Hype! (1996) Movie Script | Subs like Script

It is,

for better or worse...

Seattle-based bands

have topped the world charts

for the past few years.

Nirvana, Pearl Jam,

and Soundgarden

have sold millions of records.

...releases

to a major label debut...

...musical movements

centered around Seattle

in a sound and style

that became known as grunge.

A month before

that album came out,

they were...

...the basis

of the generation

of... X societies.

How does

the grunge movement,

as I understand it,

is the fact that these kids

have the ability to say

anything they want to say,

express anything

they want to express,

any anger, any pain,

any anguish, any torment,

and they feel

a kinship, a oneness,

that this young man

has been through, tragedy...

Thanks a lot.

This is gonna be the last song.

♪ Enough of your doctrines ♪

♪ Your manifestos ♪

♪ I'm a simple man ♪

♪ I speak with simple words ♪

.1' Talk about inclusion

Not exclusion ♪

♪ I sing my song ♪

♪ Across these rivers,

Valleys, mountains, seas ♪

♪ Fields, oceans ♪

♪ I'm a teacher ♪

♪ You're a teacher too ♪

♪ I'm a pencil-pusher ♪

♪ I'm a ditch digger

I'm a loser ♪

♪ Let's start a riot ♪

♪ Under the night air ♪

Remember

those big bubbles

that used to float

through the middle of town?

Yeah.

- These big bubbles, man.

- Yeah, they still do.

Yeah, you see them

once in a while.

They've got this

big pit out in the bay,

and it's like all,

like this weird shit

and it comes out of

the process, and the way...

the bubbles they're like this

big and they'd float around

and they were bad toxic things.

So, the way they get rid of it

is they got these

big water sprinklers

and they just like run

sprinklers over it to pop them...

But a bubble still

gets out once in a while.

They're huge, they're like...

Like bubble of death.

I went to Bothell High School

which was a suburban hell-hole.

Um, there's a sign

as you enter town that says,

'Welcome to Bothell

for a day or a lifetime'

and someone...

Someone,

I wish I had done it,

but someone erased

the B-O-T at one time

so it was 'Welcome to hell

for a day or a lifetime'.

The Northwest

is where flying saucers,

the term

"flying saucers" was coined.

And the Northwest

is where Louie Louie's from,

the Northwest is where...

it's the serial killer

capital of the world.

I mean, we have more unsolved

serial killings up here

than any other place

in the United States.

I mean, the Manson family

used to vacation up this way.

This place is weird.

A lot of occult stuff.

All this stuff is a factor

in what happened in the music.

I mean,

when the weather's crappy,

you don't wanna go outside.

You know, you basically feel

like staying in the house

and, uh...

it's a very logical thing to

wanna go down into your basement

and, you know, make noise

to take out your frustrations

because you can't go outside

and do anything

when it's raining all the time.

♪ Don't get off the bus ♪

♪ Cause there ain't

Nothing for you here ♪

♪ Singin' my hometown... ♪

Is Seattle

a nice place to live?

It's the best place to live.

And I've traveled

all over the place

and I honestly wouldn't

live anywhere else.

It has all the amenities

of a big city, but...

you know, there's nothing

you're missing out on

by being in Seattle

as opposed to another city.

And it's pretty, you know,

there's hills and mountains

and trees and water.

So,

all these people come here

and then there's

all this publicity

and Northern Exposure

and Twin Peaks

and all this stuff

and everyone wants

to come up here

and live

the good yuppie lifestyle

but all the time

there's all these people

that are underneath

that were here first

and they're just starving

and they're all crazy.

I mean, it's like one of those

end of the world places

you can't go no further

and still be in the US.

In 1980...

I think bands

stopped coming to Seattle.

Bands never used to come here.

They'd go as far as

San Francisco and then not...

not come all the way up to Seattle

because it wasn't

worth it to play one show.

There were two,

maybe two and a half clubs

where you could play if you

were playing your own music.

Some people

used to rent halls,

just put their

whole show on themselves,

take tickets,

run up do the music

and at the end pick up

the broom and clean it up.

♪ Let me call you about it ♪

♪ Woke up this morning... ♪

Well, Seattle was really lame,

you know, specifically,

in the early '80s,

I mean, Seattle was like

a million second cities.

It had a fake Talking Heads,

it had a fake Pere Ubu,

it had a fake Killing Joke,

it had all the fake Ramones

you could shake a stick at,

you know,

and people from Bellevue

singing with English accents.

There was

this big poodle metal scene.

Bands with, um,

big fancy guitars and...

just tons and tons

of hairspray, eyeliner...

See, all the extra

sleazy punk rockers

used to hang out

on First Avenue.

There was

a donut shop right there

which was right next to

The Showbox

which is right there.

It's a comedy club now.

And that was like the big

punk rock venue.

Opening night,

the very first

punk club in Seattle.

This is probably worth,

you know, three,

four hundred bucks.

Nobody was

too worried about success

because we knew we were

living in Seattle,

you know, it wasn't LA,

nobody was gonna

come and sign us...

