Rock band Green River reuniting after 21 years

By Jonathan Cohen

NEW YORK (Billboard) - Green River, an early grunge band that included future members of Pearl Jam and Mudhoney, has gone deep into its back catalog for its first show in nearly 21 years in Seattle on Sunday.

The band will perform as part of the two-day 20th anniversary bash of Sub Pop Records, the iconic indie label whose roster spans early Nirvana to comedy duo Flight of the Conchords.

Green River has re-learned two unreleased songs from its early demo, "Baby, Help Me Forget" and "Leech," said bassist Jeff Ament, who went on to co-found Pearl Jam with bandmate Stone Gossard.

"In a weird way, those are probably some of the best songs we have," Ament said. "It's funny how it works. At the time, we thought they were way too simple or not challenging enough. But in retrospect, they're really great pop songs. We re-learned those two, but there are five or six songs that never got released."

Green River, which also includes Mudhoney principals Mark Arm and Steve Turner and drummer Alex Vincent, rehearsed twice in late April but has since reconvened three additional times.

Speaking a day after the latest rehearsal, Ament said, "We had a go at 16 or 17 songs and we have 14 right now, but we may need to get that down to 11 or 12 for Sunday. We have a 40-minute slot."

Ament didn't rule out the possibility of future Green River activity, saying, "It would be fun to write a couple of new songs with those guys." His true goal is what he calls "the ultimate pairing: we need to go ask the Stooges to do 25 shows or something. For me, then it would be worth it."

On Saturday, Ament and Gossard will join their Pearl Jam bandmates for VH1's "Rock Honors" tribute to the Who. The group will perform the Who's "The Real Me" for the occasion.

"It's always cool to learn a song like that, which is so different than our own style," Ament said. "We've also never played with horns and a string section before, so that will be an added special thing for us."

Reuters/Billboard