Hype! Page #4

You know, these guys

Can't possibly be really

playing this song.

It 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.

someone said

my words are

out of balance

nothing to say

you got nothing to say

Jack endino:
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 magazine.

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 kind of talked

about working together

To put out a record.

Up to that time, everyone

played it really safe.

All the small labels--

"We'll put out a single

"Every 3 months,

and, you know,

"We'll sell

1,000 copies of it,

And that's cool,

because i've got my day job."

And jon and bruce

were having none of that.

They said, "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 2 gentlemen

Are the kings of the scene,

as you might say.

There was a real...

Indie ethic

in the eighties

That you weren't

supposed to be proud

Of having

hit records,

Or being

a hit machine.

And jon and i,

as fans of, you know,

The history

of pop music

In 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 that's 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 of the photography,

So there was definitely

a package and an image

And a sound.

Jonathan poneman:

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 kind of decided

Well, i'm going to play in

crummy band after crummy band.

I may as well rep

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, 5 chords,

But he said, "don't use more

than 3 within one song."

[Playing alternative music]

[Playing alternative music]

i feel bad

i feel bad

yeah, i've felt worse

yeah, i've felt worse

i'm a creep

yeah

yeah

i'm a jerk

oh

oh

touch me, i'm sick

touch me, i'm sick

i won't live long

i won't live long

and i'm full of rot

and i'm full of rot

want to give you, girl

everything I got

oh

oh

touch me, i'm sick

touch me, i'm sick

touch me, i'm sick

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.

They 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.

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

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

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,

A much--A much more

original thing.

Jack endino:
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.,

and boston, new york,

And l.A.,

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.

And sub pop decided

to exploit that.

we're all right

yeah, all right

so, you're looking

for something super

aren't we all?

yeah, all right

never knowing

if it hit you

right between the eyes

yeah, all right

gonna lift you up

gonna bring you down

gonna let you

oh, gonna slide

your heart

gonna let you follow

your own dream

it'll turn

your head around

for the first time

in your life

you might find that

for the second time

in a year

i don't mind

for the last time

i think it's time

to fly

i think it's time

to fly

freedom's right

between the eyes

Daniel house:
suddenly,

there were 3 times

As many people

that had been here all along.

Going out, seeing bands,

and supporting those bands,

And allowing the 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,

Uh, particularly

in a place like seattle.

It's so conservative

and so reserved.

To have something like this

happen here has been

Nothing short of, like,

a major electrical shock.

Everything was suddenly

just buzzing with activity.

I mean, singles

were being put out,

Uh, there was no point

earlier in history

That you could have

a magazine devote

An entire

record reviews section

Just to local

record reviews.

Um, people from underground

fanzines 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.

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...oh

i'm so happy

the world's gonna explode

They won't let us in

because we're not 18.

And age doesn't have

anything to do with music!

burn the house down

burn the house down

ooh

ooh-Ooh-Ooh

ooh-Ooh

[Song fades]

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