You played a show

in some small club...

the audience

consisted of members

of the other dozen or so

bands that were playing

similar bills

and similar clubs...

The bands

that stuck it out

did it because they

really, really, really enjoyed

playing their music

and that was really the only

positive reinforcement

that anybody got.

We really started

playing music cause it's fun

which probably most people say

but with us, it's true.

- Yeah, everybody else is lying.

- Everybody else is lying.

♪ After all the

Trouble's come and gone ♪

♪ It was here for so long ♪

♪ Now I've got

This sinking feeling ♪

♪ Everyone seems to be leaving ♪

♪ Oh, whoa, oh ♪

♪ And I can't believe how

Lonely it is here on K Street ♪

♪ There's no one like me

Here on K Street ♪

♪ How lonely it is

Here on K Street today ♪

♪ Today, today, today ♪

I've never been in

any other spot in the country

where so many

people played, you know?

You know, there's tons

of shitty bands and there's...

but there's, like,

tons of great bands too and...

The most interesting

music around here

is definitely coming from

places where people are

just playing in their garage,

they're playing to themselves

or playing to their friends.

Across the street,

lives these guys

who are in a band called

Sisters Sidekick,

then there's another brand

who practices there

and they're all friends

and then Her Fault,

my little brother's band...

and they're all friends.

They go to the show,

it's just friends playing music.

♪ I can't believe how lonely

It is here on K Street ♪

♪ There's no one like me

Here on K Street ♪

♪ How lonely it is

Here on K Street today ♪

♪ Today, today, today ♪

♪ Today, today, today, today ♪

We're all so

fucking bored out of our heads

that it was

get drunk, fall down,

and, uh, you know,

throw your body around

and all the bands that came

through Seattle at that time

Scratch Acid and Big Black

said that Seattle had

the most exciting, potent scene

going on in the US,

they all loved to play here

because everyone would

just like go nuts

and drink themselves

into a frenzy

and throw themselves on stage

and it was very flattering

for these bands, you know,

whereas you go to

Los Angeles and New York

and people stood there and went,

"Hmm, I don't know.

He missed a note there."

Best bands in Seattle were like

Malfunction,

The U-Men, who else?

Skin Yard, My High, Feast,

64 Spiders, Bundle of Hiss...

Nobody ever

remembers Psycho Pop, man.

We could make a long list

if you wanna talk

about all Tom's bands.

We were a good band, man.

We had

a band called The Fartz.

Red Dress, Blackouts...

The Blackouts

were an excellent band,

you know, Free Swimmers,

Beakers,

Little Bears from Bangkok,

Max Band, Quack Quack Quack.

Nobody knows these names,

this is ancient history!

One generation out from a band

is every band that shared

a member directly

with that band.

For instance, you know

Stone Gossard was in Green River

and then he went

to Mother Love Bone,

like that's one generation out.

So, for instance, you could

take like an early band

like The Blunt Objects

and it asks you

how many generations.

Let's go four generations out.

Um, so you sort of have

these three columns;

the mainstream, heavy metal,

hard rock thing that, you know,

Mother Love Bone

and Pearl Jam have done.

Then there's the Fast Backs,

the Posies and, uh,

The Young Fresh Fellows,

which were probably

the first band to really

make it out of Seattle

all by themselves

without moving out of town.

And they were just,

you know, sort of a pop sound.

And then the third branch

is the noise/grunge rock.

That was closely related

to Green River and Mudhoney

and The Thrown Ups,

all sort of Sub Pop,

you know, grunge sound

and it's pretty incestuous

but you keep bumping

into the same old people.

Green River.

This was the genesis right here,

Steve and Mark from Mudhoney

and Stone and Jeff

from Pearl Jam

and Alex who's now

studying to be a lawyer.

Room Nine

became Love Battery,

Bundle of Hiss became TAD,

Pure Joy became Flop,

Skin Yard, among other things,

became, uh, Gruntruck,

Jesse Bernstein who's dead.

Watch folks,

hundreds of dollars.

Don was in Butt Sweat

and, uh, they played

at one skate contest.

And you were too,

Tom, don't leave that out.

And,uh".

And he was also

in the Kings of Rock...

so was Jim Tillman from...

ex of Love Battery

What? Jim Tillman

wasn't in Butt Sweat?

He played rhythm guitar.

- Did he?

- Yeah.

Oh.

Remember friends,

this is only a movie,

you're free to leave the

theater at any time.

Someone said to me once

that there was

the aesthetic of dumb about

the Seattle music scene

that the music

wasn't stupid but it was dumb,

you know, Mudhoney's not stupid

but they're a little bit dumb.

My mom has always told me

that I'm not a loser,

so the whole loser thing,

I never believed in

'cause clearly, I'm not a loser

and Mark, I think your mom

has told you the same thing?

We're not losers.

I guess it's really easy

to think of yourself as a loser

'cause then you don't care

if people like you or not.

You know,

that's sort of the idea,

and then you can do

whatever you want.

