 | | An alt/classic rock supergroup, Them Crooked Vultures feature Queens of the Stone Age's guitarist and vocalist Josh Homme, Nirvana/Foo Fighters' Dave Grohl on drums, and Led Zeppelin's John Paul Jones on bass. |
 | | Sponge was one of the more underrated groups in the post-grunge boom of the mid-'90s. When they were on top of their game -- as evidenced by the hits "Plowed" and "Molly (Sixteen Candles)" -- the band's songs had a knack for jangly riffs and catchy, anthemic hard rock hooks, despite being wrapped in the fuzzy guitars and brooding seriousness that typified grunge music. |
 | | Perry Farrell's post-Jane's Addiction band, Porno for Pyros, followed the same path as his previous band, combining art rock, punk, heavy metal, and funk into one shrieking whole. |
 | | Where many of their Seattle-based contemporaries dealt in reconstructed Black Sabbath and Stooges riffs, Screaming Trees fused '60s psychedelia and garage rock with '70s hard rock and '80s punk. |
 | | Best known as the creators of the 1995 grunge staple "Possum Kingdom," the Toadies formed in 1989 and spent their infancy playing shows in Fort Worth, TX. |
 | | Pleasantly inspired by the Beatles' psychedelic period as well as the more heavy riffers of the 1970s, alternative popsters Tripping Daisy came together in Dallas in 1991. |
 | | Best known for their unorthodox two-man lineup, hard rock act Local H have made a career out of straddling the fine line between indie and classic rock, cleverly framing their sardonic lyrics with a generous helping of power chords and feedback. |
 | | It seems that with each change of season, a member of Queens of the Stone Age is issuing a new album by one of their many side projects, as early 2004 saw the release of the debut full-length by the Eagles of Death Metal, Peace, Love & Death Metal. |
 | | Originally finding success as the frontman of Seattle's Soundgarden, rock vocalist Chris Cornell forged a successful career after the band's 1997 demise, both with the supergroup Audioslave and as a diverse solo artist. |
 | | Jerry Cantrell first came to prominence as a member of Alice in Chains, one of the prototypical Seattle grunge bands. |
 | | Silverchair quickly rose to international stardom in 1995 by mining a mix of Nirvana and Pearl Jam on their debut album, Frogstomp. |
 | | Hailing from Palm Desert, CA, Kyuss (pronounced "kai-uss") has become something like a heavy metal equivalent to the Velvet Underground. |
 | | Out of all of the bands that made SST Records a towering force in the American underground during the mid-'80s, Meat Puppets lasted the longest, surviving where other bands fell apart. |
 | | Temple of the Dog was a one-album project conceived in 1990. The purpose of Temple of the Dog was to pay tribute to the late Andrew Wood, the lead singer of Mother Love Bone, who died of a heroin overdose in 1990. |
 | | Although formed in Seattle during grunge's heyday, Harvey Danger took inspiration from a wide range of influences, from hometown heroes like Nirvana and Mudhoney to such melodic cult bands as the Pixies, the Buzzcocks, and Ride. |
 | | Spacehog mixed glam rock influences, including David Bowie and T. Rex, into their wall-of-distorted-guitars sound, a combination that helped the band make a modest dent in the late-'90s alternative rock scene. |
 | | As the lead singer and guitarist of Nirvana, Kurt Cobain's musical success began in his twenties and was heightened when he formed the band Nirvana. |
 | | Along with Kurt Cobain, Eddie Vedder reluctantly became a celebrity and an alt-rock spokesman when his band, Pearl Jam, hit the big time in the early '90s. |
 | | Truly a band out of time, the Australian power trio Wolfmother were conceived in 2000 -- about 30 years too late, considering that the musicians' psychedelic brand of proto-heavy metal sounded similar to the late-'60s/early-'70s craft of Blue Cheer and Black Sabbath. |
 | | Jet found international popularity during the early 2000s, a period in which the band's mix of Exile on Main St. |
 | | Nirvana may have been the band that put an entire generation in flannel, and Pearl Jam and Soundgarden both sold a lot more records, but Mudhoney were truly the band that made the '90s grunge rock movement possible. |
 | | The Santa Barbara, CA, band Dishwalla made a big splash in 1996 with their catchy pop single "Counting Blue Cars. |
 | | Within the alternative world, Seven Mary Three have often been compared to the mainstream-sounding, garage/arena rock of post-Ten Pearl Jam, but the group insists that their refusal to alienate themselves from the rest of the world makes them different. |
 | | Quite a few side projects containing members of renowned Seattle-based rock bands appeared through the '90s. |
 | | Before Pearl Jam, there was Mother Love Bone. Future Pearl Jam members Stone Gossard (guitar) and Jeff Ament (bass) were founders of this Seattle-based glam/punk outfit, which was fronted by flamboyant singer Andrew Wood. |
