mudhoney news

2000

We [Mudhoney] are playing Portland in about a week (dec 16) and we're going to California (and maybe Arizona) in mid january:
jan 12 San Francisco - Great American Music Hall
jan 13 Los Angeles, CA - Knitting Factory
jan 14 San Diego, CA - The Casbah
jan 15 Tempe, AZ - Nita's Hideaway
jan 16 Tucson, AZ - Club Congress

[Asked about the rumors reported in the previous entry] I have no idea, i've never met anyone from Mogwai (as far as i know).

[Talking about a possible european tour with Nebula next spring] We're working on that. We're tring to figure out if we can get over there or not.

I think the Sonics Band is going to play at the Crocodile on the 29th.

Mark Arm, 7 Dec

The NME claims that Mogwai are lining up a collaboration with Super Furry Animals frontman Gruff Rhys for their new album. Mogwai hope to use Gruff's vocals on one track and also intend approaching Mudhoney frontman Mark Arm and Chan Marshall (aka Cat Power) for additional vocal input.

Here We Go (Mogwai website), 2 Dec

We're still doing all sorts of monkeywrench shows, and mudhoney actually practiced today for a show Dec. 16 in Portland, with a few shows early next year yet to be worked out. With Matt, even.

Steve Turner, 18 Nov

I think I mentioned that I'm playing bass for Wellwater Conspiracy, with John McBain (ex-Monster Magnet) on gtr and Matt Cameron (ex-Soundgarden) on drums/vocals. We also have a parallel project called Brotherhood of the Electric, which has Ben Shepherd (SG) on vocals and Dan Peters (Mudhoney) on drums. Since Matt has been on the road with PJ, Brotherhood worked up a set of mostly weird sixties psych-rock covers and a couple Wellwater tunes, and our debut gig was opening for Nebula a couple months ago. We slayed people; there are pictures at www.stonerrock.com, and also at the Unofficial Ben Shepherd website (look it up, easy to find) and I have some better ones (by Vince Gipson, http://www.rockphotographer.com) that I will post when I have time to scan 'em.

Coming up: Brotherhood will impersonate Wellwater Conspiracy for the 4th Terrastock, in Seattle on Nov. 3rd thru 5th. (info: http://www.terrascope.org)

It gets weirder yet. APPARENTLY (I'll believe it when I'm standing on the stage) Wellwater Conspiracy is opening the Nov 6th Pearl Jam/Chili Peppers show in Seattle, because Ed's a fan! I've played some big gigs but, er, never this big. It'll be just our luck that we'll end up playing with the house lights on or something. Oh well, Monkeywrench, Fastbax, Murder City Devils and Zeke have gotten to do it, now it's our turn.

Jack Endino Newsletter, 3 Nov

[Talking about the Monkeywrench show at the "Serie B" festival] Oh yeah... Mark Lanegan cancelled... as for the Make Up, they are good friends but we didn't get to see each other because we were in Malorca when they played the festival and they had to leave before we played the festival. I recorded some things with them here in Texas but it has never come out. I was also hoping that Delta 72 would have been there. They are great friends too and the stuff i recorded with them came out in Japan.

Tim Kerr, 13 Oct

We just got back from anchorage alaska, a wild & strange place. We had a killer time in japan as well. We're off to spain on tuesday.

Mark Arm, 30 Sep

Random summer news ... the "Superfuzz Bigmuff" vinyl reissue has reached #7 in the Rocket's Top Ten Selling Records in Seattle back in August ... Dan has been drumming with a new band, called Brotherhood of the Electric, with John McBain, Jack Endino and Ben Shepard ... he also joined Love Battery at a Bundle of Hiss CD release party ... the Monkeywrench have been working on a dozen of new songs ... the New Strychnines recordings sound great, but so far noone seems to know when they'll come out.

