It may not cover as much geographic or stylistic ground, but
Deep Six beat
Sub Pop 200 to the market by more than just a month or two -- several years. Some of the songs (or versions thereof) would turn up on subsequent recordings -- the three by
Soundgarden,
Melvins'
"Grinding Process," and
Skin Yard's
"The Birds" -- but most can only be found here (assuming listeners can even find a copy). If many of these musicians would be doing better work by the late '80s,
Deep Six -- which works better on a historical level than an aesthetic one -- still documents a formative period in
Northwest rock history. The
garage rock of
the Sonics and
the Wailers in the '60s had led to the
album rock of
Heart in the '70s and the
progressive metal of
Queensryche in the '80s. The
proto-grunge bands here all borrow from and expand on those influences in some way or another. A few would even move away from
grunge to a more arena-ready sound in the years to come, such as
Soundgarden,
Mother Love Bone (featuring members of
Malfunkshun and
Green River), and
Pearl Jam (featuring members of
Green River).
Mudhoney, who rose (as it were) from the ashes of
Green River, would take a less-commercial, more
garage-oriented approach (as would
Nirvana in their early years). By the time the Seattle scene exploded just a few years later, several of these bands were gone (or no longer together in this form) and one particularly charismatic musician (
Andrew Wood from
Malfunkshun and
Mother Love Bone) had passed away.
Melvins -- sans
Mudhoney's
Matt Lukin -- had even moved to the Bay Area, leaving their tag as a Seattle band behind.
Deep Six was local label
C/Z Records' first release and was later reissued by
A&M.
C/Z would go on to release recordings by
Melvins,
Skin Yard (who featured producer
Jack Endino of
Bleach fame), and a number of others. ~ Kathleen C. Fennessy
