"Stop Spinning is my favorite U-Men record. The sound of a young band hitting its stride, moving away from its more obvious early influences."
—Tom Price, guitarist for the U-Men
Stop Spinning, the U-Men's second EP, was released in 1985 on 12" vinyl.
The EP features John Bigley on vocals, Jim Tillman on bass, Charlie Ryan on drums, and Tom Price on guitar.
John Nelson, who had produced and engineered the band's self-titled EP the previous year, did the same for this EP. Production was done at Crow Recording in Seattle.
Homestead Records, a sublabel of Dutch East India Trading, released the EP (release number HMS024). This was arranged by Sub Pop founder Bruce Pavitt, who had been a friend of Gerard Cosloy, operator of Homestead, since their days of making fanzines. According to Tom Price, Homestead was "definitely one of the outstanding record labels of the time, but the U-Men had little communication with them and had a hard time getting them to do things like sending promos to radio stations in towns we'd be touring through." The U-Men's manager, Larry Reid, has said, "We never got paid a cent, and we didn't even get the master recordings returned." Homestead seemed to lose interest in the U-Men after the independent music magazine Forced Exposure gave Stop Spinning and a U-Men concert in Boston poor reviews.
Track Listing
Side 1
- Clubs (4:20)
- The Fumes (3:24)
- Cow Rock (2:43)
Side 2
- Green Trumpet (3:52)
- A Year and a Day (3:53)
- Ten After One (2:57)
References
The U-Men. U-Men, Sub Pop, 2017. Liner notes.
Stop Spinning at Discogs