[Sep 15]

Here are a bunch of [Monkeywrench] dates that you may or may not know about...

august 11 - las vegas
august 19 - seattle free skate show
sept 1 - portland with nebula
sept 2 - seattle bumbershoot
sept 7 - shinjuku, japan
sept 10 - nagoya, japan
sept 11 - osaka, japan
sept 13 - shinjuku, japan
sept 28 - anchorage, alaska
oct 6 - spain
oct 7 - spain, serie B festival
nov 4 - seattle, terrastock
nov 9 - detroit with nebula
nov 10 - chicago with nebula
nov 11 - minneapolis with nebula
nov 12 - greenbay, all ages

Tim Kerr, 25 Jul

The US release date for the "Here comes sickness - BBC recordings" is now Sep 19th (CD-only, put out by Fuel 2000).

[Jul 24]

Sub Pop has reissued four of its classic LPs on vinyl: they are "Bleach" (Nirvana), "Thank heaven for little girls" (Dwarves), "Screaming life" (Soundgarden) and "Superfuzz Bigmuff".

[Jul 19]

[Talking about an interview on the french newspaper Liberation] We gave the girl from the french newspaper your web address as a link but she emailed and said her editors cut that bit out. She apologized for that and also for not knowing who Mark was. She contacted me through friends and was basically looking to get some local musicians input on what they thought of the EMP and had no idea who Mark was. She said some friends later told her about Mudhoney and she said she was most embarassed.

We're playing in Spain at some festivals in October.

Martin Bland, 13 Jul

I had the pleasure of working with Mudhoney in the studio again after 6 years. They booked three days with me to record a couple songs "for a single", they said. Steve was going to overdub the bass parts. Then I got an email from Wayne Kramer, who you may recall was a guitarist for the mighty MC5 circa 1972, saying how much he was "looking forward to working with me on the sessions." Huh?? I had to call Mark Arm and say, hey, what's the story? Turns out that Wayne works as an A+R guy for an internet record company called MusicBlitz.com, and they had commissioned Mudhoney (who are now free agents, having been dropped by Warner's) to give them one song, to be exclusively available on the Musicblitz.com web site. Wayne was going to fly up to Seattle to produce, which implied therefore that I would be "merely" engineering. To which I said, if Wayne Kramer wants to produce Mudhoney while I engineer, who the hell am I to argue? You don't really "produce" Mudhoney, anyway. I figured, I'll just do my thing. As it turned out, Wayne is a sweet guy, and he ended up playing bass on three Mudhoney songs, one of which, "Inside Job", is now available at Musicblitz.com. A second song, "The Straight Life," was finished and mixed; a third, untitled, has no vocals yet but does have Wayne contributing a guitar solo. So much fun was had by all that I think Mudhoney (the three who remain) will probably come in later in the year and do a few more songs... and maybe, just maybe, they will eventually have enough for an album. They're in no hurry, and like it that way. Right now, Mark and Steve are busy with Monkeywrench.

Jack Endino Newsletter, 20 Jun

A compilation is currently in the works for the Las Vegas Shakedown. It should be out by mid June. Acts commited to the project so far, are Andre Williams, Bantam Rooster, Buck, Cheater Slicks, Flash Express, Forty-Fives, Fuzztones, Hard Feelings, Horrors, Lords of Altimont, Monkey Wrench, Necessary Evils, New Bomb Turks, Raunch Hands, Real Kids, Screws, Super Bees, Throwrag, Zodiac Killers, and possibly a few others. About half the tracks will be exclusives.

www.vegasshakedown.net, 19 Jun
[Actually this came out in mid April, but I found it out only now]

We are doing two or three shows of Sonics covers for the opening of (Microsoft billionaire) Paul Allen's Experience Music Project Museum. They got a whole bunch of old Northwest bands like the Viceroys, The Wailers, and The Kingsmen to play, but they couldn't get the Sonics to reunite. So Scott McOi of the Young Fresh Fellows came up with the idea of getting a tribute band together to make sure the Sonics' legacy is represented. Scott is playing keyboards. Tom Price, of Monkeywrench and Gas Huffer is playing guitar, as is the Big Kahuna of Girl Trouble fame. Craig Florey is playing the saxophone. Dan is drumming. Steve is playing the bass. And I'm the singer.

Mark Arm, 8 Jun

I run an Australian label called Dropkick that's releasing the Monkeywrench CD in Australia. I'm not actually doing a 7", but rather compiling all the 7"s that are coming out now onto some sort of mini-album later on.

