Doc Watch- Dark Side of the 90s

I’m a big wrestling fan, so I have really enjoyed the Dark Side of the Ring series on the Vice channel. It was a big hit for the channel which quickly rolled out similar series for comedians and athletes, and in invading VH1 territory, the 1990s Plenty of stuff to cover in the 90s- Jerry Springer, Beverly Hills, 90210, Hip Hop, David Koresh, Ultimate Fighting, Amy Fisher, Rush Limbaugh, Baywatch, the internet and more. So of course, grunge gets an episode. Despite the sensationalism of the series, the Dark Side of “Grunge and the Seattle Sound” is actually as a good of a documentary one can do on Sub Pop in an hour minus commercials. Two men were largely responsible for Sub Pop and this features one (Bruce Pavitt - who came up with the name and first release) and is missing another (Jonathan Poneman- the business partner and current label head). Producer Jack Endino and photographer Charles Petersen also feature. There’s so much ground to cover, but a lot of the early touch points get namechecked (Sub Pop 100, Green River, Tad, Mudhoney, Soundgarden) and then transitions to the Nirvana story. There’s a bit of sensationalism here, but it still ties into the Sub Pop story. There’s an aside to the New York Times “Lexicon of Grunge” article, too. As an indie rock fan, I enjoyed it. I was really surprised that it focused almost slowly on Sub Pop, even providing that satisfying denouement of the label surviving rocky times being resurrected by a new wave of successful artists like the Postal Service. (The one part that the doc gets wrong is saying grunge was usurped by boy bands like N’Sync and the Backstreet Boys. Yes, everything has an expiration date, but I don’t think that was the same audience. Now, Nu metal and even late 90s gangsta rap, maybe). There’s little to no mention of the bigger name non-SubPop bands like Pearl Jam, Mother Love Bone, and Alice In Chains and so on. But those interested in Indie record labels or Sub Pop, I doubt you would be disappointed.