Grebo (music)

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Grebo (or grebo rock) [1] was a short-lived subculture [2] and broadly-defined subgenre of indie rock centred around the Midlands, particularly Stourbridge and Leicester. Musically, the genre incorporated elements of electronic, punk rock, folk and hip hop music into indie rock. The scene occupied the period in the late 1980s and early 1990s in the United Kingdom before the popularisation of Britpop and grunge. [3]

Contents

Etymology

Derived from "greaser", [4] the word "grebo" began being used in the 1970s as a slang term for bikers with long hair. [5] [6] The word was re-fashioned by the group Pop Will Eat Itself that represented a brand of United Kingdom subculture of the late 1980s and early 1990s, largely based in the English Midlands. [7] [8] [6] The scene particularly was centred on Stourbridge and Leicester. [9]

History

Fronted by Pop Will Eat Itself, the Wonder Stuff and Ned's Atomic Dustbin, the bands quickly gained attention: Pop Will Eat Itself's 1989 singles "Wise Up! Sucker" and "Can U Dig It?" both entered the UK Top 40 and Stourbridge briefly became a tourist attraction for young indie rock fans. The seminal albums from the scene were released between 1989 and 1993: the Wonder Stuff's Hup and Never Loved Elvis ; Ned's Atomic Dustbin's God Fodder and Are You Normal? ; and Pop Will Eat Itself's This Is the Day...This Is the Hour...This Is This! and The Looks or the Lifestyle? . In this period, the scene's bands became fixtures, sometimes headliners, at Reading Festival, sold millions of albums and were frequently featured on the covers of magazines like NME and Melody Maker . [10] Grebo bands were distinct from prior indie rock groups not only because of their broad influences, but their subversion of the twee or unhappy moods of most other bands in the genre, and their pursuit of a heavier sound and aesthetic. The scene came to include the stylistically similar bands of nearby Leicester: the Bomb Party, Gaye Bykers on Acid, Crazyhead, the Hunters Club and Scum Pups. [11] The term has also been used to describe Jesus Jones from Wiltshire. [1] [12]

A younger subset of grebo bands emerged around 1991, who were in turn labelled "fraggle" bands. [13] During this movement, the dominant sound was a style of indie rock that was heavily indebted to punk and Nirvana's album Bleach album, while also occasionally making use of drum machines. [14] Gigwise writer Steven Kline described the style as "filthy guitars, filthier hair and t-shirts only a mother would wash". Prominent fraggle acts included Senseless Things, Mega City Four and Carter the Unstoppable Sex Machine. [14]

Characteristics

The grebo genre was broadly defined, and used more as a name for the Stourbridge scene than as a genre label. [10] For the most part, it was a style of indie rock which drew influences from a diverse array of genres, including electronic, punk, folk, hip-hop music, [10] dance-rock, psychedelia [15] and pop. [8] [16] Pop Will Eat Itself adopted an industrial alternative rock style [17] that combined "heavy metal and hard rock guitar riffs, electro-dance rhythms, samples and rap vocals." [18] While Gaye Bykers on Acid's use of hip-hop and dance beats was considered as "a major innovation in mid-'80s alternative rock," [19] Ned's Atomic Dustbin focused on "the hyper punk aspect" of the movement, relying on "catchy hooks and a dual-bass sound." [20]

Grebo artists and fans sported long hair, dreadlocks and baggy shorts. [21] [15]

Related Research Articles

Emo is a music genre characterized by emotional, often confessional lyrics. It emerged as a style of hardcore punk and post-hardcore from the mid-1980s Washington, D.C. hardcore scene, where it was known as emotional hardcore or emocore. The bands Rites of Spring and Embrace, among others, pioneered the genre. In the early-to-mid 1990s, emo was adopted and reinvented by alternative rock, indie rock, punk rock, and pop-punk bands, including Sunny Day Real Estate, Jawbreaker, Cap'n Jazz, and Jimmy Eat World. By the mid-1990s, Braid, the Promise Ring, and the Get Up Kids emerged from Midwest emo, and several independent record labels began to specialize in the genre. Meanwhile, screamo, a more aggressive style of emo using screamed vocals, also emerged, pioneered by the San Diego bands Heroin and Antioch Arrow. Screamo achieved mainstream success in the 2000s with bands like Hawthorne Heights, Silverstein, Story of the Year, Thursday, the Used, and Underoath.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stourbridge</span> Town in the West Midlands, England

