mudhoney news

2004

As a belated Christmas present, I have finally put online the complete transcription of the interview Mark and Steve did with Tina and Juri from Slovenia's Radio Student last May in London. You can read it here.

[28 Dec]

Here's the complete schedule for nex year's Mudhoney Australian tour. Rumor has it that they may be playing at least some of these show with the almighty Radio Birdman! So if you live down under, make sure you don't miss this chance.

Thursday February 24, 2005: Arena, Brisbane
Friday February 25, 2005: Metro Theatre, Sydney
Saturday February 26, 2005: The Corner Hotel, Melbourne
Wednesday March 2, 2005: Enigma, Adelaide
Thursday March 3, 2005: 3 Bears Bar, Dunsborough
Friday March 4, 2005: Rosemount Hotel, Perth

[23 Dec]

Mudhoney plan to release a new studio record in early 2006. They have about half a dozen new songs ready.

Also in the works is (at last!) a Mudhoney DVD, whose release is scheduled at the same time as their new album. So far it looks like it's going to be a digital version of their 1995 video collection "No.1 Video In America This Week", plus various bonus stuff.

[15 Dec]

The long awaited Nirvana box set, "Whit The Lights Out", officially hits the stores today, and it contains a little surprise for Mudhoney fans too, as the DVD coming with it includes a live video of "School", shot during the only Nirvana show with Dan Peters on drums (22 September '90).

Speaking of Dan, he's got a new side project going, called the Press Corps. Other band members include Bruce Fairweather (of Green River, Mother Love Bone and Love Battery fame, guitar), Garrett Shavlik (Fluid, vocals), Marcus Pena (Alta May, bass) and Eric Roper (Alta May, guitar). They should release a 7" single soon.

[23 Nov]

The DVD version of the 1996 movie "Hype!" should be released by the end of the year. For those who don't know, it is a very interesting and entertaining movie / documentary about the whole Seattle "grunge" phenomenon with lots of interviews and live footage from various bands from that scene. As a bonus treat for Mudhoney fans, the extras section will include an extra live version of "Hate the police".

[18 Nov]

According to Mark, the band has belted out five new songs for their next record.

[26 Oct]

Steve Turner second solo record is officially out. Called simply "Steve Turner And His Bad Ideas", it features twelve songs and is out on Roslyn Records in the USA, Loose Records in the UK and Houston Party in Spain.

[21 Sep]

More news from the DKT/MC5 website: Lisa Kekaula, the extraordinary singer for the Bellrays, will join the band for their european shows.

As if that wasn't enough, Johnny Walker from the Soledad Brothers is scheduled to sing and play harp on various MC5 euro shows, so hopefully we'll see Wayne, Mark, Nicke, Lisa and Johnny all singing and dancing together on stage at some point during the show!

Keep checking the MC5 website for an up-to-date tour schedule.

[14 Aug]

News from Mark, straight from Melbourne:

"Touring with the DKT/MC5 is a blast. It's one of the funnest things I've ever done. [...] I think Evan is doing great. The first week was pretty band. He was unprepared and he hadn't memorized the lyrics yet. His part in the early shows (Toronto, Detroit, Chicago, Minneapolis, Cleveland and New York) was pretty rough. He did get his shit together after that though and I think he does really well on the songs he sings. People whose opinions I respect, like Larry Hardy [boss of In The Red, ed.], Jeff Ament & Steve Turner etc., told me they thought Evan fit right in and did great."

[17 Jul]

Steve Turner has a new EP out on Spain's Houston Records:

Few expected an acoustic record from Steve Turner. Mudhoney's leader is often thought to be more of a grunge icon than a soft-folk figure. No wonder why "Searching for Melody" was a bit of a surprise. Truth be told, he actually set out to make a folk record – though the result is definitely Turner's unique version of the "f-word," tempered by his punk rock background.
Here, dominating aesthetics of his debut album are taken a little bit further. Turner is deepening on a wide range of registers. The result is a great bunch of songs of various tones and attitudes: Townes Van Zandt's "Nothin'", the vibrating tune of "People Take Trips" and such wonderful acoustic folk tracks as "Painting A Picture" or his best song to date "I-5 Corridor" merging together Rose Melberg's The Softies with atlantic classic folk classicism.
This record is the first release to come out on new Houston Party's Collectors Series - a collection of exclusive releases by some of the most interesting artists of the independent music scene worldwide. Either on CDEP or mini-album format, Collectors Series releases are produced with great care.

