So I watched Hype! again last night...

HA30208

You can stream Hype! on netflix so I decided to give it a whirl yesterday. It was the third time I watched the whole thing through.

The first time I saw it was around the spring of '97. My college roommate bought the VHS tape and we watched it in our dorm room. No Code was still fresh in our minds and Yield was just below the horizon. It was a great time to be a PJ fan. And I mean REAL fan. One who obsesses over all the music. I grew up in the Midwest. A 1500 miles from Seattle, so I was one of the people the bands made fun of for buying flannel and tying it around the waste.

The 2nd time was probably around the early '00's. "Grunge" was completely murdered and buried by nu-metal. I had visited a friend who was now living in Seattle. I wanted so much to be a part of that place that Hype! was about. But there was just no way I could move out there from the Midwest.

So last night was the 3rd time. Fitting that this is the 20th anniversary of my favorite band of all time. Obviously the director meant for Hype! to be a lot more than just Pearl Jam, and more of a statement on the whole time/place in general. But PJ does hang over the whole movie, and Eddie's statements towards the end really sum up the meaning of the film.

Watching the movie last night I'm surprised by how much all the other band's songs (besides Pearl Jam and Soundgarden) just don't hold up. Most songs were just loud and obnoxious. And that's great, if at the time that's what each band was striving for. But as a document 15 years old there aren't really any songs that I want to re-listen to.

I don’t know really what I’m trying to say in this post, other than that Pearl Jam’s music REALLY does hold up, and I think that is the defining characteristic of this band. You can take all the politics, popularity, social awareness that this band strives for and throw it out the window if their music sucked. And it just DOES NOT SUCK.

I love this band. I’m glad I was born at a time where I got to experience their whole 20 years (even if I didn’t live near them).

Zidane

I totally disagree with you. Yes, you're right, you get to see Pearl Jam in the movie but it takes a while before you actually get to hear about them! The movie basically shows you that there was more than the big 4 (AIC, Sound, Nirvana and PJ) and that there was music going way before 1990.

As for your comment on how the other bands sound shitty, once again you're wrong. With that movie (that I watched for the first time around 99), it made me want to get more music from bands I didn't know. I knew about Mudhoney, Melvins and other Screaming Trees but I surely didn't know much about the Posies, Love Battery, Seaweed and others like Coffin Break.

And that's what Eddie says at the end; if nothing comes out of it, that would be the tragedy. I guess he was talking about you...?! Am I wrong?!

djjazzy276

Zidane wrote:

As for your comment on how the other bands sound shitty, once again you're wrong.

The original poster had their opinions, you have yours. Neither one is right or wrong. I happen to agree for the most part with the original poster on this subject. The entire reason I even watched Hype! when I was 13 was because PJ was in it. Was I disappointed when I found they were not the main focus? Yes. That probably skewed my perception of the other music in the film. I too found a lot of it to be loud and obnoxious, but there were a few acts that I thought were downright great (My Hometown has always been an addictive song for me.)

Now I'm 28 and I streamed it on Netflix about a week and a half ago and was more interested in seeing it for what it was (a complete look at the whole music scene at that particular time) and not what it wasn't (a Pearl Jam documentary, which I'll be getting later this year anyways). After doing so, I can completely and confidently say that the music I didn't like then, I still don't like today. Pearl Jam was then and still is my favorite band and I think their music has held up incredibly well. And as far as what Eddie had to say about tragedy, isn't he referring to the fact that nobody hearing about all of this music that was there all along being the tragedy? If so, then someone watching Hype! three times seems like the exact opposite of not knowing about some of the other bands that were part of the scene since the inception. I don't think he's saying that it's a tragedy that you tried to give the smaller, lesser known bands a fair listen and didn't like them.

PJBuckeye

Zidane wrote:

I totally disagree with you. Yes, you're right, you get to see Pearl Jam in the movie but it takes a while before you actually get to hear about them! The movie basically shows you that there was more than the big 4 (AIC, Sound, Nirvana and PJ) and that there was music going way before 1990.

