For those not in the know, in early 2024, Ulysses Owens Jr. walked into the Drumeo studio, sidled up behind the kit, and plugged a pair of IEMs into his ears. He was there to take part in Drumeo’s “For the First Time” series in which drummers are challenged to play along with a famous song, its drum track extricated from the mix. Host Brandon Toews cued up “In Bloom” – a once inescapable rock-radio hit off Nirvana’s 1991 major-label debut, Nevermind.

Taking the measure of the tune’s opening chord progression, the Grammy-winning jazz musician and renowned music educator settled into the pocket of the song’s verse, intuiting the song’s soft-loud dynamics, shifting into high gear for the chorus with a burst of increasingly-technical flourishes. Not only had Owens Jr. never played the song before. Much to the surprise of his host, he’d never even heard it. “I’m not really a rock guy,” Owens Jr. told a stunned Toews, who remarked, “That was insane.” The video quickly amassed several million views on YouTube.

The viral success soon inspired another novel endeavor. Less than a year later, Owens Jr. and members of his ever-shifting ensemble, Generation Y, were challenged to – without previous foresight or preparation – reinterpret another classic from the grunge canon: Nirvana’s “Heart Shaped Box.” The resulting video racked up nearly 10 million views, lending more credence to the notion that Owens Jr. and Drumeo had arrived at, well… something.

To what do we owe the popularity of these videos? It’s a good gimmick, sure – classically trained musicians reframing the primitive wallops of nineties rock. Such highbrow-meets-lowbrow mashups aren’t without precedence, either: French pianist Maxence Cyrin’s haunting piano interpolation of influential alt-rockers Pixies’ “Where is my mind?” certainly registers.

>i>“People love seeing music being created in real time,” Owens Jr. said when asked to reckon with the popularity of his Drumeo sessions. “It’s nostalgic. It’s what used to happen.” In an era of algorithmically created chill-vibes playlists of nameless and faceless music meant to encourage passive listening, Owens Jr. argued, “People are desperate to hear real music played by real musicians.”

Kind of Grunge pushes the capacity of this delicate circuitry. Recorded over three days in April of 2026 at the Drumeo studios in Vancouver, the album finds Owens Jr. and Co. feeling their way through a collection of new-to-them tunes that, in this environment, have been all but stripped of cultural milieu. Unrehearsed, save for three songs, the band relishes the freedom of exploration.

1. Touch Me I’m Sick [05:30]
2. Even Flow [05:30]
3. Would? [05:06]
4. Disarm [04:42]
5. Smells Like Teen Spirit [06:24]
6. Wooden Jesus [04:50]
7. Spoonman [04:45]
8. Interstate Love Song [05:27]
9. In Bloom [04:40]
10. Celebrity Skin [04:29]
11. Heart-Shaped Box [06:21]
12. Where Did You Sleep Last Night [07:35]

Despite its cheeky title, its novel conceit: there are no tricks, no gimmicks, it’s just music, pure and simple, they open on the gently rambunctious Touch Me I’m Sick and an elegantly ornate Even Flow and then bring forth the joyfully souled out Would?, the sheer gossamer of Disarm, and both the discordant jam Smells Like Teen Spirit and a veritably shimmering Wooden Jesus.

Along next is the triumphantly Orleans-hued Spoonman and a magnificently streamlined version of Interstate Love Song and they are backed seamlessly by the fabulously jaunty In Bloom, the reggae-imbibed Celebrity Skin, the brilliantly innovative recording rounding out on a crystalline Heart-Shaped Box, coming to a close on the emboldened beauty of Where Did You Sleep Last Night.

PLAYERS, INSTRUMENT:
Ulysses Owens Jr. - drums
Thomas Milovac - bass
Benny Benack III- trumpet & Vocals
Langston Hughes II -alto saxophone
Tyler Bullock- piano
Dan Wilson- guitar & percussion

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