March 1991 After nearly four years of record reviews and features, most of which covered local bands, Backlash releases their final issue.
March 11, 1991 Mookie Blaylock re-enters London Bridge Studios in Seattle with Rick Parashar to record their debut album. While in the studio, the band changes their name to Pearl Jam. Recording is finished after only one month.
April 12, 1991 Former lawyer Stephanie Dorgan opens the Crocodile Cafe in a vacant building in Belltown. The Posies play on their opening night, billed as POT (Posies on Tour).
April 16, 1991 The self-titled album from Temple of the Dog is released on A&M Records. The album is dedicated to Andy Wood, with Chris Cornell writing the first two songs soon after Wood's passing. Jeff Ament, Stone Gossard, Mike McCready, and Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam and Matt Cameron of Soundgarden accompany Cornell on the album.
April 17, 1991 Nirvana plays "Smells Like Teen Spirit" for the first time in concert.
June 1991 RKCNDY opens in a space near the Off-Ramp by soundman Thomas O'Neil and Alex Rosenast, a former housemate of Stone Gossard.
August 1991 KNDD FM "The End", becomes the first radio station to play local music in three years, with a playlist of "college radio" music and power pop oldies.
August 27, 1991 Pearl Jam's debut album Ten is released on Epic Records.
September 14, 1991 Nirvana's Nevermind is released on Geffen Records. It debuts on the Billboard 200 at #144.
October 11, 1991 Nirvana plays their first show with Dave Grohl as their drummer.
October 29, 1991 One of the most inspirational writers in the northwest scene, Steven Jesse Bernstein, dies of a self-inflicted knife wound, leaving behind hundreds of stories and poems.
November 1991 Spin includes four Seattle bands in their "Top Best Albums of the Year" list- Pearl Jam's Ten, Nirvana's Nevermind, Soundgarden's Badmotorfinger, and Mudhoney's Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge.
January 11, 1992 Nevermind reaches #1 on the Billboard 200 chart.
February 24, 1992 Kurt Cobain marries Courtney Love at a ceremony in Waikiki, Hawaii. Dylan Carlson of Earth is Cobain's best man.
May 1992 Dave Crider of the Mono Men and Estrus Records launches the first annual Garageshock Festival.
May 18, 1992 The Seattle Parks District withdraws the permit for Pearl Jam and Seaweed to play a free "Rock the vote" concert at Gas Works Park just five days before the bands were scheduled to play. Officials claimed that the expected attendance exceeded capacity and that Seaweed was a punk band that would attract the wrong element. On the day the show was supposed to be played, then band set up skateboard ramps in the suburb and partied with the skaters and Seaweed and Seven Year Bitch. Afterwards, Pearl Jam starts planning the "Drop in the Park" show.
June 26, 1992 The soundtrack to the movie singles is released, featuring songs from Alice in Chains, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Mudhoney, Screaming Trees, Mother Love Bone, and Chris Cornell.
June 28, 1992 Twenty-two year-old Seven Year Bitch guitarist Stefanie Sargent becomes another victim in the Seattle music scene. Sargent took in a lot of booze and some heroin, passed out, and was found suffocated on her own vomit.
September 15, 1992 The New York Times reprint the "Glossary of Grunge" from a British magazine called Sky International. The terms, all invented by Sub Pop representative Megan Jasper, include "lamestain" (an uncool person) and "harsh realm" bummer. Trendy kids all over the nation start learning new words.
September 20, 1992 Pearl Jam finally plays their free "Drop in the Park" show at Magnuson Park in Seattle. Seaweed, Pete Droge, Cyprus Hill, the Jim Rose Circus Sideshow also perform. Writer Robert Anton Wilson speaks as well.
December 1992 Vogue magazine runs a lame-ass "Grunge and Glory" fashion spread with $500-$1400 "grunge outfits" by Ralph Lauren and Calvin Klein, supposedly representing a style that had "broken out of the clubs, garages, and thrift shops of Seattle".
July 7, 1993 Mia Zapata, vocalist for the Gits, leaves friends at the Comet Tavern after meeting for the one year anniversary of Stefanie Sargent's death. After stopping at a friend's apartment, Zapata, 27, is found raped and murdered in an alley at 3:20 a.m. The murderer is still unknown even today.
October 1993 Michael Rose and Lisa Bonnieopen the Sit & Spin, a cafe/venue/laudromat in Seattle.
November 19, 1993 Nirvana performs an all-acoustic show at Sony Studios in New York, as part of the MTV Unplugged series. Cris and Curt Kirkwood of the Meat Puppets sit in on three Meat Puppets covers. The show is broadcasted the next month.
January 1994 Nirvana completes its final recording session as a band at Robert Lang Studios in Seattle.
March 8, 1994 Soundgarden's Superunknown is released. It debuts on the Billboard charts at #1, selling over 300,000 copies in it's first week.
April 4, 1994 Two days after disappearing, a missing-person report is filed on Kurt Cobain to Seattle police. Kurt's Dodge Dart is parked outside the house, with two flat tires. Kurt is nowhere to be found. Dylan Carlson, Mark Lanegan, and other of Kurt's friends check out K.C.'s hangout spots, he is nowhere to be found.
April 8, 1994 An electrician coming to the Cobain house to install a security system, finds Cobain dead with a self-inflicted gun shot in the face. The shotgun is found resting on his chest, and a note written in red ink is found close by, which ends in "I love you."
April 10, 1994 A private memorial is held at the Unity Church of Seattle. Later that evening, nearly 10,000 fans attended a candlelight memorial at the Seattle Center Flag Plaza.
June 16, 1994 Hole bassist Kristen Pfaff is found dead in the bathtub of her apartment, on the day she was to move to Minneapolis, apparently because of a heroin overdose.
July 1994 Yoyo Records launches its first Yoyo a Go Go convention in Olympia.