[16 Jul]

There's a nice DKT/MC5 feature on Seattle music magazine the Stranger with Mark talking with the three original Motor City men.

[6 Jul]

European fans, rejoyce! Mark Arm will share vocal duties with Nicke Hellacopters on the forthcoming DKT/MC5 gigs on the continent. Visit their website for show dates.

[2 Jul]

Peter from Denmark was at the Astoria too, and took some amazing pictures. Check'em out on his website, www.picturehut.dk.

[14 Jun]

Some random news:

The three recent euro shows totally kicked ass!

Here's some pictures from Fredirikstad.

Norwegian TV NRK recorded an interview with Mark, Guy and Steve. A video for that is here.

Slovenian radio Radio Student interviewed the band in London. The interview will be aired on June 12th between 10 and 12 pm. Hopefully it will be possible to listen to it via streaming audio too.

Recordings for the new Mudhoney LP have been pushed back to October or November.

Steve's new solo album is pretty much ready. Expect it to come out any time soon. There're also plans for an EP to be released in Spain, but this is still pretty undefined.

Despite some crazy rumors that have circulated on the web, the show at the Astoria was not Mudhoney's last gig ever, although it will probably be the last for quite some time.

Mark and Steve went in the studio with Holly Golightly on June 1st and cut a duet cover each with her. They also play guitars on both songs. The rough mixes sound awesome! Expect them to be released on Holly's next record.

[5 Jun]

Thanks to Mathias for reporting the following DKT/MC5 news:

05.12.2004 - MARK ARM & EVAN DANDO CONFIRMED FOR N. AMERICAN TOUR: Aside from the rotating suprise guests who will appear as guest vocalists on the DKT/MC5 tour, Mark Arm and Evan Dando have confirmed today that they will both perform as singers on all North American dates.

[13 May]

From Mark Lanegan:

I deeply regret that I can not tour with the MC5 this summer. -ML

[12 May]

According to an ad on the latest issue of Mojo, support acts for the May 30 Mudhoney show in London will be Holly GoLightly and the Country Teasers.

[9 May]

Mark Arm is currently involved in a political commitee, "No Vote Left Behind": more news here.

[5 May]

More news from DKT/MC5:

04.21.2004 - TIM ROGERS NO LONGER ON DKT/MC5 AUSTRALIAN TOUR: Out of respect for our elders, we have released vocalist Tim Rogers from his job with DKT/MC5. His band You Am I will be opening for The Who.

Also, take a minute to read this open letter from Wayne Kramer, which sets things straight about a legal battle the MC5 are currently struggling through.

[23 Apr]

From Daniel of Smash Management:

SMASH TOURING presents
The Rock Event of the Year!!!

The MC5

In the Sonic Revolution Australian Tour - July 2004

Featuring ORIGINAL MC5 MEMBERS (Davies, Kramer, Thompson)

WITH Very Special Guests:
Mark Arm (Mudhoney) guest vocalist
Evan Dando (Lemonheads) guest vocalist
Deniz Tek (Radio Birdman) guest guitarist

Plus special guests: Dollhouse (Sweden)

[Check the tour page for show dates]

[21 Apr]

From Fredrik:

One-day tickets to Maanefestivalen 2004 are for sale from 26.04.04. The number of one-day tickets available are aprox. 7000. NB!!! This does not include club. It will also be club-only passes for sale from 26.04.04. The capasity of the club is aprox. 2000. Please visit www.ticketmaster.no for buying tickets to Maanefestivalen 2004.

[16 Apr]

A couples of notes from Mark:

We [Mudhoney] are hoping to record this summer before steve's solo record comes out in Sept and he goes on tour.

Really Red (one of my favorite bands) is being reissued on Empty Records.


