Mudhoney - On Top! KEXP Presents Mudhoney Live On Top of the Space Needle

I have far more live Mudhoney records than anyone really needs (and more live albums than actual albums). It all started with Live Mud in 2008 which really blew me away. On Record Store Day in 2014 I saw that Mudhoney were releasing another live album and I quite fancied a copy - I'd seen the band a couple of times and knew they were great live. I certainly hoped the new one would be as good as Live Mud.

The record is a recording of a very strange gig. Sub Pop and Mudhoney both turned 25 in 2013 and, in a mix of all things grunge/Seattle, they played a special show on top of the Space Needle to a very small crowd and broadcast live on a local radio station. I'm not sure I knew all those details when the release was announced, but I certainly like the idea. The live show isn't as good as Live Mud, but given the circumstances it's not that surprising. The set-list has some great songs (and less-enjoyable ones like Chardonnay) but the sound is thinner and a bit rougher (What to Do With the Neutral sounds particularly flat). Touch Me I'm Sick, I'm Now and Suck You Dry all sound pretty good.

Just one month later I found a copy of their live album from Third Man Studios in Rapture in Witney and bought it for two reasons - I was excited to finally have a Live at Third Man record (given that most of the bands they'd recorded do little for me) and because I felt that I had to buy something (and there really wasn't anything else particularly exciting). I think I now have all the live Mudhoney albums that I need, but you never know what's going to happen in the future. I should probably buy more of their actual albums before any more live records at least.

Format: 12", picture sleeve
Tracks: 10
Cost: £15 new
Bought: Truck Store, Oxford
When: 19/04/14
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: Download code

Mudhoney - Live at Third Man Records

I own more live Mudhoney albums than I do regular Mudhoney albums. The main reason for this is that Mudhoney are so good live that you know a live album will be enjoyable. For years all I had was March to Fuzz, the Mudhoney best-of, and Live Mud, an incredible live LP. The best-of was good, but Live Mud just sounded incredible. I've since seen Mudhoney live twice and I adore them as a live band. Of the regular Mudhoney albums I've heard, I've enjoyed them, but not in the same way.

I picked up this copy of Live at Third Man Records from Rapture Records in Witney. I'd not long moved to Oxford at this point and we were exploring the nearby areas. I knew Witney had a record shop so it was at the top of surrounding villages to visit. There wasn't a huge amount there I wanted that day, but I knew I'd enjoy this one. I've seen a lot of Live at Third Man records and Mudhoney are one of the few bands that I actually care about to have released one. There's not a whole lot to say about the record itself, but I do like the Live at Third Man sleeves.

Side 1 is where the hits are for me, but the second side isn't bad by any stretch. The songs on side 2 aren't ones I'm familiar with (except I'm Now) but work nicely. I don't think anyone can get tired of hearing songs like Here Comes the Sickness, When Tomorrow Hits and In 'n Out of Grace though. Worth a listen if you enjoy live Mudhoney (and why wouldn't you?).

Format: 12", diecut sleeve

Tracks: 10

Cost: £13 new

Bought: Rapture Records, Witney

When: 10/05/15

Colour: Black

Etching: none

mp3s: no

Mudhoney - Live Mud

My Mudhoney back-catalogue is thin at best, but this is record the highlight by far. I hadn't seen Mudhoney when I bought it and only had their best-of compilation March to Fuzz, so I didn't know a great deal of their music. I found this live LP in Spillers early on in the Tuesday-Record-From-Spillers year and it was probably the limited run of 500 copies that drew me in (always a sucker for limited editions), or maybe there just weren't that many other records I wanted to buy that day. Either way, I was very pleased when I got it home and played it.

Mud Ride is a perfect opener in both the way it builds up and how it prepares you for what's about to happen. I didn't know that song before but enjoyed it greatly, so we were off to a good start. In fact, I didn't know any of the songs on side 1, but they're all great Mudhoney songs. Side 2, however, is where the hits are at - Touch Me I'm Sick, Suck You Dry and In & Out of Grace all get played and still work fantastically, despite their age. The highlight for me however is Hard-on For War, a song from their album Under a Billion Suns which hadn't been released when the show was recorded. The beat and the riffs are perfect and it's brilliantly cynical. When I finally saw them at All Tomorrow's Parties and they played this song, my friend turned to me at the end to tell me what a huge tune it was. I already knew this of course, but I was glad he agreed.

I've raved about Mudhoney on here before (I wrote about The Lucky Ones a while back), but it was this live album that made me much more of a fan than I was before. When they played that ATP I had very high hopes but they easily reached them. Maybe I still would've been amazed had I just gone to see them without having heard this record, but there exists the possibility that I might have missed them, which would have been a shocking mistake. As it was, they were amongst the bands I was looking forward to the most.


Format: 12"
Tracks: 11
Cost: £10 new
Bought: Spillers Records
When: 04/03/08
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: Download code

Mudhoney - The Lucky Ones

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