Nirvana for me, just because that acoustic album, though not grunge, was just so amazingly awesome that nothing else comes close to it. Give me Cobain’s greatest hits, and then just give me that acoustic album and I’m happy.
Nirvana was by far–by far–the best.
Since the OP asks for our personal feelings rather than an attempt at a critical evaluation of the merits of the relative bands, I made this list based mostly on how well represented the band is in my music collection or how willing I’d be to pay to own more of their stuff.
- Pearl Jam (by far, one of my all-time favorites)
- Soundgarden
- Alice in Chains
- Nirvana
I don’t think of the Smashing Pumpkins as a “grunge” band (not that the term was ever that rigidly defined), but I’d rank them about the same as AiC.
I never really cared for Nirvana.
Several people thought the same about Eddie Vedder. At least one was quite literal about it – he was troubled for years by a mentally ill stalker who suffered from several delusionals about Vedder, including that he was Jesus Christ. Anyway, I don’t think this is a meaningful criteria, as most successful bands are going to have overenthusiastic admirers.
I’d have to give Nirvana and Mudhoney top nods. With Screaming Trees, then L7 next. Throw some Tad in there somewhere too. Just look up Sub Pop’s early catalog to get a sampling of some early grunge, before commercialism and exploitation suckied up the genre.
And why does everyone insist on limiting to only the mega-famous bands? Pearl Jam? I’d only say that ‘Ten’ should actually be considered Grunge. Same think with the Pumpkins… I’d only really consider ‘Gish’ to be real grunge, albeit psychedelic-tinged grunge.
Because that’s what the OP asked us to do.
I would go with :
- Alice in Chains
- Soundgarden
I liked PJ musically but could never get past the singer’s mumbly vocals.
About halfway through the thread I was getting ready to type exactly this…Gish is definitely grunge.
I have a hard time choosing between Nirvana and Soundgarden, so I won’t. They were both grunge, but different kinds of grunge…
see I gotta disagree with this, if only because
A: I was in Seattle when all this went down and
B: when STP’s first album came out it had a “Soundgarden” song, an “Alice in Chains” song, a “Pearl Jam” song and a “Nirvana” song. I pointed it out to the guy who was playing them for me.
not that I think STP was a bad band or anything but ranking them above 2 of the bands that define the genre seems kinda silly to me.
Soundgarden and Alice both broke new ground, I always thought of Nirvana as a sort of half serious comedy act. Pearl Jam was never really grunge imho, pure straight up rock and roll.
Yes, but I think with certain rock stars, it gets taken to a whole 'nother level. Like with Elvis or John Lennon or Paul McCartney and of course, Cobain. But perhaps that’s more because he died and less because they initially actually worshiped the guy.
I’d say it is:
- Nirvana
- Alice in Chains
- Stone Temple Pilots
- Pearl Jam
- Soundgarden
What a tough question! I like them all. Cornell is probably my favorite vocalist of them all, Nirvana wrote the catchiest tunes (despite themselves!) and AIC was always their dark, brooding older brother.
I never thought of SP as grunge, although perhaps I lack enough exposure.
STP wrote good songs, but it was clear whom their influences were from the start.
Pearl Jam to me is the oddity. The were sorta “grunge”, but they were always more of a poppish jam band (to me). Their music doesn’t seem as cohesive, although I like it well enough.
When it comes to “grunge” I tend to feel that mainstream success made them better. Siamese Dream is great, but it’s not as good as Mellon Collie. Bleach was cool but not as good as Nevermind or In Utero. Soundgarden had some awesome early songs but my favorite was “Pretty Noose.” Maybe that’s just me, though. It seems like they were all just young punks screwing around with some cool songs in the studio in the early days but when they got enough money to afford good equipment and good producers then they got even better. That’s different from “selling out” because they weren’t buying mansions and Beemers, but just getting enough money to finally realize their full potential and put it down on wax for all of us to enjoy.
Also, no love for Mad Season? Or Green River? Or Motherlovebone? Or Sunny Day Real Estate?
A fair argument, but I would consider this a case of the student surpassing the teacher. It often happens that bands and artists wind up being better performers than some of their influences.
Well sure, if by “broke new ground” you mean “were the first to steal from the Pixies.” 
At the time, it would have been Smashing Pumpkins followed by Nirvana.
I never really enjoyed Nevermind (and still don’t) and that was what got most of the attention.
Now it is Nirvana pretty far ahead, followed by Smashing Pumpkins and Alice in Chains.
I love Bleach and the live albums, and In Utero is my favorite album of the decade.
I love the Pixies and all (saw them just a couple months ago), but I’m not sure what they had to do to influence the sound of Soundgarden or Alice in Chains.
Pearl Jam for me, followed by Pumpkins, followed by Soundgarden, followed by Nirvana.
Nirvana had some catchy songs and such, but their music is so damn simple that after a while it just ran out of steam for me (not that I didn’t enjoy their stuff, but to say they were better than Soundgarden and Pearl Jam is just baffling to me, though of course record sales bear that out.)
Soundgarden was my favorite band during that time, and still is. Superunknown, IMO, is the best album of the 90s. Fantastic guitar work, great, complex music, and a wonderful sound.
I probably put STP second, followed by Pearl Jam, and AIC…then Nirvana.
Pearl Jam
Alice in Chains
STP
Smashing Pumpkins
Soundgarden
Nirvana
I like them all though.
This is pretty much what I was going to write. Nirvana isn’t my favorite band (that would probably be Beastie Boys or Soundgarden), but it’s arguable that “grunge” wouldn’t have taken off without their success.
I’m not a big fan of the Pumpkins, but the first three songs on Gish are absolutely amazing.
I also think Screaming Trees is one of the most underrated bands, ever. Awesome.
Let’s see…
For me, STP got better the further from grunge they got. The last couple of records were my favorite by far, so I’ll push them down the ‘grunge’ list.
Nirvana still sounds great, especially In Utero, after all this time… but as others have said, they just don’t have the complexity in the songs that keeps me coming back.
I’d have to split between AIC and Soundgarden. I want to give the nod to Alice, based on the strength of their latest album with a replacement singer… which I absolutely love. But at the time, I was all about Soundgarden.
…and an aside on the underrated bands mentioned. LOVED the Afghan Whigs and Screaming Trees. Personally, more than the more mainstream artists. For those of you that may not know, you take the singers from those two bands, mix them together, and you have the Gutter Twins:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yEUmdjgW-r0