In light of the current hyper image conscious, materialistic aesthetic of popular music, many music purists are looking back on the grunge era of the early 1990s as a quasi Golden Age. Times, it seems, were simpler back then. Flannel and torn jeans were enough to make a respectable music video, selling out was the ultimate crime, and long, unwashed hair and day old beards stood as the perfectly symbolic reactionary response to the acid wash jeans and hairsprayed materialism of the 1980s. The halcyon days of anti-materialism and anti-commercialism were, alas, only fleeting, dying, many would argue, the day Kurt Cobain took his life. And since then, mainstream music has struggled to find that singular, iconic voice or movement that can define an entire generation the way grunge defined the music identity of Gen X'ers across the world. Luckily, though, the Internet is once again here to save the day, and with it, the Polish radio station Radiogrunge.com is also here to quench all those angst-fueled nostalgic thirsts.
Radio Grunge is based in Poland and the homepage is all in Polish, but also available in English for those few non-Polish speakers among us. Here you'll find a bevy of Pearl Jam and Nirvana, of course, the two titans of the era. But they won't necessarily be loops of staples like "Smells Like Teen Spirit" or "Jeremy." Radio Grunge plays a variety of lesser-known tracks, touching upon relatively more obscure albums like Pearl Jam's Vitalogy or even archived Nirvana home demos that mainstream media and radio often ignored. Add in some sprinklings of Alice in Chains and even technically post-grunge, but heavily grunge-infused groups like Foo Fighters, and you've got a veritable timeline of the grunge earthquake and its reverberating aftershocks for your listening pleasure. So next time you're cleaning out your closet and you let out that deep, longing sigh as you run your fingers over your old flannel shirts or Soundgarden ticket stubs, just take out Radiogrunge.com for a quiet night of mulling and sulking. You'll feel better. We promise.
To give the station a spin, find it in the Grunge Radio genre of the SHOUTcast Radio Directory.
We listened to Radio Grunge on a tepid Tuesday afternoon and here's a taste of what we heard:
Playlist Snapshot - Tuesday 11.03.2009
| Artist | Song |
|---|---|
| Alice in Chains | Nutshell |
| Pearl Jam | Once |
| Foo Fighters | Breakout |
| Pearl Jam | Crown of Thorns |
| Pearl Jam | Alive |
| Deftones | Feiticeira |
| Nirvana | Do Re Mi (Home Demo) |
| The Offspring | Gotta Get Away |
| Foo Fighters | Baker Street |
| Alice in Chains | Rooster |
