July 1987 Sub Pop Records release the second Green River release Dry As A Bone.
July 5, 1987 Coffin Break makes their debut live performance, opening for the Cali-punk band NOFX at the Community World.
September 1987 Frank Harlan launches Bombshelter Videos, a local music television show specializing in punk and postpunk bands from accross the nation.
October 1987 Green River breaks up over creative differences, due partly because of Mark Arm's reluctance to get serious in terms of writing and performing. Jeff Ament and Stone Gossard continue practicing with ex-Malfunkshun frontman Andrew Wood.
The Church, a performance space in Ballard owned by Gordon Raphael, burned down from an electrical fire, destroying, among other things, Raphael's studio equipment.
November 1987 Dawn Anderson revives the old Backfire fanzine as Backlash, billed as "Seattle's Only Local Music Magazine". The first issue featured the hardcore band Crisis Party on the cover.
December 1987 Jeff Ament, Stone Gossard, and Bruce Fairweather starts rehearsing with Andrew Wood and Regan Hagar of Malfunkshun. They play under the name Lords of the Wasteland. On December 22, Gossard spotted former Ten Minute Warning drummer Greg Gilmore, back from a one year journey through Asia, and asked him to jam with with himself, Ament, Fairweather, and Wood. Gilmore replaced Hagar on drums, and the band started writing their own songs under the moniker Mother Love Bone.
January 1988 Layne Staley and Jerry Cantrell play their first gig as Diamond Lie. The band later changed their name to Mothra, Fuck, and finally, Alice in Chains.
January 23, 1988 Nirvana enters Reciprocal with Jack Endino to record their first demos, with Dale Crover or drums. They record and mix ten songs, "Floyd the Barber", "Paper Cuts", "Downer" (those three later on Bleach), "Beeswax", "Mexican Seafood", "Hairspray Queen", "Aero Zeppelin", (later included on Incesticide), plus "If You Must", "Pen Cap Chew", and an early version of "Spank Thru", in only six hours. After convincing the band to let him have a copy of the session, Endino gives the tape to Jon Poneman of Sub Pop, which will eventually get them signed.
February 1988 Mother Love Bone records their first demo at Reciprical Records.
April 1988 Bruce Pavitt and Jon Poneman bring Sub Pop into the big time thanks to an infusion of $43000, half from a bank loan. With the money, the label is able to release three records, hire seven staffers, and lease a penthouse.
April 24, 1988 Nirvana plays their first Seattle show ever, opening up for Blood Circus at the Vogue. They rock. Says a witness: "We all went 'to be supportive' and ended up scraping our blown minds off the club's cement floor."
June 1988 Sub Pop releases Rehab Doll, the final Green River release, eight months after the band had broken up.
July 1988 Mudhoney plays their first two shows ever, at the Vogue, opening for Blood Circus.
Sub Pop re-release Green River's Sub Pop output in a single cd/cassette Dry As A Bone/Rehab Doll, with three bonus tracks, "Searchin'", and covers of The Dead Boys "Ain't Nothin' To Do", and David Bowie's "Queen Bitch.
July 8, 1988 Blood Circus, Swallow, and Mudhoney play a show at the infamous Boxing Club, a gay private club next door to the Comet Tavern.
August 1988 Mudhoney releases the infamous "Touch Me I'm Sick" b/w "Sweet Young Thing Ain't Sweet No More 7" single on Sub Pop.
October 1988 C/Z Records releases a compilation of local bands called Secretions featuring Pure Joy, Amy Denio, Skin Yard, H-Hour, Coffin Break, Capping Day, and others.
November 1988 Sub Pop sends out the first installment of the Sub Pop Singles Club. The premier edition is the Nirvana "Love Buzz"/"Big Cheese" single, limited to just 1000 copies.
December 1988 Nirvana returns to Reciprocal with Jack Endino to record more songs for their debut album, Bleach. It takes only six days, spanning from later December to early January of '89. Recorded for a measly $606.17.
Sub Pop releases their second compilation, titled Sub Pop 200. It was released as a box set with three 12" EPs with 20 songs from 20 bands, all from Washington except for Denver's Fluid. The bands on the compilation include Mudhoney (covering a tune made famous by Bette Midler, "The Rose"), Green River, Soundgarden ("Sub Pop Rock City"), Fastbacks (covering Green River's "Swallow My Pride", Blood Circus, Swallow, TAD, Nirvana, and Screaming Trees.
March 1989 March 1989 The British rock magazine Melody Maker publishes an Everett True article on Mudhoney, in which he calls Seattle "the most vibrant, kicking music scene encompassed in one city for at least 10 years". The article was the first of many articles written on the Northwest Music Scene by Everett True, and started a frenzy of Seattle coverage in British magazines.
June 9, 1989 Sub Pop's first Lame Fest at the Moore Theatre. Thousands of lucky fans get to see Nirvana, TAD, and Mudhoney for six bucks. Unfortunately the show was low lighted by fights between idiots in the audience, even more by the critics who blasted it.
January 1990 The OK opened up as an all-age performance ballroom. It started with an all-punk band lineup and stayed all ages because it was small enough to escape the Teen Dance Ordinance. It would stay all ages for almost four years, until it was made 21-and-over.
January 6, 1990 The Gits open for Nirvana and TAD at the University of Washington HUB Ballroom. Cobain and Novoselic are banned for life to all UW venues for destroying so much gear.
February 1, 1990 The final rock at the Showbox takes place. Mudhoney, Coffin Break, Dickless, Gas Huffer, Common Language, and Adrian's Childhood play for a show that benefited the Northwest AIDS Foundation.
March 16, 1990 One night after swearing he was staying straight in an interview to Rip magazine, Andrew Wood is found overdosed and oxygen starved on his bedroom floor. After three days of intensive care, life support is turned off, ending the life of one of Seattle's finest musicians. A memorial service was held on March 24 at the Paramount.
June 1990 Charles "Upchuck" Gerra, a member of the Fags and other early 80's Seattle punk bands, passed away.
August 1990 Billboard publishes an article titled "At Long Last, Seattle Is Finally Hot", discussing bands Nirvana, Soundgarden, Tad, the Walkabouts and The Fluid.
September 22, 1990 Nirvana plays the Motor Sports International Garage to an audience of 1500, one attendee being future Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl. This was the only show with Mudhoney drummer Dan Peters on the skins.
November 30, 1990 The Central Tavern, a venue made famous from Sub Pop bands in the early-to-late 80s, plays it's final show as a full-time music venue. The final show featured Kristen Barry, Son of Man, My Sister's Machine, Paisley Sin, War Babies, and the Squirrels.
October 22, 1990 Pearl Jam (then known as Mookie Blaylock) plays their first show at the Off Ramp in Seattle.
December 1990 Alice in Chains release their debut album Facelift on Columbia Records.
