infamous Serial Killer. The USA of the early '80s was certainly not a "country for young people," Hardcore reigned in California and on the East Coast, the Midwest had always been the stepchild of a lesser God and had always produced angry music for angry and forgotten young people by society. The northwest was bubbling, and soon, the young people of Seattle would revive the sixties glories of Sonics-branded garage rock.

The trailblazers of this group of young misfits, dirty, rough and with no future, in one word "Grunge kids," were precisely them: the Green River. The EP (published by Homestead) has the merit of being released a few months before the legendary compilation "Deep Six" (published by the equally legendary C/Z Records), a true manifesto of the nascent Seattle Sound (where for that matter the Green River also appear with two tracks); for this reason, "Come on Down" has considerable historical value (analyzed in hindsight), those who listened to the record then, found themselves facing the birth of what would be called, perhaps improperly, Grunge.

The intent of the five is soon revealed. The first 30 seconds of the title track are enough. The piece is introduced by a piercing feedback sound and the "Wow" shouted by Mark Arm sets the tone. Arm's screams, Gossard's circular riff and Turner's final solo, make this piece the band's true masterpiece. The band's sound register is a condensate of Garage, halfway between Detroit's Mc5 and Cleveland's Electric Eels, with Hard-rock shades. A sense of unease introduces the first seconds of "New God," until the sound explosion that accompanies Arm's unavoidable boisterous singing. "Swallow my Pride" (republished and rearranged on the subsequent "Rehab Doll") is street rock worthy of the later productions (with Mother Love Bone) of the couple Gossard - Ament. "Ride of your Life" starts as the most classic of Hardcore tracks, then opens up to the piano/forte pattern that will become the fortune of the Grunge epic. "Corner of my Eye" is a piece with a Heavy feel. The concluding "Tunnel of Love" opens up to doom sounds; it's a ride that sums up the sound of the entire EP.

Overall, the record is certainly not a masterpiece, it is a raw work. Both the Arm - Turner duo (Mudhoney), and the Gossard - Ament couple (Mother Love Bone, Pearl Jam) will later produce works of greater musical depth. Undoubtedly, however, the record marked the path within which all the future Seattle scene groups would converge.