And it's funny.

We were the guy in high school

who people used to beat up.

And we couldn't even talk

to the pretty girl.

I mean, we couldn't...

we're nerds, goddammit!

Well, I think ever since

Spinal Tap came out,

I mean, they were like

pointing the finger at bloated,

overly commercialized,

deluded bands,

and, uh,

we just looked at ourselves,

said well we don't have to point

at somebody else, we can...

When you've been

through periods where you've had

keyboard players with 50,000

pounds worth of kit onstage

and 82 keyboards and 95 samplers

you know, uh,

after a while you just go,

"Hang on, this is like eating

too much food at one sitting,

it's too much sounds,

it's too many colors,

it's... it's all got

poncy and posy,

um, let's go and see some bands

where they just bash it out."

♪ Eat my dump ♪

♪ Tell me that you love me ♪

♪ Eat my dump ♪

♪ Help me smell my pie ♪

Some bands get on stage

and they're,

they're basically entertainers,

they have, you know,

they have a shtick,

they are giving you a show.

Some bands get up there

and they rock,

and you can tell the difference.

That's why Seattle bands

tend to be a little bit

inconsistent live, I think,

is because most of them

aren't really up there

to be entertainers,

they're up there to rock out,

And their best shows are when

they're having the most fun.

Not when they necessarily

have their act down

because maybe they

don't have an act.

If it's connecting with the

audience right, I get chills.

- I mean, I can just,

- Yeah.

I finish a song

and it feels right

and I can just tell it's

just gonna start going fine,

man, I get chills

and they're rocking

and fuck yeah, let's go!

There's a million people out

there that can do what I'm doing

as far as producing,

recording, anything like that,

a lot better than I'm doing,

have better equipment,

but still, it's like the only

way you get good at anything

is to be doing it all the time,

so, this is

a lifetime chore for me.

Basically,

it's just to have

complete control

over everything,

to be able to do it

the way you want to do it,

have it come out the right way

and then not really have

anybody that can tell you...

what the hell to do.

Where you can play,

how you can look,

how you can dress,

what songs to record,

which ones not to.

It keeps it

on a personal level,

it keeps it where rock and roll

type things really should be.

It's very much

just happening right there,

it's not happening

in somebody's big offices

or in somebody's

big bank accounts or anything.

It's...

it's really exciting for the

people that are doing it.

♪ Some say to just forget her ♪

♪ It'll worry you well

If you let it ♪

♪ Make every day pathetic ♪

♪ You're in need of a cure

And she is one I

♪ You'll survive a vegetable ♪

♪ The meat's diseased

And she said so ♪

♪ I won't try

To persuade you anymore ♪

♪ Along time ago ♪

♪ I went and lost my way ♪

FAVE

PopLlama was a big influence,

Conrad can do it,

so Sub Pop can do it.

We wanted to do our

own record so we will, hell!

If these guys can do it,

we've seen these guys so drunk

they can't stand up, you know.

They can't drive a car, so,

and they can do this,

so we can do that.

That's just a given.

I think with people here

they don't sit around going,

"Oh, nothing ever happens here.

Nothing ever goes on here."

You know, by the time

the kid's out of high school,

he's already been in a band,

put out a couple fanzines,

recorded a few records, started

a label, did a radio show.

That was the whole lesson we

learned when we moved up here.

Like, you just do it.

We moved up here

and we saw other bands,

you know, no different than us

just putting out records.

All you really need to do that

is some magnetic tape

and a microphone,

and that's really all you need,

and then, you know, maybe,

just maybe, some bad reverb.

And they smell good,

records just smell good.

They, you know, there's nothing

like cracking that cellophane

and pulling that record out,

it just smells great.

When

Deep Six first came out,

it was chronicling something

that was suddenly going on,

I guess it was

by a fluke of providence,

kind of... a initial document of

what later turned into be

a pretty big scene.

I think we all became aware

that there was a certain

regional sound developing

and nobody had a name for it.

That's punk rock and...

one day they just sort of

started going, um...

and that was grunge.

The most noisy,

The most absurd,

The heaviest thing

that was going.

Yeah, we know this

is heavy rock and heavy rock

is kind of stupid

but it's fun anyways.

It's where you had a band like

The Melvins doing Kiss covers.

It was all in fun,

it was like we know

that this is the cheesiest

thing we could possibly do,

we gotta do it.

It's just ridiculousness,

complete ridiculousness.

What can we get away with next,

you know.

Bands like Green River,

basically,

they were sort of the

definitive grunge band.

It was a euphemism for just

extremes, extremes of anything,

and a lot of people say that

it's a throwback to metal.

Heavy metal's part of it,

it was one influence,

punk rock was one influence,

basically anything

loud and crushing

and extreme

was an influence.

We'd all been in bands

that were more controlled

and more dynamic,

you know, more... better,

better bands actually

and we just, well,

our whole thing was

we just wanted to

get away from all structure

and just be chaotic

and not worry about that.

It was kind of joyful release.

