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"There's a unique function that happens in the dysfunction." Abramorama has revealed an official trailer for a rad new rock band documentary film called Born Innocent: The Redd Kross Story, from director Andrew Reich. It first premiered last year and won the Jury Award for Best Documentary at the 2023 Sound Unseen Film Festival. From inventing Beach Punk to influencing the Grunge and Hair Metal movements, Redd Kross have maintained the highest level of musical integrity, originality and quality for over forty years. Born Innocent makes the case for Redd Kross as the seminal West Coast band of the last half century. Their influence reaches across the genres of punk, college rock, grunge, metal & indie rock. Long a "secret handshake" favorite of true music fans, it’s time for the world to discover the joyful and irresistible music of The McDonald Brothers. Featuring Jeff McDonald, Steve McDonald, Kim Gordon, Thurston Moore,...

A documentary about the pioneering garage rock band the Sonics is finally set for wide release next month, over five years after Boom burst onto the film festival circuit.

Later name-checked by artists like Kurt Cobain and LCD Soundsystem (who immortalized the Sonics on “Losing My Edge”), the core members of Tacoma, Washington quintet formed in the early Sixties and released a pair of now-classic LPs before first splitting by 1968.

However, those two albums — 1965’s Here Are the Sonics and 1966’s Boom — would serve as one of the foundations for...

In six short years, Big Black pushed underground rock to become edgier, more stomach-churning, and more pyrotechnic. On the handful of EPs and two full-lengths, Atomizer and Songs About Fucking, they released, Steve Albini, who died Tuesday, wrote about everything from child abuse to murderous gangsters and always with a wink as if shining a dark mirror back at buttoned-up middle America. But by 1987, the group — which included guitarist Santiago Durango, bassist Dave Riley, and a drum machine called Roland — decided it had accomplished its mission. So they booked a...

Dave Matthews — yes, the one with the band — joined Dinosaur Jr. onstage during their show in Seattle Wednesday night (January 12th), where they all did a cover of Neil Young’s “Cortez the Killer” together.

Dino Jr. like to bring their friends onstage. While they were in London last November, they brought out My Bloody Valentine’s Kevin Shields to shred on a cover The Cure’s “Just Like Heaven.” In just the past week alone, they’ve recruited Pavement’s Stephen Malkmus, Modest Mouse’s Isaac Brock, Red Fang’s Bryan Giles, and The Dandy Warhols’ Peter Holmström at various shows.

And Matthews wasn’t the only guest Wednesday, either: Mudhoney’s Mark Arm also assisted J Mascis and company for covers of The Stooges’ “T.V. Eye” and “Real Cool Time,” while Pearl Jam/Soundgarden drummer Matt Cameron sat in during “Yeah We Know.” See some fan-captured clips...

Invincible's arm is nearly destroyed when he punches Allen, but with 11 surgeries, it is fixed and healed properly. Bulletproof is heavily scarred and in serious pain after surviving an explosion, but chooses not to fix his appearance. Invincible is ripped in half and Eve's face is punched in, but they are restored to full health thanks to Eve's powers.

Warning! Major spoilers for Invincible ahead!The story of Invincible is one that’s filled with superhero action, moments of character development, and a disturbing amount of violence. Mark Grayson and his fellow superheroes survive an unbelievable amount of punishment over the course of Invincible's 144 issues, some even bringing them to death's door. Through science or the resilient nature of Viltrumite healing powers, the cast survives some unbelievable and quite bloody attacks. Read on to discover 10 of the most gruesome injuries the cast of Invincible actually survived.

Invincible Shattering His Arm Invincible #92, Robert Kirkman,...

Pearl Jam has announced a livestream of their second of two Home Shows Seattle concerts, six months after the band hosted a pay-per-view stream of the first of the two 2018 gigs.

In August 2018, Pearl Jam played a pair of “Home Shows” concerts at Seattle’s Safeco Field to raise money to fight homelessness. Two years later — in August 2020, amid the Covid-19 pandemic — the band premiered the full-concert video of the August 8th, 2018 performance via Nugs.net.

Following fan requests, Pearl Jam announced Wednesday that the Home Shows Night 2 livestream of the August 10th,...