As for your comment on how the other bands sound shitty, once again you're wrong. With that movie (that I watched for the first time around 99), it made me want to get more music from bands I didn't know. I knew about Mudhoney, Melvins and other Screaming Trees but I surely didn't know much about the Posies, Love Battery, Seaweed and others like Coffin Break.

And that's what Eddie says at the end; if nothing comes out of it, that would be the tragedy. I guess he was talking about you...?! Am I wrong?!

^^^ This. The obscure music on Hype is f'n great. Between the Eyes by Love Battery is one of my all time favorite songs.

BinauralJam

HA30208 wrote:

You can stream Hype! on netflix so I decided to give it a whirl yesterday. It was the third time I watched the whole thing through.

The first time I saw it was around the spring of '97. My college roommate bought the VHS tape and we watched it in our dorm room. No Code was still fresh in our minds and Yield was just below the horizon. It was a great time to be a PJ fan. And I mean REAL fan. One who obsesses over all the music. I grew up in the Midwest. A 1500 miles from Seattle, so I was one of the people the bands made fun of for buying flannel and tying it around the waste.

The 2nd time was probably around the early '00's. "Grunge" was completely murdered and buried by nu-metal. I had visited a friend who was now living in Seattle. I wanted so much to be a part of that place that Hype! was about. But there was just no way I could move out there from the Midwest.

So last night was the 3rd time. Fitting that this is the 20th anniversary of my favorite band of all time. Obviously the director meant for Hype! to be a lot more than just Pearl Jam, and more of a statement on the whole time/place in general. But PJ does hang over the whole movie, and Eddie's statements towards the end really sum up the meaning of the film.

Watching the movie last night I'm surprised by how much all the other band's songs (besides Pearl Jam and Soundgarden) just don't hold up. Most songs were just loud and obnoxious. And that's great, if at the time that's what each band was striving for. But as a document 15 years old there aren't really any songs that I want to re-listen to.

I don’t know really what I’m trying to say in this post, other than that Pearl Jam’s music REALLY does hold up, and I think that is the defining characteristic of this band. You can take all the politics, popularity, social awareness that this band strives for and throw it out the window if their music sucked. And it just DOES NOT SUCK.

I love this band. I’m glad I was born at a time where I got to experience their whole 20 years (even if I didn’t live near them).

Cool, thats going on the Instant Que tonight!

Zidane

^^^ This. The obscure music on Hype is f'n great. Between the Eyes by Love Battery is one of my all time favorite songs.[/quote]

Hahaha!!! It's that song that made me buy their first album and the others after!!! It was also cool to see that Bruce Fairweather played with them and also... Jason Finn... future member of PUSA!!!

pjradio

Love the GITS on there!

OGT92

I have never watched this. I will have to check it out. Thanks.

HA30208

As for your comment on how the other bands sound shitty, once again you're wrong. With that movie (that I watched for the first time around 99), it made me want to get more music from bands I didn't know. I knew about Mudhoney, Melvins and other Screaming Trees but I surely didn't know much about the Posies, Love Battery, Seaweed and others like Coffin Break.

So Zidane...seriously how often do you break out the Posies, Love Battery, Seaweed and Coffin Break albums?

uninnocent-

wow, i watched hype for the first time last week, (after years of enjoying the soundtrack). i found it really enjoyable and the music was well-suited to my tastes. i can't believe it took me so long to track down a copy.

Santos L. Halper

HA30208 wrote:

As for your comment on how the other bands sound shitty, once again you're wrong. With that movie (that I watched for the first time around 99), it made me want to get more music from bands I didn't know. I knew about Mudhoney, Melvins and other Screaming Trees but I surely didn't know much about the Posies, Love Battery, Seaweed and others like Coffin Break.

So Zidane...seriously how often do you break out the Posies, Love Battery, Seaweed and Coffin Break albums?

