Between the late 1980s and early 1990s, the rock music genre which became known as ‘grunge’ put Seattle, Washington in the cultural limelight. However, it had been since the late 1970s that independent music – much of it emanating from scenes in American ‘college towns’ – had been shaping the underground musical landscape of the United States. This meant that while Seattle captured the global imagination by 1991 with its hard-hitting punk-meets-metal sound, DIY scenes continued to blossom in towns and cities across America. For both Olympia and Bellingham, Washington, two college towns with close proximity to Seattle, the early 1990s – with grunge's international recognition – proved an interesting and unusual time to exert local musical sensibilities. This article charts the opportunities and challenges that these two Seattle-adjacent music scenes experienced while creating and maintaining their individual identities during the heyday of grunge.