[11 Apr]

Some Monkeywrench news, according to timkerr.net:

Tim got back from Portland and Seattle and brought a lot of news with him. While in Seattle he recorded The Earaches at Egg Studios. They did fifteen songs that will be mixed in June. Tim also got together with The Monkeywrench and recorded four new songs for the long promised new Estrus album. Two were new songs and two were covers (Really Red's "Aim Taste Good" and George Jones's "He Stopped Loving Her Today"). All it's left to finish the album is mixing that will be done in the next couple of months.

[6 Apr]

News from DKT/MC5:

03.29.2004 - GUEST VOCALISTS AND GUITARISTS TO DATE: Australia - Deniz Tek (Radio Birdman), Mark Arm (Mudhoney), Evan Dando (Lemonheads), Tim Rogers (You Am I); Japan - Howlin' Pelle Almquist (The Hives); North America - Marshall Crenshaw, Mark Lanegan (Screaming Trees, Queens of the Stone Age); Europe - Nick Royale (Hellacopters)

[29 Mar]

From Fredrik Solberg:

"Festivaltickets to Maanefestivalen 2004, Fredrikstad, Norway are for sale from Monday 01.03.04. The place to contact is www.ticketmaster.no. The pre-sale is limited to 2000 tickets. This includes Club Friday, Club Saturday, Outdoor Saturday and Outdoor Sunday. Mudhoney will play as last act on Saturday."

[1 Mar]

There is a nice review of the Mudhoney / Bo Diddley Jan 2nd show on the March issue of Mojo.

[18 Feb]

Interesting news from Jack Endino: he now runs a Weed website at www.jacksweedcafe.com.

You may be unfamiliar with Weed. In Jack's words, "It's strange really, but what we have is an "enabling" technology, with simple rules which allow complex permutations to take shape. Essentially it allows a used-CD-like market to exist for audio files... you can sell the files effectively "used" or "new"... with the added wrinkle that the artists always get paid 50% of EVERY sale, AND the person currently selling the file gets a cut of that sale too... no matter how many times the file changes hands. It's just too boggling to even recognize the implications fully... nothing like this has even existed before". This may be really boggling at first indeed, so I strongly encourage all of you to visit Jack's site for more accurate informations, since this Weed thing is actaully very interesting.

Anyway, back on topic, Jack has put online various Bloodloss songs, including a good portion of the "Ten solid rockin' inches of rock solid rock" 10", two 7"es and an unreleased song:

"The oddball Australia/Seattle garage-psych supergroup that featured Mark Arm along with three ex-members of Lubricated Goat (including Martin Bland, now drumming for Monkeywrench, and Guy Maddison, now bassist for Mudhoney). I've got their 17-minute psych magnum opus "Bloodloss: The Music Musical" which was only available on an obscure 10 inch long ago (I have remastered it!), a bunch of other tunes, plus a never-released tune or two, including the must-hear-it-to-believe-it "Fruit On My Hat".

[16 Feb]

The Pixies will start their european reunion tour at the Primavera festival. Chances are they will play on the same day of Mudhoney.

[7 Feb]

Rock'n'Roll Inc. Records has reissued the New Original Sonic Sound CD in Europe. The band moved back to their original name The New Strychnines for this one. It also features all-new graphics and extensive liner notes paying tribute to the Sonics contributed by the likes of Peter Buck (REM), Eddie Vedder (Pearl Jam) Howlin Pelle (The Hives), Andy Shernoff (Dictators), Roy Loney (Flamin Groovies), Nicklas Vahlberg (Nomads), Deniz Tek (Radio Birdman), Greg Prevost (Chesterfield Kings), Billy Childish, Mike Stax, Jello Biafra and Steve Turner.

[6 Feb]

It's official:

Vi har den glede å presentere Mudhoney på Månefestivalen 2004.

[4 Feb]

This comes from Herman Stadshaug:

"I just talked to the staff at Maanefestivalen in Fredrikstad, Norway. They confirmed [...] that Mudhoney WILL play the main stage on May 29, a 12.000 capacity. They will share the bill with Half Japanese, among others. [...] Newsletters go out to the press in a few days."

In other news, tickets for the London show the following night (May 30) can now be bought online here.

[3 Feb]

Jimmy Olsen from Norway emailed me saying, "The band is confirmed. [...] Trust me, I know the people involved. It goes official next week".

