While the world grunged

Here in Seattle, in the mid 80's, music was very limited as far as what was presented to the masses. There was R&B, Top 40, Classic Rock, Hard Rock, and Hair Metal. Oh, and a little bit of New Wave. Not a very pleasant list of options.
I was not content to listen to what the radio said I should. I had diverged from that path a few years earlier, diving into Speed/Thrash Metal as it was first developing Then a couple years later discovering Punk Rock and realizing I have much more in common with what they had to say. After all, I didn't think I was going to be galloping across the plains slaughtering my foes for the glory of darkness anytime in the near future.

As I was discovering and devouring all things punk a new musical genre was also being born. It originated within the punk/hardcore scene because that's the only place it was accepted. It was noisey. But whereas punk was often quite fast this new sound was a slowed down chaotic mess.
That first wave of bands were all really good. Skin Yard, Soundgarden, Melvins, Green River, Malfunkshun, and Screaming Trees. But I'm not writing this to showcase grunge bands, this is about the punk rock world that was going on here in Seattle while the whole world discovered flannel.

Sub-Pop Records (the grunge label) burst onto the scene in '86 which is when I went to my first show. Dr.Know headlined with Portland's Poison Idea and Seattle's The Accused and False Liberty opening. Hello Punk Rock, hello local live music!
False Liberty were perhaps Seattle's first straight-edge band. They were lightning- fast snotty hardcore. They later evolved into Brotherhood, a straight edge band well known around the world.

The Accused. Too much history to go into here. Look up splatter rock. Possibly seen them more than any other band. Always a great show. They now are Accused A.D. A tribute band to themselves to get around copyright crap.
Subvert, Jesters of Chaos, Dumt, Mace, and Last Gasp we're some of the better Seattle bands for the last half of the 80's.

'89 or '90 a whole slew of people moved to Seattle from the tri-cities and they all seemed to start bands. Aspirin Feast were all good friends of mine, they put out a couple ep's and a split single. Positive Greed were really good with two bassists and two singers. Whipped were great. Bassist / vocalist Paula ran the milk bone collective putting on all age shows. Christ on a Crutch were an already established act having started in DC moved to tri-cities and then here to Seattle. Picking up the rythm section of Diddly Squat along the way. That would be Erik Akre and Foo Fighters bassist Nate Mendel.

Photo: North American Bison

I knew a lot of the people in those bands and became friends with more people in great bands. Meatminder, Pregasm, North American Bison, Bristle, Chicken, Decrepit, No Class, Zeke, David Koresh Choir, and a band I managed: the Daves. All of them a great counterpoint to the slow warbling of Pearl Jam, Alice in Chains, and the like.
So as the world first became aware of a place called Seattle and this unique music it had created, those of us living here had a different soundtrack for our lives.