The songs and the videos are forever embedded in our minds.
Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit.”
Pearl Jam’s “Jeremy.”
Soundgarden’s “Outshined.”
It was the early ‘90s, a fresh music movement was in full force, and though it’s been nearly 17 years since most of us heard those bands for the first time, their music lives on in modern-rock radio, in the groups they influenced and in the spirit they created. And it lives on in acts such as No Alternative, a new group which celebrates the pioneering sounds of grunge.
Rick Price, the lead vocalist in the band, says that though No Alternative doesn’t necessarily like the “grunge” label, the band realizes it’s the best way for people to understand what it’s all about.
“Being such big fans of these bands, we were aware that maybe the bands themselves might have considered some of the labeling a little bit pretentious,” says Price. “But I think we also realize that’s how people recognize it, so we’ve gone ahead and thrown those terms around — the ‘Seattle sound,’ or ‘grunge.’ Personally, I always just thought of it as good rock and roll.”
In addition to Nirvana, Pearl Jam and Soundgarden, No Alternative offers tunes by Alice In Chains, Temple of the Dog and Stone Temple Pilots. Though the music quickly became associated with a specific musical era, it never suffered the backlash that usually occurs after such a movement. In 1977, disco was one of the most popular forms on music in America. Just five years later, by 1982, it was a dirty word. In 1987, pop/metal, or hair metal, was one of the most popular forms of music in America. By 1992, it was out of fashion. Grunge, however, though it might have delicately faded away, never fell from grace.
“Grunge is one of the few times when something that was popular also had integrity and was good,” says Price. “It’s rare that it happens that way. You’d probably have to go back to The Beatles, and what they set up for what came afterwards. They were really popular, girls were screaming and the world loved them, but they were also a really, really good, talented group of artists. And I think you get that with all of these bands, too. For the first time in maybe 20 or 30 years, what was popular in the mainstream was also something that was good.”
Price was a teen when grunge arrived. He remembers it well.
“When the new stuff came out — when Pearl Jam came out — it had a lot of substance, and it just grabbed everybody,” he says, adding that suddenly, song lyrics changed from sex, drugs and rock and roll to something much deeper. “Eddie Vedder and these guys, you heard their songs, and the lyrical content kind of spoke right to what was happening to you in your life. A lot of times, you struggle with growing up, figuring out the world, figuring out yourself … everything’s confusing and difficult, and a lot of that music was about that.”
No Alternative was formed earlier this year. In addition to Price, the band features Weekender film critic Iggy Schiavo on bass, Josh Karis on drums and Dirk Dekker on guitar. Price admits it’s hard to believe it’s been 17 years since the arrival of grunge, and that in just a few years, we’ll be noting the 20th anniversary of Pearl Jam’s “Ten.” Still, he says the fact that so much time has passed makes working with a band like No Alternative even more appealing. Today, there’s a whole generation of club goers that grew up with the music and don’t remember life without it.
“It’s almost like it is the new classic rock,” he says. “For an 18-year-old kid now, if the song ‘Plush’ by STP comes on the radio … it’s a song he’s been hearing on the radio all his life, but he might have just been being born, give or take a few years, right around that time the song came out. People my age could say the same thing about ourselves when we were teenagers and we heard Led Zeppelin on the radio. We were very familiar with it. It was the mighty Led Zeppelin. We knew who they were, but those songs were probably recorded when we were three or four years old.”
No Alternative will make its debut on Wednesday, April 16 at Nightcaps in Edwardsville. The show will feature an all-Pearl Jam set and plenty of energy.
“We are all so happy with the band,” says Price. “Ever since that music came out, we’ve all kind of thought of all of the songs we’d really like to play, and what attracted me to the music — as much as the music — was the huge personality and presence of Eddie Vedder, when I saw how passionate he was about the music, and how it came out in his live performance. I’d like to go for some of that, and then have it transfer to the crowd. I’d really like to see people there for the music and just kind of get lost in the music.”
w
Go
Who: No Alternative
Where: Nightcaps, West Side Mall,
Route 11, Edwardsville
When: Wednesday, April 16, 10 p.m.
Cover: $8
Info: 570.714.9991,