Can i just say i hate the term 'grunge'? Every time i hear it its like someone dragging their fingernails across a black board. It isn't the right term to use to describe the music thats being discussed, it was just a marketing term used to sell records once the scene became popular in the early 90's. It was a tongue in cheek term used by a sub pop employee to describe their bands to a music journalist when the scene started to catch the attention of the music press and large labels. Unfortunately it became a blanket term which covered a host of Seattle bands and musical styles.
The bands we should be interested in were the alt rock/punk bands which emerged out of the Seattle punk scene in the early 80's which fused a lot of influences of both styles to create their own unique sound. Pearl Jam, AiC and STP as mentioned before shouldn't be included here as they were more hair metal/stadium rock bands with a 'grunge' label added in the 90's to sell records. Neither of the bands on the list were 90's as they all began in the mid/late 80's.
I'm surprised that no one has mentioned 'The Gits' or '7 Year Bitch' yet and i personally think that 'Love Battery' and 'Blood Circus' are very under-rated. There are so many bands that it makes a poll pointless and I wouldn't restrict myself to Seattle when discussing this music as during the same period there were so many great alt punk bands, Sonic Youth released two amazing alt punk albums in 'Goo' and 'Dirty', and then you had Dinosaur Jr, The Breeders, Pussy Galore, Green Magnet School, Buffalo Tom, The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Dead Moon, Babes in Toyland, Sleater-Kinney, Rapeman, Meat Puppets to name just a hand full.
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