♪♪
-Hi everyone, and welcome to The Big Show.
I'm Nancy Guppy, and we are coming to you
from the Seattle Pinball Museum,
where touching stuff isn't just allowed.
It's the whole point.
[ Machine whirs ]
-Pinball for me is old-school fun.
-These are like interactive, functional works of art.
-You got all the flashing lights.
Kind of like be a kid again for a few minutes.
It's great.
-Hi, there. I'm Cindy Martin,
-I'm Charlie Martin, and together with my wife,
we opened the Seattle Pinball Museum in late August 2010.
♪♪
We have pinball machines from 1960 all the way up to 2025.
So you're always going to find one that speaks to you,
and you get in the groove with.
♪♪
-I've been coming here since I moved to Seattle
seven years ago, so I'm about to move
and it's always nice to have one last trip.
♪♪
-A really good pinball machine has to have it all.
When you have a good intellectual property,
when you have a good playfield, when you have good art,
when you have good programming, that kind of brings it all
together to make it very, very special.
And I like to call it lightning in a bottle.
-Oh, there's definitely a learning curve.
I've been playing for seven years, pretty much straight.
Um, joined the pinball league and yeah, I'm still learning.
-I think it's the hand-eye coordination.
Right? Like you're so busy.
Like your subconscious mind is busy watching the ball,
and your hands are moving,
and trying to get the flippers moving.
So just, you're too busy to care about what's outside.
-When you're tuned in to the machine,
you're right there with the ball.
You are the ball zooming around the playfield,
and going in and out, and up and down,
and trying to find out how you get the next score level.
It really brings you into its world.
♪♪
Pinball is growing,
and we look forward to the new generation
of players and enthusiasts.
And I like to tell people,
"Play pinball. It's always fun."
And it is.
♪♪
-The Seattle Pinball Museum is open Thursday through Monday.
Hours and location are at seattlepinballmuseum.com.
♪♪
We have a terrific lineup for you, including...
♪♪
...an ethereal exhibit at Seattle Asian Art Museum.
♪♪
The always popular Moisture Festival.
♪♪
-♪ Candy wrappers ♪
-And an original tune from Braly Sangster.
♪ Broken sticks ♪
♪ Avoiding the exit ♪
♪ Heading south, never to return ♪
♪♪
-And we'll begin with a deep dive into the undisputed kings
of Seattle's storied underground music scene, the U-Men.
[ Needle buzzes ]
[ Post-punk music plays ]
♪♪
♪ Taking my riches, took my riches, you took all ♪
-Just pummeling.
-Before Seattle was tagged with flannel and grunge,
the city's underground music scene was loud,
chaotic, and fiercely independent.
And at the hub of that driving noise
was a band called the U-Men.
♪ Taking my riches, took my riches, you took all ♪
-I first became aware of the U-Men in 1982.
I'd seen Tom Price perform with Psycho Pop.
-In 1980,
Tom Price, transitioning from his earlier band Psycho Pop,
brought together John Bigley on vocals,
Robin Buchan on bass, and Charlie Ryan on drums.
♪♪
-The U-Men were coming from a slightly different angle.
It was more from a post-punk sort of angular,
dissonant kind of energy.
-They were kind of the one band that everyone could agree on.
[ Laughs ]
-A lot of good players.
And so it was, you know, a recipe for something great.
♪♪
-When original bassist Robin Buchan stepped away
toward a different future.
The U-Men were left to fill the gap.
-Tom recruited his friend Jim Tillman.
-I was not in the initial band,
so I, uh, auditioned as a guitar player playing bass
and it went off really well.
Had a great time and took off.
-With Jim on bass.
the band sharpened its sound and audiences responded big time.
[ Static crackles ]
-♪ By you ♪
♪ Shall we rock, let's roll ♪
-Around 1985,
they were considered sort of the kings of the scene.
I mean, they would play a show and sell out.
And they played packed shows.
-The U-Men shows were fantastic.
They were always super fun and entertaining.
People just dancing like maniacs.
-They were pretty lively.
John Bigley was a -- a performer.
He was a solid frontman.
♪♪
-What sort of stood out right away with the U-Men
is -- is the rhythm section.
The hardcore bands like do-do-do-do-do-do-do.
