Screaming Trees
Buzz Factory

Mark Lanegan is notoriously one of the most charismatic musicians in the entire music scene, thanks to a unique voice and astounding songwriting abilities. His spirited singer-songwriter albums have made him a modern Johnny Cash, his electrifying forays with QOTSA and the Lanegan Band have cemented his stature with new rock generations, and even the most à la page critics have praised him for his recent work with Isobel Campbell. All well-deserved.
Yet few remember that the enigmatic Mark hails from far away, specifically from Ellensburg, Washington. It was there in 1985 that he formed, along with the Conner brothers, the Screaming Trees, one of the most underrated bands of that unrepeatable era that brought the Northwest of the States to prominence for something more significant than Boeing or Twin Peaks. Of the clutch that emerged around fateful Seattle, the Screaming Trees were chronologically among the first to create that mélange of hard rock, psychedelia, and punk that conventionally constitutes grunge, with a series of truly magical albums released in the late '80s by the queen of American indie labels, SST.

The sound alchemy of the Screaming Trees placed less emphasis on the Zeppelin-influenced hard rock like Soungarden or Mother Love Bone, focusing instead on punk: both in the raw and deranged Detroit garage stemming from The Stooges, and in the bleak and eclectic interpretation of Black Flag. The psychedelic component was also fundamental and incredibly personal: due to the lysergic reverberations emanating from Lee Conner's six-string, and Lanegan's piercing and deep voice, capable of creating disorienting Doors-like hallucinations: consider the spectral visionariness of "Grey Diamond Desert", the apex of their third album “Invisible Lantern”.
The subsequent “Buzz Factory”, released in 1989 on Greg Ginn's label before their inevitable major-label arrival, is perhaps the quartet's most mature work, perfectly realizing the grunge syncretism. Tracks like “Where the Twain Shall Meet” or “Black Sun Morning” (the title alone suggests how much this track influenced the Soundgarden of “Superunknown”…) still shock upon listening, due to the quartet's monstrous prowess in inserting dusty psychedelic fragments into the tough Black Flag crust, with the majestic vocalist shaping the torrid sonic matter, drawing out sumptuous and sick melodies.
Other peaks of this seminal album, produced by Jack Endino with his customary skill in crafting rough sonic photographs, include “Subtle Poison” (the desolate “I Wanna Be Your Dog” chords on amphetamines), “End of the Universe” (a thunderous and intricate tangle of fuzz guitars) and “Wish Bringer” (pure metallic psychedelia). Special mention also for the desert-like melancholia of “Yard Trip #7”, wrapped in Mark's apocalyptic vocal timbre, a keystone for many stoner explorations of the next decade, and for the heavy-style folk-psychedelia of “Too Far Gone”: this is how Buffalo Springfield would have sounded if they had been formed in Seattle in the '80s.
Despite being revered by scene peers (Cobain, Cornell, and Staley competed to collaborate with Lanegan), and even though the major label albums were excellent (particularly “Uncle Anesthesia” from 1991), success never smiled upon the Screaming Trees, aside from the brief interlude of the “Singles” soundtrack (thanks to the enticing “Nearly Lost You”).
They thus remain one of the best-kept secrets nestled among the fjords of Puget Sound.