Soundgarden “Screaming Life” 1987. EP. 45 rpm.  I pulled this for today’s selection from the vault because we’ve been watching Dave Grohl/Foo Fighter’s “Sonic Highways” HBO documentary on the DVR and finally watched the Seattle episode last night. When the topic of this EP being Sub Pop’s third-ever release came up, Joe said, “Yeah, we have that.”  Me, embarrassed, “Really? I had no clue.”

While not of the first 500 pressings (which are on orange vinyl), this copy is an original 1987 release. I’m not sure when or how we acquired it, but had I heard it back in ‘87 (which I did not), I probably would have been an earlier adopter of the Seattle scene.  I liked Soundgarden okay in the 90’s when they had widespread popularity, but this EP has much more raw and messy sound (i.e. the single “Hunted Down”) than their later big-money releases.  Life in general in the late 80’s was raw and messy and this EP would have been a great accompaniment to that time.

(I love looking for the little scratches of writing on vinyl.  This one has “Buy Green River” on side A and “Buy MalFunkShun” on side B.  I always wonder about the person in the pressing room deciding what little hidden gems to script.)