mudhoney news

2002

Francisco from Mexico just found a section on launch.com with an online streaming version of the "Sonic infusion" video, together with seven more Mudhoney clips, from "Here comes sickness" to "Judgement, rage, retribution and thyme".

http://launch.yahoo.com/artist/videos.asp?artistID=1018798

Visit Francisco's Mudhoney webpage at www.geocities.com/superfuzzmx.

[Dec 8]

A video for "Sonic Infusion" has ben shot, apparently at least two months ago. The following report was provided by David from Slovenia:

"Am i the only one to know?! I can't find anything about that, anywhere. Nothing! No news on the net... Almost a month ago now, i saw a Mudhoney video on MTV Europe. Sonic Infusion."

"It was played on MTV Europe about a month ago, on a programme called "MTV: brand new" or something like that. I remember that I was in my room when my bro rushed in that I'd proboably want to "check this out". The woman of MTV was talking something about the "grunge movement", and Nirvana, and Pearl Jam, and how Mudhoney was the next in line to make it big, and how they didn't make it big, and how they're back now, on sub pop, with a new record. Ahh."

"Anyway, it was like this: some Asian looking chicks in strange suits carry around a box, which looks very protected, like it's radioactive or something. One of them opens it and takes out something very shiny and really cool looking, and puts it under a microscope. There are the guys, with some strange camera effects, and zooming in and zooming out, and all those strange colors are around them, and everything's rotating, and... and then the thing blows up, and there are some more Asian babes, and some more radiation... Well, that's kind of it. Nice. Even though i proboably botched everything up now."

[Nov 25]

Tannis Root (Mudhoney's official merchandise dealer) has put out a new t-shirt, similar to the one that can be bought at the shows these days: it's blue with the band logo used on Since We've Become Translucent. Available in all sizes.

[Nov 10]

As you probably know, Mudhoney are long time fans of the early american hardcore punk scene. The fiercely independent record label Dischord, who has beend documenting just that kind of sound since 1980, has recently celebrated its 20th birthday, and decided to do so by releasing a long awaited (and two years late) 3xCD box set:

The "20 Years of Dischord" box set is finally available. For those who haven't heard us talking about this for the last 2 years, the box set is comprised of 2 cds, with one track from each band on the label (including one track from each band on "Flex Your Head"), and a third disc with unreleased material and some very early, video footage.

This is a great chance to listen to the original version of Void's "Dehumanized" (covered by Mudhoney on "March To Fuzz") together with dozens of other great tracks by amazing bands such as the Teen Idles (whose record appeared on the cover of the "Blinding Sun" single), Minor Threat, Youth Brigade, Rites Of Spring, Shudder To Think, Fugazi, Nation Of Ulysses, Jawbox, Circus Lupus, The Make Up, Q And Not U and more. And did I mention that the set is priced a mere $25 inside USA and only slightly more abroad? Definitely recommended.

[Nov 1]

News from Mark:
guy's in his final quarter of nursing school and we're not playing out until he's finished. it looks like we might play a show or two with pearl jam begining the evening of guy's last final. we haven't even been rehearsing lately.

[Oct 14]

"Sonic infusion" is the first single off the new record and will be released by Sub Pop on September 24. This will be a 7" only release, and will feature an edited version of the album track on the A side and the Alice Cooper cover "Long way to go" on the flip. It's gonna be quite limited, too, either 500 or 1500 copies should be pressed. Note that it's been an old Sub Pop policy to release UK-only CD singles, so hopefully Mudhoney will receive such a treatment as well.

[Sep 11]

Today SWBT was featured for a split second on AllMusic's main page: click here for a screen capture.

[Sep 6]

Those of you trying to order the Monkeywrench/ILCK directly from Bronx Cheer should better wait until later this month since right now lable owner Jim and his band the Grease Monkeys are busy doing a three week euro tour with the Wednesdays (ex Quadrajets).

