Everybody Loves Our Town_ An Oral History of Grunge - Mark Yarm [136]
NANCY WILSON Jeff Ament had his big line in the movie, and everybody was like, “Wow, that sounded kinda like he was reading.” The delivery was kinda self-conscious. Cameron always gave him a hard time about it.
JEFF AMENT Acting was really uncomfortable. There’s one part where I’m trying to get someone to leave an apartment and I say, “C’mon, while we’re young.” I felt like I really didn’t pull it off, and the next day, all the people from the Lollapalooza tour who saw it with me kept going up to me and saying, “While we’re young,” and I knew then it came off as bad as I thought.
JASON FINN I was an extra in Singles. I was part of the infamous French café scene. If you read about that movie—there’s a Cameron Crowe diary—he’s like, “That scene was a huge pain in my ass,” and he finally cuts it. It was just a couple of the principals talking, and we all had to smoke constantly to make it smoky. The crew was coming through wearing masks, going, “Keep smoking! Keep smoking!” I was sitting with Roderick of Sky Cries Mary and his wife. I was a heavy smoker at the time, but we were there for four or five hours and finally we couldn’t take the smoke anymore. We said, “Fuck it,” and went over to the Pioneer Square Saloon and got some beers.
BEN SHEPHERD My fingers were so sore from doing so many takes for the movie. You have to get all the different camera angles and performances of the actors and stuff. We’re in the background, playing “Birth Ritual,” and that song, if you play it enough—that sliding stuff, whoo, my fingers were so sore by the end. Big, nasty blisters from that. And they edited me out. All you can see is part of my elbow.
ROBERT ROTH I was at the OK Hotel the night that Nirvana debuted “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” and across the street there was a private thing where they were filming Alice in Chains for Singles. At the time, there was the punk-rock side of the street, which I was on—I was more of a Mudhoney, Sonic Youth, Nirvana kind of grunge fan. Then there was another side, which was more connected to that late–’80s metal scene.
KURT BLOCH That show at the OK Hotel was legendary! There were a few genre-defining shows, and certainly that was one of them. I remember standing next to Nils Bernstein, and then, “Hey, here’s a new song, blah blah blah.” They started playing “Teen Spirit,” and Nils and I looked at each other like, Holy fuck! This song is unbelievable.
STEVE MORIARTY Nirvana needed gas money to drive down to L.A. to record Nevermind, so they played a last-minute show at the OK Hotel, which my partner Robin booked. The band walked away with a few hundred bucks, drove down to L.A., and the rest is history.
NICK TERZO Alice in Chains were the first band to have radio success in that movement, and that’s a fact. It’s been revised since, but the fact of the matter is, “Man in the Box” broke down tons of doors. The album came out in August 1990, but radio started playing “Man in the Box” in early 1991. And after that, their song “Would?” broke down doors on alternative radio—and then Nirvana went right through.
RICK KRIM (MTV director of musical talent) MTV used to have this thing, for a while it was called Hip Clip of the Week and then it was called Buzz Bin. I remember discussing in a meeting whether we took Alice in Chains or this band Thunder, which was a hair band that sounded like Whitesnake. There was a whole big discussion, and I’m pretty sure we all picked Alice in Chains.
The video for “Man in the Box” was pretty dark. Sort of the antithesis of a lot of stuff on the channel. Alice in Chains felt like it was something new, and Thunder felt like it was something old. That was the first sign: When MTV opts for this Alice in Chains band over a hair band, that was starting the tides turning.
NICK TERZO The “Man in the Box” video definitely reflected a certain intensity. There was