At the moment there are no definite touring plans for down here, though I'm meeting with them in Seattle in a few weeks (the Onyas are playing there) and we'll get something rolling with any luck. Naturally these things take time, so it should happen next year.

Richard Stanley, 20 May

I just wanted to let you know that your favorite band has a track on the Gearhead Magazine singles compilation "Runnin’ On Fumes!" Released last month, the CD contains every single tune that was ever recorded for one of the singles that came inside Gearhead Magazine between 1993 and 1999. In your case, Mudhoney recorded the tracks "Blues for Stoner" and "Fuzz Gun 2001" back in 1999, for Gearhead #9. As I understand, it was Matt's last trip into the studio! As far as I know, this is first time these songs have appeared on a CD.

The CD sells for $11 postpaid in the US, from Gearhead Records P.O. Box 421219, San Francisco, CA 94142. Foreign folks should add a few extra bucks for postage... Also, www.gearheadmagazine.com is up and running!

Mike LaVella, 18 May

Here are the [London] dates:

27th The Borderline
Support: The Alchemysts and Nomads

28th The Borderline
Support: The Golden Guineas and the Country Teasers

29th and 30th Wembley supporting Pearl Jam

I'll be staying at Bruce Brand's (Headcoats) house in north London with Martin & Tom. (Steve and Tim are staying elsewhere.)

Mark Arm, 16 May

[Talking about the Wylde Ratttz] Well you know they did that movie, Velvet Goldmine, and they asked us to make this music with Ron Asheton, of the Stooges... and it was with Mike Watt, and Thurston, and Mark Arm and Ron Asheton and myself, and it was lots of fun, and we just recorded all this material, and we wanted to put out, like, the soundtrack album and then a whole album of Wylde Ratttz music, and I guess the movie wasn't as big as they had planned though, and so the record never happened... but we're talking about doing something on our own with some of this stuff, so maybe someday they'll see the light of the day... but it's pretty straight ahead, you know, it's Stooges stuff.

[Playing with Ron] It was amazing, he really has a big sound and, you know, in the same room, with his amps, doing all the Stooges reharsal, it was lots of fun, and you know, Mike playing bass, and Mark singing some of the times, Thurston singing, Don singing... it was cool, we did a couple of Pretty Things covers and some Stooges songs and then Mark and Ron wrote some things together.

Steve Shelley, 2 May

The [Monkeywrench] album is out now, distributed in Italy via Venus.

We [Cargo UK] imported the 180gm Estrus vinyl version, and we put the CD out on Sweet Nothing.

The Monkeywrench are coming over to do 4 UK shows, two headline shows at the Borderline on 27/28th May. Also they support Pearl Jam on 29/30 May at Wembley.

Simon Keeler, 28 Apr

"Inside Job" is online! Brand new song, recorded one week ago, with Wayne Kramer on bass! Download it for free from MusicBlitz.

[Apr 26]

Just wanted to let you know that Mudhoney has reformed to record a brand new track ("Inside Job") for Musicblitz. The band recorded over the weekend in Seattle at Jack Endino's studio and Waye Kramer (of the MC5) played bass on the track and co-produced. Look for "Inside Job" as a free download on www.musicblitz.com later this week. The new track will also be featured on a record that Musicblitz will be releasing later this year with new music from Wayne Kramer, Dee Dee Ramone, Richard Hell, John Doe, Xene, Chris Spedding and a few other big surprises.

Stan Savage, 25 Apr

We went into the studio last friday & saturday (April 21 & 22) and recorded 3 songs which feature brother Wayne Kramer (formerly of the fuckin' MC5!) on the bass. He came up to co-produce a song which will be available as a free MP3 download at musicblitz.com and became our bass player for a weekend. The song they are going to post is called "Inside Job" and should be up very soon (sometime this week, maybe even today or tomorrow). We also completed another song called "The Straight Life", and we recorded the music for a 3rd song which has no name yet, but brother Wayne played some amazing guitar on it as well as bass. We will probably go into the studio sometime later this summer when we have a couple of more songs and complete the unfinished track. Steve & I are way too busy with Monkeywrench from now 'till the begining of june to work on Mudhoney stuff.