[Sep 4]

From Steve:
"As for the solo record and all that, I've pretty much finished recording it, I've got 16 songs, mostly from the Litho studio sessions with Johnny Sangster playing guitar and keys as well as producig, Dan on drums on some of it and Stone on the bass. there's a couple solo recordings from Egg a couple months earlier, too. I played my first show a couple weeks ago with Jesse Sykes and Konnie from the Kent 3, and it went pretty good. [Jesse Skyes] is a great local siger/songwriter with a great record out on Burn Burn Burn Records."

Forthcoming Steve solo shows:
Sep 19 - Seattle w/ Scott mcCaughey
Oct 5 - Seattle w/ Jesse Skyes
Nov - New York @ CMJ convention (TBC)

[Aug 27]

Why am I the last one to know? Scotland's coolest record label, Bronx Cheer, has recently released a Monkeywrench / Immortal Lee County Killers split 7". The Monkeywrench are on it with their studio version of the 13th Floor Elevators' "Levitation". Get it from:

Bronx Cheer Recordings
P.O. Box 13
Glasgow
G12 8NS
Scotland, UK

Record price and other ordering detalis will be posted as soon as possible.

And while you're there, go to Estrus and pick up your copy of Gas Huffer's newest album, "The Rest Of Us". In case you don't know, Gas Huffer is Tom Price's main band, and they're pretty good, too.

[Aug 6]

The support act for the euro tour will be young Sup Pop punk rockers the Catheters, check'em out.

Noone seems to know much about Steve's solo record (except from Steve, of course). Anyway, he will be playing a solo set on August 13th at the Sunset Tavern in Seattle.

[Aug 5]

The clear vinyl pressing of "Since We've Become Translucent" comes in a cool gatefold sleeve. Make sure to order your copy quickly because it's quite limited and Sub Pop says it will be the only pressing.

By the way, you can pre order the new record from Sub Pop. And, there are 25 signed LP's and 25 signed CD's awaiting for the first ones that will do so.

[Aug 4]

More from Mark:

Here's complete schedule...

Fri 8/23/02 Anaheim CA House of Blues- Anaheim
Sat 8/24/02 Los Angeles CA Sunset Junction Street Fair-Bates Stage

Thu 8/29/02 Seattle WA Showbox

Fri 9/6/02 Amsterdam, NL- Melkweg
Sat 9/7/02 Paris, F- La Boule Noire
Sun 9/8/02 London, UK- Peel Session
Mon 9/9/02 Nottingham, UK- Boat Club
Tue 9/10/02 Glasgow, UK- QMU
Wed 9/11/02 Manchester, UK- UNI
Thu 9/12/02 London, UK- Electric Ballroom
Fri 9/13/02 Madrid, Spain- Arena/La Riviera
Sat 9/14/02 Vitoria, Spain- Azkana Rock Festival

Fri 9/20/02 Cleveland Heights OH Grog Shop
Sat 9/21/02 Chicago IL The Abbey

[Jul 22]

A side note from Mark for all the collectors and vinyl loyalists that asked for a wax version of Since We've Become Translucent: "sub pop is doing the vinyl. i think it'll be clear. it will be limited in the sense that the market for vinyl is small. i'm not sure how many they are pressing up. as far as i know, only 2 copies of the test pressing were made."

[Jul 21]

The UK band My Vitriol has recently released a new single, "Moodswings", on various formats, including a DVD/audio CD, the fourth track here being a cover of Mudhoney's "Today is a good day". (Thanks, Ashik).

This is at least the third Mudhoney cover performed by hyped british bands, the two previous ones being the Ash stab at "Who you drivin' now" and, most notably, the live-only, unreleased version of "Touch me I'm sick" by former Take That member Mark Owen.

[Jul 19]

Ludovic reports that the venue for the Paris show is the Boule Noire. Tickets for that night are on sale now at www.fnac.com.

