Holy Crap: Green River Reunion Show Set For Next Summer

File under “pieces of news that I thought Jess was giving me in order to fake me out and get my attention”: Green River–the Mark Arm-fronted Seattle band that the northwest rock historian behind lamestain pegged as “the first grunge rock stars”–is going to play a reunion show in honor of Sub Pop’s 20th anniversary, according to former guitarist Stone Gossard.

Green River put out a few EPs and an album, Rehab Doll, during the mid-1980s; along with Arm and Gossard, the band’s lineup included Steve Turner, Jeff Ament, Bruce Fairweather, and Alex Vincent, a collection of names that would later go on to dot the lineups of Northwest-rock titans like Mudhoney, Mother Love Bone, Pearl Jam, and Love Battery. Their music, particularly the fine Rehab Doll, straddled the line between glam and sludge in a way that was probably best epitomized by their winking cover of David Bowie’s “Queen Bitch”; one of their songs, “Swallow My Pride,” would go on to become a mini-classic, receiving the cover treatment from the Fastbacks and Soundgarden (it’s streaming from the spam comment-filled MySpace page that someone’s set up for them). The date for the show hasn’t been announced yet, but rest assured that when it is, I will be booking my plane ticket straightaway.

Brad Regroups For NYC Benefit, New Album, Reissues [Billboard] Green River [MySpace]