Mark Arm, 25 Apr

Pearl Jam update: their shows in London with the Monkeywrench are now scheduled May 29 and 30, and not 30 and 31 as previously reported.

In other news, Au Go Go, the Melbourne-based label that, under licence from Sub Pop, had put out various Australian versions of Mudhoney records, is about to reissue the You're Gone EP, a 3-track 7" still unreleased on CD. It will be pressed on black vinyl, and so far it seems that nor the sleeve or the record is going to mention that this is a reissue, so it will be hard to say if one copy is from the original 1990 edition or from a later press.

[Apr 7]

five weeks now since surgery, ten since this sick ride began. lots of good news: after a harrowing six days, the bladder infection subsided. six days that will live for me in infamy. last week the piss-bag tube got yanked from my bladder by the doc at county so no more plastic in watt. also, no more antibiotics and no more narcotic painkillers (nightmare givers / constipators). hurting a little but healing right along.

on saturday (april one) I played my bass for the first time since feb one. I played for about an hour and my fingers were really weak and unsure. I just improvised around a d7 chord, playing slow and always returning to the root, d. it sure was a weird experience. I haven't gone that long w/out playing since I started doing bass as a teenager. such a trip... I'm gonna take it a little bit at a time each day. [...]

Mike Watt, 4 Apr
[I've just found out that Watt has gone through serious illness: read its other reports from March 7th and March 20th. Mike was the bass player for the Wylde Ratttz]

We go in the studio on the 21st & 22nd of April. Other that the fact that one is going to musicblitz.com, we have no other plans for them, maybe a single, but who knows. Song titles haven't been decided yet.

Mark Arm, 3 Apr

Check out www.lovelessrecords.com and read about the upcoming release of Bundle of Hiss (out in May). Bundle of Hiss was Dan Peters first band and a very influential band in Seattle at the birth of grunge. We would love to get linked up to your fine site with Bundle of Hiss sure to be of interest to your readers and fans. This CD recaptures all of the previously unreleased BOH material which has been faithfully remixed and remasted by Jack Endino.

Peter Nordstrom, 2 Apr

Jack Endino took some photos of the Monkeywrench while they were practicing in his studio for the Nov 12th gig: go see'em.

[Apr 1]

http://wscbeta04.worldstream.com/login/login.cfm?showtimeid=515492518
That link will take people to the archived Mudhoney chat, so you guys should keep it at the sites.

Steve Turner, 31 Mar

Mudhoney is doing a live video web-chat tonight, March 30th at 7:00pm Seattle Time.
Watch Mark, Dan and Steve sit around, drink beer and talk to each other and you!
Ask us anything. Anything.
Check it out at: http://wscbeta04.worldstream.com/login/login.cfm?showtimeid=515492518
Log on and register ahead of time to make sure everything works with your computer!

Steve Turner, 30 Mar

I have spent the past year sporadically resurrecting and assembling material for a Bundle of Hiss CD using old tapes that had never been mixed, and in some cases, cassettes of old mixes from master tapes that have long since disappeared. Most were from eight-track tapes recorded by Ric Vaughn in his long-dead Audio Design studio, '87-88; some were old tapes I did at Reciprocal in '86. Some tapes had to be baked in order to get 'em to play long enough to transfer 'em to digital so I could mix 'em. With help and patience from three of the ex-members (Danny Peters, drums; Jamie Lane, vocals and guitar; Kurt Danielson, bass) I finally finished this labor of love, which will be released soon, on, amusingly enough, a new label called Loveless Records.

The new Monkeywrench album is out on Estrus, titled "Electric Children". And speaking of members of Mudhoney, they have indicated their intention to cut a couple of songs with me in the near future, as a three-piece.

Jack Endino Newsletter, 27 Mar

Mudhoney is doing a video chat Thursday March 30 at 7:00 pm West Coast time. Here's the link: http://wscbeta04.worldstream.com/login/login.cfm?showtimed=515492518. The three of us will be there.

