Greg Dulli had what he terms a front-row seat for the peak of independent rock a decade ago. His band, Afghan Whigs, was on the roster of Seattle's Sub Pop Records just when Nirvana started to explode as a national phenomenon, and the Northwest rock scene was spotlighted as the ground zero of grunge.
"Consider this," Dulli says. "Sub Pop had Nirvana before they went to Geffen Records, and they had just lost Soundgarden a year before. But they still had Mudhoney, L7, us, Tad, the Fluid--a pretty rockin' roster. We'd all get together and play monster shows in Seattle and it was like mini-Woodstock."
Selene Vigil, leader of 7 Year Bitch, was in the middle of it as well, with her band recording for tiny Olympia, Wash.-based C/Z Records.
"It was very exciting, so many bands doing so well," she says. "That was the best time. That was the most fun."
The fun ended when Nirvana, a trio from Aberdeen, Wash., signed with Geffen Records and hit the pop stratosphere. With "Nevermind," and Seattle-based Pearl Jam's Epic Records debut, "Ten," right beside it, the new generation had its soundtrack, and the major labels smelled green in all that plaid flannel.
It was a grunge gold rush. Record executives flocked first to the Northwest and then to other indie-rock centers, offering unproven acts six-and sometimes seven-figure deals, and promising the kind of promotional muscle that was out of the indie labels' reach. In some cases, majors swallowed up indie labels whole to get one key act or to have a "farm team" in the house.
It put a lot of money in the indie economy, but it also sucked that scene dry. Dulli's Whigs and Vigil's 7 Year Bitch, which both broke up after ill-fated relationships with major labels, were just two of the casualties.
"There are many ways to skin the cat, but whatever way you skin that cat, it's skinned, and you destroy the culture," says Douglas Mark, a music attorney who represents two L.A. independent labels, Vagrant and Epitaph. "You can sign one artist and hope he's a hit. Or you can buy a label and hope one or more of their artists will be a hit."
All this history is important to remember, because independent rock is back with a vengeance after a long, fallow decade.
