Screaming Trees never really sounded like Seattle to me. They sounded like somewhere much stranger.
They were from Ellensburg, which probably had something to do with it. Four guys stuck out there in the middle of Washington making these weird psychedelic records while everything else was happening a couple hours away.
I got into them through Uncle Anesthesia in ’91, back when I was still in Queens. “Bed of Roses” was probably the first song that really got me, and then I started going backwards through the SST records.
That’s when I realized these guys had already been around forever.
Buzz Factory, Invisible Lantern, Even If and Especially When — those records sounded nothing like the stuff MTV was starting to call Seattle music. There was garage rock in there, psychedelia, punk, all kinds of weird shit. And then Mark Lanegan would open his mouth and suddenly everything sounded about fifty years older.
By the time Sweet Oblivion came out in ’92, Mark Pickerel was gone and Barrett Martin was playing drums. “Nearly Lost You” ended up everywhere because of the Singles soundtrack, but the whole record is great. “Shadow of the Season,” “Dollar Bill,” “More or Less,” “Julie Paradise.” I wore that one out.
I finally caught them at the Capitol Theater in Olympia on October 9, 1993.
What I remember most about Screaming Trees live is that they looked like four guys who might get into a fight with each other at any moment and somehow still sounded incredible. The Conner brothers were this huge wall of guitars and bass, Barrett was a monster behind the drums, and Lanegan barely had to move. He’d just stand there and sing.
That voice did all the work.
The funny thing is that by then “Nearly Lost You” had given them their big shot, but they never really seemed built for becoming famous. Maybe that's why I liked them. There was nothing particularly glamorous about Screaming Trees.
Then they basically vanished for a few years.
Lanegan kept making solo records, Barrett played with Mad Season and all kinds of other people, and I honestly wasn’t sure there was ever going to be another Trees record.
Then Dust finally showed up in ’96.
I love that record. Maybe even more now than I did when it came out. “Halo of Ashes,” “Sworn and Broken,” “Dying Days,” “Gospel Plow.” It sounds exhausted in places, but in a good way. Like a band dragging itself across the finish line and somehow making something beautiful out of it.
They never made another one.
They played their last show here in Seattle in June 2000, at the Experience Music Project opening, and that was it. Lanegan apparently said right there that it was the last show they were ever going to play. Considering how little the Trees had been doing by then, nobody was exactly shocked.
Mark’s solo records are a whole other thing. The Winding Sheet and Whiskey for the Holy Ghost are probably my favorites, although I’ll Take Care of You is great too. He’s also been singing with Queens of the Stone Age lately, which makes a weird amount of sense.
I still think Screaming Trees deserved better than they got.
Not because they should’ve been as big as Nirvana or Pearl Jam. I’m not sure that would’ve suited them anyway.
I just wish they’d made a few more records.