It's taken rock

right back to its basics

which is go up there

and make a hell of a noise

and make sure you play music

that your parents don't like.

First thing, actually,

was when we were doing

the first Soundgarden single,

and we were doing a song called

"Nothing To Say,"

which was just...

at the time

just seemed amazingly heavy.

I thought this, you know,

these guys can't possibly be

really playing this song,

this sounds like, you know,

this sounds insane,

it sounds

way too good for 8-track

and it sounds way too good

for a, you know,

crappy little Seattle band.

Bruce Pavitt

originally had the name Sub Pop

when he was living in

Olympia, I think.

He had a sort

of cassette fanzine network

where he put out these

little compilation cassettes

of local bands.

He was interested in

making it a vinyl mix.

The bands he was

interested in at the time

were Green River and us.

And John, also,

was a huge fan of ours.

He wanted to make a record,

start a record label,

so we kinda talked him

into working together

to put out our record.

Up to that time,

everyone played it really safe,

of all the small labels,

"Well, we'll put out

a single every three months

and, you know, we'll sell

a thousand copies of it

and that's cool

because I've got my day job,"

and John and Bruce

were having none of that,

they said, you know,

we don't want to work day jobs,

we don't want our bands

to work day jobs,

we want them out there

on the road,

we want them

in the big magazines,

we want their

records everywhere.

It is punk rock,

but we don't care.

We want to make it

bigger than punk rock

and that's why

these two gentlemen are...

the Kings of the scene,

as you might say.

There was a real

Indie ethic in the 80s

that you weren't supposed to be

proud of having hit records

or being a hit machine.

And John and I, as fans of,

you know, the history

of pop music in this...

this, uh, this country,

really admired labels like

Motown and their hit factory...

- Mentality.

- Yeah.

They definitely picked a certain

kind of band for their label,

which makes everybody think

that's the only thing

that was the only thing

that was going on in Seattle.

Um, they...

by default, I ended up

engineering all of them and...

they had Charles doing

all the photography.

So there was

definitely a package

an image and a sound.

I think every community

has their pools of talent

it's just a matter of

being able to take on

the responsibility of marketing.

You know, I'm a failed

pop musician myself, so...

you know, I kinda decided,

"Well, I'm gonna play in

crummy band after crummy band,

I may as well wrap

some of these bands

who might have a chance

at doing something.

Basically he said,

"Hey, you sing about dogs,

you sing about being sick,

you got a shtick,

it'll take you to the top."

And he basically

gave us like five chords

but he said, "Don't use more

than three within one song."

♪ I feel bad ♪

♪ And I've felt worse ♪

♪ I'm a creep, yeah ♪

♪ I'm a jerk ♪

♪ Touch me, I'm sick ♪

♪ I won't live long ♪

♪ And I'm full of rot ♪

♪ Gonna give you girl

Everything I got ♪

♪ Touch me I'm sick ♪

When Sub Pop finally got their

act together and they started

somehow getting this

underground hype thing going

which started very small.

They flew an English

journalist into Seattle,

took him to see

a Mudhoney show

and gave him some singles

and had him meet everybody

and he went back

and wrote a big article

in one of the

English music papers

and that sort of started

this big frenzy in England.

It just seemed like it was

a worthwhile business move,

- so we...

- Yeah.

And fortunately, Everett was

a brilliant enough guy

that he could

piece together a story

that essentially

sold the world on Seattle.

♪ Love me I'm rich ♪

♪ Come on baby

Now come with me ♪

♪ If you don't come

If you don't come ♪

♪ If you don't come

You'll die alone ♪

Sub Pop, the hype machine,

and we went along with it.

It seemed pretty

funny at the time.

They didn't really hype their

bands, they hyped their label,

which is a much different thing

and a much,

a much more original thing...

It gave

a record this desirability,

this perhaps

fictional desirability,

but, nonetheless,

it made the collectors

try and get

a hold of these things

and made people

talk about them

so, a lot of people

talked about Sub Pop

and how cool their records were

and how cool the packaging

and the bands were cool

and "Oh,

you can't get the record,

it's worth a lot

of money already.

People started looking

for the Seattle sound,

the same way that D.C.,

Boston, New York and LA,

and all those places

had this crazy little

identity all of their own.

Seattle started getting

its own identity

and Sub Pop decided

to exploit that.

♪ Well alright

Yeah, alright ♪

♪ Saw you lookin'

For something simple on beyond ♪

♪ We are,

Yeah, alright ♪

♪ You wouldn't know it ♪

♪ If it hit you

Right between the eyes ♪

♪ Yeah, alright ♪

♪ Gonna lift you up,

Gonna bring you down ♪

♪ Gonna let you walk

Through this life alone ♪

♪ Gonna let you

Follow your own dream ♪

♪ It'll turn your head around ♪

J" For the first time

In your life you might find ♪

♪ For the second time

In a year ♪

♪ I don't mind ♪

♪ For the last time

I think it's time to fly ♪

♪ Freedom's

Right between the eyes ♪

Suddenly there

were three times as many people

that had been here all along,

going out, seeing bands

and supporting those bands

and allowing this scene

to be far more viable.

