Now that everyone in the music business is looking to Washington (State) for direction, the Screaming Trees may finally get their due. With their sixth album, Sweet Oblivion, these eight-year veterans of the Seattle scene have produced their finest work yet. "We actually thought it might be our last record," singer Mark Lanegan says, "'cause everyone was getting burnt. But now it feels like a new band." Bassist Van Conner agrees, but hopes any new converts will be drawn by the music itself rather than where it comes from. "This 'Seattle sound' thing is so uninformed; I just read some paper saying Sonic Youth were from Seattle."

The Trees are different. Yes, they can summon up just as much distorto grandeur as any of their lumberjack-shirted counterparts, and Lanegan's weathered voice slightly resembles Kurt Cobain's. Yet songs like Oblivion's "Dollar Bill" have a vulnerability and sense that set them apart from the grunge pack. A love of '60s pop is also evident on the first single, "Nearly Lost You", while for a B-side, the Trees pull out a faithful cover of the 1968 Small Faces classic "Song Of A Baker". "We've ripped that song off so many times," Lanegan quips, "We felt we ought to do it."

While making Oblivion, the band broke with tradition, recording in New York rather than the West Coast, using a real producer (Don Fleming) and writing songs together – "all in one room, the Ishtar method," explains Lanegan. "It's good to get past everybody's egos and make a group effort," Conner says. "All four of us were more involved this time, and we decided, 'Let's forget about what we've done before and try a new approach.' The songwriting was important, but just being friends again was important too."

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