It's been more than a decade since the "Year Punk Broke" -- 1991, according to Sonic Youth -- but you could be forgiven for thinking that not much has changed. There's still an oil-crazy Bush in the White House, another war in the Middle East, and a monster recession sucking the country dry. Same on the music front: Britney, Korn and Eminem are the same kind of distractions that their early '90s counterparts -- Madonna, Metallica, and Vanilla Ice -- were, albeit with larger recording budgets and less clothes. But Seattle is making a minor comeback in 2002 with three new releases from the bands that made it the wellspring of angst-riddled rock. With a couple major -- and sometimes disturbing -- differences, noted below.

Nirvana, Nirvana

The first major difference to note is that Nirvana's lifeblood, the tortured Kurt Cobain, is dead as a doornail. That enough is cause for alarm, especially when you're thinking about dropping twenty bucks down for the self-titled Nirvana retro, a compilation that features a healthy cross-section of their work from Bleach, Nevermind, In Utero and one new blistering tune, "You Know You're Right." In a world with no file-sharing networks available to a disposable income-challenged populace, you'd have no choice but to buy the Nirvana comp out of the stores. But this is not that world: you can easily download "You Know You're Right" for free and save yourself some extra cash.

So why include it as a Must-Have CD? Because collectors and Nirvana-philes are going to have no choice but to grab it, if only to relive the days when pop music wasn't so lightweight and dull. Nirvana is stocked well enough, spinning Nevermind's finest ("Come As You Are", "In Bloom", "Smells Like Teen Spirit"), choice cuts from In Utero ("Heart-Shaped Box" and Scott Litt's 1994 remix of "Pennyroyal Tea") and even a couple tracks from Nirvana's stint on MTV's Unplugged. But the real gift here is "You Know You're Right," a gorgeous mess and anger and noise not heard since Cobain died. At least on MTV.

Audioslave, Audioslave

Speaking of anger, Soundgarden (one of the de facto Seattle bands, along with Mudhoney and Green River) used to channel plenty of it. And although it was a group affair, most of the genius of that band's arresting releases came from the mind of singer/guitarist, Chris Cornell, who quit the band in the late '90s and released a solo album, Euphoria Morning, that went mostly unnoticed. Apparently, Chris saw his mistake and is now back to his throat-rending antics with Audioslave, a supergroup he formed with Rage Against the Machine's sound section, Tom Morello, Tim Commerford and Brad Wilk. In a word: LOUD. Which is the way we all liked Chris in the first place, right? With Rage's machine pumping behind him, it's like Soundgarden never left. With nerve-splitters like "Chochise" and "Exploder", Cornell and company will most likely make a dent in the bling-bling popcult marketplace come Christmas. Here's hoping.

Pearl Jam, Riot Act

And then there's Pearl Jam, the only Seattle band to have made it out of the 90s Hype Wave more or less intact, thanks to its admirable fisticuffs with bloodsuckers like Ticketmaster, its general approachability and its laid-back attitude regarding tape-trading, bootlegging, and file-sharing (it released over 70 bootleg double albums in 2001 alone, courtesy of its fans and their tape recorders). But times have changed. Sony sent advances of Riot Act in glued-shut players so that file sharers couldn't take out the discs, rip the songs and spread them around the Internet.

Such schizophrenia has been at the heart of PJ's essence since Ten: Eddie Vedder always wanted to be an indie stalwart like Fugazi, but instead ended up being a big-time corporation like Led Zeppelin. Ah, the life of a rock star. And I know this isn't necessarily a review of Pearl Jam's latest, but you get what you pay for. And unless you're paying, Sony doesn't want you hearing Pearl Jam, got it? But if there ever was a sure thing, these guys are it. Any money dropped down at a megachain for Riot Act will most likely be worth it. Just beware a company that has no problem releasing 70 bootlegs then in a paranoid frenzy makes it impossible to review a studio album. Something's fishy, but it's still worth your dough. Grab it.

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Visit Scott at www.Morphizm.com

© Melt Magazine 2002