[Jul 11]

More news about the euro tour:

The Sept 8 show in Koln, Germany, has been cancelled. The band will instead fly to England one day earlier to record their third John Peel session. The next day the band will play in Nottingham, instead of Brighton as previously scheduled

The Amsterdam show will be held at the lovely Melkweg. And thanks to John for sending in the UK venues (note that a couple of gigs will be 18+ only). You'd better start calling the nearest show agency because tickets should be already on sale.

[Jul 10]

Here's the artwork for the new album:



[Jul 2]

Steve has just recorded a solo album. From Johnny Sangster:

Spent the week at Studio Litho recording for Steve Turner's latest effort, a solo album. The cast is Steve - ld. vocs and acoustic gtr (thru fender amp of course), Stone Gossard as executive producer and bassist, and Dan Peters on tiny drumset - Kick, Snare, HH, Cymbal and myself producing and playing various gtr's, keys and backing murmers. Floyd Reitsma is presiding over the control room mostly as I've been cajoled into playing so much.

Steve's been working on this stuff for about a half year now having only sung lead vocals occasionally in the past. In March he came to Egg and spent a day playing his songs live with acoustic and vocals and then a few again overdubbing the vocals onto the guitar tracks. A few of these takes turned out really good and might end up on the finished record but it was mainly a demo sort of day.

After listening and chatting and meeting and jamming the songs have turned into mostly a stripped down, folk rock sounding record. I could compare it to early electric era Dylan. Steve would probably say Towns Van Zandt. Not that I really care to compare it to anything but I can say that it sounds nothing like Mudhoney or Monkeywrench.

One of the biggest challenges, one that never was properly solved was trying to record a good footstomp. At Egg we found a small piece of plywood and mic'd it with an RE20, it was recorded together with a live gtr and vocal and turned out ok but kinda small. At Litho we had a few people stomp together on the wood floor which ended up more like a super boomy bass drum. Also kinda cool and was helped when I started banging two paperback books on the floor along with Steve and Stone's feet. I think it's all in the shoe but Steve's sticking with trying to find the right floor. Do you think we need a more expensive mic?

We recorded 14 songs in 5 days, ranging from the new wave "I'm 37" over the triphop "Instumental #1" to the early Faces-esque "Living through the Mistakes". There are some sad and lonely blues numbers and even a Sad and Lonely(s) cover "Idiot". Funny about the Sad and Lonely(s), there's a lyric that's been on the wall at Egg as long as I can remember for a song called "You're a pain". I never knew who it was by but always admired it's simple beauty -

you're a pain, insult my brain,
i'm alone in my room
with a girl
you walk thru the door
what'd you do that for?

you're a pain inslut my brain, etc...

Anyway it turns out to be a Sad and Lonely(s) song that Steve wrote for Ed Fatheringham to sing (it's about him). Also interesting sidenote, that record was produced by Dan Peters!

The Steve Turner project will continue through the summer and hopefully be out this fall to compete with Mudhoney's Since We've Become Translucent.

[Jun 28]

I've been receiving tons of emails asking for more informations about the September european tour, and since they were all asking for the same things, I'd better set some things straight here: no, there are no venues yet, and therefore no, you still can't buy tickets (the only exception is the 14/9 festival).

Also, there are rumors about a show in Madrid on the 13th but it hasn't been confirmed yet.

[Jun 19]

Here are some random news from Mark concerning forthcoming Mudhoney shows:

i've been playing my farfisa when we do Dig The Light live. i've also been playing it on Who You Drivin'. i don't know if it'll work on tour unless we can do a full tour with our own equipment. it looks like we'll only be able to do monkeywrench style touring where we fly in to cities for a weekend and borrow equipment. i'm not sure how easy it'd be to get a farfisa.

we are going to europe for 10 days in sept. we're making up for the spain show we bowed out of last year by playing two shows there. this is the tentative routing so far:

6 Amsterdam
7 Paris
8 Koln
9 Brighton
10 Glasgow
11 Manchester
12 London
14 Vittoria

we're recording the alice cooper cover and a buff medways song (for a billy childish tribute album) june 15.

