It’s been just over 20 years since Doug Pray’s (HBO’s The Defiant Ones, Scratch, Surfwise, Art & Copy) excellent documentary Hype! was released, capturing the story behind the organic rise of the influential movement that would come to be known as grunge. Fast forward to 2017, where the film is as relevant as ever, and will finally get its first Blu-ray release, as well as an updated DVD release, on Shout! Factory’s Shout Select line. Hype! (Collector’s Edition) will be available September 29, and will include a new audio commentary with Director Doug Pray, vintage Interviews and performances, Peter Bagge’s animated short “Hate”, outtakes, and a new featurette with interviews and insights from some of the original characters in Hype! two decades later.
 
Drop into the Pacific Northwest in the early ’90s and watch a vibrant underground music scene explode into a global “grunge” media frenzy. Hype! follows the music from local bands playing for their friends, to Sub Pop Record’s brilliant exploitation of “the Seattle Sound,” to Nirvana's “Smells Like Teen Spirit” hitting #1 on the charts. Questions of money, authenticity, and fame arise as “grunge fashion” hits the runways and a mass migration of wanna-be Seattle bands saturates the city. The Northwest experience is one of humor, loss, and epic irony.


 
Hype! (Collector’s Edition) showcases rare performance footage of Soundgarden, Pearl Jam, Nirvana (their first live performance of “Smells Like Teen Spirit” is here), Mudhoney, Supersuckers, The Young Fresh Fellows, Fastbacks, Seaweed, 7 Year Bitch, The Posies, The Gits, Flop, Gas Huffer, Love Battery, The MonoMen, Melvins, Blood Circus, Coffin Break, Dead Moon, Hammerbox, Some Velvet Sidewalk, Zipgun and Crackerbash.
 
Through interviews with members of Soundgarden, Pearl Jam, Gas Huffer, Mudhoney, Screaming Trees, Seven Year Bitch, The Supersuckers, Sub Pop Records co-founders Jonathan Poneman and Bruce Pavitt, K Records founder Calvin Johnson, Empty Records founder Blake Wright, Soundgarden/Alice In Chains manager Susan Silver, and many more, Hype! rocks the definitive story of the world’s last great local music scene.
 
Doug Pray's first feature film, Hype!, premiered in competition at the 1996 Sundance Film Festival, won Best Documentary at the Seattle International Film Festival and went on to receive wide critical acclaim and international theatrical distribution. It was given "two thumbs up!!!" by Siskel & Ebert, listed at #10 among the top 25 music DVDs of all time by Rolling Stone, and one of the top 50 best music documentaries of all time by Vulture. Pray’s most recent project is HBO’s 4-part series The Defiant Ones, for which he was executive producer, writer, and editor. The Defiant Ones airs throughout summer of 2017.