Mudhoney Articles
The Willamette Week
11 November '98
Endurance Test
Mudhoney, Seattle's perpetual underdog, marks a decade with Tomorrow Hit Today
Mudhoney, Pinehurst Kids, Jr. High
LaLuna, 215 SE 9th Ave., 241-5862
9:30 pm Friday, Nov. 13.
$10 advance
Life isn't fair, and nowhere is this fact more evident than in the fickle
world of rock and roll. The career of Mudhoney is a perfect example.
In the beginning, the godfathers of grunge (sorry, the word is unavoidable
when referring to them) certainly seemed to be in the right place at
the right time. Former members of Seattle underground faves Green River
and the Melvins teamed up to form Mudhoney in 1988 and put out their
debut EP, Superfuzz Bigmuff (named for their effects pedals),
on the up-and-coming SubPop. That release, featuring the single "Touch
Me, I'm Sick," defined the Mudhoney--and what was soon to be known as
grunge--sound: raw production, sloppy, fuzzed-out guitars and reckless,
oft-screamed vocals. The band then toured with Sonic Youth, unleashed
a few more records on SubPop, appeared in the grunge-ploitation flick
Singles and signed to major label Reprise for two well-received
albums, Piece of Cake and My Brother the Cow.
Regardless, Mudhoney never enjoyed the mainstream popularity or commercial
payoff of other Seattle bands like Nirvana, Pearl Jam (which also included
ex-members of Green River) and Soundgarden. Unlike many of its Northwestern
brethren, however, Mudhoney has managed to survive the grunge pandemonium
and aftermath intact. The band is still together and still calls Seattle
home. Tomorrow Hit Today (Reprise) marks Mudhoney's 10th year
together in its original form; most bands don't even last a decade,
let alone make an album as ambitious as this one.
The characteristic sludgy guitars, smart-ass lyrics and garage-rock
dynamism remain, but the songs are less sloppy and more varied: Pleasantly
stoned guitars back up Arm's unmistakable lazy vocals on "Real Low Vibe"
and "Move With the Wind"; "This Is the Life" is a musical smirk at strip-mall-and-sitcom
America as equally sarcastic as "Overblown" (from the Singles
soundtrack); "I Have to Laugh" is classically brash Mudhoney; and "Beneath
the Valley of the Underdogs" is the heaviest and most notable track,
with a slow, menacing, Sabbath-like guitar groove and Arm suggesting,
"If I'm the guy you're looking for, just look down, under some rock."
This expanded sound is perhaps the result of the band's decision to
infuse its latest album with fresh blood, choosing a new producer instead
of using tried and true Jack Eno or Conrad Uno once again.
"We'd been talking about using an outside producer, but we wanted to
find someone who was sympathetic to us," says Arm. "We didn't want to
go into some studio where the producer would fight us."
After countless conversations with reputable Memphis legend Jim Dickinson--who
recorded the Replacements, Big Star, Texas Tornados and others at his
Ardent Studios--and approving of the record he did with their friends
in Clawhammer, the band members decided Dickinson fit the bill.
"He wasn't afraid of things, and his history proves that even though
he's some old guy who was in a band opening for Bo Diddley in 1958,
he never got old and boring," Arm explains. "When the Cramps came out,
he worked with them, while a lot of people from old-school rock would
have avoided them like the plague."
Arm also partly attributes the album's freshness to the band members'
involvement in other projects. "When you play with other people, you
learn new things," he says. "My working with Bloodloss really helped
my guitar playing. And Dan [Peters, Mudhoney's drummer] playing with
Mike Johnson...he's a whole different kettle of fish than we are, so
I'm sure that influenced him."
Arm's latest side project was Wylde Ratttz, with ex-Stooge Ron Asheton,
Mike Watt and Sonic Youth's Thurston Moore and Steve Shelley recording
an Iggy and the Stooges cover for the Velvet Goldmine soundtrack.
Arm admits that recording with Asheton, a major influence, "was like
a weird dream come true."
Arm also contributed a track to an upcoming tribute album for original
Jefferson Airplane drummer and Moby Grape guitarist Skip Spence. He
joined other underground heroes like Peter Buck, Mark Lanegan and Robyn
Hitchcock for a virtual rerecording of Oar, Spence's underappreciated
solo effort released in 1969; the album is slated for release this winter
on indie label Birdman.
For now, though, Mudhoney is the main priority for Arm and company.
Though they're happy the Seattle hype has died down, Arm laments, "It
seems like all the goofy rock people who moved here to get signed have
left, and now all we have is computer people, Microsoft minions." But
he's quick to point out that the overblown buzz surrounding bands from
the Emerald City still crops up now and again. Discussing the popularity
of current commercial-radio darlings Harvey Danger--and speaking
from experience--he says with resignation, "There's no accountin' for taste."
