Category: Mudhoney

Mudhoney – Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge

ARTIST: Mudhoney                        220px-Mudhoney_Every_Good_Boy_Deserves_Fudge

TITLE: Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge

YEAR RELEASED: 1991

CHART ACTION: #34 UK

SINGLES: Let It Slide (#60 UK),

OTHER SONGS YOU MAY KNOW: Not unless you were a grunge head.

LINEUP: Mark Arm, Steve Turner, Matt Lukin, Dan Peters.

WHAT’S IT ALL ABOUT: Perhaps Mudhoney’s finest album moment, when they wrote the most consistently without diverting into slovenly noisy weirdness.

SOME WORDS, PHRASES AND CLAUSES ABOUT THIS RECORD: Of any of the Sub Pop bands from the era, the word ‘grunge’ fits best with Mudhoney’s guitar sound in the early days, especially on “Let It Slide” from this album.

Here, Mudhoney focused on the album as a whole and wrote several tracks that are among the best of the era, with a track like “Into the Drink” featuring a great riff, the right attitude, and enough hooks to keep it in your mind.

Mark Arm’s vocals aren’t all just shouting here (he almost croons on “Good Enough”), and while there’s still some too-long meditations, overall it’s a punchy record that stands up even now.

NOTES & MINUTIAE: EGBDF – the treble clef mnemonic – actually is “Every Good Boy Deserves Favour”, but I like fudge better.

IS THERE A DELUXE VERSION: No 

GRADE: A-: Probably the most consistent Mudhoney album, and one of the better grunge albums on Sub Pop.

Mudhoney – Mudhoney

ARTIST: Mudhoney                 Mudhoney_album_cover

TITLE:  Mudhoney

YEAR RELEASED: 1989

CHART ACTION: #1 UK Indie

SINGLES: This Gift, Here Comes Sickness

OTHER SONGS YOU MAY KNOW: You Got It, When Tomorrow Hits

LINEUP: Mark Arm, Steve Turner, Matt Lukin, Dan Peters

WHAT’S IT ALL ABOUT: First actual album illustrates the groups grungy side to the max, with gritty, dirty distortion.

SOME WORDS, PHRASES AND CLAUSES ABOUT THIS RECORD: Starting out with their classic single “This Gift” and moving through several early Mudhoney classics, the first full-length by the seminal Seattle band has tasty grunge nuggets.

But, it also shows the bands’ limitations. Try as they might, the LP has a problem with some songs sounding similar to each other. A few, like “You Got It” change things up a bit with an intro before the sludgy stuff starts, but still as the album goes on it all blurs a bit.

Still, “When Tomorrow Hits” is a good respite near the end of the album. That track has a tension build with a release at the end and is one of the better slow songs they’ve done.

NOTES & MINUTIAE: They covered a song by Blue Cheer, but changed the title slightly and credited it to themselves. Now boys…

IS THERE A DELUXE VERSION: No

GRADE: B:  I love some of it, and some of it just seems like grungy background music. Still, I’d give my right arm to produce the guitar sound on “This Gift” or “Flat Out Fucked”.

Mudhoney – Superfuzz Bigmuff

ARTIST: Mudhoney             220px-SuperfuzzBigmuffplusearlysingles

TITLE:  Superfuzz Bigmuff

YEAR RELEASED: 1988

CHART ACTION: #3 UK Indie

SINGLES: It was a six-song EP

OTHER SONGS YOU MAY KNOW: In ‘n’ Out of Grace (on the original version). Touch Me I’m Sick, You Got It (Keep It Outta My Face) on the expanded version.

LINEUP: Mark Arm, Steve Turner, Matt Lukin, Dan Peters

WHAT’S IT ALL ABOUT: Does the Sub Pop / grunge story start here? Maybe!

SOME WORDS, PHRASES AND CLAUSES ABOUT THIS RECORD: The original version of Superfuzz Bigmuff was decent. The six songs displayed Mudhoney’s love for distortion and volume were present, and the closing cut, “In ‘n’ Out of Grace”, starting with dialogue by Peter Fonda from The Wild Angels, may be the genesis of grunge as we know it.

Mudhoney was formed from cobbled together pieces of bands that had gone south (Green River, Bundle of Hiss) and the former bassist for the Melvins, and their love of rock, punk and noise are quite evident here.  220px-Mudhoney_sfbm

The EP became legendary in Seattle circles, then the expanded edition cemented Mudhoney’s fame as THE grunge band. It also established Jack Endino as THE grunge producer.

NOTES & MINUTIAE: The name comes from two effects pedals: The Univox Super-Fuzz and the Electro-Harmonix Big Muff.

IS THERE A DELUXE VERSION: In 1990, Sub Pop added their early singles like “Touch Me I’m Sick” and “You Got It” to the album, making it a full 12-track CD instead of a six-song EP. There’s now a larger version with more studio cuts, demos and live cuts.

GRADE: A-: Mudhoney’s never been consistent, but when they’re on, they’re on, and the expanded versions showcase their influential dirty sound.