Mudhoney

Mark Arm - singing/guitar Guy Maddison - bass Dan Peters - drums Steve Turner - guitar The story of Mudhoney begins as a huge farce in the suburbs of Bellevue in Seattle. In 1980, a certain Mark MacLaughlin (who later adopted the name Mark Arm) decided to form a group with high school friends in tribute to his math teacher, Mr. Epp And The Calculations. The band is totally fictional because none of its members can play. Nevertheless, as early as 1981, Mr. Epp performed in the first part of Student Nurse . Their total incapacity in musical matters earned them the honour of being mentioned several times as the worst group in the world. Despite everything, this joyous and noisy cacophony makes emulations and Mr Epp records an ep in 1982. In 1983, in a noise auction, Mr. Epp was joined by Steve Turner, former guitarist of a garage band named Ducky Boys and who, since 1981, had formed with Mark Arm, another punk band, The Limp Richerds. In 1984 Mr. Epp and The Limp Richerds separated. Arm and Turner then surrounded themselves with drummer Alex Vincent, who had already played with Turner in a short-lived band called Spluii Numa, and bassist Jeff Ament, recently landed from Montana, former member of Derranged Diction. On the other hand, Arm abandons the guitar to devote himself to singing. A second guitarist is recruited in the person of Stone Gossard. That's how Green River is born. A noisy and decadent group, mixing punk and metal, which became mythical because of the future success of its members, Green River and the Melvins were the pioneers of the "new northwestern sound" that would explode in the early 1990s under the name of grunge. In 1985, noted on the Seattle rock scene, Green River had the opportunity to record its first ep Come on Down. But Turner disapproves of the increasingly metal-based direction followed by the group and decides to return to university. Bruce Fairweather, former member of Derranged Diction, replaces him. The band then started a tour across the United States. The second ep of Green River, Dry as a Bone, was released in 1987 at a new Seattle label, Sub Pop; He was followed in 1988 by an album, Rehab Doll , produced by Jack Endino (Nirvana , Soundgarden , Murder City Devils , Screaming Trees , Zeke ). Tensions within the group led to its dissolution. Ament and Gossard will form Mother Love Bone, Fairweather joins Love Battery and Vincent resumes his studies. Arm and Turner, who remained friends, had formed, alongside Green River, The Thrown Ups with graphic designer Ed Fotheringham, a joke more than a real band that lasted a short time. Once again, Arm and Turner meet together, but for the first time, Turner expresses the need to repeat the songs before playing them in public. They then started working with drummer Dan Peters, who had played in Bunddle Of His And Feast, then contacted bass player Matt Lukin who had just left the Melvins. The band takes the name of Mudhoney, according to the title of a Jack Russell movie that no member has seen. Musically, Mudhoney takes over the punk-metal formula of Green River , adds rock garage of the sixties, some of the Stooges of the Fun House era and the noise that particularly attracts Arm and Turner. Turner thinks that the band will last no more than six months, but everything will go on very quickly because that same year 1988 Sub Pop released the single "Touch me I'm Sick" followed a few months later by the EP Superfuzz Bigmuff , recorded at Seattle's Reciprocal Recordings and produced by Jack Endino. Mudhoney is on time to surf the grunge wave. In 1989, the band toured in Europe where he met Sonic Youth (whose members were Green River fans) who invited him on a tour in Britain. Superfuzz Bigmuff made his entry into the English charts and squatted much of the year. Mudhoney continues with a tour leading the bill and follows a series of loud concerts that are heavily covered by the press. It becomes the flag of underground rock. Mudhoney's first album was released at the end of 1989, simply titled Mudhoney , it was produced by the unbeatable Jack Endino. The success of Mudhoney led to the emergence of new bands signed by Sub Pop, such as Soundgarden, Tad, The Fluid or Nirvana. Nevertheless, despite the excellent work carried out by the label, it has serious financial problems that explain the late release (1991) of Mudhoney's second album. Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge , recorded at Egg Studios and produced by Conrad Uno (President Of The USA , The Posies ), sounds much more punk garage than its predecessor. At the end of the year, Mudhoney was looking for a new label and the thing was not so awkward because Nirvana, who had signed on a major, was exploding, and all Seattle bands were offered a contract. Mudhoney signs at Reprise/Warner Bros. The release of Piece of Cake in 1992 shows that this signature has in no way changed the band's musical approach or its attitude, still as nonchalant, crazy, cynical and sarcastic. Nevertheless, fans of the first hour feel this as a betrayal while the mass that adopted Nirvana , Pearl Jam (where Ament and Gossard play) or Soundgarden find Mudhoney too eccentric. Sales, during the time spent at Reprise, will prove disappointing. Three other records, without concessions, will be released at Reprise: Five Dollar Bob's Mock Cooter Stew in 1993 produced by Kurdt Bloch, My Brother the Cow in 1995 produced by Jack Endino and finally Tomorrow Hit Today in 1998 produced by Jim Dickinson. 1999 is the bad year for Mudhoney, who is left behind by Reprise and who loses his bassist, Matt Lukin, tired of tours. The release in 2000 of March to Fuzz , a compilation of the band's career, at Sub Pop, suggests that Mudhoney is reverence after twelve years of activity. But in 2001, the band performed for a few dates with Steve Dukich ( Steel Wool ) on bass. The shows are going so well and the audience's welcome is such that the band decides to continue the adventure. Guy Maddison, a former member of Bloodloss, another group where Mark Arm ran, became an official bassist of Mudhoney. At the same time, Arm and Turner record and turn with a group of blues garage, Monkeywrench. In 2002, Since we've Become Transluscent was released at Sub Pop, and in 2006 Under a Billion Suns. Produced by Phil Ek (Pretty Girls Make Graves , Murder City Devils ), the band seems a little less casual than its usual. The release of the album is followed by a tour in Europe and the USA with Jennifer Gentle, The Holy Soul and Comets On Fire. Bruyant, decadent, toxic, cynical, casual, stupid, sarcastic, nonchalant, barred. What other adjectives to qualify a group that has always considered itself, quite simply, as a punk-rock group? A pioneer of the grunge movement to which he never felt he belonged, almost twenty years of career without any concessions and without ever taking himself seriously, Mudhoney is and will certainly remain a separate group.