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“Your throat is not fucked up.”

“Give me some of that Bushmills. Pour me some of that stuff.”

“Fuck you, you’re not fuckin’ Morrison, dude. Come up here and look at what’s going on.”

He’s like, “They got it.” They’re doing horrible covers, just trying to make the fuckin’ set so they can get paid.

“You’re a fuckin’ asshole for fuckin’ leaving them high and dry.”

He loved the fact that I’d call him on that shit. We got to be good friends that way.

DAN PETERS The tour got canceled in Florida. Mark decided the tour was done. He caught a flight home, and we all drove from Pensacola, Florida, back to Seattle.

VAN CONNER We used to do that all the time. We’d have such intense tours; it would be like a month, and then we’d have a week left and Mark would be like, “Let’s just fuckin’ go home.” After burning the candle at both ends for a month, I would not argue.

DAN PETERS Mudhoney had recorded Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge while Steve was going to school, so that record’s getting ready to come out. Meanwhile, the Screaming Trees are getting ready to go into the studio to record, so I demoed some stuff with them. Then I realized that I was going to have to make a decision.

I’m like, “Steve, what’s the deal? Do you want to tour, or are you going to school?” And he’s like, “I think we should tour.” To me, that was all I needed. As much as I was having a gas with the Screaming Trees, Mudhoney was my band. There was nothing like a Mudhoney show at that point.

DANIEL HOUSE I left Skin Yard in early ’91. The primary reason was that my son was born in 1989, in March. And I actually left to go on tour when he was two weeks old, and when I came back he was two months old. So I was miserable, but I did it because it was something that I understood was necessary to develop awareness and a fanbase for the band. But I wanted to be a responsible and present parent, so I couldn’t justify that in my own mind.

During that same time, C/Z had begun seeing a fair bit of success on its own, even though it was a side hobby. Sub Pop believed, very incorrectly, that I was using Sub Pop time to do Skin Yard business or C/Z business, and nothing could’ve been further from the truth. I had far too much pride about the quality of my work to ever mix the two. When they actually let me go, it was pretty hurtful and I was pretty angry. I worked so hard; I was earning them $30,000 a month at that point, personally. And it was that piece of the business that was pretty much keeping Sub Pop afloat at that point. I’m convinced to this day that they decided to get rid of me because they got somebody to do my job for cheaper.

Suddenly, two of the things I identified myself as being—the bass player/songwriter in Skin Yard and the sales/distribution guy at Sub Pop—were not there, and the only thing I really had left was C/Z. So either I had to get a real job or make a go at C/Z, so it seemed like a no-brainer. In retrospect, I have to thank Sub Pop for the opportunity to take a leap forward and take a chance on the label, which would basically carry me through the next many years.

PETER LITWIN (Coffin Break guitarist/singer) Coffin Break started in ’87. Originally, Sub Pop was going to put out our first seven-inch, and then they backed out at the last minute because they didn’t feel like we fit their label totally. We were a little more punk rock; we weren’t quite as grungy. We went with C/Z, where it wasn’t one type of sound. Daniel signed people he liked, and that could be grungy or more punk or metal or whatever—where Sub Pop had a pretty clear garage/grunge sound.

We did end up putting out a seven-inch on Sub Pop years later, but there was some jealousy. Like all their bands were doing amazing and we weren’t getting as much notoriety. So I wrote this song “Pop Fanatic.” One of the lines is about how I felt Sub Pop was on the way out: “People don’t care ’cause you’re on the descent/Don’t think you’ll go far ’cause your energy’s spent.”

STEPHANIE DORGAN (the Crocodile club owner; Peter Buck’s ex-wife) The