What you actually see

happening in Seattle

is this kind

of explosion of sub culture.

I think it's

a very important thing

and a very healthy thing

to have happen anywhere,

particularly in

a place like Seattle,

it's so conservative

and so reserved

to have something like this

happen here's been

nothing short of, like,

major electrical shock.

Everything was suddenly

just buzzing with activity.

I mean, singles

were being put out,

but there was

no point earlier in history

that you could have

a magazine devote

an entire record review section

just to local record reviews.

Um, people from underground

fan 'zines across the country

were already starting

to snipe about Seattle

and how much hype

it was receiving.

When things started

to become spotlighted,

more venues opened up

and more opportunities

opened up for people to play

but there was never

a lack of great musical talent

and it was always really diverse

and there was always an unspoken

sense of community about it.

♪ I'm so happy ♪

♪ It's sunny outside ♪

♪ I'm so happy ♪

♪ It's snowing today ♪

♪ I'm so ♪

♪ I'm so happy ♪

♪ The world's gonna explode ♪

They won't let us in

'cause we're not 18.

What does age have

anything to do with music?

♪...wanna burn the house down ♪

♪ Burn the house down ♪

♪ Ooh ♪

The Seattle music scene

right now is really vital.

I mean, it is so alive,

it's better than

London in the 1960s,

it's better than New York

in the 70s, I mean...

Margaret, I was in it.

I was in London in the 1960s,

it was awful! I mean...

If you say the word 'scene'

everybody rolls their eyes

and laughs at you.

"Scene."

you know, "there's no scene!"

So, a lot

of people thought that

it has reached its peak

and by next year,

we are all gonna go back

to doing what we were doing

and we are all gonna go back

to our little small town Utopia

and, uh, about 1990

we all sort of went,

"Oh, good, it's over."

Nirvana kinda

came out of left field,

uh, namely Aberdeen,

which is a town sort of out

in the middle of nowhere.

And, uh, you know,

we just got a phone call

at the studio one day

from this guy, you know, Kurt,

says his name was Kurt,

he said he was

a friend of the Melvins

and he wanted to come up

and just record some songs

and I said okay,

friend of the Melvins,

friend of mine, come on up.

You know, I didn't know

who the hell he was

and nobody else did either.

He just came up,

blew out ten songs

in five hours, we recorded them

and mixed them in one afternoon

and, uh, blew me away.

I thought "Oh, my God,

this is amazing," you know?

I said, "Guys, can I please keep

a copy of this for myself

before you go back to Aberdeen?

That was the tape

I gave to Jonathan.

This is my

penultimate grunge photo...

Kurt Cobain

spinning on his back.

Everyone asks "How in the hell

is he doing that?" I don't know.

♪ I'm a negative creep ♪

♪ I'm a negative creep

I'm a negative creep ♪

♪ And I'm stoned ♪

♪ I'm a negative creep

I'm a negative creep ♪

♪ I'm a negative creep ♪

At that point,

I think Soundgarden had put out

their first major label record,

it was doing okay.

I think that Screaming Trees

had put out their first

major label record

and I think it was doing okay.

Alice in Chains was...

had put out their first major

label record, it was doing okay.

But, Nirvana was kind of

the little brother, you know,

the runt of the litter,

so to speak.

And I remember Jonathan

telling me in 1990, he said,

"This band is going to be huge."

He said it exactly

like that, he said,

"Jack, this band

is going to be huge."

The record came out

in fall, September.

The video came...

I remember the first time

I saw the video,

I thought

"This is so cool,"

that there's no way MTV

will play this, just no way.

And then when that started going

it reached

millions of kids instantly.

Ben would go off and call up

people back home in Seattle,

he'd come back and say,

you know,

the latest sales figures.

He'd go, "Nevermind

has done 300,000."

"Nevermind has done 400,000."

"Nevermind just went gold."

♪...hello, hello ♪

♪ With the lights out ♪

♪ It's less dangerous ♪

♪ Here we are now ♪

♪ Entertain us ♪

♪ I feel stupid ♪

♪ And contagious ♪

♪ Here we are now,

Entertain us ♪

♪ A denial, a denial ♪

♪ A denial ♪

There was an old, uh,

Brain song called

"Money Changes Everything"...

I think we adapted that

to "Nirvana changes everything".

It's probably why

you create in the first place,

because of the freedom.

Do whatever you want...

whatever you want on tape.

But again, commerce is involved

and as soon as it starts

going through those channels

those money-making channels,

everything changes, you know?

When these bands

started to get popular,

all of a sudden everyone

wanted to find the next Nirvana,

everyone wanted

to sign the next Pearl Jam.

All of a sudden,

bands who'd never played

live before, practically,

were getting huge advances.

The labels start

bidding for bands

to get bands signed,

so that they could

then sell them to a major,

the bands get all worked up

and basically break verbal

contracts you make with them

because, well,

you don't have a contract.

