Last night I was supposed to go to Shea Stadium to see the Mets battle the Braves, but due to a rainout I found myself at home watching Hype!, the documentary about the Seattle music scene during the rise of the grunge era. I've gotten a bunch of musical docs over the past few months from Netflix, and this film doesn't compete with ones like Hated: GG Allin & the Murder Junkies or Punk: Attitude. Not much new insight. But it does give equal interview time to members of famous bands (like Pearl Jam, The Melvins, Soundgarden, and Supersuckers) and to ones who didn't gain mainstream success (like 7 Year Bitch and Coffin Stain - the non-famous bands had much better names, dontcha think?). Interesting to listen to their different viewpoints. It also shows the first ever live performance of "Smells Like Teen Spirit," featuring different lyrics than the Nevermind version.
But the best part of the movie was when Megan Jasper, a sales rep for Sub Pop discusses the 1992 article in the New York Times about grunge. During her interview with the paper, they asked her for grunge slang terms. She told them to give her words, and she would translate them into grunge-speak... but basically she just made shit up, and the Times published them all. You can read the article here, but I think you need to log in... so here's her infamous, ingenious list.
Lexicon of Grunge: Breaking the Code
WACK SLACKS: Old ripped jeans
FUZZ: Heavy wool sweaters
PLATS: Platform shoes
KICKERS: Heavy boots
SWINGIN' ON THE FLIPPITY-FLOP: Hanging out
BOUND-AND-HAGGED: Staying home on Friday or Saturday night
SCORE: Great
HARSH REALM: Bummer
COB NOBBLER: Loser
DISH: Desirable guy
BLOATED, BIG BAG OF BLOATATION: Drunk
LAMESTAIN: Uncool person
TOM-TOM CLUB: Uncool outsiders
ROCK ON: A happy goodbye