3 Essential Songs To Learn if You Want To Start a Grunge Band Today

Even if you aspire to write your own songs, learning a few covers can be a worthwhile exercise for young grunge bands. See how it feels to play something timeless. Think of it like peeking under the hood of a well-built car and observing how each little component works together in specific roles to make the larger engine purr, or rock in this sense.

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Okay, enough car talk. Here are three songs to learn if you want to don the flannel and start a grunge band.

“Smells Like Teen Spirit” by Nirvana

This seems obvious, but it’s a must-know tune. A key component of grunge was its blending of punk ethos and heavy metal anthems. “Smells Like Teen Spirit” has both. First, learning this track will introduce you to the quiet/loud songwriting arrangement of Pixies, without which Nirvana might have never broken beyond indie status. Then there are Kurt Cobain’s melodic instincts, also evident in a punk guitar solo favoring the song’s earworm hook over shredding licks.

For the rhythm section, Dave Grohl propels “Teen Spirit” with iconic drum fills and a pounding yet danceable groove. And the bassist Krist Novoselic mimics Cobain’s riff for the above-mentioned quiet verses, setting up an explosive chorus. All that’s left are the kind of lyrics that will inspire a generation of kids: “Here we are now, entertain us.”

“Rusty Cage” by Soundgarden

Heavy metal, and specifically Black Sabbath, was crucial to grunge. Soundgarden echoed Tony Iommi’s doom guitar riffs and combined them with the sludging tempos of Melvins. But singer Chris Cornell also possessed Robert Plant’s gritty high wail. And the same early blues music that shaped both Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin is evident in Soundgarden. So when they broke through with hits like “Rusty Cage” and “Outshined”, the band immediately seemed classic.

In “Rusty Cage”, Cornell writes a Southern Gothic tale about being trapped, which reveals itself even more clearly in Johnny Cash’s iconic reading. Soundgarden’s banger has plenty of riffs for your guitarist to study, and good luck to the drummer attempting Matt Cameron’s prog-rock beat.  

“Even Flow” by Pearl Jam

Though Pearl Jam diehards are happy they didn’t, the Seattle band could have stopped after releasing Ten, and they’d still be considered legends. Guitarist Stone Gossard was on quite a riff-writing run when he penned “Alive”, “Even Flow”, and “Black” while his fledgling group searched for a vocalist.

They found a San Diego-based frontman named Eddie Vedder. And according to band lore, Vedder headed for the ocean, surfed, and wrote lyrics to Gossard’s instrumental demos. Many of those tunes helped shift culture, and Vedder’s baritone became one of the most imitated singing styles in the post-grunge era. Aptly named, Pearl Jam remains one of the most dynamic live bands from the 1990s. A good model for future alt-rockers decked out in thrift store clothing.

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