We're still practicing a lot and writing songs to record in April.

Monkeywrench is getting ready for the release of the record and the shows at the end of April in the Northwest: 27th in Portland, 28th we have two shows in Seattle at the Crocodile, the early show is all ages, 29th two shows in Bellingham, early show is all ages, and the 30th in Vancouver, BC. In May we go to Texas and play Dallas on the 12th and Austin on the 13th. Then we go to London for two club shows on the 26/27, and two Pearl Jam opening slots on the 30th/31st.

Steve Turner, 23 Mar

I'm an A&R of Trippin' Elephant Records. Yes, we are releasing the new Monkeywrench album "Electric Children" here in Japan.

Here's the details:
Cat Number: COCB-50270 / TERNG-013
Price: 2,415 yen
Street Date: April 21, 2000

We will not press vinyl LP but instead, we will release limited edition 7" single "Solar Revelations" either on June or July.

Regarding the website, we are currently working on it. It will be ready by early-April. I will let you know as soon as it's ready.

Suguru Funatsu, 22 Mar

good news is that my deep wounds from the surgery (where they drained that big fucking abscess) are slowly healing up good. no fever since coming home. am strong enough to use the 'puter now for some period of time so I can return all the nice emails I got from you folks wishing me well. I will get to each one in time. can also resume sending out the flow I used to do. have to set at a big angle but I've adjusted keyboard and trackpad accordingly along w/the donut foam pad I use to sit my sore ass on. sort of like how I am in the rented hosp bed (thanks again mark g) but in front of the 'puter. can walk to the head and small shit like that but mostly I'm still on my back. these holes are going to take time to fill but I've got the will to be still and let things run their course. reading and thinking lots while I'm doing it. missing the bass but it can wait. has to.

bad news is cuz there's still a cathater coming from my bladder, I contracted a bladder infection so the pain thing has been pretty intense. it's like pissing out fishing hooks. treble ones at that. gotta go through w/it though cuz the dick hole will close up and I'll be on the piss bag forever and I don't want that. so every piss is about dancing on your toes, hollering your head off. been four days of that so far but it's worth it if it means getting well and getting right. I couldn't lean on that piss bag as a crutch forever anyway. sunday I get the bladder tube pulled if things look good and I won't have any more plumbing coming out of me (the dick one - which the docs plugged so I could heal there - came out about ten days ago).

so that's where I am so far on this voyage. so many thanks to all the well wishes I've gotten, all my love back. I'm a lucky man, both in friends and providence. I owe you all so much, thanks again for helping this watt out.

Mike Watt, 20 Mar

[Talking about the Monkeywrench MP3s] That's cool, those songs are fine. It'd also be cool if you had the release date up and had links to the various labels who are releasing the record, Estrus in the US, Sweet Nothing in Europe, and Tripping Elephant in Japan.

Mark Arm, 16 Mar

last monday (feb 28), after a whole month of mis-diagnosis, fever and big time pain, I found myself in an ambulance, heading for l.a. county / usc medical center for emergency surgery on a burst abscess of the purineum (sp?, the area between the legs, just rear of the balls). it was like a bullet hole from the inside and more than a quart of pus dumped out. I was all full of it. a team of surgeons headed by a doctor hopkins (much respect) cut me open, drained me and cleaned me up, leaving three huge cavities. however, no organs were infected - only the soft tissue. they did excellent work and saved me. it's gonna be a slow go though healing the cavities from the bottom up so there's no infection. I got back yesterday and now will be down six to eight weeks. this hosp was for econo folks so it was like four of us to the room w/no phone and I couldn't let anyone know what happened. only my ma and sister knew so sorry for keeping everyone in the dark. I'm on the road to healing now and am very happy after sufferring the whole month of feb just laying there getting worse and not knowing what was really going on inside me.

Mike Watt, 7 Mar

Here are some snapshots from last night's online chat with Steve: in the last two, he's performing the song "I'm a Sno-dad" with ex Steel Wool Steve Dukich.

