Screaming Trees Album: “Uncle Anesthesia”

I figure if you are here you came here for a reason. It's either because you stumbled upon this CD by fate or you have heard of the Trees. Either way, get this CD. If you enjoy music that isn't just about some inane, simplistic vision of love, or rock n roll that does more than just rock(which this does). Pick this up. It's the musical equivelent of magic realism. Forget the 'psychadellic' crap. It's full of imagary and imagination, and a sense that there is more, not just out there but in us. It rocks and it makes you feel. Mark Lanegan's voice thick, smooth and full. It's a man's voice, not some whiny kid's voice. The music is fierce while remaining melodic. "Beyond This Horizon"'s ending drum fills swirl and phase shift around your head. "Before We Arise" will haunt you. "Closer" ends in a bluesy fury. As a whole it's just really, really cool. Just buy the disc. It's ten bucks. Buy it. Ten bucks. Buy. Disc. Ten. Disc. Buy. ;)

Unlike Mudhoney, (which I love) The Trees have a low sound and Mark has a deep voice but it's not growling. Finally someone who can sing.

This is one of my favorite albums, not just by the Screeming Trees, but in general. I bought this album nearly at random - the cover art was very cool - and boy did it work out.

Baritone vocals, melodic indie-grunge guitar distortion, an extremely subtle spanish vibe in places (just a couple times), and some real catchy riffs.

The vocals are deep, like The Crash Test Dummies, but ventures into the higher ranges a bit more. When he does, it remeniscent of Kurt Cobain in "Dive" off Incesticide.

It can take a couple listens to really catch on to this one. But if you are like me and really appreciate "off-enough-to-miss-the-mainstream" rock music, then you'll probably love this pick.

Also check out 'Phaseshifter" by Redd Kross

With all the undue attention on Sweet Oblivion and Dust, this album gets rather unfairly overlooked. Those are okay albums, but they document the Screaming Trees during what amounts to (and you'll agree after hearing the rest of the back catalog) their slowdown. They are comfortable records by a band that finally achieved their little bit of spotlight.

Uncle Anesthesia, on the other hand, came out just prior to the Seattle grunge strip-mining boom. It is sequenced with listening in mind -- moods shift and instruments attack and decay in just the right spots. As their first major-label release, Lanegan's voice and the Connor brothers instruments get the right amount of weight and space. Chris Cornell does a fine job of producing. Mark Pickerel makes his final appearance on drums, to be replaced by the more overstated playing of Barrett Martin on Oblivion and Dust. Yet here Pickerel makes some fine contributions to the proceedings, as songs like "Alice Said" and "Time For Light" attest.

Uncle Anesthesia is steeped in American garage rock, a love for the 13th Floor Elevators/Nuggets box sets, vintage sounding effects pedals, and dusty lysergic poetry. Coupled with all that is a deft understanding of melody and energy that ebbs and flows in the service of each song, unafraid to introduce new elements (like the swirling horns of "Disappearing" or the recorder played by Cornell on "Lay Your Head Down"), but not owned by production flourishes (as the eastern-tinged conceits of Dust occasionally were).

There are no real "hits" here, although "Bed Of Roses" should have been. But there is an album-worth of solid, memorable songs tastefully and muscularly rendered, garage-psychedelia at an early high water mark. Unsung as it (mostly) was, this album is one of the best encapsulations of the early grunge sound that does not have a baby in a swimming pool on its cover.

This is easily one of the finest American rock albums of the 90s. Work your way backward from here.

Uncle Anesthesia definitely ranks as one the most under-appreciated recordings ever.....and easily one the best 20 CD's put out by anyone in the 90's. When compared to 'Sweet Oblivion' & 'Dust', I feel like UA is just musically superior. There is absolutely no filler on this one.