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DONNA DRESCH (Screaming Trees bassist; Team Dresch guitarist/bassist; Chainsaw Records founder) The Melvins were the guys that would come to our parties in Olympia and be crazy obnoxious and kick holes in the walls. I totally remember that sinking feeling you got when they came into your house. Still, you’d go to every one of their shows and know every single weird word that they made up and just mosh your head off.

MIKE DILLARD It was a big step to actually leave town and go play somewhere. We start hanging out with this band March of Crimes. We’d go up there and stay overnight at their place. Ben Shepherd, who was in Soundgarden later, was the guitarist. And this kid named Munkeyseeker was the singer. They lived on Bainbridge Island; they were closer to the scene, so they were hooking shows up for us.

JONATHAN EVISON (a.k.a. Munkeyseeker; March of Crimes singer) We quickly befriended the Melvins and stopped by to stay with them in Montesano. Just got totally baked in their practice space. They played for us and we were like, “Unhh!” It took the air out of us, they were so fast and so tight. We were rolling on the floor, stoned out of our wits, just like, “Oh, my God!” I told somebody about them at the Grey Door, where they used to pay us in pot—we got an eighth of weed for a show—and that was the first place they played in Seattle.

BUZZ OSBORNE We did a lot of fun shows there. We were the last band to play the Grey Door when the lease was up. When we were done playing, the owner handed out half a dozen sledgehammers, and we just fucking destroyed the place.

MATT LUKIN Dillard got kicked out a year or two after we were out of high school. He had a girlfriend that was your typical bitch of a girlfriend: “You don’t spend enough time with me, blah blah blah.” He was like, “I can’t practice. I’m with my girlfriend. I gotta go to a movie.” What the fuck is that?

Buzz had me tell Dillard, “Buzz is quitting the band. He’s going to start another band with Krist Novoselic and somebody else, this guy Crover. He might call one of us if that doesn’t work.” Well, apparently, Novoselic didn’t work out on bass, so he calls me back. And he didn’t call Dillard back. That was his spineless way of kicking people out of the band so he didn’t have to face them. He made me do the dirty work.

BUZZ OSBORNE We went and found another drummer and just never talked about it. That might have been a mistake on my part, but when you’re passionately involved in what you’re doing, you don’t always make the right decisions.

MIKE DILLARD I had a girlfriend, and I’m sure my lack of interest in the band was showing. If I remember right, it was Buzz goin’, “I’m not gonna do this anymore. I’m done.” And I remember thinking, Fine with me, I didn’t really want to do it anymore, anyway. I think at that point they’d already gotten things squared away with Crover. It was no big deal. And they couldn’t have found anybody better than Crover. He’s the bee’s knees, man.

BUZZ OSBORNE I met Krist Novoselic through a friend of mine who was thrown out of the Aberdeen public school system for lighting up a pipe bomb in the school, this guy named Bill Hull. At the time he was known as the Aberdeen Bomber. And I became friends with him when he came to my school. I thought Bill was exceptionally intelligent, an underachiever with a high degree of ability. Unrecognized genius, certainly. He was working at a Taco Bell in Aberdeen with Krist. Bill had told me that Krist played guitar.

MATT LUKIN Me and Buzz stopped by the Taco Bell. And as we’re saying hi to Bill, there’s this tall freaky guy in the back, singing along to Muzak Christmas carols—it was right around Christmastime. We’re like, “What’s up with the freak back there?” “Oh, that’s my friend, Krist.”

BUZZ OSBORNE I played Krist some music, and he was one of the few people who actually got it.

KRIST NOVOSELIC (Nirvana bassist; Shelli Novoselic’s ex-husband) It was like a revelation. It changed my whole approach to life. Buzz