Mudhoney Articles

Galleryofsound.com

August '02

Since We've Become Translucent

by Fred Mills

Following a much-deserved vacation after life at Reprise Records came to a close, Mudhoney is back. Bassist Matt Lukin may have retired, but his replacement, ex-Bloodloss Guy Maddison, is on the money. And all the great 'honey hallmarks are intact and in place: searing rip-it-up Stoogoid ur-punk (the sleazy swing 'n' clang of "The Straight Life," a bluesy "Our Time Is Now," which comes complete with Mark Arm's best Iggy howl in ages); jagged Nuggets fuzz-garage whomp ("Dyin' for It," "Inside Job"); over-the-top paranoidal heavy-psych (eight-minute album overture "Baby Can You Dig the Light" sounds like a Crazy World of Arthur Brown instrumental freakout, while eight-minute closing number "Sonic Infusion" is a cross between Spacemen 3, Hawkwind and the Amboy Dukes). Sprinkled throughout are liberal doses of piano, horns(!) and even a guest appearance by Wayne Kramer. But it's still 100% Mudhoney.

Four-star review or not, when, in a '98 Rolling Stone review of the band's Reprise swan-song Tomorrow Hit Today, some tastemaker quipped, "We've come not to expect too much from Mudhoney, grunge's most gleefully willful underachievers," some of us stood up, went to the window and hollered, "I'm mud as honey and I'm not gonna take it any more!" Mudhoney stood for something—call it back-to-punk-roots, whatever—and, duly inspired, we expected a friggin' lot from 'em; the band not only pre-dated grunge but outlasted it, too. Meet the new Mud, same as the old Mud? Oh yas, yas, yassir, indeed. That's a good thing, by the way.