U-MEN (SUB POP COMPILATION)

2.5.18 I think it is safe to say that without these post-punk "architects", amongst their Seattle 1980s peers, what was to become grunge would never have happened.

Imagine the voices of Iggy Pop, Jim Morrison (when he lost his mind onstage), and Don Van Vliet (Captain Beefheart) all mashed up. Then you might have a semblance of John Bigley's vocals here in the 80s. 

Robert Ham at Pitchfork writes: If Jonathan Poneman and Bruce Pavitt had had their way, this would not be the first U-Men release on Sub Pop Records. According to U-Men drummer and co-founder Charlie Ryan, the label did nothing less than beg his group to join their roster. “They’d say, ‘You guys gotta get on our label!” Ryan recalls in the 2011 grunge oral history Everybody Loves Our Town. “And we’d say, “No, I don’t think so.’ Because they wanted it so bad, it was just more fun saying no.”. . .