Hype! - Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

Hype!

Movie:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score: ​

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Movie

I have sort of a love/hate relationship with 90s music. I grew up in that era as a child born right on the cusp of the 80s, so my teenage years and musical interests settled right into that 90s world of music. I grew up with my older brothers blasting Operation Ivy, U.K. Subs, Iron Maiden, Joan Jett and the like, so I was fully immersed in the hard rock and punk scene by my early high school years. So when the Seattle music industry created what later became known as grunge, I shifted immediately into that era of music and rocked away like nobody’s business. However, as most people do, I grew up and musical tastes shifted. They always say that each person hones in on one era of music as the one they identify with. Even if they love music from all over the time table or genre map, there is always that one era of music that they sort of feel is “theirs”. For me that is 80s metal. A genre that I love to death and can put on repeat for days if necessary. Unfortunately it was also a genre that was sidelined by the grunge era, and I still hold a slight grudge over them basically sidelining what I consider to be the best musical era of all time (although Finland, Sweden and the like are bringing back 80s style metal back with a vengeance in the last 17 years, or so, and it’s been INCREDIBLE).

Hype! was a fantastic documentary that I remembered being made right about the time I went to college, but I never actually sat down and watched it before. I had heard nothing but good things about it when I went away, but for some reason it just never floated back on my radar till now. Sitting down and watching it just brought back so many childhood memories and childhood songs that I had almost forgotten about until just now. The Melvins, the Posies, Gas Huffer, Nirvana, Pear Jam, each and every one a piece of my childhood CD collection.

Back in 1989/1990 Seattle was not known for its huge musical influence on the world. They had a TON of rebellious punk rock bands, but the music scene was kind of shunned by a large portion of the North West populace due to the very conservative nature of the city at the tine (now Seattle is extremely liberal, a near 180 degree flip). However, all these garage bands that were trying to blend punk rock and metal together started creating this grungy, loud, abrasive style of music that just caught on like wildfire. Soon these bands were grabbing gigs left and right and Seattle was suddenly the hot spot to be. With this newfound popularity came the downside of commercialism. Sub Pop Records (I still remember being on their mailing list) re branded themselves as THE grunge rock central label to be on during those early days, and soon they started taking over the Seattle music front.

That meant that the “cool” factor of grunge (as it would soon be called. That name didn’t catch on until the later 90s) was gone and in its place was a cold commercialism that chewed bands up, spit them out, and moved onto the giant spotlight bands like Kurt Cobain with Nirvana, and Eddie Vedder and Pearl Jam. What started out as a bunch of friends hanging out and rocking out in Seattle soon started an artificial bubble that grew and grew and grew until POP, the entire northwest grunge world settled back down and life moved on.

What makes Hype! so fantastic is that it isn’t satisfied with giving lip service and focus to the big bands. We could have an hour and a half of listening to Nirvana or Pearl Jam or Courtney Love, but Doug Pray gives equal billing in his interviews to a TON of the lesser known garage band. Blood Circus, Mudhoney, Tad, Hammerbox, The Posies, each of them get their time telling how life was in the early 90s and you can tell they’re just absolutely in love with what they do. Pray also incorporates a ton of actual stage footage and recording studio footage to listen to. A move which it a much more raw and unpolished feeling that most documentaries. Something which seems to fit in well with the flavor and flair of the grunge world. Pray also focuses a lot on the silliness that was the “movement”, and how ridiculous it all really was. The commercialization, the back stabbing, the entire “Seattle Scene”, allowing the band members to actually say what’s on their mind. No matter how good, or how hostile it is.




Rating:

Not Rated by the MPAA




Video:

The cool thing about this 20 year re-release of Hype! Is the powers that be going back to the 35mm print and doing a brand new print of the film, making it one of the better looking documentaries I’ve seen for a while. Like most documentaries, there is varying levels of video quality depending on what scene is being shown at the moment. Much of the 35mm film stock used for the majority of the interviews and such looks SUPERB, with a nice layer of film grain over the whole picture. Clarity is sharp and colors well saturated for the most part. The old stock footage of bands on stage vary wildly, with some performances looking amazing, while others are sub VHS camera footage (such as Nirvana playing “Teen Spirit” for the first time). Blacks can vary depending, but overall this is a a very nice looking remaster for a 1990s documentary (I sadly have never seen the DVD so I have no frame of reference for the uptick in quality, but as a Blu-ray it really does look very nice).





Audio:

Wow, just wow. Documentaries are not known for having fantastic audio tracks due to them being mainly dialog taken from handi cams, but Hype! has a robust and POWERFUL track thanks largely to the copious amounts of grunge music embedded in the mix. The opening salvo just hits you in the chest with a hot song that just rips the LFE channel up and engages the whole surround experience. Sure there’s plenty of dialog heavy scenes that are front heavy, but there is just SO MUCH music flowing through that track that it maintains a really high standard of immersion and power. Mid bass kicks you right in the chest with Nirvana blasting “Teen Spirit” and a whole smorgasbord of 90s grunge bands get their turn at the mic, making this one incredible sounding audio mix.








Extras:

• BRAND NEW transfer from the 35mm interpositive
• NEW "Hype! 20 Years After" – Featuring New Interviews With Members Of Mudhoney, Soundgarden, And The Fastbacks, Record Producers Jack Endino And Steve Fisk, Manager Susan Silver, And Photographer Charles Peterson
• NEW Audio Commentary By Director Doug Pray
• Audio Commentary By Director Doug Pray And Producer Steve Helvey
• Peter Bagge's Animated Short, "Hate"
• Additional Performances (With Optional Director's Commentary) By Mudhoney, Supersuckers, Pond, And The Gits
• Additional Interviews With Megan Jasper, Art Chantry, Tad, Leighton Beezer, Peter Bagge, And More
• Theatrical Trailer

Final Score: ​

Hype! is a neat look back at a snapshot in music history, laying out one of the strangest rises and fall in the American music world. The early 90s was one of those periods of time that put a screeching halt on the 80s metal and punk scene, and literally steered the boat in a wildly different direction. In my opinion we still are on the course that was set from those Seattle garage band days over here in America, while Europe has continued on and revived the classic 80s metal and breathed new life into the genre. The disc itself is a great looking and sounding collectors edition from Shout Factory, and their usual assortment of excellent extras are well worth checking out. I definitely recommend this one as a good watch if you’re interested in the music scene.




Technical Specifications:

Starring: Valerie M. Agnew, Carrier Akre, Jeff Ament, Dawn Anderson
Directed by: Greg Pray
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 AVC
Audio: English DTS HD MA 5.1, English DTS-HD MA 2.0
Studio: Shout Factory
Rated: NR
Runtime: 83 Minutes
Blu-ray Release Date: September 29th, 2017

Image

• Michael Scott
• May 11, 2017

Recommendation: Good Watch

 

[tripplej]

Thanks for the review. Will add this to my watch list.