Alex Shumway (born December 14, 1965), known professionally as Alex Vincent, is an American musician, songwriter, and actor who is best known as the drummer for the rock band

Green River Green River may refer to: Rivers Canada * Green River (British Columbia), a tributary of the Lillooet River *Green River, a tributary of the Saint John River, also known by its French name of Rivière Verte *Green River (Ontario), a tributary of ...

. Along with

Mark Arm Mark Arm (born Mark Thomas McLaughlin; February 21, 1962) is an American singer and songwriter, best known as the vocalist for the grunge band Mudhoney. His former group, Green River, was one of the first grunge bands, along with Malfunkshun, So ...

, Steve Turner, and

Jeff Ament Jeffrey Allen Ament (born March 10, 1963) is an American musician and songwriter who is best known as the bassist of the American rock band Pearl Jam, which he co-founded alongside Stone Gossard, Mike McCready, and Eddie Vedder. Prior to his wo ...

, he is one of its founding members. He is also the founder, drummer, and songwriter for the band Ex's With Benefits; as well as a founder and guitar player for the band Thee Deception.

Biography

Vincent attended the Northwest School in

Seattle, Washington Seattle ( ) is a port, seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the county seat, seat of King County, Washington, King County, Washington (state), Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in bo ...

with future bandmates Steve Turner and

Stone Gossard Stone Carpenter Gossard (born July 20, 1966) is an American musician who serves as a guitarist and songwriter for the rock band Pearl Jam. Along with Jeff Ament, Mike McCready, and Eddie Vedder, he is one of the founding members of the band. G ...

(as well as future Presidents of the United States of America drummer, Jason Finn). He was the

drummer A drummer is a percussionist who creates music using drum The drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel-Sachs classification system, it is a membranophone. Drums consist of at least one mem ...

for the band Spluii Numa and later pioneered the

grunge Grunge (sometimes referred to as the Seattle sound) is an alternative rock genre and subculture that emerged during the in the American Pacific Northwest state of Washington, particularly in Seattle and nearby towns. Grunge fuses elements of p ...

scene as a founding member of

. After the disbanding of Green River in 1988, he returned to college, eventually ending up in

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

as a student of international studies at

Sophia University Sophia University (Japanese: 上智大学, ''Jōchi Daigaku''; Latin: ''Universitas Sedis Sapientiae'') is a private research university in Japan. Sophia is one of the three ''Sōkeijōchi'' (早慶上智) private universities, a group of the to ...

(

上智大学 Sophia University (Japanese: 上智大学, ''Jōchi Daigaku''; Latin: ''Universitas Sedis Sapientiae'') is a private research university in Japan. Sophia is one of the three ''Sōkeijōchi'' (早慶上智) private universities, a group of the to ...

) in

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

. He moved back to the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

in 1995 to work in politics and labor union-related organizations. In 2012, he formed the punk band Ex's With Benefits with Dmitra Smith, Dave Place, and Pascal Faivre. In 2016, he formed Thee Deception with Dave Place, Samuel Bligh,

Regan Hagar Regan Hagar is an American musician. Primarily a drummer, he also plays keyboard and guitar on occasion. He was the drummer in Malfunkshun from 1980 to 1988, featuring Andrew Wood of Mother Love Bone on vocals and Kevin Wood on guitar. He had p ...

, and Cody Davis.

Green River

Vincent and Turner became acquainted with fellow Seattle musician

while playing shows in and around Seattle in the early 1980s. In mid-1984, the three decided to form a band. They snapped up local bassist

after his band at the time,

Deranged Diction ''Deranged'' may refer to psychosis, a generic psychiatric term for a mental state often described as involving a "loss of contact with reality". Deranged may also refer to: In films: * ''Deranged'' (1974 film), a 1974 American horror film * ''D ...