Portland punk trio the Wipers played their first hometown gig, opening for a couple of New Wave-y California groups, in 1978. Fifteen-year-old Jerry Lang, a recent Portland transplant, was in the audience, and when the Wipers took the stage, he wasn’t sure what to make of them. “They weren’t really fashionable, as far as punk goes,” Lang remembers. “They weren’t dressed in the punk uniforms — spiky hair or safety pins — so the crowd wasn’t too crazy about them.” But when they kicked into their captivatingly gnarly originals,...

As the frontman of Green River, Mark Arm sang on the first record that Sub Pop marketed with the word “grunge.” When the band’s Dry as a Bone Ep came out in 1987, the label described it as “ultra-loose grunge that destroyed the morals of a generation.” At the time, it was a throwaway term that described the quality of the music more than a genre signifier. “In the early Eighties, it was just more of an adjective, like, ‘That’s just really grungy,’ like, ‘gnarly,'” Arm says. “It meant a raw,...

Three grunge luminaries who were once members of the band Green River — Pearl Jam’s Stone Gossard and Jeff Ament and Mudhoney’s Mark Arm — break down the origins of the genre in the latest episode of our podcast, Rolling Stone Music Now. Senior Writer Kory Grow joins host Brian Hiatt to discuss the band’s importance and play portions of his interviews, which were previously published as part of an in-depth oral history of Green River and Seattle’s nascent rock community in the mid Eighties.

Reflecting on the group’s earliest days,...

When Green River hit their groove, they played a vicious mix of snarling punk and gigantic hard-rock riffs. It was a heavy, menacing sound, and in the mid-Eighties, nobody really knew what to call it. “I think we just considered ourselves rock & roll guys who grew up on punk rock,” drummer Alex Shumway says now. “We realized that there was some music that we liked before we became hardcore kids that we were afraid we listened to, but then we admitted we liked it. And we started making music like that.

Not much changes in Mudhoney’s world, and that’s a good thing. Three decades after they helped kick-start grunge with their lumbering, gritty guitar riffs and frontman Mark Arm’s sardonic snarls, they simply sound like a better, defter, maybe even snottier version of their younger selves on their 10th album. They send up social-media culture on the hilarious “Kill Yourself Live” (“Do it for the likes!” Arm wails), right-wing terrorists on “Please Mr. Gunman” and neanderfucks on “Hey Neanderfuck.” It’s a loose, wild, silly outing, as well...

By the time Cameron Crowe made Singles in 1992, the 35-year-old director was already a decade into his career's second act. A former journalist for Rolling Stone, he'd pivoted towards the movies after adapting his book about going undercover at a Los Angeles high school – Fast Times at Ridgemont High – for the screen in 1982. And his directorial debut, Say Anything... (1989), proved that he had a knack for capturing teen spirit.

Crowe, however, wanted his audience to grow up with him, so for his follow-up movie, he turned his attention to twentysomethings.

Mudhoney: The Sound and the Fury from Seattle, written by Keith Cameron, offers the complete story of the band that many consider the inventors of “grunge,” and produced with their full cooperation. Before everybody loved their town, Mudhoney was just an unlikely quartet of Seattle-music-scene knockabouts—two college dropouts, a carpenter, and the best drummer in town. But in 1988, the band’s debut single, “Touch Me I’m Sick,” and subsequent Ep, Superfuzz Bigmuff, turned the indie-rock world on its ear and lit the way for the grunge movement that would put Seattle on the map. In Mudhoney: The Sound and the Fury from Seattle, veteran music journalist Keith Cameron recounts stories from founding members Mark Arm, Steve Turner, Dan Peters, and Matt Lukin, as well as current bassist Guy...

Melvins have announced an April 30 release for Everybody Loves Sausages, an album of covers of songs the band says have had a big influence on them. The tracks covered range from glam rock (Queen's “Best Friend”) to mod rock (The Jam's "Art School”), with plenty of hard rock and even Divine's "Female Trouble" thrown in for good measure. Everybody Loves Sausage also features several guest musicians like Mudhoney’s Mark Arm and Neurosis’ Scott Kelly, as well as some tracks recorded by the “Melvins Lite” lineup of Buzz Osborne, Dale Crover, and Trevor Dunn. Check out ...

Matthew Salacuse Author Mark Yarm

The oral history has become one of publishing’s favorite ways to cover complex topics and broad chronologies, while often luring readers with the sheer volume of famous people quoted. In music, a bar was set for the genre by Legs McNeill’s 1996 book “Please Kill Me,” which emphasized the New York roots of punk rock. Next month a 25th anniversary account of the Def Jam record label will be published. And the 20th anniversary...

