Mudhoney Articles
Neumu
15 March '02
New Mudhoney Sound Said To Include "Hawkwind Vibe"
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."
The Seattle-based band — Arm, who plays guitar and sings, along with original
guitarist Steve Turner and drummer Dan Peters and new bassist Guy Madison (replacing
Matt Lukin) — began recording the not-yet-titled album, their eighth, last
November. They worked with three producers at three studios: Scott Colburn at
Gravelvoice, Johnny Sangster at Egg and Martin Feveyear at Jupiter. One song, "Inside
Job," was remixed by Jack Endino, who's known for his work with many early Sub Pop
artists, most notably Nirvana; he produced Bleach.
"What happens with most bands is they write a whole bunch of songs and then record them
all at once," said Arm. "So, your mind is scattered over all the songs at once —
you don't really focus on one at a time. Our goal was to go in with two or three songs
and record them. And we always had three every time we went in and we went to three
different places — it worked really well."
In addition to taking a fresh approach to recording, the group experimented for the
first time with horn arrangements. "There's a couple songs we just recorded that have
horn sections," said Arm. "And that would be 'Take It Like a Man' and 'Where the Flavor
Is' — sort of rockin' uptempo numbers."
Mudhoney also stretched out a bit. "The two longest songs we've ever recorded for any
record will be on this one," Arm said. "[On] "Can You Dig the Light," words probably
don't happen until about minute six. It opens with an organ and the guitar doing this
kind of float-y thing and then the drums come in [and] the bass. We kind of latch on
more to that than the guitar. And the organ is more coloring. So I guess we're playing
drum 'n' bass."
Mudhoney kick-started the grunge movement that shook the world in the early '90s. The
future bandmembers members all jammed together for the first time on New Year's Day 1988,
liked the experience, and decided to form a band. They recorded their first single, "Touch
Me I'm Sick," in 1988; it was released that summer by Sub Pop. "We were in a privileged
position where we had ringside seats," Arm said of the band's position in the early-'90s
grunge scene. "Because we were really close to some of the people who were involved, we
were close enough to see what happened.
"But we weren't the center of attention, so it didn't fuck with our heads... too much
anyway," said Arm, starting to laugh. "It was funny, it was weird, it was bizarre — I
think it caught pretty much everyone off guard. I never thought for a second that the kind
of music that I was doing or what I was interested in would even remotely attach to some
sort of fashion trend."
Suddenly switching to an appalled tone of voice, he exclaimed, "And what a hideous fashion
trend it was! For the record: I never wore long johns with shorts over them."
Mudhoney recorded singles, an EP and two albums for Sub Pop between '88 and '91, then moved
to the majors, recording a handful of albums for Time Warner's Reprise label; their final
Reprise album, Tomorrow Hit Today, was released in 1998. Their sound was fully
realized with the first single: loud, distorted, often droning and sometimes experimental
punk rock. "I don't think we're caught in a constant cycle of trying to repeat ourselves,"
Arm, 40, said. "But I don't think we're trying on different styles to match whatever fashion
is happening at the moment either. At best, we're entertaining ourselves, which has been the
goal all along.
"I like it best when rock 'n' roll has a fucked-up twist to it," he added, "and it's not just
like, 'We're playing three chords for beer, man!' I'm tired of that, it's an old trick."
The departure of Lukin, who played with Mudhoney from day one (and was the former bass player
for the Melvins) had been a long time coming. "He lost interest in playing music. In a way, it
was a relief for everyone," Arm explained. "I think Matt stuck with it as long as he did because
he didn't want to let us down, because initially we said Mudhoney is these four people and any
other way it's not Mudhoney. But Matt made it clear that once he left we could still call it
Mudhoney; he actually encouraged it."
Bringing Madison in has brought new energy to Mudhoney's new album. "One of the main differences
that I think you'll find [on the new record] is in the bass playing. Guy's bass playing is quite
different than Matt's — it's more fluid," Arm said.
Because Madison is a student and Peters a father, Mudhoney don't plan to tour more than one or
two weeks at a time, if even that. "Dan, at this point, is a stay-at-home dad and Guy's getting
his nursing degree — a lot of schooling and a lot of diaper changing," Arm said. "There
might be times here and there where we can actually get away for maybe a week without going on
an actual tour — we'll have to be crafty."
And will there be a ninth Mudhoney album? "I think so," Arm said. "It's not very difficult for
us to do it. No one is mad at anyone else."
He laughed again. "I don't think we'll call it quits and keep doing reunion tours."