The U-Men were always do-chaka-do-ta-ta-to.
It was swinging it.
-Well, this is really a difficult thing for me
to, like, pick one U-Men song.
But I landed on "Fumes" just this morning.
[ Needle buzzes ]
♪♪
It's just got this cool rolling bass line
and Tom's kind of counterpoint guitar part.
♪♪
-Charlie's the drummer for the U-Men.
The man can swing.
And as an ex-drummer myself,
I really appreciate when a drummer can swing.
And then you got Tom, who is an outstanding guitar player.
One of my personal guitar heroes.
[ Reels whir ]
-♪ Rally to the ball ♪
♪ Hey, oh ♪
-The U-Men's explosive energy was ripe for recording.
Enter Sub Pop co-founder Bruce Pavitt.
-The first EP was released under the label Spy.
That was, in fact, the first record
that Bruce had released prior to starting Sub Pop.
And, I think it was the last record he released
before he started releasing Sub Pop material.
So, you could almost call it the first Sub Pop release,
even though it wasn't Sub Pop.
-Their second EP, "Stop Spinning,"
landed on the national label Homestead Records
alongside noise rock trailblazers Sonic Youth,
Big Black and Dinosaur Jr.
[ Fire roars ]
-Well, there's the famous antic,
of course, setting the mode on fire
at the Mural Amphitheater during Bumbershoot.
We played Bumbershoot once, and we were not asked back.
[ Laughs ]
I think setting the mode on fire
was kind of like our way of exiting stage left.
Uh, yeah. They did not need our presence again.
♪♪
-♪ I mean, money, money, power ♪
♪ At least as long as I can remember ♪
-But if the U-Men were playing, it was like 250 people,
which was kind of where things sort of topped out at that time
in terms of...
-People interested in underground original music.
-I think they influenced a lot of people,
just in terms of showing
that you could just get your own sound
and just get up there and do it.
-As the band peaked,
so did personality clashes within the group.
Times were changing
and the U-Men's demise became inevitable.
-I actually left the band at a very tumultuous time
in the band's history,
when things were getting kind of untenable between us as people.
[ Paper flaps ]
-When they folded in the late '80s,
members of the band had started to develop
different musical interests
and started pursuing other opportunities.
It was amicable, but inevitable.
♪♪
-The U-Men may have ended,
but their undisputed impact continued.
John Bigley and Charlie Ryan formed the short-lived Grouse.
Jim Tillman carried on through the local acts
like Love Battery,
and Tom maintained a steady overall presence
in Seattle's music scene.
♪♪
[ Whirs ]
-My name is Tom Price.
I've been playing in punk and art bands since --
since I was about 14 or 15.
The U-Men just fell apart,
and we were getting older, too.
You just move -- start moving in different directions,
and it's hard to get everybody to agree
on a -- on a program of what you want to do.
Right after the U-Men broke up,
I immediately started Gas Huffer.
-Some of my favorite records
that I've ever worked on as a recording engineer
were the three Gas Huffer albums.
-♪ When I got better ♪
♪ Oh, oh, ooh ♪
♪ You've been warned ♪
-Gas Huffer Tom's project post U-Men
released records on Empty Records,
and later the punk label, Epitaph.
Tom also joined forces with members of Mudhoney
in the collaborative project Monkey Wrench.
-♪ Lawman stumbles and the rabbit runs ♪
-And today, his band, Tom Price Desert Classic,
continues to perform in Seattle.
♪ What's done is done ♪
-We've actually been together for quite a while now.
15 years, I think.
And they're a great band.
Those guys have just gradually stepped in covering for me.
[ Indistinct conversations ]
-I was officially diagnosed with Parkinson's disease
when I was 39 years old.
I'm now 62, so you do the math.
I hate it when I'm on a roll musically
and just want to keep playing.
And you can't.
Usually on stage,
the big difference is I have to be sitting down, which I hate.
I'd like to be standing up and rocking out,
as I've always done.
I'm a musician. The show must go on.
♪ In the...the preacher cried ♪
♪ You're all gonna burn in hell ♪
-What I think keeps Tom going is music.
Tom's just always in a band.
He wouldn't be himself if he wasn't in a band.
-It's just what you do.
And life just isn't right without that.
