Listening Post

Wrapping up our look back at the rise of the Seattle sound, 20 years later -- here's a band a lot of people forget came out of Seattle around the time of the titans. Rather than pummel you over the head, the Posies opted for swirling guitars and a whole lot of impressive harmnoies.

Here's Definite Door.

Listening Post

Our theme week looking back on the rise of the Seattle sound continues with a surprising facet to one of the most powerful bands of that or any other genre.

Here's Alice in Chains performing acoustically.

This is Brother.

Listening Post

Our early 90s theme week pushes right along with Chris Cornell doing a song he wrote after the death of Andy Wood.

This is Temple of the Dog's Say Hello 2 Heaven.

Listening Post

I hadn't planned on doing this and I'm generally not a huge fan of theme weeks for the daily Listening Posts I foist upon you nice people, but late last night I watched PJ20 for the second time and couldn't get over the deep and wide range of emotions it once again brought out in me. The aching nostalgia I felt for both a wonderfully innocent time in the lives of me and my close friends -- not all of whom made it out of that era alive -- and, of course, the wide-eyed enthusiasm we all felt when being smacked in the face with a blistering new brand of rock and roll that in fact wasn't really new at all.

We hated the Generation X label, and yet we fully embraced the notion that this was our music -- that something had finally come along that paid tribute to the best parts of the past while forging a thoroughly original path forward.

And it started with guys like Andy Wood.

Before there was Pearl Jam, there was the mighty Mother Love Bone.

This is Holy Roller.

Listening Post

It still leaves me dumbfounded to think that Pearl Jam have been around for 20 years -- and that, in fact, we're kind of celebrating in general the 20th anniversary of the era in which a whole slew of bands from Seattle shook the world and saved rock and roll.

I can say without hesitation that Pearl Jam's April 23rd, 1992 show at the Cameo Theater on Miami Beach remains to this day the best concert I've ever been to. It wasn't just a rock show -- it was a religious gathering.

If you haven't seen Cameron Crowe's incredible PJ 20 documentary yet, you really need to.

From '92, here's the band covering Rockin' in the Free World.