The fabled rock documentary 1991: The Year Punk Broke documented New York music pioneers Sonic Youth’s famous European tour featuring Nirvana has the opening act. The film also featured the likes of Dinosaur Jr., Babes in Toyland, Gumball, The Ramones, Mark Arm, Dan Peters and Matt Lukin of Mudhoney, Courtney Love of Hole, and Joe Cole, who was murdered in a robbery three months after the tour ended… thus the film is dedicated to him. David Markey the director describes his film as “a home movie on acid, but for fans of Sonic Youth, it’s a must see and a thoroughly entertaining nostalgia trip.

Two decades since it’s release and now the film will finally make its way to DVD and is slated for a fall release. Why did it take so long? I can only guess it had something to do with obtaining the rights to...

Wheedle’s Groove is a documentary, directed by Jennifer Mass, detailing the once vibrant 60′s and 70′s soul music scene of Seattle.

The film includes commentary by Seattle notable music figures like Quincy Jones, Sir Mix-a-Lot, Mark Arm (Mudhoney), Ben Gibbard (Death Cab For Cutie), Ben Shepherd (Soundgarden), Kim Warnick (The Fastbacks) and Kenny G and using interview footage, archival materials, original music, and live performances, the film paints a picture of a thriving and vibrant music scene centered around the city’s small African-American population.

Below is the trailer and you can view the complete award-winning film Here for one week only.

Seattle — I had four hours. That should be enough to take in the past 20 years of Seattle music history, right?

Didn't matter. Four hours was what I had and I needed to make quick work of my 24-hour visit to the birthplace of Jimi Hendrix, grunge and the indie-rock revolution of the late '80s and early '90s.

My first stop was the Experience Music Project, the eye-catching sculptural paean to the Emerald City's music heritage funded by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen and designed by that master of curved metal forms and cloud-like structures, architect Frank Gehry. I was ostensibly in town to get a sneak preview of "Nirvana: Taking Punk to the Masses," an exhibit tracing the influences and impact of the band that helped put Seattle on the map. But just five days before the doors were set to open, things were still far from ready-for-prime-time.

One of the greatest aspects of the grunge era was the fact that record labels were so desperate to jump onto the trend that they signed a series of clearly non-commercial bands to major deals. The fact that Sonic Youth was on a major label for years is pretty staggering, as while they are a great and legendary band, they don't have a single commercial instinct in their collective body. Even better than that? The fact that Mudhoney, the sludgiest, loudest, grungiest band to come out of Seattle, inked a deal with Reprise, and on this day in 1992, they released Piece of Cake, their major label debut.

Though some of the edges are buffed a little bit, Piece of Cake is an amazingly raw album full of Mudhoney's trademark blend of fuzzy bass tones and squealing guitars, all augmented by frontman Mark Arm's passionate yelps. Some of their more...

Internet, meet your new favorite artist! Introducing AA Bondy... If you haven't heard much about him yet, get ready to because now is his time. Kinda like when Mark Arm of Mudhoney sang "I Am Now!" on their last record. Well, except Bondy doesn't really sound like Mudhoney (although his previous band Verbena kinda did), but he's in the same category of cool for me as Mark Arm and Steve Turner. Mr. Bondy is one of the best song writers and performers our generation has to offer. Fact! This year at the 2010 Newport Folk Fest (July 31 - Newport, Ri) AA Bondy played a near flawless set and won over what seemed to be a large number of Folk fans with his semi acoustic/screeching electric jam of a set. I couldn't help but draw comparisons to Bob Dylan's Newport Folk...

Did any genre devolve faster than emo? While the name of a particular style or subculture of music tends to be little more than a shortcut creating by marketing executives, it still seems like emo went from hot new thing that all the kids loved to an overexposed mess in the span of about six months. Like many rock style shifts before it (grunge, nü-metal), it quickly became less about what the music sounded like and more about fashion, sex and excess. As Mark Arm said in 1992, "It's so overblown."

But that doesn't mean there aren't great emo albums. In fact, one of the finest and most overlooked records of the decade came out two years ago today and aimed to put emo up on a pedestal and also kick it in the head. Say Anything's In Defense of the Genre has often been described as the 21st century version...