Stourbridge is a market town in the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley in the West Midlands, England. Situated on the River Stour, the town lies around 10 miles west of Birmingham. Historically in Worcestershire, it was the centre of British glass making during the Industrial Revolution. The 2011 UK census recorded the town's population as 63,298.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ned's Atomic Dustbin</span> English rock band

Ned's Atomic Dustbin is an English rock band formed in Stourbridge, West Midlands, in November 1987. The band took their name from an episode of radio comedy programme The Goon Show. The band is unusual for using two bass-players in their line-up.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pop Will Eat Itself</span> Alternative rock band

Pop Will Eat Itself are an English alternative rock band formed in 1986 in Stourbridge in the West Midlands of England with members from Birmingham, Coventry and the Black Country. Initially known as a grebo act, they changed style to incorporate sample-driven indie and industrial rock. Graham Crabb describes their sound as "electronic, punk, alternative hip-hop, hybrid music for fucking, fighting & smoking cigars". Their highest-charting single was the 1993 top-ten hit "Get the Girl! Kill the Baddies!". After initially disbanding in 1996, and having a brief reformation in 2005, they issued their first release in more than five years in 2010.

<i>God Fodder</i> 1991 studio album by Neds Atomic Dustbin

God Fodder is the debut studio album by English rock band Ned's Atomic Dustbin, released on 1 April 1991 by Columbia Records. After creating their own imprint following the success of several prior independent singles, the band recorded the album from December 1990 to January 1991 in London. Musically, God Fodder takes large influence from grebo, shoegaze, noise pop, and dance music, characterized by noisy guitars, complex drum beats, and its usage of two bass players, with Matt Cheslin playing regular bass lines and Alex Griffin playing harmonic bass lines. Lyrically, the album features communal efforts written by all the band.

Indie pop is a music genre and subculture that combines guitar pop with DIY ethic in opposition to the style and tone of mainstream pop music. It originated from British post-punk in the late 1970s and subsequently generated a thriving fanzine, label, and club and gig circuit. Compared to its counterpart, indie rock, the genre is more melodic, less abrasive, and relatively angst-free. In later years, the definition of indie pop has bifurcated to also mean bands from unrelated DIY scenes/movements with pop leanings. Subgenres include chamber pop and twee pop.

<i>Are You Normal?</i> 1992 studio album by Neds Atomic Dustbin

Are You Normal? is the second studio album by English rock band Ned's Atomic Dustbin, released on 3 November 1992 by Columbia Records. It features the band's biggest American hit "Not Sleeping Around", which hit the top of Billboard's Modern Rock Tracks chart.

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Miles Stephen Hunt is an English singer, songwriter and guitarist. He fronts the alternative rock band The Wonder Stuff.

Gaye Bykers on Acid (GBOA) are an English psychedelic rock band from Leicester, and one of the founder members of the grebo music scene. They later released both thrash punk and dance music albums under various aliases.

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Crazyhead are an English garage punk band from Leicester, England. Though lumped in with the largely media-created grebo scene, they were more influenced by the garage rock of the late 1960s, as well as bands like the Ramones, The Stooges and Captain Beefheart. They have often described themselves as an "urban bastard blues band", and their songs range in theme from trenchant social commentary to the surreal, but always with an underlying vein of black humour.

<i>This Is the Day...This Is the Hour...This Is This!</i> 1989 studio album by Pop Will Eat Itself

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<i>Brainbloodvolume</i> 1995 studio album by Neds Atomic Dustbin

Brainbloodvolume is the third and final album from English rock band Ned's Atomic Dustbin with their original line-up. It was released in the United States on 21 March 1995 but did not appear in the United Kingdom until July of that year.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mansard Roof (song)</span> 2007 single by Vampire Weekend

"Mansard Roof" is the debut single by indie rock band Vampire Weekend, released on October 23, 2007.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Scrash</span>

Scrash was a three-piece rock band from Stourbridge in the West Midlands, UK.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Scene (subculture)</span> Youth subculture

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Ian Garfield Hoxley, known by his stage name Mary Byker is an English singer, record producer and DJ known for his work as the lead singer of Gaye Bykers on Acid, Pop Will Eat Itself, Pigface and Apollo 440.

