The U-Men was an American

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...

band, formed in

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

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, in 1980 and active until 1989. They toured extensively across the United States. Their musically "dirty" sound and off-the-wall sense of humor were a forerunner for the later grunge bands to come out of Seattle.

History

The U-Men were fronted by vocalist John Bigley and included Tom Price, Charlie "Chaz" Ryan, Robin Buchan, Jim Tillman, Tom Hazelmyer and later Tony "Tone Deaf" Ransom. Their

alternative rock Alternative rock, or alt-rock, is a category of rock music that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1970s and became widely popular in the 1990s. "Alternative" refers to the genre's distinction from mainstream or commerci ...

sound was credited by

Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databa ...

for helping to inspire the Seattle grunge sound. In 1983, The U-Men became the first band managed by renowned Seattle band manager Susan Silver. Butthole Surfers named the song "The O-Men", from the album '' Locust Abortion Technician'', in their honor. Tom Price moved on to form

Gas Huffer Gas Huffer was an American garage rock band from Washington. They were known for their informal and comical lyrics and their antic-laden stage presence. History Gas Huffer classified themselves loosely in the garage punk genre. The band cre ...

, and also play in The Monkeywrench. Bigley and Ryan co-founded The Crows. Jim Tillman, who is recognized as the main line-up bass player having played on the first two full releases which included the self-titled EP, "The U-Men" (1984), "Stop Spinning" (1985), and the '' Deep Six'' compilation (1986) track "They", went on to play bass for other local bands, most notably

Love Battery Love Battery was an American rock band from Seattle, Washington. History Love Battery was formed in 1989 by former rock band Room Nine leader Ron Nine (b. Ron Rudzitis), guitarist Kevin Whitworth (ex-Crisis Party), bassist Tommy "Bonehead" S ...

Mark Arm Mark Arm (born Mark Thomas McLaughlin; February 21, 1962) is an American singer and songwriter, best known as the vocalist for the grunge band Mudhoney. His former group, Green River, was one of the first grunge bands, along with Malfunkshun, ...

from Mudhoney noted on Sub Pop's anthology release announcement that the band was never the same after Tillman's departure. Tom Hazelmyer briefly played with the band but left to remain in his hometown of Minneapolis (performing live just once with the band when they opened for Big Black at the Showbox Theater in March 1987) to promote his record company ( Amphetamine Reptile Records) and band, Halo of Flies.

Band members

*John Bigley – vocals *Tom Price – guitar *Robin Buchan – bass (1980–1982) *Jim Tillman – bass (1982–1986) *Charlie Ryan – drums *Additional bassists include: * Tom Hazelmyer – bass (1987) *Tony Ransom – bass (July 1987 – 1989)

Discography

Albums

*'' Step on a Bug'' (Black Label Records, 1988)

Singles and EPs

*''

U-Men The U-Men was an American rock band, formed in Seattle, Washington, in 1980 and active until 1989. They toured extensively across the United States. Their musically "dirty" sound and off-the-wall sense of humor were a forerunner for the later ...

'' EP (Bomb Shelter Records, 1984) *'' Stop Spinning'' EP (

Homestead Records Homestead Records was a Long Island, New York-based sublabel of music distributor Dutch East India Trading that operated from 1983 to 1996. The label was known for not paying its artists and not spending any money on promotion. History The l ...

, 1985) *''"Solid Action" b/w "Dig It A Hole"'' (Black Label Records, 1987) *''"Freezebomb" b/w "That's Wild About Jack"'' ( Amphetamine Reptile, 1988) *'' Sugar Daddy Live Split Series Vol. 1'' (Amphetamine Reptile, 2012; split with the Melvins)

Compilation albums

*'' Solid Action'' (Chuckie-Boy Records, 1999) *''U-Men'' (Self-titled anthology, Sub Pop, 2017)

Compilation and soundtrack contributions

*"Blue Christmas" on the Christmas '84 compilation *"They" on the '' Deep Six'' compilation (

C/Z Records C/Z Records was a Seattle-based punk rock record label that was established in early 1985 by Chris Hanzsek and Tina Casale. It started with the release of '' Deep Six'' which collected the earliest recordings of what later came to be known as ...

, 1986) *"Shoot 'Em Down (live)" on the ''Woodshock '85'' compilation (El Jefe Records, 1986) *"Gila" on the '' Sub Pop 100'' compilation (

Sub Pop Records Sub is a common abbreviation of words beginning with the prefix "sub-". Sub or SUB may also refer to Places * Juanda International Airport, Surabaya, Indonesia, IATA code SUB Computing and technology * , an HTML tag for subscript * SUB designate ...

, 1986) *"Bad Little Woman" on the ''Dope-Guns-'N-Fucking In The Streets, Vol. 1'' compilation ( Amphetamine Reptile, 1988) *"Bad Little Woman" on the ''Dope-Guns-'N-Fucking In The Streets, Vols. 1-3'' compilation (Amphetamine Reptile, 1989) *"Dig It a Hole" on the ''

Hype! ''Hype!'' ( 1996) is a documentary directed by Doug Pray about the popularity of grunge rock in the early to mid-1990s United States. It incorporates interviews and rare concert footage to trace the development of the grunge scene from its early ...

'' soundtrack (Sub Pop Records, 1996)

References

External links

* The U-Men @ AllMusic.com {{DEFAULTSORT:U-Men, The Garage rock groups from Washington (state) Indie rock musical groups from Washington (state) Garage punk groups Grunge musical groups Homestead Records artists Musical groups from Seattle Musical groups established in 1981 Musical groups disestablished in 1989 Amphetamine Reptile Records artists