[Jun 2]

From Todd:
Below are two confirmed Mudhoney dates the week after their album release in the Los Angles area.
Fri Aug 23rd House of Blues Anaheim
Sat Aug 24th Sunset Junction Outside Festival

[May 21]

When Mudhoney's first new album in four years is released this fall on the pioneering grunge label Sub Pop, it'll sound, well, like the Mudhoney you know and love — only different. "How do you describe it?" frontman Mark Arm asked. "Well, sort of Hawkwind vibe for this part of the song, then a Wipers thing going on here.

"But it's all meaningless," he quickly added during a recent interview. "Because it may not sound like that to anyone else." [...]

Read the entire article here.

[Apr 25]

According to Peter's page and other sources, Estrus should have just released "The Estrus Double Dynamite Sampler Volume 3" CD, which contains two brand new Monkeywrench songs (Black Plasic Tarp and Low on Air). The band should have about half an album ready to go, but the sessions are likely to be completed only after the new Mudhoney record gets out.

On a related note, the Monkeywrench live LP "...And One Really Nervous Guy", released by Lance Rock last fall, is sold out.

[Feb 27]

Since this is one of the most frequently asked questions, I'll post this mail from Mark here too:
i don't know if you have this on your web site or not, but this is where people can go to get mudhoney (as well as tons of other) t-shirts:
http://www.kungfunation.com/data/catalog.html

[Feb 20]

From Mark:
we may be going into the studio for the last session starting next weekend. we are recording 3 songs with martin feveyer at his studio, jupiter. he did most of the last lanegan record, and he's a great guy. once those songs are done we will have ten completed songs. and if we like the way they turn we will have an album. we recorded 3 songs at gravelvoice studio with scott colburn in november. we recorded 3 more with johnny sangster at egg in december. and we remixed "inside job" with jack endino. 2 of the songs are pretty long. "sonic infusion" is over 6 minutes which at this point is the longest song we've recorded in the studio. one of the new ones is this open-ended sprawling psycedellic number which could end up being even longer. craig florey, who played sax in the sonics band, is gathering together a horn section for the two other songs. i can't wait to hear how this stuff turns out.

with any luck, the new record should be out by late august or september.

[Feb 18]

Mark is celebrating his birthday (feb 21th) with a party at his place on feb 16th. In his own words, "This is a milestone birthday for ... Mark (who will miraculously turn 40 on the 21st, if he manages to live that long)."

[Feb 9]

Mark suggests to check out this link: http://www.ocweekly.com/ink/02/22/cover.shtml

[Feb 2]

Extract from a (www.gravelvoice.com) newsletter:
To ring in the new year we thought it appropriate to make your ears ring with Cut of the Month, so tune in to mighty mighty MUDHONEY's "Crooked and Wide" from their forthcoming album on SubPop. This is one of three pieces recorded at Gravelvoice last month, and we are very happy with the results. I think this song is the lost track from Black Sabbath's first LP, but you be the judge. The Mudhoney sessions, but the way, were completed on my 37th Birthday. What better way to spend the day than hanging out with the Mudhoney's and making great music?

[Jan 1]

News from Jack Endino:
Mudhoney has just signed a ONE-RECORD deal with Sub Pop! I've heard some of the songs they recorded already, and the stuff is really, really good, I shit you not. They've done something interesting with this one: they are going around to each of the engineers / producers in town that they like, and recording a few songs with each one. That way the record will have a more diverse sound. I think it's a totally brilliant idea. So far, they've used Scott Colburn (www.gravelvoice.com), Johnny Sangster, and Martin Feveyear. I also have a song they recorded with me last year which we just remixed, but I'm not sure if it will be on the record or not. Hope so!

[Dec 31]