Screaming Trees - Weird Things Happening (The Ellensburg Demos 86-88) (2024)

Ellensburg, Washington is known for the world’s 3rd largest three-day rodeo, 90’s NFL legends Brian Habib and Drew Bledsoe and as the hometown of seminal Northwest band Screaming Trees. In the late 80’s, Ellensburg residents were often confronted with the strangely primitive sounds of the band emanating from their headquarters in the back room of the Conner family’s Main Street store, New World Video. Here was the scene of creation of songs from the band’s early Velvetone and SST albums. During this prolific time, much of the band’s music never made it beyond their own ears but was fortunately captured on Gary Lee Conner’s 4 track cassette recorder. Those cassettes have survived, intact, down to this day and have now made their way to this recording.