 | | Our Lady Peace was one of the most successful Canadian bands of the post-grunge era, issuing platinum-selling album after platinum-selling album while also enjoying modest acclaim in America. |
 | | The seeds for the revolving door lineup that Queens of the Stone Age has become famous for were originally sown in another related project, the Desert Sessions. |
 | | Veruca Salt reshaped the jagged, abrasive punk-pop of the Pixies and Breeders into a more accessible, riff-driven power pop formula that also borrowed from pop/hard rockers like Cheap Trick. |
 | | An alternative pop band from Sacramento, CA, Oleander enjoyed a brief flash of popularity in 1999, when the singles "Why I'm Here" and "I Walk Alone" found a home on mainstream rock radio. |
 | | Few bands have had a more complicated relationship with commercial success than Soul Asylum. In the 1980s, they lurked in the shadows of the Minneapolis alternative rock scene, then dominated by the Replacements and Hüsker Dü, and their first tenure on a major label ended with the band being unceremoniously dropped after their expected commercial breakthrough was both a critical and a sales disappointment. |
 | | Formed in 1994 in Austin, TX, Fastball combined a fondness for melodic, Beatles-inspired pop with the alternative aesthetic of late-'90s mainstream rock. |
 | | Not to be confused with the platinum indie rock darlings who came to prominence in the early 2000s (nor the even more obscure bands scattered throughout history and the world at large), this band -- also named Incubus -- hailed from Metairie, LA, and was formed in 1986 by brothers Francis (guitar/vocals) and Moyses Howard, both of whom had recently emigrated from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. |
 | | The Presidents of the United States of America were one of the most unlikely success stories of the post-grunge alternative rock scene in Seattle. |
 | | Although the members of Marcy Playground met in New York City during the mid-'90s, both singer/guitarist John Wozniak and bassist Dylan Keefe originally hailed from Minneapolis, and drummer Dan Rieser grew up in Ohio. |
 | | During Cracker's heyday in the 1990s, the Virginia-based band molded elements of alternative pop/rock and country into several irreverent, buzzworthy anthems. |
 | | Arguably the most infamously named band in the annals of popular music -- for years, radio found their moniker unspeakable, and the press deemed it unprintable -- Butthole Surfers long reigned among the most twisted and depraved acts ever to bubble up from the American underground. |
 | | Southern California's Fu Manchu began crafting heavy, psychedelic-tinged rock in 1990 with their debut single, "Kept Between Trees. |
 | | Richard Patrick (vocals, guitars, bass, programming, drums) and Brian Liesegang (programming, guitars, keyboards, drums) both experimented with electronics early in their careers. |
 | | Throughout Hole's career, vocalist/guitarist Courtney Love's notorious public image has overshadowed her band's music. |
 | | After the breakup of Trip Shakespeare, Minneapolis natives Dan Wilson and John Munson teamed up with drummer Jacob Slichter to form Semisonic in 1993. |
 | | The beginnings of Hollywood-based rockers The Flys lay in informal jam sessions between eventual members James Book (bass), Peter Perdischizzi (guitar), Adam Paskowitz (vocals), and Nicky Lucero (drums). |
 | | With their clever, smug lyrics and cloying folk-tinged melodies, the Crash Test Dummies were a perfect rock band for affluent '90s college students and yuppies. |
 | | Primarily known for their post-grunge blockbuster hit "The Freshmen," the Verve Pipe formed in 1992 in Lansing, Michigan, where frontman Brian Vander Ark pieced his group together from the ashes of two local bands. |
 | | A major player throughout the post-grunge boom of the late '90s, Lit featured the combined talents of frontman A. |
 | | The Melvins were the first post-punk band to revel in the slow, sludgy sounds of Black Sabbath. Their music is oppressively slow and heavy, only without any of the silly mystical lyrics or the indulgent guitar solos; it's just one massive, oozing pile of dark slime. |
 | | When Zack de la Rocha left Rage Against the Machine in October 2000, the band's future was put into question. |
 | | Whereas most up-and-coming alternative bands of the early '90s borrowed from the leaders of the pack (Nirvana, Soundgarden, Nine Inch Nails, etc. |
 | | Jane's Addiction were one of the most hotly pursued rock bands when they gained notice in Los Angeles in the mid-'80s, with record companies at their feet. |
 | | Montreal's Priestess build upon the fury of AC/DC and Black Sabbath for their own new-millennium headbanger blend of '70s Camaro rock. |
 | | Although often lumped in with the "Seattle Movement" of the early '90s (due to their sound, look, and attitude), the all-female punk band L7 hailed originally from Los Angeles. |