For the first time since I started the Monday Monthly Music Movie, I wanted to write something about the movie that we’re watching – and also give a sort of recommended, supplementary reading!
Before we start: you are encouraged to dress grunge-y for this! That probably just means a flannel, but I don’t know your life.
This month’s movie, grunge documentary Hype!, came out in 1996. I’m fairly certain I saw it in the theater with my (literal) rock and roll professor, but I might be mashing that memory together with going to see the Radiohead documentary with him a couple years later.
A move about grunge coming out barely five years after Nevermind and a mere two years after Cobain’s death means that it’s close to contemporary with the subject as it probably could get, while still approaching a bit of “this just happened,” instead of “this is happening.”
This kid that saw this movie in his early twenties never thought he’d get to see Seattle at all, let alone live in the Pacific Northwest.
A few years back, I did my every so often viewing while living in Olympia, and I realized that every time I watched it, I lived closer to Seattle. It was true on my most recent viewing, too. It goes like this:
Chicago -> Portland -> Olympia -> Lakewood, WA
I never made it all the way to living in Seattle; I barely dodged that weird bullet.
And the thing is: as an adult, part of the joy of the film is seeing all the venues in Portland, Olympia, and the rest of the Northwest, venues that are mostly gone now.
The footage in the (backstage / show venue area) Capitol Theater in Olympia hits especially hard now; the last movie I saw pre-pandemic (and likely the first post-lockdown) I saw in the main theater. I’ve even seen some music (Heavenly and The Swansea Sound) at the Capitol at this point, but not in the small, backstage spot that hosted so many riot grrl events.
The Portland footage includes La Luna and the X-Ray Cafe, among others, if I recall correctly. Hard to imagine a venue right behind that bus stop at SE 2nd and Burnside, y’know?
Recommended Reading (none of these are books)
- Singles, and its incredible soundtrack. This was almost the movie pick. You get Eddie Vedder and some Soundgarden dudes goofing around with Matt Dillon. Sometimes, the apartments in the movie are available as an AirBNB. Classic stuff! The first two “Seattle” albums I got were this and Nirvana’s Incesticide; I still think that “Would?” is the only great Alice in Chains song.
- Screaming Trees, Sweet Oblivion. I find that the Screaming Trees dudes are the most entertaining of all the guys in this movie. They also were an almost, kinda, not quite big kinda band – I saw them play with Soul Asylum and Spin Doctors, but even on a big Alternative Nation tour, they were the openers. This album rips.
- Mother Love Bone - honestly, whatever you can find, but mostly “Chloe Dancer/Crown of Thorns.” This band had Stone and Jeff from Pearl Jam, and their charismatic, operatic singer, Andrew Wood, was truly something to behold. He’s also a big part of some of the foundational things that happened in Seattle that really shook up the musical landscape; plus, how many songs have the name Chloe in them? A true bridge between 80s metal and 90s alternative whatever.
- If you want to know what my teens and early 20’s were like, I direct you to Grunge Grunge Grunge Grunge Ska Ska Ska!!! by the Pacers!
Edited to add:
It turns out that a lot of what I remembered about this movie was incorrect. 😂
Mostly:
- there’s nearly no Portland in it
- there’s barely a mention of Andrew Wood
…I dunno! Weird!