I do all the time
slh

Zidane

HA30208 wrote:

As for your comment on how the other bands sound shitty, once again you're wrong. With that movie (that I watched for the first time around 99), it made me want to get more music from bands I didn't know. I knew about Mudhoney, Melvins and other Screaming Trees but I surely didn't know much about the Posies, Love Battery, Seaweed and others like Coffin Break.

So Zidane...seriously how often do you break out the Posies, Love Battery, Seaweed and Coffin Break albums?

Well, let's see... I certainly wasn't going to watch that movie without trying to have a listening session of those bands. First of all, I got the Hype Soundtrack that you could get on SubPop at the time on their website (it was around spring 2000) and I was also able to get the vinyl on Ebay. Had the pleasure to discover some really cool bands on that cd like Dead Moon, The Gits, The posies, etc. Already knew Mudhoney, Soundgarden and others but the soundtrack also didn't have Love Battery or Seaweed on it; I went and bought their album. An old roommate of mine in Ottawa had almost everything from Epitaph and he had something from Coffin Break. I went and got some Supersuckers and 7 Year Bitch too... Yeah, maybe I don't listen to those cds every day but when my ipod is on shuffle, I certainly won't skip the songs from those bands.

I mean, I see your point which is to love Pearl Jam. But at the same time, it's too bad not trying to get into other bands. I thank PJ every day for getting me into those bands and others like Fugazi. Anyway, my first comment was maybe a bit harsh and I apologize. Give those bands a chance, you might change your mind.

drummerboy_73

I just downloaded it the other night...my son is doing a research paper for his English class on the music scene of the 90's, mostly the Seattle scene, so we're gonna watch it this week. Haven't watched it in over 10 years...wonder how watching it now will compare to then. :?:

Zidane

drummerboy_73 wrote:

I just downloaded it the other night...my son is doing a research paper for his English class on the music scene of the 90's, mostly the Seattle scene, so we're gonna watch it this week. Haven't watched it in over 10 years...wonder how watching it now will compare to then. :?:

Cool!

PJ88

Really check out Seaweed. They are awesome. Saw them at the Orpheum Theater in Boston. They were amazing live. I believe they really are an underrated band and should have been a lot bigger than they got.

ChampagneBrkfst

Completely agree with Zidane. These bands are diamonds in the proverbial rough. Not only that Zidane, but you got a post AND an agreement from the hu(man) himself...................Santos!

HA30208

Look, my original post was just my own personal musings about how I felt watching the movie at 3 different stages of my Pearl Jam Fan life. The movie DID make me seek out and listen to other bands besides PJ and SG that were featured. Heck, I think I have a Tad CD around here somewhere and I know I have a couple Supersuckers. But the point of it all is I, personally, don't go back now, 15 years later, and listen to those Screaming Trees CD's. I just don't. Maybe you do, and if you do, that's cool. But, I almost always have a PJ CD or .mp3 queued up and playing. The point of that is that PJ's music does stand the test of time, for the most part ("Bugs", maybe not so much). And as for the other bands, I just don't have the same feeling now for them as I did when I first watched the movie in '97.

JonnyPistachio

anyone suggest what albums to check out for Posies, Love Battery, Seaweed and Coffin Break??

Jeremys Spoken

PJBuckeye wrote:

^^^ This. The obscure music on Hype is f'n great. Between the Eyes by Love Battery is one of my all time favorite songs.

I posted a love battery song in the other music section 3 days ago, and it got no love :( :(

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6LB0MQI4V4

amazing song..

Hype was great. Never got why the kid has earplugs in his nose lol..

Santos L. Halper

JonnyPistachio wrote:

anyone suggest what albums to check out for Posies, Love Battery, Seaweed and Coffin Break??

frosting on the beater-posies, between the eyes-love battery, bill-seaweed, and crawl-coffin break

JonnyPistachio

Santos L. Halper wrote:

JonnyPistachio wrote:

anyone suggest what albums to check out for Posies, Love Battery, Seaweed and Coffin Break??

frosting on the beater-posies, between the eyes-love battery, bill-seaweed, and crawl-coffin break

Thanks Santos, I'm on the hunt for those now!