While this definitely looks likely, I haven't been able to double check this information on the net so far, and Mark doesn't have definitive news on this either, so please take these news with a grain of salt.

[2 Feb]

Mark Arm says that the shows in Norway and in London "are not confirmed yet".

Asked if there are studio session in sight with the Monkeywrench when Tim Kerr goes to Seattle in March (see news from 27/1), Mark said, "We'll have about 2 days to try to do something".

[1 Feb]

According to some scandinavian fans, Mudhoney may appear at the Maanefestivalen in Fredrikstad, Norway, on May 29th.

[31 Jan]

Mudhoney is playing at the London Astoria on Sunday, May 30.

There are some rumors about a gig in Oslo, Norway.

A gig in Italy on May 31 was also rumored, but it will almost definitely not take place.

[29 Jan]

Some news from timkerr.net:

March 25th Tim will be in Seattle recording The Earaches at Egg Studio, then he'll stay there a week to work on the new Monkeywrench album and attend the opening (April 3) of the group art show he's participating at the Pharmacy, in Portland.

[27 Jan]

More news from Steve about his future projects from an interview he gave to Lost At Sea last December:

Well I've started recording the new record. [...] I still have Dan playing on some of it again... it seems like the mellow songs are getting mellower and more rocking songs are getting more rocking. For the next record, I think it'll hopefully have more variety. And then right after this, though, I wanna make a punk record too. I'm gonna do another record pretty quickly this spring, I hope, to record a whole batch of short, shitty punk rock songs.

[24 Jan]

The Fall Outs, with whom Steve played bass a few years back, are finally back on track... again! They have a new album coming out, it's titled "Summertime" and should be out by February. If you like witty garage rock with lots of great pop hooks, you'd better check'em out.

Also, the Wiretaps will appear with a new song on a Kill Rock Stars compilation. They're not on Super Electro anymore, and Caryn quit the band a long time ago, but hey.

[20 Jan]

The Primavera Festival website has included Mudhoney in the list of the confirmed bands. Primavera will take place in Barcelona, Spain, on May 27th-29th. While I haven't heard anything definitive from the band itself, they have been talking about this for months, so it's probable they'll be there. European fans should definitely keep an eye on this one.

[16 Jan]

In this interview focused on his solo record, Steve had the following to say about Mudhoney:

We're going to do a record [in 2004] one way or another. We hope to do a record and get it out every couple of years. It's not quite as easy right now. We will be out on the east coast for a few shows right before Christmas. That will be fun.

He also had some news (or lack of) about the Monkeywrench:

We recorded half a record two-and-a-half years ago. Our plan then was to get back together six months later to finish it. We haven't. That one's a little lower down on the priority scale. It keeps not happening. Tim (Kerr) comes through town but I'm always gone when he's here. [...] We've got to finish that record. We'll just give up and put it out as an EP!

I also found this great interview with Keith Morris, of Circle Jerks fame, published last February. He had some information about the Circle Jerks tribute compilation, whose release has apparently been pushed back ever since:

I'm actually right now helping to organize a Circle Jerks tribute album. [...] I've gotten Queens of the Stone Age, Kim Deal from The Breeders, Los Lobos -- I've talked to both Cesar and David Hidalgo and both said they'd be more than honored. We've gotten Mudhoney, Fu Manchu with Fishbone, Superchunk with Jane Wiedlin. We got this band from Austin, Texas called the Lord High Fixers. [...] Also from Austin, we've got Sixteen Deluxe, which is one of Gibby Haynes from the Butthole Surfers' favorite bands. [...] I tried getting Wayne Coyne from the Flaming Lips, but he's too busy. Same thing with Mark Linkous from Sparklehorse. I talked to Bob Pollard from Guided By Voices. Nashville Pussy is another band we've lined up. And we're gonna be talking to Slayer.

[14 Jan]

More tour dates:

Melvins / Mudhoney
03/06/04 - Crystal Ballroom - Portland, OR

Melvins / Mudhoney
03/07/04 - The Showbox - Seattle, WA

Melvins / Mudhoney / Fitz Of Depression
03/09/04 - Capitol Theater - Olympia, WA
Official Melvins 20th anniversary show

[8 Jan]