Buzz Factory

Buzz Factory is the album on which Screaming Trees’ unruly garage rock shifts into the heavier and more focused form of grunge. On the upside, the shift would alter the Trees’ destiny and bring them a bigger audience. On the downside, it'd lump them with a lot of groups with whom they had little in common. While their younger peers Nirvana were turning to the sounds of Black Sabbath for inspiration, the Trees remained firm disciplines of the '60s garage rock tradition. Yet Buzz Factory sharpened the feedback layers and the force of their delivery. Screaming Trees don’t sound like kids anymore—they sound like grownups. Rough grownups. The way Mark Lanegan delivers “Too Far Away” makes you sense he’s been through things the rest of us will never know: “I sit alone, discontent/Your ears don't hear what I say/After awhile, you disconnect/To set you apart from the pain.” There were still trippy Doors-inflected numbers like “Flower Web,” but Buzz Factory is best remembered for its gutsy rock anthems (“End of the Universe,” “Windows,” “Where the Twain Shall Meet") and the lone power ballad “Yard Trip #7,” which brings new meaning to the term "brooding."