I mean, when I first started

I didn't need contracts,

I didn't think I did, you know?

"Here's my friend", you know,

but someone throws, you know,

500,000 in their face

and they're like,

"Oh, we didn't have a contract."

If the major labels are like

a big, dumb Baby Huey,

you know, that "Oh,

what's going on in Athens?"

And waddle over to Athens

and you sit down on Athens

and you start buying lunches

and you crush three bands

by accident and, you know,

"Wow, the party's

in Athens, you know?

And then you kinda look over

your shoulder and go, "Oh...

Minneapolis and then Baby Huey

gets up and goes and sits

on Minneapolis and kills

three bands by accident

and buys a bunch

of lunches and, you know,

kind of plays that

party out and then, you know,

so, the idea that they were

moving in, you know,

sort of dedicated clumps,

I mean Seattle was

just like part of that process.

♪ Say good bye

To your friends and family ♪

♪ Welcome to the menagerie ♪

♪ Funny how

They forget to tell you ♪

♪ This is all you will ever be ♪

.1' This is all you will

Ever be now ♪

♪ This is all you will ever be ♪

.1' This is all you will

Ever be now ♪

♪ This is all you will ever be ♪

The effect of this whole thing

of like hyping a label,

or hyping a sound,

or hyping a place,

is it starts to take a lot

of the attention away from

the individual artists

that are making music.

Everyone doesn't sound the same,

everyone isn't grunge,

everyone doesn't have

long hair, you know, um...

They made a big mistake.

They didn't go further

and find more of the bands

that were already here

and had been here

even before the bands that

were exploited were, you know?

That's what makes me feel guilty

of the success of our band

because it should've been, uh,

spread out to the success

of like a number of bands here.

They focused

on this one scene

or one type of music when

really that's pretty inaccurate

'cause there's all kinds

of bands here, you know?

There's, like,

weird, funky jazz bands

and weird, you know,

hip-hop bands,

or punk rock bands,

or metal bands or whatever,

it's like there's a whole

bunch of stuff, so...

...and cowpunk bands,

there's like

a shit load of different bands

here, there always has been.

In Europe,

they just started to put

stickers on things

that just said "Seattle,"

that's all the sticker said.

It was like the stamp, you know,

it's like the USDA,

it's like Seattle stamping.

♪ Yeah ♪

♪ Low beat ♪

Great band.

I like the best.

♪ Low beat ♪

♪ Hey ♪

♪ Low beat ♪

♪ Low beat

Whoa ♪

I hate the category of grunge.

Grunge categorizes, "Oh,

I only like loud, loud music."

I don't need grunge.

♪ How many times

Have I said I'm sorry ♪

♪ To only trash you

Within the day ♪

♪ I think out one of

Every statement ♪

♪ That my body displays ♪

♪ Beware of what I bring you ♪

♪ Baggage from far

That just gets thrown onto you ♪

♪ I bite my tongue

And slip through ♪

♪ Slip through to you ♪

Nirvana happening

or Pearl Jam happening,

someway seems like kind of a...

some kind of like

weird natural occurrence

that got rolling in 1979,

like it's that energy,

whatever that energy started as,

I think ultimately, you know,

landed with what we got now

and it's not like

it's punk rock paying off,

it's more like you push

the pimple hard enough

and it pops up

someplace else.

...but then it becomes

homogenized, manipulated,

and marketed,

and it's not intense anymore.

So, there's a constant

cycle of rebellion.

I think punk's gonna

be there forever, man...

- Punk is... Yeah.

- As long as there's kids that...

Kids are the

most important part of punk.

They wanna get wild, yeah.

There'll be no shortage

of disaffected American youth

over the next 50 years.

Well, even more.

Some great rock and roll

coming down the line.

There's

over a thousand bands

in Seattle right now

and I think a lot of that

is people moving here,

bands moving here

in hopes of becoming famous...

Because of all the hype

and attention on Seattle

people know that

if they do something here

they're gonna get

recognized to some extent,

they won't be totally

overlooked, even if it's bad.

In fact, there were musicians

who moved to California

in the early 80s, from Seattle,

to try and get signed.

Who started moving back.

There's got

to be at least a thousand,

if not more

than that in Seattle,

and so I came up with an idea

to package boxsets

of Northwest bands,

so what I try and do is

I try and find ways to exploit,

and I like the word 'exploit',

exploit through

propaganda and television

the Northwest

music community as a whole.

Volume three is

probably my favorite set,

it's got... it's got some

of the most well-known bands.

You got your Hammerbox,

and your Hungry Crocodiles,

Pond, Sara Debell,

Peace, Love and Guitars.

It's just got, I mean it's got

so many great bands in it,

that if you wanna know anything

about the Northwest music,

there's my card.

If you wanna know anything

about the

Northwest music scene,

this is a great place

to start because all the cards

have the contact information

of the band on the back

and also,

if you take these cards,

turn them face down,

put them together,

it's a jigsaw puzzle

of a traffic jam on I5.

