Skin Yard

**Former Members** | * Jack Endino
* Ben McMillian
* Daniel House
* Matt Cameron
* Steve Wied
* Greg Gilmore
* Jason Finn
* Scott McCullum
* Barrett Martin

Skin Yard was a popular Seattle grunge band, notable for being the most popular act of Jack Endino, who is known by fans as the "godfather of grunge." Skin Yard released 5 studio albums. They are also notable for temporarily featuring Soundgarden drummer Matt Cameron, and is an influential grunge band.

## History

After Daniel House's original band, feeDBack, broke up, Daniel wanted to create a band that had elements from both feeDBack and his band 10 Minute Warning. He met Jack Endino through his bandmate, Tom Herring (known as "Nerm"). Jack Endino and bassist Daniel House founded Skin Yard in 1985. Unlike Daniel House, who had plenty of bands under his belt, Skin Yard was Jack Endino's first known band. Endino was the drummer for the band until Matt Cameron (who would later join Soundgarden) as called in for drums, allowing Endino to focus on guitar. Cameron was a bandmate that Daniel House played with in his prog band, FeeDback. The group then grouped with Ben McMillan for a vocalist, and they were set.

Their first official performance was opening up for the Seattle band, The U-Men. Both U-Men and Skin Yard both contributed to Sub Pop's grunge compilation, *Deep Six*. Skin Yard contributed both "Throb" and "The Birds." The band later released their first single, "Bleed." Matt Cameron contributed to all of the drumming on the original release of their debut album, left the band to join Soundgarden, and he was replaced by Steve Weid, who left after two shows. He was then replaced by Greg Gilmore, who left the band after two shows as well and joined Mother Love Bone. The band was joined by Jason Finn (who would play for The Presidents of the United States of America), and then by Scott McCullum in May 1987. In 1987, Skin Yard released the single "Stranger" on Toxic Shock Records, which also released their second album, Hallowed Ground. McCullum left the band, and was later known as Norman Scott from Gruntruck. The band then took a fourteen month hiatus after a tour that they called "the tour from hell." After the hiatus, they joined up with their final drummer, The band recorded their third album, *Fist Sized Chunks*, which would be the first of three albums to be released on the next label Skin Yard signed to, Cruz Records. The album was released around the spring/summer of 1990.

In 1991, grunge was becoming successful thanks to the acclaim of Nirvana's *Nevermind* and Pearl Jam's Ten. Skin Yard released their most famous album, *1000 Smiling Knuckles*, in 1991. Daniel House left afterwards to focus on fatherhood. He was replaced on bass by Pat Pedersen. Before the release of the band's fifth album, *Inside the Eye*, the band broke-up. In 2001, C/Z records released a compilation of never-before-heard tracks from Skin Yard called *Start at the Top*.

## Post-Break Up

Jack Endino continued producing albums, and becoming a lead figure in grunge. Daniel House continued to manage C/Z records full time. In 2003, he moved to Los Angeles and started focusing on internet bands.

Burning the candle is considered a lost track. However, on January 10, 2014, Ben McMillan posted a low-quality version of the song on Facebook. He oversaw the creation of www.DownloadPunk.com, which is now defunct. He also oversaw creation of the music-based online dating website, RocknRollDating.com.
Matt Cameron stayed a drummer for Soundgarden until their break-up in 1996. Pearl Jam invited Cameron to fill in their drummer Jeremy Irons' place during their Yeild Tour, since Irons was suffering from health issues. Now the official drummer and longest-lasting drummer for Pearl Jam, Matt Cameron still plays with Soundgarden.

Ben McMillan formed Gruntruck, but the band broke up in 2002. McMillan died in 2008 due to diabetes.

## Discography

### Studio Albums

* *Skin Yard* (1987)
* *Hallowed Ground* (1988)
* *Fist-Sized Chunks* (1990)
* *1000 Smiling Knuckles* (1991)
* *Inside the Eye* (1993)