(Needle drops on record)
(Loud rock music plays)
(♪♪)
(♪) Dig it baby, dig it baby, dig in a hole (♪)
- Just pummeling.
[Narrator] 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,
(♪) Dig it baby, dig it baby, dig in a hole (♪)
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 Buchanan 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, dissonance kind of energy.
- They were kind of the one band that everyone could agree on. Hahaha
- A lot of good players.
And so it was, you know, a recipe for something great.
[Narrator] 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, auditioned
and, as a guitar player playing bass and went off really well.
I had a great time and took off. [Narrator] With Jim on bass.
The band sharpened its sound and audiences responded big time.
(♪♪)
- 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 performer.
He was a solid front man.
(♪♪)
- What sort of stood out right away with the
U-men is the rhythm section. The hardcore bands were
do-cho-cho-cho. The U-Men were
always do-tuc-tuc-ta. It was swinging.
- 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 drops on record)
(Loud rock music plays)
(♪♪)
Just got this cool rolling bassline 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.
(Tape player starts)
(♪♪)
[Narrator] 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 seven 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 SFX)
- Well, there's the famous antic,
of course, setting the mote on fire at the Mural Amphitheater
during Bumbershoot.
We played Bumbershoot once and we were not asked back.
I think setting the mote on fire was kind of
like our way of exiting stage left.
Yeah.
They did not need our presence again.
(♪♪)
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.
- When they folded in the late 80s,
members of the band had started
develop different musical interests and started pursuing other opportunities.
It was amicable but inevitable outcome.
[Narrator] 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.
(♪♪)
- My name is Tom price.
I'm playing in punk an art bands
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 hard
to get everybody to agree 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.
(♪♪)
[Narrator] Gas Huffer
Tom's project post U-Men released records on
Empty Records and later a punk label, Epitaph.
Tom also joined forces with members of Mud Honey in the collaborative project
Monkey Wrench.
(♪♪)
and today his band Tom Price Desert Classic, continues to perform in Seattle.
(♪♪)
- We've actually been together for quite a while now,
for 15 years, I think, and they're a great band,
so those guys have just gradually stepped in, covering
for me.
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.
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.
(♪♪)
- 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, you know, 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.
(♪♪)
[Narrator[ 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 human out of the past and into the now.
(♪♪)
- My son Charlie 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's been so helpful
for dealing with the loss of my son is adrenaline.
You're on stage, adrenaline kicks in, and that can really get you through.
One thing it happens is you start dealing with it
and the pain starts
to subside a little bit, and then you almost feel guilty,
like, why?
Why do I feel okay?
Am I am I losing the memory of my my boy?
[Interviewer] Will you ever stop playing music?
- I might have to.
I'm always going to be playing music.
It's just a matter of how. How,
much longer can I do it without just
stupidly endangering myself.
You sometimes hear a musician say, I want to rock
till I die, but I don't want to.
I want be embarrassing about it.
I don't, I don't want to die on stage.
After Charlie died, my wife and I, sort of
adopted his girlfriend, Bella, who is a great singer
and she was having some problems, so I thought that
maybe if I got her singing in a band,
maybe that would be help her, lift her spirits a little bit.
So we started the little you man.
And there's one, one version of the little human that did one show.
Played one song.
Bella's favorite U-men song.
Which is called “Clubs” and played that and show.
And that was so fun that we decided, well,
we gonna keep this going.
[Narrator] 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, wasn’t interested in doing it.
So we got a bunch of guest vocalists.
(♪♪)
Whoever seemed best at doing whichever song,
I just all sort of fell into place.
- The little U-Men started rehearsing and found that 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.
(♪♪)
(Audeince noise)
(♪♪)
(Audeince noise)
(♪♪)
Let’s have a big hand fo the litle U-Men.
(Audeince applaud)
(♪♪)
(Audeince applaud)