Mudhoney Articles
Rocktropolis Allstars
24 September '98
Mudhoney Maintains That Thing They Do On New Album
Before there was Nirvana, before there was Pearl Jam, there was Mudhoney.
Along with the likes of Soundgarden and Tad, this Seattle band was the original
inspiration for the term "grunge." And their fifth full- length record,
Tomorrow Hit Today, released Tuesday (Sept. 22) on Reprise after a
three- year recording hiatus, certainly follows suit.
In the interim period since touring for their last album, 1995's My
Brother the Cow, the quartet stayed busy, albeit on separate projects.
Singer and rhythm guitarist Mark Arm recorded and toured with Bloodloss;
guitarist Steve Turner ran his label, Super Electro Records; drummer Dan
Peters joined ex-Dinosaur Jr. bassist Mike Johnson for a tour; and bassist
and legendary bon vivant Matt Lukin... Well, just what did Matt do?
"That's a well- guarded secret," says Arm from his West Seattle home. "You'd
have to put in a little spy cam in his home." If legend proved to be reality,
that might reap a best- selling book. "I don't know about best- selling,"
Arm says with a sly laugh, "but it might be kind of a weird read."
Mudhoney celebrated their 10th anniversary last January, and though they're
perhaps a little less crazy after all these years, one listen to the new
album proves that their original darkly psychedelic, blue- collar heavy
metalized garage- punk still prevails. Does Tomorrow Hit Today still
qualify as a grunge record, then?
"Can you tell me what that means?" Arm asks. "The first time we were aware
of the term was in the liner notes to a Johnny Burnett and the Rock and Roll
Trio album, talking about the 'grungey' guitar sound. To me that word is
another way of saying dirty, nasty- sounding."
But those two adjectives certainly describe the overall sound of Mudhoney's
new album. "Well, we do what we do for a reason," Arm continues. "The whole
point of the guitars sounding the way they do is for the guitars to sound
the way they do!"
Throughout the album, draped over those fabulously distorted guitars, is the
familiar Arm wail, singing typically Mudhoney- style malignant melodramas.
"I hope it's also humorous," says Arm. "Not like wacky humorous, but not
completely serious." Like the lyric in "Beneath the Valley of the Underdog"
that goes, "Down on my knees, scrubbing at floors, scratching at festering
sores"? "Oh yes, that was a good time," Arm deadpans.
Tomorrow Hit Today, produced by the legendary Jim Dickinson (Big Star,
Replacements), was recorded at Stone Gossard's studio in Seattle. Among its
12 tracks -- plus one hidden song, "Talkin' Randy Tate Specter Blues" -- is
a revamped version of "Poisoned Water," which was written at the time of
recording My Brother the Cow. In an early form, Mudhoney performed
the song in the Chris Farley movie Black Sheep.
"Basically, it was whipped into shape after My Brother the Cow was
recorded," says Arm. "Then it got reworked again and a solo was added. This
is the version we've been playing live for two and a half years."
"Night of the Hunted" is another familiar song -- that is, if you caught its
release as a single last spring on Super Electro (which also released
Tomorrow Hit Today on vinyl).
So would the album's title be inspired by any au courant pre- millennium
tension? "More pre-menstrual, I think," says Arm. (The title actually
references "When Tomorrow Hits," a song on Mudhoney's debut album.) "I don't
really view it as a millennial thing, but eventually things are going to
catch up with you."
-- Linda Laban
