Sub Pop Records this fall will release an anthology compiling the entire recorded output — including five unreleased songs — of Seattle’s U-Men, considered the leading light of the ’80s underground music scene in that city that ultimately would birth grunge upon the world.
The 30-song collection, simply dubbed U-Men, will be released Nov. 3 as a 3LP or 2CD set, as well as in digital formats. The release, overseen by famed producer and engineer Jack Endino, will include 16 pages of photos, liner notes and interviews with members of the band.
Formed in 1981, the U-Men perfected a dirty guitar sound that would be vastly influential in Seattle, releasing a handful of EPs, plus one full-length, 1988’s Step on a Bug, before disbanding the following year. The band’s song “They” was selected as the closing track to the scene-setting 1986 compilation Deep Six, which also included music from Soundgarden, Melvins, Green River, Malfunkshun and Skin Yard.
Yet, as Mudhoney’s Mark Arm writes in an essay announcing the release, “The U-Men had nothing to do with grunge. They were their own unique thing. I loved them and I still miss them.”
Below, check out the tracklist and cover art, and listen to “Dig it a Hole.”
The set can be pre-ordered now.
Tracklist: U-Men, U-Men
Volume 1
1. “Blight”
2. “Flowers DGIH”
3. “Shoot ‘em Down”
4. “Gila”
5. “Trouble Under Water”
6. “Mystery Pain”
7. “Last Lunch”
Volume 2
1. “Clubs”
2. “The Fumes”
3. “Cow Rock”
4. “Green Trumpet”
5. “A Year and a Day”
6. “Ten After One”
7. “They!”
8. “U-Men Stomp”
9. “Solid Action”
10. “Dig It a Hole”
Volume 3
1. “Whistlin’ Pete”
2. “2 X 4”
3. “A Three Year Old Could Do That”
4. “Juice Party”
5. “Flea Circus”
6. “Too Good to Be Food”
7. “Willie Dong Hurts Dogs”
8. “Papa Doesn’t Love His Children Anymore”
9. “Pay the Bubba”
10. “Freezebomb”
11. “That’s Wild About Jack”
12. “Bad Little Woman”
13. “Selfish”
As somebody who was part of the “Seattle scene” back in the early 90s I am REALLY looking forward to this.