♪ I say fuck ♪

♪ I say fuck and you say yeah ♪

♪ I say fuck you say yeah

I say fuck you say yeah ♪

♪ I say fuck, yeah ♪

♪ Oh, I say let's,

And you say go ♪

♪ I say let's,

You say let's go, man ♪

♪ I say let's and you say go

I say let's and you say go ♪

♪ I say let's go ♪

♪ Oh, yeah ♪

Today I was in a music shop

and I saw some people

and it was like, "You moved

from LA, probably yesterday!"

Like, I feel sorry

for the up and coming bands,

they can't even get gigs,

you know, it takes them

years sometimes to get a gig.

We were together, like,

three weeks, we played a show.

You say it's a ton of bands?

The Trees way more than a ton.

We're a ton of band.

So, fuck 'em!

We got bands

all over this place, here.

We got...

The band in here,

Inflatable Soule

Manotypical.

Rap band in this room.

I hear a lone drummer

practicing here.

Industrial nonsense

comes out of that flat.

It's all hallways

and dark rooms.

Bands in the rafters,

Bands to the left,

bands to the right.

If you like being a

kid setting up a lemonade stand

and have a really

successful lemonade stand,

and all of a sudden ten of them

open up right next to you,

in your yard,

on your block

all competing

for the same lemonade nickel.

Only they're obviously selling

lower quality lemonade.

Right now,

Seattle is quarter until six

on Christmas Eve

at a shopping mall

when the mall closes

at six 0' clock,

when it's too crazy

and it's loaded with sub-moronic

idiots, prancing around,

buying anything

they can get their hands on.

...by universal acclaim,

the nation's media

have declared Seattle

the coolest place

in the known universe.

The music of Seattle

is as progressive as the people

Listen to Pearl Jam,

Soundgarden, Nirvana.

Where else can you get

the Seattle sound? Best Buy.

Once there was

this grunge singer,

who did all the things

grunge singers would do.

♪ Puking on the carpet ♪

♪ I couldn't help it ♪

♪ I'm drinking from the toilet ♪

♪ It's just a habit ♪

♪ I swear that smell you smell

Is not from me ♪

It's loud music

with heavy vocals.

Is it

mutant rock and roll?

Have we ever used

chainsaws and axes?

Are they contributing

anything to the world

they're taking so much from?

Mudhoney is sort of like

watching the market right now.

In October 1993,

this group's "VS." album

debuted at number one,

with sales of 950,000 copies.

Jeremy.

- Who is Pearl Jam?

- Yeah.

Pop music for 400.

Does this look like

we're unhappy or cynical?

Okay, our next guests

are a Seattle band,

this right here

is their newest album.

- ...playing the Posies

- "Weird Al" Yankovic.

Pearl Jam!

Hey Butt-Head,

where's Seattle?

- Seattle.

Seattle. Thanks, phone dude!

I think now

is the time that I should be

announcing my candidacy

for mayor of Seattle.

When the whole

thing was just out of control

and press people were

visiting our office

at the rate

of two or three a week,

it seemed like very few of them

had even the most remote clue

of what was really

going on in Seattle.

Glossy print ad

with a fancy red car

and a background and they're

saying something about grunge

They think people are

gonna go out and buy this car?

They're gonna look at this ad

and go, "Fuck you!"

When you're close to something,

you feel you know

the truth about it

and when People Magazine's

writing about it

you know they're not

gonna have the truth,

they have a very

distorted view of it.

And you realize that that's

what the entire world sees

and that's what the entire world

thinks about, and they're wrong.

("Second Skin" by

The Gits plays]

Maybe there's like

a bunch of photographers

and they wanna put you with

this other person

from another band

that you don't even know

and they want you to put your

arm around them and smile and...

"You play in band, don't you?"

"Yeah, yeah, I play in a band."

"Pearl Jam, right?"

II No-II

"Aren't you the

drummer from Pearl Jam?"

"No, I'm not the

drummer from Pearl Jam."

They didn't even say

anything about the music.

They talked about what we wore

and whether or not

the girl in the band before

shaved her armpits or not.

The newest thing

I heard was that

we're really bad

at interviews.

Where could

they possibly get that?

♪ Just to wake up

Tells me I must be brave ♪

♪ It hits me like a drug

Shot into my vein ♪

♪ It's not as delightful

Delightful of a pain ♪

♪ Immobilizing me

Almost makes me think I'm dead ♪

♪ I need a second skin

Something to hold me tough ♪

♪ Can't do it on my own ♪

♪ Sometimes I need

Just a little more help ♪

♪ I want that chance to give ♪

♪ Every drop

That's left in me ♪

.1' I need a second skin ♪

♪ Something I cannot

break free of ♪

♪ I just tell myself,

Girl, just let it breathe ♪

♪ It's a calmness

I'm always searching for ♪

♪ The dirt it gets so heavy

It falls above my head ♪

♪ Seeping from under my feet ♪

♪ It just keeps on

Getting deeper ♪

.1' I need a second skin ♪

♪ Something to help me tough ♪

♪ Can't do it on my own ♪

♪ Sometimes I need

Just a little more help ♪

♪ I want that chance to give ♪

♪ Every drop that's left in me ♪

.1' I need a second skin ♪

♪ Something I cannot

Break free of ♪

You just didn't wanna answer

any more stupid questions.