-He hasn't stopped playing in spite of the fact
we're all getting older.
He also has health challenges
that would really, I think, stop anybody else in their tracks.
I think he has to play to survive.
-♪ The summer living hand to mouth ♪
♪ Oh, yeah ♪
♪♪
-Although Parkinson's has taken its toll,
Tom's creative legacy as a major force in the local music scene
has continued to grow.
But life is full of surprises,
and an unexpected tragedy yanked the U-Men out of the past
and into the now.
♪♪
-My son Charlie,
he died from -- from a drug overdose when he was 16.
I was part of the fentanyl epidemic that's still going on,
an extremely harsh thing to deal with.
♪♪
One great thing about music that has been so helpful
for dealing with the loss of my son is adrenaline.
You're on stage and adrenaline kicks in,
and that can really get you through.
One thing that happens is you start dealing with it,
and the pain starts to subside a little bit.
And then you almost feel guilty,
like, "Why do I feel okay?
Am I -- Am I losing the memory of my -- of my boy?"
-Will you ever stop playing music?
-I might have to.
I'm always going to be playing music.
Is this a matter of how -- how -- how much longer can I do it
without just stupidly endangering myself?
You sometimes hear musicians say, "I wanna rock till I die."
But I don't want to.
I don't want to be embarrassing about it.
I don't want -- I don't want to die on stage.
♪♪
After Charlie died,
my wife and I almost sort of adopted his girlfriend, Bella,
who was a great singer, and she was having some problems.
I thought that maybe if I got her singing in the band,
maybe that would be -- help her lift her spirits a little bit.
♪♪
So we started the Little U-Men, and there was one,
one version of the Little U-Men that did one show,
played one song, Bella's favorite U-Men song,
which is called "Clubs."
And we played that at a show.
And that was so fun that we decided,
well, we got to keep this going.
♪♪
-And Tom has kept going with a one-song performance.
The Little U-Men was born.
A concert was planned, bringing Jim Tillman on bass,
but with Bella reluctant to take on more vocals,
the act needed a voice.
John, the vocalist for the U-Men,
was not interested in doing it,
so we got a bunch of guest vocalists
-♪ Get along, get along, get along, get along ♪
-We were best at doing whichever song.
It just all sort of fell into place.
-The Little U-Men started rehearsing
and found the chemistry that made them so special,
and recruited some backup musicians,
and did a delightful performance here in Georgetown.
-45 years on,
the authentic spirit of the U-Men continues to deliver,
and Tom's legacy continues to shine.
Every time he steps on stage,
every note he hits in spite of pain
lands with sincerity and truth.
Tom Price has something to say,
and as long as he keeps on doing his thing,
Seattle will keep on listening.
♪♪
More about the Young Men can be found at subpop.com.
And we'll keep you posted on the Tom Price Desert Classic.
♪♪
The experience of looking at art
can often be enhanced with a bit of background on
both the art and the artist.
Here, with some thoughtful insights
on Seattle Asian Art Museum's gorgeous exhibit,
Geometry of Light is Scott Stulen.
♪♪
[ Soothing music plays ]
♪♪
-It's a very meditative space.
It's something that kind of envelops you
because you walk into this space
and you're entering the work physically.
♪♪
The main piece in the show is called "A Beautiful Despair."
The piece actually is a laser-cut steel cube
that has a single halogen light source in the middle,
and it weighs about 300 pounds,
but it appears like it's almost floating in the space.
♪♪
So all of Anila's work
is inspired by her background as a Pakistani-American artist.
So growing up in Pakistan,
she was inspired by Islamic patterning
and a lot of the architecture,
but particularly in a lot of sacred religious spaces.
So the kind of beautiful pattern you see inside of mosques.
But in a lot of those spaces, women were not allowed to go.
So a lot of that beauty was actually hidden from women
only for the men.
So in her work,
she really is thinking about kind of that leveling.
How do we make this beauty available to everybody?
And really thinking about a line of feminism
that carries throughout her work.
♪♪
It's truly a sculpture, but it's a sculpture that has,
I think, like these legs that come out from it
because the light, if, you know,
Anila would really say that the light is really the piece.
And the sculpture, and the kind of source
are just those vehicles to get there.