[Mar 1]

Please note the brand new address for the Sno-Dad web-cast today at 4:00 pm! Seattle Time! Pass it on!
http://events.worldstream.com/login/login.cfm?showtimeid=575496527

Steve Turner, 29 Feb

Just to let you know, I'm hosting a web show about The Sno-dad, a backcountry snowboard without bindings, tomorrow. We'll be playing some new Monkeywrench stuff, and me and Steve Dukich, one of the inventors and ex-Steel Wool frontman will perform "I'm a Sno-dad" on accoustic guitars. Should be odd.
http://www.worldstream.com/login/login.cfm?showtimeid=565492504

And Mark Dan and I are getting together in a couple days to work on a couple new songs as a trio... Should be odd.

Steve Turner, 28 Feb

"Sugar Man", the Monkeywrench 7" anticipating their second LP, will feature the exclusive song "The pusher" on the b-side.

[Feb 23]

Mark asked me to forward you our web address. Our distribution company, Kung Fu, sells Mudhoney merchandise online.

Barbara Herring, 14 Feb
[Tannis Root/Kung Fu also does t-shirts for bands like the Blues Explosion, Sonic Youth and others]

The Monkeywrench album comes out on April 4th on Estrus here in the States and it's probably coming out on Sweet Nothing in the UK/Europe. It's also coming out in Japan, but I can't remember the name of the label. The only difference between the LP and the CD is that the last song ("In the days of the five") fades out on LP due to time constraints.

Mark Arm, 14 Feb

Okay, okay we fucked up there. Somehow "March From Fuzz" got put on the comp instead of "March To Fuzz". It's the same song, but played with reverb and without fuzz. We totally forgot that version existed and when Tammy from Sub Pop told Steve over the phone that the song on the DAT was called "March From Fuzz" he thought that was a mistake Conrad Uno made when he wrote down the title on the DAT cover.

["Paperback life"] is a Mudhoney song. Steve wrote it, sang it and was too embarrassed to take credit for it when we released it because it is such an obvious rip-off of a Billy Childish style song (but then Billy does obvious rip-offs of the Kinks, Bo Diddley, etc). "She's Just 15" is a Milkshakes cover however. Somehow those two songs got confused in the Rocket interview.

[Talking about photo #22 in the "March To Fuzz" booklet, which is said to be from 1993 while it's from 1989] I have no idea how that happened either. We went over and over this shit with the art department at Sub Pop. The last mock-up I saw was just fine. I guess the thing is that there is so much small print on this thing and there were at least 4 different people emailing shit back and forth. It was pretty confusing. Somewhere something was bound to be wrong. It's just unfortunate that it didn't get caught and corrected. It's out and there's nothing I can do about it now. And it's really no big deal. The imporatnt thing is the music.

Mark Arm, 12 Feb

The Insound chat, originally set for Jan 17th, is now rescheduled for Feb 24th. Meeting time is 9 PM (EST), so, again, european fans must log in at 2 AM (London), 3 AM (Paris) etc.

[Feb 6]

Primal Chaos OnLine did a nice interview with Steve Turner, and has set up a competition where you can win a CD and a poster.

[Feb 4]

We've (Monkeywrench) got a single on Estrus coming out soon, one on In The Red, and another on a japanese label that's also doing the Monkeywrench cd. Non LP b-sides on the estrus and japanese ones, and two unreleased songs on the In The Red one.

Tim Kerr was just in Italy for two weeks recording a band in Torino I think.

Steve Turner, 4 Feb

The record [Monkeywrench] "Electric Children" will be out April 4 on Estrus Records. Hopefully we'll go to Japan, Australia, NZ, Spain and Austin sometime soon.

Steve Turner, interviewed by Primal Chaos, 1 Feb

Here's a scan of the new Monkeywrench CD/LP... Thought you might want to put it up on the site.

Carl Ratliff, 31 Jan

[Talking about "Here Comes Sickness"] I'm not sure when that's coming out, but it's stuff we recorded for the BBC (live at Reading 1995 + 2 Peel sessions, well one wasn't for John Peel's show, but we like to pretend that it was).

