Mudhoney Articles
Metal Hammer
April '95
Grandpappies Of Grunge
MUDHONEY aren't exactly ready to collect their pensions, but they can
claim to being instrumental in the advent of the grunge movement.
Murray Engleheartcatches the band on tour in the Pilippines and talks
cows, beer and... Rush?
In the space of 24 hours, Mudhoney were subjected to two incredible swings
of fate. In Manila, in the Philippines, for one of four shows with Pearl
Jam in the South East Asia region, Mudhoney's Mark Arm stood in the lobby
of the luxurious Peninsula Hotel just a metre or two from where Pearl Jam's
Jeff Ament was under siege by fans. Then later, at the 9,000-seat and then
some Folk Arts Theatre, Mudhoney were greeted as bringers of the new
power-age; or maybe the original bringers of the grunge age. Whatever. For
40 minutes Mudhoney were amped-up royalty.
And about time too. Probably the only thing that came close was when the
band were in Australia for the Big Day Out a few years back: the plane
touched down in Adelaide, and co-stars Iggy Pop and Sonic Youth disembarked
with little fanfare. But when Mudhoney came through the arrivals section
there was a sign that said: "Welcome Matt Lukin from Mudhoney to Adelaide -
the home of Cooper's beer".
The band's South East Asian shows were something of a warm-up for the tour
that will follow the release of their new album, "My Brother The Cow", which
was produced by Jack Endino and continues the process of distancing the band
from the full-throttle, flat-out grunge expectations. They spent about nine
months working on the songs on and off, and toured briefly and got comfortable
with the new material before finally recording in October.
"This one," Arm chuckles, "we know how the songs went all the way
through." The album's title came from the lips of Renestair E.J., a memeber
of Arm's ex-pat Australian side-project Bloodloss, who should have an album
out in the next few months.
"It was something that he uttered out of a drunken stupor," Arm explains.
"He was down in LA playing sax on a Clawhammer record, on the new one that's
coming out. He was drinking a lot, so he was either awake and playing sax or
passed-out. They went through some drive-through burger estabilishment and
asked him if he wanted anything, and he just woke up enough to say: 'I will
not eat of my brother the cow.'"
Quite profound, really. On a more serious note, given that Mudhoney were and
remain virtual soul brothers of Nirvana, the new album is one that for once
quite rightfully contains some material inspired by Kurt Cobain's death.
Arm begins by sounding less than comfortable with the subject: "Er... I don't
know if 'inspiration' is the correct word. There's references to him... I'd
just like to leave it at that, I suppose.
"I guess in direct Kurt references," he continues after some thought, "there's
only one or two lines in 'Into Your Schtick'."
Another track, "1995", carries on the great primal punk tradition of the
Stooges' "1969" and "1970" timepieces and the Clash's "1977".
"Trying to keep a certian tradition going," Arm chuckles. "I've always wanted
to do a year song like that. That was actually one of the last songs we came
up with. It had this riff, and when it came together it was like hey, that
would be perfect."
The same could be said of the chance to play with Pearl Jam; but the pairing
was really nothing new. The two outfits have tag-teamed on a number of
occasions over the years. In fact between them they carry the spirit of
Green River, perhaps the most influential of the pre-grunge Seattle rock
action outfits, which eventually split into Mudhoney and the ill-fated
Mother Love Bone.
"One time we played with Pearl Jam in Las Vegas," Arm recalls. "and we did
a sort of Green River reunion. In the middle of their set Steve (Turner,
Mudhoney guitarist) and I came out and played with them. We did 'Swallow My
Pride' and we did the Dead Boys cover 'Ain't Nothing To Do'. When we were
playing with them in the Boston Gardens, which is like this huge, huge
basketball colosseum, there was this girl wearing a Green River T-shirt."
This discussion about old-world punk leads to a rave about the current punk
uprising and inevitability of Offspring.
"To me, Offspring doesn't really sound that punk rock," Arm muses, without
any savagery. "It doesn't really sound like the Southern Californian bands
that I think of when I think of Southern California punk rock; it doesn't
sound like Black Flag or the Circle Jerks or the Adolescents or the Germs,"
he continues, giving a running commentary on who's who of American punk rock
history.
"One time I was driving in my car and there was this song on the radio. I
thought it was a Scorpions song, and it turned out into the Offspring. I'm
serious! It was on the hard rock channel."
Again Arm is just relating a story rather than putting the boot into the
multi-Platinun punks. Besides, there's a couple of skeletons in the closet
of the leader of the grunge grandpappies...
"I made a dreadful mistake," Arm admits. "The first concert I ever saw was
Rush. I knew well enough to know that I hated Styx at that point. We lived
quite a way downtown, so I wasn't allowed to go to concerts by myself or
anything like that until I was sixteen or seventeen, and I finally got to
see Rush. It was something I looked forward to for a number of years. I
wanted to go and see Aerosmith a couple of years before that. I ended up
just falling asleep (at Rush). We had these horrible seats that were far
away from everything and all you could see was these three tiny things way
down there, and it was really, really boring."
"I saw a couple more shows after that. I even saw Sammy Hagar on New Year's
Eve," he laughs. "Then I saw Devo in 1980 at a small place called The Show
Box, and that was I think when everything kind of just kicked in and the
whole thing of what music should be opened up to me. I was a foot away from
Mark Mothersbaugh hopping around in front of me in a big yellow suit. It was
amazing. It was one of the greatest shows I've ever seen in my life to this
day. It just opened up this whole realm of possibilities that I didn't think
were there."
Mudhoney have been doing the exact same