They were all the same.

What's Seattle like?

What are the bands like?

Do you know this band?

Do you know that band?

Everyone had it.

We put a moratorium at one point

on people calling and asking

for the Seattle story.

There was nothing to do

except just start poking fun

at the entire thing

and so, instead of saying,

"No, I really

don't know that person",

it would turn into,

"Oh, sure, every Monday morning

we eat banana splits

at breakfast time,"

"Shoo-be-doo

used to be my roommate",

or, you know, "I'll tell ya,

he has a horrible case

of the squirts

after he has Indian food."

And, like,

you just start making up

every single lie you can

and then try to...

the goal is to

just get crazy rumors

circulating all the time.

There's a big element of put on

involved with all Seattle music,

I mean, Kurt Cobain's

goofy name spelling's, uh,

a lot of Sub Pop's world

domination kind of attitude,

I mean,

the whole thing's ridiculous.

Seventy-five percent of what

Bruce and Jon say is a lie.

Um, but it serves them well.

It's essentially

been one big prank.

We've always pretended

we were something we weren't,

now that we're huge

and have a lot of money,

we're trying to pretend

that we're small and Indie

and have street cred.

That's one of the great things

about a lot of the bands here

that, you know, great humor,

you know?

It's why I'm obviously

not from here.

One of my favorite hoaxes

was the lexicon of grunge.

The New York Times

called Sub Pop records

and talked to a woman there who

just started making up words,

they were trying to find out

what the inside secret dope was.

"What was the,

uh, the hip language?"

...and I was like, "Uh,

why don't you give me a word

and I'll give you

the grunge slang for it?"

She just

started making stuff up.

A lot of it was kind of stuff

that she used for herself,

just for laughs,

and next thing you know,

it's on the cover

of the New York Times

and everybody around here was

just giggling and snorting...

If they're lame

enough to try to scrutinize

this totally stupid thing,

why not fuck with them?

♪ I try to speak my mind

Why'd you leave me? ♪

♪ I could have taken you so far,

But one bad movie ♪

♪ Been across this fucking world

To find my barista ♪

♪ I put my love into the rig,

So I could forget her ♪

♪ Hello,

It's me again, baby ♪

As you can see...

I am basically...

a trendsetter

in the fashion scene

and Rolling Stone called

and they were doing

a fashion spread on

"What the Indies are wearing".

I had to tell them that, uh,

I didn't think

they'd be interested in me

but that we had a fella here,

Scott McCaughey

from The Young Fresh Fellows,

who probably was just what

they were looking for, so, uh,

they came and they

interviewed Scott briefly,

and then got out this pile

of clothes and made him, like,

take off his Converse

and put on their tennis shoes,

and take off his flannel shirt,

wear their flannel shirt.

And then put, you know,

in the caption below:

"Flannel shirt 85 dollars."

Who didn't get

a flannel shirt for Christmas

from their relatives?

And you tie it

around your waist

and you run off

and do a stage dive,

all across America.

But up here,

because it's logger territory,

all these goon balls

just wear flannel anyways

and then that's what

became the stereotype here.

I mean, you go around,

you know, cities everywhere

you see some real

stereotypical grungies,

you know, the Pearl Jam shirt,

you know,

with the stocking cap and the...

you know, the really

long johns with the shorts

and then, and you just say

"I spit on you!"

Mannequins in stores with,

like, long johns and shorts

for like 300 bucks and...

- It's like...

- We got them fooled.

We wear long johns up here

because it's fucking cold.

When Seventh Avenue decided

that grunge-wear was something

they put on the runways

and that they thought it

would be an absolute knock-over.

Yes, that any of my clients

would be in their fashion shows

and be in their fashion layouts

and when Vanity Fair

did a spread with people

like Joan Rivers wearing

grunge-wear...

that was the only moment for me,

so far,

That came close to unbearable.

It was our thing

and then all of a sudden

belonged to people who...

You never thought you were

sharing your music with.

Like mainstream periodicals

and fashion magazines

and I started realizing

"Well, there's a whole lot

of people out there

making money by selling

the idea of the Seattle scene

or grunge or whatever.

It's so profitable.

It's so profitable,

and they'll just keep taking

and taking and taking

and they're...

they just don't know

how to restrain themselves,

you know, they're frothing

at the mouth over this.

And the bands aren't, I mean,

the bands aren't

really in it for dough,

I mean, they just aren't.

That would, if they were,

that would...

That would tip over the music.

It's like it already,

it's obvious to see

the Seattle scene has become

a marketed commodity.

...but that's what

makes pop culture

so significant to all

the little consumers out there.

They have no interest in history

or economics or science or art.

They're kinda interested

Hype! (1996) - full transcript