SCREAMING TREES SINGLES SOUNDTRACK SERIES

They ploughed these disparate influences into a demo, 1985вЂ™s psychedelia-tinged Other Words, released by local label Velvetone. Later theyвЂ™d cover the Small Faces song Song Of A Baker, and Van would call his son Ulysses after CreamвЂ™s Tales Of Brave Ulysses. The four of them would listen to HГјsker DГј and AC/DC. But I put some stuff on my four-track and played it for Lanegan, and he thought we should actually try and do something with them.вЂќ вЂњWe couldnвЂ™t even get a gig in Ellensburg,вЂќ Gary Lee Conner recalls of the nascent Screaming Trees. Not that LaneganвЂ™s presence helped them get noticed. For the band, LaneganвЂ™s wounded, menacing whisper was an epiphany future Screaming Trees/Nirvana producer Jack Endino would later call him the best singer in Seattle. Soon they realised that he was a better singer than Van. Lanegan would join them to chug beer and jam.

SCREAMING TREES SINGLES SOUNDTRACK SERIES

He and Van would occasionally meet up to pore over the singles theyвЂ™d both bought.ДЄfter leaving high school, Van and Gary Conner experimented with a series of short-lived bands with drummer friend Mark Pickerel. But while Lanegan was a jock, he too loved music. By VanвЂ™s admission, it opened him up to music completely.Д«y contrast, Mark Lanegan was a high-school quarterback who fancied himself as a future sports star, even if his background suggested otherwise: by the time he was 18 he had been arrested several times for various misdemeanours, including public drunkenness, shoplifting and вЂ“ prophetically вЂ“ drug possession (the last time he was arrested, he dodged jail only by agreeing to spend a year in a treatment program). It was like nothing else theyвЂ™d ever heard. On a shopping trip in 1981, while still in high school, they picked up a copy of Black FlagвЂ™s pummelling Damage. The young Conner brothers spent every spare cent they had on records. Today, Van Conner remembers the town as a refuge for under-achievers for Lanegan it was a place where if you werenвЂ™t working a shitty job, then you were drinking or listening to music. A small logging town 107 miles east of Seattle, it was home to Gary Lee Conner and his younger brother Van, as well as Mark Lanegan. Things were quiet in Ellensburg, Washington in the late 70s and early 80s.

вЂњWe didnвЂ™t have a damn thing in common except insanity,вЂќ Mark Lanegan said later. That they never made it was down to any number of things: drink, drugs, in-fighting, image, bad timing or bad luck. Between 1985 and their split in 2000 they released seven albums, at least two of which should have made them as big as their more celebrated Seattle peers. The Letterman appearance encapsulates the Screaming TreesвЂ™ proven ability to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

Van Conner having a slightly quieter time of it in New Jersey in 1993 (Image credit: Getty Images)

Screaming trees singles soundtrack