<i>Drill Your Own Hole</i> 1987 studio album by Gaye Bykers on Acid

Drill Your Own Hole is the debut album by British grebo and psychedelic rock band Gaye Bykers on Acid, released in 1987 on Virgin Records, becoming their first release for the label after signing to them in late 1986. After building up momentum through a couple of EPs in 1986, the band recorded Drill Your Own Hole with producer Alex Fergusson, mostly in South London. Seven of the songs on the album were also featured in an accompanying film, also called Drill Your Own Hole, that the band released alongside the album. The film was a parody of themselves and the music industry.

References

  1. 1 2 Kim, Jae-Ha (12 January 1992). "'Grebo rock,' as synthesized by Ned's Atomic Dustbin". Chicago Sun-Times. Archived from the original on 2 November 2012. Retrieved 13 April 2017.
  2. ↑ Bernstein, Jonathan (2012). Knickers in a Twist: A Dictionary of British Slang. Canongate. ISBN   978-0857869456.
  3. ↑ Roach, Martin; Snowball, Ian; McKenna, Peter (2015). Tribe - A Personal History of British Subculture. John Blake. ISBN   978-1784188979.
  4. ↑ Garland, Emma (24 February 2020). "Introducing: The Grown-Up Greebo". Vice Media . Retrieved 26 July 2024.
  5. ↑ Warbrook, Colette (15 May 2015). "The Way We Were: Bikers met at the Windy Ridge Cafe in the 60s". The Sentinel. Archived from the original on 28 June 2015. Retrieved 13 April 2017.
  6. 1 2 Robb, John (2010). The Charlatans We Are Rock. Random House. ISBN   978-1409034391.
  7. ↑ Rogers, Jude (25 February 2010). "From mod to emo: why pop tribes are still making a scene". The Guardian . Retrieved 14 April 2017.
  8. 1 2 Vladimir Bogdanov (editor), All Music Guide to Electronica: The Definitive Guide To Electronic Music, page 404 (Backbeat Books, 2001). ISBN   0-87930-628-9. Quote: "Honing a fusion of rock, pop, and rap which they dubbed 'grebo', the Poppies kickstarted a small revolution."
  9. ↑ Banks, Joe. ""A Burst Of Dirty Thunder": The Rise And Fall Of Grebo". The Quietus . Retrieved 25 November 2024.
  10. 1 2 3 Sword, Harry (29 March 2018). "Wise up suckers! How grebo rivalled Britpop as the sound of 90s indie". The Guardian . Retrieved 17 June 2023.
  11. ↑ Banks, Joe (6 November 2021). ""A Burst Of Dirty Thunder": The Rise And Fall Of Grebo". The Quietus . Retrieved 17 June 2023.
  12. ↑ Greene, Jo-Ann. "Jesus Jones - Live at the Marquee". AllMusic . Retrieved 13 April 2017.
  13. ↑ Harris, John (7 January 2010). Hail! Hail! Rock'n'Roll The Ultimate Guide to the Music, the Myths and the Madness. Little, Brown and Company. Fraggle c.1991: Name for alternative rock bands, some of whom basically represented younger end of 'Grebo' genre, reputedly coined by band-booker at indie venue Harlow Square in recognition of similarity between scruffily attired groups/fans and characters from Muppets spin-off TV show Fraggle Rock. Bands: Ned's Atomic Dustbin, Senseless Things, Mega City Four
  14. 1 2 Beaumont, Mark (27 July 2018). "Nine NME-invented scenes that shook the world (or didn't) from C86 to shroomadelica, fraggle and the NAM". NME . Retrieved 17 June 2023.
  15. 1 2 Modell, Josh (13 October 2014). "Dudes on 'ludes: 15 bands named after drugs that aren't weed". The A.V. Club . Retrieved 12 April 2017.
  16. ↑ Abebe, Nitsuh. "Ned's Atomic Dustbin - God Fodder". AllMusic . Retrieved 13 April 2017.
  17. ↑ McCormick, Neil (3 June 2011). "Retromania: Pop Culture's Addiction to Its Own Past by Simon Reynolds: review". The Daily Telegraph . Retrieved 13 April 2017.
  18. ↑ Popson, Tom (29 September 1989). "Pwei: From Grebo Pop To Raucous Rock". Chicago Tribune . Retrieved 13 April 2017.
  19. ↑ Ankeny, Jason. "Gaye Bykers on Acid". AllMusic . Retrieved 13 April 2017.
  20. ↑ Abebe, Nitsuh. "Ned's Atomic Dustbin - Are You Normal?". AllMusic . Retrieved 13 April 2017.
  21. ↑ Petridis, Alexis (3 May 2002). "The way we listen now". The Guardian . Retrieved 13 April 2017.

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