Superfuzz Mark II

Modest Seattle legends Mudhoney celebrate the 20th anniversary of their classic Superfuzz Bigmuff EP by releasing a deluxe edition and a new studio LP next month. Darren Carle talks to Mark Arm and finds out why they're The Lucky Ones

Feature by Darren Carle | 20 May 2008

In the aftermath of the early '90s grunge phenomenon, music’s intelligentsia pondered on when the movement specifically imploded on itself. Did it happen when Kurt Cobain bought the farm? Was it at some moment during the Clothes Show ‘grunge special’ where designer flannel shirts costing over £100 were paraded around with not a hint of irony? Or was it simply Stiltskin?

Wherever the answer lies, finding the genesis of the sub-genre seems equally difficult. However, increasingly taking a share in the honour are Seattle survivors Mudhoney and, more directly, their seminal Superfuzz Bigmuff EP. Lead singer, guitarist and all round nice guy Mark Arm is more than happy to face up to such postulations.

“Sure, I’m proud of it and I’m honoured if people think of it in that way,” he says, talking from Sub Pop HQ in Seattle about the band’s debut release. “The weird thing is to even have been involved in something like a trend, even superficially. I mean, we obviously didn’t sound like any of the other Seattle bands at the time, but we were there and we’re partly to blame,” he laughs. “Well, you know, some of that stuff was really good and some of it was really horrible.”

Mudhoney can certainly count themselves in the former category, and if proof were needed, this month Sub Pop are releasing a 20th anniversary edition of Superfuzz Bigmuff, dusted off and re-mastered, with its full, original running order, extra tracks, demos and a second CD of early live recordings. Listening to Superfuzz now, it’s initially easy to hear why Arm distances himself from some of his early peers. By his own admission Mudhoney sound more like a band looking backwards than striving forward. Opening signature track Touch Me I’m Sick swaggers in with all the bluster of Funhouse-era Stooges, for example. But listen to Bleach, Nirvana’s debut album, and it’s easier to join the dots, to see where Kurt dug his fingers deep into the underground and flung the grit and gravel skywards.

Tracks like If I Think forge lullaby-like melodies to pummelling loud-quiet-loud dynamics and hollering vocals, the very formula that would go on to, for better or worse, define grunge. However, unsurprisingly the band themselves were completely oblivious to such things. “We were pretty much living in the moment at the time,” claims Arm. “There was no thought of what tomorrow might bring.”

Reappraising those hedonistic days via Superfuzz’s second CD of live recordings from Berlin and Santa Barbara in 1988, they certainly sound like a carefree band, goading their audience with faux-American cheese. “Hi, we’re Mudhoney! We’re from America!,” Arm can be heard beaming in between a very un-apple pie set including Touch Me I’m Sick and Hate The Police. “It’s ragged and full-on,” is present-day Arm’s summation. “A friend of mine who works here was listening to it and he was like ‘Dude you guys are just going for it’. I guess we were,” he laughs.

“You know, it was the weirdest thing going to Berlin at that time,” he continues, clearly in nostalgic free-flow. “We’d been playing in Seattle maybe once a month at the most and then the next thing you know we’re in Berlin, which was fucking crazy! We never adjusted to the time-zone and spent the whole time staying up all night, just hammering ourselves senseless with delightful German beers that we’d never heard of.”

Such gusto carried Mudhoney through three albums with Sub Pop, the original home of fellow Seattleites Nirvana. However, after Kurt and co. jumped ship to Geffen and released Nevermind, Mudhoney were one of many acts that found themselves being lured by major label contracts, eager to cash in on the phenomenon.

“Yeah, sure. I think that was definitely something that was in the forefront of our minds,” recalls Arm when asked if he and the band were worried about balancing major label pressures with those of a loyal fanbase. “That’s why when we recorded our first record for Reprise (1992’s Piece Of Cake), we recorded it in the same basement studio with the same engineer as Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge. It’s not like we tried not to change, but we’re not a band that’s going to look at trends and try to follow them.”

Does Arm wish he’d gotten more of the cash, as well as the kudos? “I can’t say I haven’t wanted cash,” he chuckles, “but you know, that’s not something I’m going to use music to try and get. I have a distinct picture of what I want to do musically and also what turns me on and what my limitations are. I’m not the kind of singer that’s going to be on Top 40 radio. We’re not going to be millionaires. We’re not going to be super-rich. But fuck, we still made a bunch of money. We made more money than I ever anticipated when the band started. We were all able to buy our own houses and I didn’t work for ten years. I didn't have a day job! I don’t know many people who can claim that unless they’re just, y’know, unemployed.”

Signing on is not something it seems Arm will have to endure. As well as the re-release of Superfuzz, Mudhoney are set to simultaneously release their eighth album proper, The Lucky Ones. Although they have rarely strayed from their formula, the double-release and extra raw sound gives The Lucky Ones a back-to-basics feel. Listening to both albums consecutively, it certainly doesn’t feel like two decades have passed between them.

“Well, you know, 20 years goes by in a flash,” sighs Arm. “This one goes back farther than Superfuzz in a way. I’m not even playing guitar on it. It’s even more stripped down. I think one of the things that was beneficial was that I wasn’t concentrating on what the guitar riff was or how many bars of this was happening, so I was free to vocalise over what was being played. I coloured outside the lines a little more.”

It certainly shows with tracks like I’m Now, Arm ad-libbing stream-of-conscious lyrics before focusing on the rollicking, fist-pumping refrain of “The past makes no sense, the future looks tense,” with gleeful abandon. If it sounds like a band living in the moment and thanking their lucky stars for it, then maybe that’s because it is.

“I feel like we’re ‘the lucky ones’, that we still get to do this shit 20 years later. When we first started, our whole ambition was just to release a single. We didn’t know how long we were gonna last; punk bands and rock bands of the time sprang up and disappeared all the time. Steve (Turner, guitarist) was saying; ‘Ah, we won't last more than three years, there’s no reason to’,” mocks Arm.

We’re happy he’s been proven wrong. Here’s to the next 20.

Superfuzz Bigmuff and The Lucky Ones are both released via Sub Pop on 2 Jun

http://www.mudhoney.net