Mark Arm, 28 Jan

The Strange Fruit CD is called "Here Comes Sickness, The Best of the BBC Recordings" and should be out really soon. It's got all 4 songs from the Peel session of 5/89, all 4 songs from the radio session of 5/95 and about 10 songs from Reading 95. It's also being released in the states on Fuel 2000 Records in a few months.

Steve Turner, 27 Jan

March 7th, 2000: The Monkeywrench "Sugar Man" 7" ES7149
Time to to exhale smackdaddy 'cause the wait is over... following a eight year furlong, the five horsemen of the musical apocalypse, the Monkeywrench, are back and have offered up this seven-inch blues/psych sermon as a primer for the full-length "Electric Children" LP/CD set to land April ‘00. The a-side acid flash is culled from that aforementioned album while the flip is exclusive to the single. the Monkeywrench is Mark Arm, Martin Bland, Tim Kerr, Tom Price, and Steve Turner. Recorded by Jack Endino and Tim Kerr at Private Radio, Seattle. Full-color, deluxe jacket design by Art Chantry. Limited Edition of 2,000 copies on Estrus Records.

April 4th, 2000: The Monkeywrench "Electric Children" LP/CD ES1269
The 'wrench is back! The beast that started out as a one off side project 8 years ago has picked up where it left off 7 years later, the five horsemen of the musical apocalypse are out from the shadows to spread the Monkeywrench sound! While preparing for their showstoppin' set at Garage Shock '99 the Monkeywrench began to write new songs. A second chapter of the conspiracy of the wrench. And so it was decreed that the Monkeywrench would once again enter into the studio to burn their trademark sounds onto tape. Mark Arm (Mudhoney), Steve Turner (Mudhoney), Tim Kerr (Lord High Fixers), Tom Price (Gas Huffer), and Martin Bland (Lubricated Goat) got back together this past November at Private Radio in Seattle, WA with honorary wrench Jack Endino at the board. The result: the Monkeywrench "Electric Children" LP/CD. 13 tracks of heavy psych/blues infected raunch... a call to arms from the "Electric Children"... bring on the judgement day!

www.estrus.com, 22 Jan
[The LP version will be limited to 1000 copies on 180g vinyl]

We [Estrus] are putting out a Monkeywrench 7" that will be out on march 7th. I'll have a cover scan for you soon. By the way, on your band page under the information for Tim Kerr, Tim does not own or is no way affliated with T/K records. There is a lot of confusion about this, but T/K is based out of Portland, OR and Tim lives in Austin, TX. Tim Kerr does not run a record label at all, he just does a lot of producing, and actually he s headed to Italy on wed to do some producing... Just thought I would clear that up.

The LP version of the Monkeywrench record will be limited to 1000 copies and will be pressed on 180 gram vinyl. I am unsure what label they are releasing a 7" on in Australia.

Carl Ratliff, 17 Jan

On Jan 17th Mudhoney will do an online chat with fans, hosted on InSound; you don't need any special software to partecipate, though you may want to toggle the "enable cookies" feature of your browser on. The chat starts at 9 PM (EST), which means that european fans will have to show up at 2 AM (London), 3 AM (Paris) and so on.

[Jan 12]

The Monkeywrench have minimal touring plans, limited to those shows that the band members might somehow construe as "fun." And, it looks as though tours through Australia/New Zealand in March 2000 (with the concurrent release of a single in Australia!), and Japan at an as-yet-to-be-determined time will most definately qualify.

"March To Fuzz" press kit, 10 Jan

Coming Soon...
Vegas Shakedown Punk Weekender
Gold Coast Casino & Hotel, Las Vegas
August 11 - 13 2000

Bands confirmed so far:
Bantam Rooster, Bobbyteens, Cheater Slicks, Countdowns, Dead Moon, Dictators, Donnas, Drags, Electric Frankenstein, Fabulous Prizes, Gimmicks, Guitar Wolf, Hookers, Horrors, Wayne Kramer, Lazy Cowgirls, Monkey Wrench, Murder City Devils, Nashville Pussy, Necessary Evils, Raunch Hands, Real Kids, Von Zippers, Andre Williams, Zodiac Killers.
Many more to be announced.

www.vegasshakedown.net, 5 Jan