But it's really how the light plays through the space,
and the shadow becomes a big piece of the work.
And then people enter the space,
become part of the work in that way, too.
♪♪
I think this is a piece that requires you to spend some time.
I think it's to come in to take it in.
I think it's to come in and walk around it a few times,
to sit in various kind of corners of the room
and be able to take it in from different vantage points.
Every time I come in, it feels different.
And I think it really is one of those things
that rewards you if you come back to it multiple times.
♪♪
-"Geometry of Light" runs through April 19th
at Seattle Asian Art Museum.
Hours and location are at seattleartmuseum.org.
♪♪
Our band this week is the brainchild
of two super-talented artists,
Leslie Braly and Johnny Sangster.
Well, here they are, with bassist Keith Lowe
performing the title track
of their latest record, "Candy Wrappers."
♪♪
-♪ Candy wrappers ♪
♪ Hot licks, broken sticks ♪
♪ Avoiding the exit ♪
♪ Heading south ♪
♪ Never to return ♪
♪♪
♪ A list of places ♪
♪ Song ideas ♪
♪ Don't say love ♪
♪ Outstretched fingers in a quicksand dream ♪
♪ Can you hear me? ♪
♪♪
♪ Hot face, cold face ♪
♪ It's pouring through the window ♪
♪ In the back seat we're singing Sweet Jane ♪
♪♪
♪ Now it's 7:00 a.m. Monday morning coming down ♪
♪ Stretched out, spread eagle ♪
♪ Waiting for the knife ♪
♪ Stepping into the light ♪
♪♪
♪ Disposable toothbrush ♪
♪ Staring out the window at the midnight pharmacy parking lot ♪
♪ Wondering what the... ♪
♪ The brave children are telling us ♪
♪ It's gonna be all right ♪
♪ While tears fill our eyes ♪
♪ And we try to find meaning ♪
♪♪
♪ Candy wrappers ♪
♪ Hot licks, broken sticks ♪
♪ Avoiding the exit ♪
♪ Heading south, never to return ♪
♪♪
♪ It's gonna be all right ♪
♪ I promise to ♪
-♪ It's gonna be all right ♪
-♪ Hold on ♪
-♪ It's gonna be all right ♪
-♪ Raise a glass, it's gonna be alright ♪
♪ To the wild and the free ♪
-♪ It's gonna be all right ♪
-♪ Keep the beat ♪
-♪ It's gonna be all right ♪
♪♪
-Whoo, yeah!
[ Applause ]
-"Candy Wrappers" is available online,
and in local record stores.
And catch Braly Sangster
live at Conor Byrne on Sunday, March 1st.
♪♪
-The Moisture Festival has been going strong
in Seattle since 2004,
thrilling audiences with music, comedy,
variety, and unique acts
that defy description like the magical Godfrey Daniels.
♪♪
[ Cheers and applause ]
♪♪
-Godfrey Daniels.
♪♪
[ Music fades ]
♪♪
-Godfrey and the rest of the Moisture Festival crew
take over Broadway Performance Hall
March 19th through April 12th.
The full performance schedule, along with ticket information,
is at moisturefestival.org.
♪♪
And that's a wrap!
Big thanks to the Seattle Pinball Museum for hosting us.
And a reminder, this is an all-ages place,
and I'm telling you,
the perfect destination for visiting family and friends.
More information is at seattlepinballmuseum.com.
We're going to leave you with footage
of the U-Men performing at last summer's
annual Hot Off the Press Book Fair in Georgetown.
The song is called "Hey,"
and it features Kurt Kendall from Girl Trouble on vocals.
So enjoy it.
Have a great week, and we'll see you soon.
♪♪
♪ Scared the shadow out for myself ♪
♪ Plugged that thing into the wall ♪
♪ Grenadine and Sumerian ale ♪
♪ Standing with Sam Way, Povo and I ♪
♪ Hit the wall and you lost your mind ♪
♪ Oh, God, I know she flipped a flatbed on route 101 ♪
♪ A chicken, a hog ♪
♪ Susie's favorite fries are now in a puff of smoke on the road ♪
[ Screams ]
♪♪
♪ Whoa ♪
♪ Ooh ♪
The Littlest U-Men!
[ Cheers and applause ]
♪♪