This weekend is the second UK ATP I'll Be Your Mirror festival and I'm excited for many reasons. One of those is that I get to see Mudhoney again, who were possibly the highlight of the 10 Year Birthday ATP a few years ago. With that in mind, I thought I should write about one of their records (and since I didn't post anything yesterday, I'm going to try to squeeze out another post later).
As I think is the case for most people, I have no idea when I first heard about Mudhoney. You're a teenager and so you learn about Nirvana, and somehow you absorb information about all the other bands of the era - Mudhoney, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Melvins. (As it happens, I do know the first time I heard of Soundgarden, but more on that another time.) I remember going into my local record shop (which only sold cds) after school one day and thinking about buying the compilation March to Fuzz, but deciding against it because I was low on cash. I eventually bought it about 5 years later. I kinda wish I had bought it sooner. Not only does the first disc contain so many incredible songs, the second has covers by bands it would take me years to discover by myself. An education in a cool band and the bands they thought were cool.
This record came out in the middle of my Tuesday-record-from-Spillers year and they had it in a few weeks later. Sub Pop were one of the first labels I was aware of putting download codes in with every release, a practice I like. This one also came with a bonus 7", an added bonus. I would have picked it up anyway I think. I'd got the Live Mud record sometime earlier and was pretty into Mudhoney at the time.
I was pretty pleased when I took it home and gave it a spin, and I still am now. The opener I'm Now is suitably massive and there are highlights like The Lucky Ones and Running Out all throughout the record. We Are Rising would be a bit of a lame closer, but luckily New Meaning brings it back. They have a somehow rounder sound these days, the fuzz is less sharp but I like it. The riffs are still groovy and that's one of the things I love about them. The 7" is pretty nice (labelled Side A on one side and Side 1 on the other). Two covers by bands I've never heard (Pere Ubu and The Troggs), but you could easily believe they were Mudhoney songs.
When I finally got to see them at the 10 Year ATP I was just amazed. They had so much energy and so many tunes and I had a great time. They were pretty much the only band I saw that weekend with a "normal" line up - guitar, bass, drums, vocals - almost every other act had multiple drummers (big fan. When the Melvins wheeled out the two Modest Mouse drummers for the 4-drummer finale we all got a little too excited) or something else non-standard. I'm not saying these things are gimmicky, but it says a lot that a band with just four guys playing regular instruments can blow me away even more. Which means that it just comes down to the songs. And Mudhoney have those songs in buckets.
Format: 12", 7", insert
Tracks: 13
Cost: £11 new
Bought: Spillers
When: 17/06/08
Colour: black
Etching: no
mp3s: download code
