Formed: 1984
Disbanded: 1991
Line-up 1984-1985
Steve Mack: vocals;
Mike Fallhauber: guitar;
Seighton Beezer: bass;
Scott Schieler: drums.
Line-up 1985
Steve Mack: vocals;
Mike Fallhauber: guitar;
Steve Turner: guitar;
Seighton Beezer: bass;
Scott Schieler: drums.
Line-up 1986-1991
Eddy Fotheringham: vocals
Steve Turner: guitar
Seighton Beezer: bass
Mark Arm: drums
Biography
Ed Fotheringham
The idea behind the Thrown Ups was to have a band where no one ever practiced
and no one ever wrote songs. At their first show opening for Hüsker Dü
in February of 1985, the group brought raw oysters to throw at the audience if
the reaction was negative. The response turned out to be positive, but the band
doused the crowd with the sea creatures anyway. Such practice became commonplace
for the group, which began to incorporate visual elements in case the music was
horrific. The most famous of the Thrown Ups' lineups included vocalist
Ed Fotheringham, guitarist Steve
Turner, drummer Mark McLaughlin (aka Mark Arm), and
band founder/bassist John Beezer (aka Leighton Beezer).
Beezer had met his fellow bandmates at one of his house parties in February of 1984.
When they were on-stage, anything could happen. On one such occasion, dubbed
"the Bloody Pooper," Fotheringham rigged a bottle of ketchup to a tube that
expelled the condiment from the back of his pants. The end result was a terrified
audience covered in the substance.
Seattle's Thrown Ups began in the basement of the home occupied by Beezer and
original vocalist Steve Mack in 1984. Since the pair
had a variety of instruments in the house, they invited anyone who stopped by to
sit in on a jam, whether or not the people knew how to play. Friend
Mike Faulhaber happened to be hanging out
there quite frequently and took up the guitar. Rounded out by a drum machine, the
Thrown Ups were born. Mack left by the end of the year and moved to Europe, where
he formed That Petrol Emotion with two former members
of punk rock band the Undertones. Fotheringham joined
as the band's vocalist in the fall of 1984, followed by the group's mutual friend,
Scott Schickler, on drums. By October of
1985, Faulhaber had also left the Thrown Ups in order to move to England. Beezer
ran into guitarist Steve Turner at the Brookes Brothers store in Seattle. Beezer
explained the idea behind his new band to Turner and offered him the guitar spot
vacated by Faulhaber. Turner tried to decline, but Beezer persuaded him to join
by explaining that Turner would never have to write songs at practice, since the
group was based around improvisation. Schickler left the Thrown Ups in 1986, which
happened to be around the same time that McLaughlin was leaving the Seattle group
Green River. McLaughlin agreed to fill in as the Thrown
Ups' drummer.
By this time, the band was gigging at Seattle venues, such as the Vogue and
Scoundrel's Lair, opening up for bands like Bundle of Hiss. By mid-year, Turner
approached Tom Hazelmeyer, founder of
Amphetamine Reptile Records, about releasing
some material from the band. At first, Hazelmeyer displayed total disinterest, but
after Turner played a snippet of a Thrown Ups practice tape, Hazelmeyer agreed to
distribute all of the band's material. Prior to this, Amphetamine Reptile was
solely a vehicle to release music by Hazelmeyer's own band,
Halo of Flies. The Thrown Ups became the first group that
was actually signed to the label. The band booked time at Seattle's Reciprocal
Recording and laid down their Felch single with engineer
Jack Endino.
Here's how Hazelmeyer remembers those historic moments: "It was 1986, and the
7" realm wasn't exactly kicking and neither was AmRep's (non-existent) budget.
