As the 1980’s began to fade and give way to the early 90’s, “popular” music was approaching a bit of a crossroads, although many listeners and even artists were yet unaware how pointed that

fork would be. There is seldom a complete shortage of truly inspired things happening in rock n’ roll (if you know where to look), but at this time particularly, some sounds were becoming a bit rote. While hindsight provides a much clearer perspective and it now seems obvious that something would have to give, with the mold begging to be broken, the majority of radio listeners and MTV viewers had no idea what was coming. Except perhaps for those rock music fans in the Pacific Northwest of the U.S. There was a band that was positioning to up the ante and shake the foundation of rock music…but it’s likely NOT the band from the top left corner of the country you’re thinking of. In a very short amount of time Nirvana would in fact come through millions of speakers and thoroughly disrupt what music lovers were listening to, purchasing and whose posters would hang on their walls. There was another before that though, for whom those in the bubble that was the Washington independent music scene knew were poised for global domination.

Mother Love Bone spawned from the ashes of Seattle’s beloved Green River, who dissolved in late 1987 and in its wake birthed both Mudhoney and Mother Love Bone. The later initiated by Green River’s Stone Gossard and Jeff Ament. Taken with charismatic local front man Andrew Wood, they had found their new singer, and after recruiting fellow Green River refugee Bruce Fairweather, Mother Love Bone was born and quickly garnered a dedicated and voracious local following in Seattle.

Mother Love Bone’s sound bore quite a bit of the dark grit and chill that would later come to be associated with the “Seattle sound”, but it was equally footed in influences from glam rock and even the sounds of a different geographical grit, the guttural sleaze coming from Los Angeles’ Sunset Strip. This amalgamation was creating something quite unheard before. The band’s forward trajectory and musical domination seemed inevitable, presenting a sound reflective of it’s influences and geography but one that was also evolved into something quite their own. In 1989 they released their debut EP “Shine” and almost immediately thereafter the band reconvened in the studio to begin working on their first full-length album, “Apple”. Sadly, the light that seemed destined to shine so bright was suddenly dimmed with the sudden passing of Andrew Wood in 1990, only weeks before the release of “Apple”. Just like that, the promise, the predictions, the music, it all came to a tragic grinding halt. The project Temple Of The Dog was created in Andrew’s honor and its lone album was released as a tribute and a conveyance of mourning from his bandmates and closest friends. In the following years, outside of Washington state especially, Mother Love Bone was sadly often referred to as a bit of a footnote or a single point on a timeline in the shadow of Jeff Ament and Stone Gossard sticking together and forming a new band to work through their grief, a little band you may have heard of, Pearl Jam.

We, as the record playing and music appreciating faithful, are extremely fortunate because both “Shine” and “Apple” have just been reissued on newly remastered vinyl after being out of print and nearly impossible to find for a number of decades. These releases afford the opportunity to celebrate a wonderful musical project, separate from any shadows it may live in due to its story, timing or tragedy, whether you may be new to their music or haven’t sat down with it since we all had a few less grey hairs In the lyrics to the brilliant composition “Chloe Dance/Crown Of Thorns”, Andrew Wood prophesies that “…a dream like this must die”.  It may be truer though to rest with the fact that if we continue to cherish and share this music and prevent it from being lost to time, then the dream can in fact live on, for generations.