Soundgarden guitarist Kim Thayil is one of just a handful of people whose opinion regarding Seattle’s grunge scene truly matters, and when it comes to who he thinks is “the archetypal grunge band,” his answer might surprise fans.
In a new interview with Lifeminute, Thayil said, “Grunge was this generic label of referred to bands from Seattle in general, but also included bands like Smashing Pumpkins, and Stone Temple Pilots get thrown in with grunge a lot — they were in L.A. and Pumpkins were in Chicago. There’s certainly a cultural aesthetic that we shared with all those bands, but I think musically, the idea of a big power chord that’s all fuzzy and distorted.”
He continued, “I think Nirvana might embody the musical identity of grunge, maybe — the band that’d best embody grunge, I would think, is Mudhoney, Mudhoney’s sound, and their style and attitude. That’s, that’s like the archetypal grunge band.”