Sub Pop will release Green River‘s Dry As A Bone EP, and their final offering the Rehab Doll LP, as expanded and remastered deluxe editions on CD/2xLP/DL worldwide January 25, 2019. Jack Endino served as the executive producer for the project excavating and restoring tapes, mixing, remixing and mastering both packages.
LP preorders of each album through Sub Pop Mega Mart and select independent retailers will receive the limited Loser editions of Dry as a Bone on forest green vinyl and Rehab Doll on opaque lime green vinyl, while supplies last.
“Proto-grunge at its best, its mud-dipped tracks breaking down and building themselves back up in real time. Frontman Mark Arm (later of Mudhoney) sounds like he gargled with lye before cutting tracks like the boogie-gone-bad ‘Together We’ll Never,’ while the band’s rip-roaring cover of David Bowie’s ‘Queen Bitch’ (originally only available on the album’s cassette release) hints at the wry humor that would animate much of the Seattle scene’s best moments,” said Rolling Stone about the new release.
Magnet Magazine echoes these sentiments, stating “Not only did Green River exemplify the collision of punk, metal and classic rock that became the early Seattle sound’s calling card, it eventually spawned some of the most recognizable faces of the grunge era…Green River’s sound is exactly what you would expect, with the tension of competing styles (Arm’s unhinged, punk-rock shriek vs. Gossard and Ament’s bluesy metal wanking) forming a singular if combustable, mix…The impact is something akin to a beer bottle to the head, and it still reverberates 20 years later.”
The story of Seattle’s rise to global rock supremacy in the late ’80s and early ’90s begins with Green River. Made up of Jeff Ament (bass), Mark Arm (guitar/vocals), Bruce Fairweather (guitar), Stone Gossard (guitar) and Alex Shumway (drums), the quintet put out three 12″s and a 7″ single during its brief existence. But Green River’s influence on Seattle’s music scene spread far and wide-thanks to the members’ dispersion into bands including Pearl Jam, Mudhoney and Love Battery, as well as the punk-glam-sludge-rock songs they left behind.
The mini-LP Dry As A Bone, which came out in 1987, and the LP Rehab Doll which came out in 1988, were released as a single CD with a few bonus cuts, including their sneering cover of David Bowie’s “Queen Bitch” and their marauding version of Dead Boys’ “Ain’t Nothin’ To Do” in 1990-but they’ve been unavailable on vinyl for years. Now, these slices of Seattle music history are not only back in print, they’re accompanied by from the vaults that had been forgotten about for decades.
Rehab Doll Tracklisting
- Forever Means
- Rehab Doll
- Swallow My Pride
- Together We’ll Never
- Smilin’ and Dyin’
- Porkfist
- Take a Dive
- One More Stitch
- 10000 Things*
- Hangin’ Tree*
- Rehab Doll*^
- Swallow My Pride#^
- Together We’ll Never*^
- Smilin’ and Dyin’*^
- Porkfist*^
- Take a Dive*^
- Somebody*^
- Queen Bitch*^
*=Previously unreleased
^=Reciprocal 8-track versions
#=Previously released on Dry As A Bone/Rehab Doll CD (Sub Pop)
Dry As A Bone Tracklisting
- This Town
- PCC
- Ozzie
- One More Stitch*
- Unwind
- Baby Takes
- Searchin’#
- Hangin’ Tree*
- Together We’ll Never @
- Ain’t Nothin’ To Do @
- Bleeding Sheep*
- Bazaar $
- Thrown Up*
- This Little Boy*
- 10000 Things^
- Your Own Best Friend^
*=Previously unreleased
#=Previously released on Dry As A Bone/Rehab Doll CD (Sub Pop)
@=Previously released as a 7″ (Tasque Force Records)
$=Previously released on Another Pyrrhic Victory compilation (C/Z Records)
^=Previously released on Deep Six compilation (C/Z Records)