It was a match made in heaven. We're talking d.i.y. to the extreme. Recording,
pressing, designing, hand cutting, folding, stuffing, selling, promoting,
distributing, you get the picture -- the works, all done in a marine barracks
just north of Seattle. Well, a handful of folks gave the single a verbal/critical
pat on the back (Byron Coley, Gerard Cosloy, Peter Davis, Tim Adams
etc. etc.) which only spurred AmRep on to do more, and after a couple more
Halo's singles, some bonehead actually mistook Amphetamine Reptile for a
label as opposed to the vanity operation it was and asked Haze to put out his
records. Bonehead in question being none other than Steve Turner. Freshly
given the boot from Seattle's Green River, he tells Haze he's got this great
tape. "It's all improvised" which usually means "it sounds like the crap",
but before Haze could excuse himself from the room Steve slaps on the tape
and wham-an intensely fucked-up swirl of amazing trash. So The Thrown Ups
became the second band on AmRep.
A year or so later, Thrown Ups Steve and Mark Arm start up a band called
Mudhoney that in turn started a whole buttload more than anyone thought
possible."
By early 1987, the record caught the attention
of various critics, which included future Matador Records
co-owner Gerard Cosloy.
Almost everyone who heard the release gave it critical praise. That summer, the
band returned to Reciprocal Recording, recorded the Smiling
Panties single, and released it late that year. This was followed by the
recording of the Eat My Dump 7" in February of 1988.
An outtake from that session, titled "You Lost It," appeared on that year's
Sub Pop 200 compilation of Seattle groups.
By this time, Turner and McLaughlin had started the band Mudhoney
with Melvins bassist Matt Lukin and former Bundle of Hiss
drummer Dan Peters. That Halloween,
Mack returned to Seattle with That Petrol Emotion, who was receiving airplay on
MTV. The band was playing a show at the Moore Theater, where the Thrown Ups were
opening. During the Thrown Ups' set, they used That Petrol Emotion's amplifiers.
The Thrown Ups were playing at such an extreme volume that the roadies from That
Petrol Emotion feared the Thrown Ups would blow the gear. Midway through the Thrown
Ups' set, That Petrol Emotion's road crew appeared on-stage to turn the volume down.
According to Beezer, "Patrick McDonald, the classic big-paper rock
critic, panned us as being loud, sloppy, garage-inspired crap." Beezer finished
by stating, "[McDonald] was right -- apparently he hadn't heard of
grunge yet." By 1989, Amphetamine Reptile released their Dope,
Guns and Fucking in the Streets, Vols. 1-3 compilation, which included a track
from the Thrown Ups' Felch session. (Note: This was actually an
LP rounding up the first three installments of this 7" compilation series; the Thrown
Ups appeared on volume one, released in 1988, which also included the very first release
by the just formed Mudhoney). 1989 also found the Thrown Ups back at Reciprocal
with Endino recording their only full-length album, Melancholy
Girlhole. It appeared on the Munich, Germany, label
Glitterhouse the
following year, while it was released in the United States by Amphetamine Reptile as three
7" records.
In the next two years, Turner and McLaughlin began devoting their main attention
to Mudhoney. As a result, Beezer kicked everyone out of the Thrown Ups in 1991 and
labeled its former members as sellouts. Beezer said this was a convenient excuse to
avoid arguments, although the real reason he broke up the band was due to the fact
that it had exceeded its lifespan. While Turner and McLaughlin were spending their
post-Thrown Ups' days in Mudhoney, Beezer went on to form the bands El
Grand Conquistador and Stomach Pump. He also kept busy
as a program manager and developer for Microsoft. Fotheringham pursued his career in art,
designing album covers for Mudhoney, as well as many jazz labels like Verve. The Thrown
Ups' complete discography for Amphetamine Reptile appeared on a single album, titled
Seven Years Golden, on
January 28, 1997. The record also contained three bonus tracks. According to Beezer,
one of the previously unavailable songs, called "Bucking Retards," was a prototype
for Mudhoney's "Keep It Out of My Face."
What about a reunion?
"I think it's pretty unlikely. But we're all still friends. If there
was a really cool show and everyone was in the right mood, it could still
happen. We did get together for a photo shoot a couple months ago for a
magazine article and we all had fun." --Seighton, 1998
Discography
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Links
The Official Thrown-Ups, mantained
by Seighton himself.
The Thrown-Ups Fan Site is a great
place where you can find a complete discography, lyrics, pictures and more.
