EVERYBODY LOVES OUR TOWN

Joel McHale, host of E!’s clip-fest The Soup and star of the NBC sitcom Community, grew up in the Seattle metropolitan area (specifically Mercer Island) and enrolled at the University of Washington in fall of 1991, just as punk was breaking. “As a kid, I didn’t know any better—I just thought every city had great music,” he says. While Joel cites the hilarity of many of his playlist selections, he cautions, “Please don’t put this together like, ‘He’s a comedian, so he likes funny music.’ That is not what I like about it. I like it because there was a hopeful youth to it, which was expressed through not taking itself so seriously, while bands like Extreme took themselves very seriously.” (Photo: Emmy magazine)

JOEL MCHALE’S GRUNGE PLAYLIST
Listen to Joel’s playlist at Spotify. (Don’t have Spotify yet? Request an invitation.) Meanwhile, be sure to pre-order Everybody Loves Our Town: An Oral History of Grunge (out September 6).

1. Mudhoney - “Touch Me I’m Sick”
“It’s really a great song, and it fucking rocks. And it’s a great example of how funny the Seattle scene was. The phrase ‘touch me I’m sick’ is funny.”

2. Soundgarden - “Burden in My Hand”
“It has one of the best drums riffs in any song that’s ever been made. And it’s just the coolest song. It’s. So. Dang. Cool.”

3. Young Fresh Fellows - “Amy Grant”
“I wouldn’t even count the Young Fresh Fellows as part of the grunge movement, but ‘Amy Grant’ is one of the best Seattle-scene songs ever made. Ever. ‘She comes home from church/She takes off her pants/That’s what I like/About Amy Grant.’ It’s so funny—and an incredible piece of music.”

4. Nirvana - “Sliver”
“It’s about being taken care of by your grandparents: ‘Mom and Dad went to a show/They dropped me off at Grandpa Joe’s/I kicked and screamed/Said please, don’t go.’ It’s just hilarious. And that was a rock song that won song of the year on KCMU when it came out.”

5. Nirvana – “Sappy”
“One of my favorite songs by them. It’s not as inherently funny at the other ones. It’s just a really good rock song.”

6. Alice in Chains - “Man in the Box”
“Even though that was the big hit. There’s a reason why big hits become big hits. It is creepy. But the drummer, Sean Kinney, could have been a standup comic if he wanted to. He’s remarkably funny.”

7. Supersuckers - “I Say Fuck”
“It’s really funny, and it’s short. It’s just ridiculous. Another band that didn’t take themselves seriously—their lead singer is named Eddie Spaghetti.”

8. Screaming Trees - “She Knows”
“It’s beautifully done. And I love [Mark Lanegan’s] voice.”

9. TAD - “anything off of 8-Way Santa”
“8-Way Santa is the funniest album name in history.”

Previously: Celebrity Grunge Playlist No. 1: TAYLOR MOMSEN

Eighteen-year-old Taylor Momsen, who played Jenny Humphrey on the first four seasons of Gossip Girl, recently announced she’s quitting acting to dedicate her full attention to her band the Pretty Reckless. A self-described “massive Chris Cornell fan,” the rock provocateur shared her list of Top 10 grunge songs (in no particular order), with this caveat: “I’m talking ’90s bands, ‘cause grunge doesn’t really have a definition. It’s rock without the cheese, I guess.”

TAYLOR MOMSEN’S GRUNGE PLAYLIST
Listen to Taylor’s playlist at Spotify. (Don’t have Spotify yet? Request an invitation.)

1. Nirvana - “Heart-Shaped Box”
“All Nirvana songs are awesome, but this one in particular I’ve loved forever. The lyrics are so great. Not every song has lyrics about ‘meat-eating orchids.’”

2. Alice in Chains - “Rooster”
“An awesome song. No, I don’t know the backstory [about guitarist Jerry Cantrell’s father and his Vietnam experiences]—I’m not ‘that guy’ who can tell you about that. I just like the song and the lyrics.”

3. Soundgarden - “Jesus Christ Pose”
“Chris Cornell at his finest. The vocals are just insane. We play this backstage before we go on—it gets us revved up.”

4. Rage Against the Machine - “Killing in the Name”
“This song has got one of the most amazing intros ever. You know it’s coming—its force is coming.”

5. Smashing Pumpkins - “Disarm”
“The production is great. The lyrics are great. The song is really well-written. It’s close to a masterpiece.”

6. Soundgarden - “Like Suicide”
“It’s about a bird hitting a window and dying. It’s so amazingly written and about something so simple.”

7. Neil Young - “Hey Hey, My My (Into the Black)”
“Its not technically from the grunge era, but he’s known as the godfather of grunge. I’m a massive Neil Young fan. He doesn’t write a bad song.”

8. Pearl Jam - “Alive”
“It’s about a guy whose dad is dead and another guy’s pretending to be his dad. I think it’s dark, somber, though I can see how people would think of it as uplifting. It’s like ‘Born in the U.S.A.,’ which is actually a protest song, but people think it’s an uplifting anthem.”

9. Temple of the Dog - “Hunger Strike”
“One of the best songs ever written. The lyric about ‘farming babies’—that’s a great line, it says so much. And the very end, when Chris Cornell and Eddie Vedder’s voices come together, is great.”

10. Nine Inch Nails - “Hurt”
“It’s a song I wish I wrote. It’s a succinct, simple idea—about pain—done so well. And the Johnny Cash version is amazing, too.”

Stay tuned for next week’s grunge playlist: Community/The Soupfunnyman Joel McHale! Pre-order the upcoming book Everybody Loves Our Town: An Oral History of Grunge here.

Speaking of playlists, Amazon has asked me to submit a list of grunge songs for my book’s page. I have some tracks in mind, but I’d love to hear your suggestions here or on Facebook. What songs should I include?