, had broken up. The foursome called themselves Green River. Stone Gossard joined shortly thereafter. "We knew we wanted Ament," said Vincent. "Stone was in another band with

Jonathan Evison Jonathan Evison (born September 27, 1968) is an American writer known for his novels '' All About Lulu'', ''West of Here'', '' The Revised Fundamentals of Caregiving'', '' This Is Your Life, Harriet Chance!'', '' Lawn Boy'', ''Legends of the N ...

called March of Crimes. tonegot fired from them and we picked him up just before we recorded the first demo."Interview with Alex Vincent By the time the band finished the recording of its debut EP, '' Come on Down'', Turner decided to leave the group, citing his distaste with Ament and Gossard's heavy metal leanings.Huey, Steve. "

Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

. Retrieved on June 13, 2005.

Bruce Fairweather Bruce Ian Fairweather (born December 12, 1960) is an American guitarist/bassist based in Seattle. Biography Fairweather grew up in Hawaii and moved to Montana for college where he met Jeff Ament skateboarding the brick banks at the University of ...

, Ament's former Deranged Diction bandmate, replaced Turner. The band released the EP ''Come on Down'' in 1985 and followed it up with '' Dry As a Bone'' in 1987, the first release on

Sub Pop Sub Pop is a record label founded in 1986 by Bruce Pavitt and Jonathan Poneman. Sub Pop achieved fame in the early 1990s for signing Seattle bands such as Nirvana, Soundgarden, and Mudhoney, central players in the grunge movement. They are often ...

records. The band's only full-length studio album, ''

Rehab Doll ''Rehab Doll'' is the first and only studio album by the American rock band Green River. It was released in June 1988 through Sub Pop Records. Overview Almost immediately following the release of '' Dry As a Bone'', the group re-entered the stu ...

'', was released in 1988. In-fighting within the band lead to the group's break-up during the recording of ''Rehab Doll''. A stylistic division had developed between Ament and Gossard on one side, and Arm on the other.Azerrad, Michael. ''

Our Band Could Be Your Life ''Our Band Could Be Your Life: Scenes from the American Indie Underground, 1981–1991'' is a book by Michael Azerrad. It chronicles the careers of several underground rock bands who, while finding little or no mainstream success, were hugely ...

''. Little Brown and Company, 2001. , pg. 422 Ament and Gossard wanted to pursue a major-label deal, while Arm wanted to remain

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independ ...

, viewing the duo as being too careerist. The band achieved a considerable local reputation in Seattle and had a significant influence on the genre later known as ''grunge'', with Green River being described as "arguably the first grunge band." In 2008, Green River reunited for the 20-year anniversary of the

record label and have played several live shows since.

Ex's With Benefits

Ex's With Benefits formed in 2012 after Vincent had written music for possible future recordings by Green River that never materialized. Not wanting the music to go to waste, he held on to it hoping to hear what it sounded like with vocals. He reconnected with an old high school friend, Dmitra Smith (who was fronting the San Francisco-based band Static People), sending her some of the songs to see if she'd be able to record on top of them. Almost immediately, it became a real collaboration. Soon after, Dmitra's husband, Pascal Faivre, joined on guitar with Dave Place on bass.

Big in Japan

In October 2010, Vincent played himself in the semi-documentary film, Big in Japan, directed by

John Jeffcoat John Jeffcoat is an American film director. He is most popular for his film '' Outsourced'' starring Josh Hamilton and Ayesha Dharker. The film was adapted as a television series, and ran for one season before being cancelled. John Jeffcoat gra ...

. It premiered in March 2014 at the

South By Southwest South by Southwest, abbreviated as SXSW and colloquially referred to as South By, is an annual conglomeration of parallel film, interactive media, and music festivals and Convention (meeting), conferences organized jointly that take place in m ...

Music and Film Festival.

Personal life

Vincent currently lives in

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

, Washington. Today, he is a stay-at-home father to his adopted daughters. He continues to compose and play music.

Discography

Green River discography

Ex's With Benefits discography

Thee Deception discography

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vincent, Alex Grunge musicians American rock drummers Green River (band) members Living people 1965 births