| There’s no trace of nostalgia with Mudhoney’s lead hellraiser, Mark Arm. The vocalist-guitarist has been wreaking sonic havoc for more than 25 years from Seattle, where he led the ’80s and ’90s revolutionary music scene resuscitation team known as the grunge movement.
With one of the greatest voices and guitars to define many highlights in alternative rock, Mudhoney became a seminal band that briskly stayed ahead of the demise of the grunge era.
Although popular and critically acclaimed, Mudhoney never achieved the same commercial success that peers like Soundgarden, Pearl Jam and Nirvana reached in the ’90s. Still, Arm’s bands Green River (1983-1988) and then Mudhoney, were the first to herald in the "Seattle sound" and bring attention to Bruce Pavitt’s label imprint, Sub Pop. To this day, Mudhoney’s Superfuzz Bigmuff and My Brother the Cow continue to form crucial curricula for music geek finishing school.
Despite his band’s history, Arm isn’t interested in glancing over his shoulder to look back at its button-pushing repertoire. Mudhoney has a brand new record to push, Under a Billion Suns, so it’s simply business as usual. As he growls in "It is Us," "Let’s sing a song of cheer, sing a song of cheer / ‘cause happy days are here again."
Are the happy days really here again? There’s a wave of musicians that have just released fresh antiwar albums to follow up previous anti-war/anti-Bush albums. Mudhoney, along with usual suspects Neil Young and the Dixie Chicks, has been identified as one of those bands. The indie rock media glommed onto the subtle antiwar content loosely scattered throughout Mudhoney’s latest batch of songs including "Where is the Future" and "Hard-on for War," and all of a sudden, Under a Billion Suns is a protest album. Even with lyrics like "I want a world run by giant brains, instead of small minded arrogant fools," Arm doesn’t see the theme as being as grandiose as online music mag Pitchfork indicates.
"It’s not overwhelming," explains Arm from the Sub Pop headquarters. "I saw some reviews before I saw the Pitchfork (review) that had latched onto it. I think it’s kind of in the bio, too. You know how when a bio gets sent out, a lot of people just sort of use that as sort of the outline of whatever article they’re going to be writing."
Pitchfork, consider yourself officially dissed.
"I do hate the Bush administration, but that’s not my whole life or anything like that."
His life, for the record, has been mostly consumed by music. When he’s not thinking up riffs for Mudhoney and side project Monkeywrench (new LP, Gabriel’s Horn, is coming soon), he’s surrounded by other bands during his day job at Sub Pop. Arm says he has managed to avoid getting burned out on music and, incredulously, is probably the very last Seattleite who abstains from coffee.
He’s currently preparing to curate the All Tomorrow’s Parties Festival on May 12 (see sidebar) to be followed by a proper tour in the autumn to promote Under a Billion Suns, which shreds, towers and crunches. It’s a real bullet in the Mudhoney discography, but Arm kind of shrugs it off as a typical progression.
"It’s been a long time since we did ‘Sweet Young Thing Ain’t Sweet No More’ and ‘Touch Me I’m Sick.’ There’s a gulf of almost 18 years between the two, between then and now. Things just sort of change with time and people’s focus just kind of changes. Since We’ve Become Translucent was a great record, but I didn’t think we’d have a hard time with coming up with something as good."
Musicians that Mark Arm wants you to know now
Named after the Velvet Underground song, All Tomorrow’s Parties (www.atpfestival.com) is a weekend indie rock music festival held 60 miles outside of London, England. Headliners or "curators" are invited to select bands to share the roster for a day. Mudhoney's favourites and co-performers include: Black Mountain, Holly Golightly, The Scientists, Comets on Fire, The Drones, The Country Teasers UK, along with the following artists you may have never heard of:
· The Flesh Eaters – "A band from L.A., they’ve been around since ’78. It’s pretty much a band that was fronted by this one guy, Chris D. (Desjardins), who used to write for Slash Magazine and produce bands for Slash Records. The lineup was kind of revolving, but this one particular lineup from one of their records (included a) member of X and The Blasters. It’s an amazing album called A Minute to Pray a Second to Die that’s really important in the Mudhoney universe."
· David Dondero – "He’s a sort of a folky guy from California. Steve (Turner, guitar/vocals) is totally into him."
· Jon Wahl & The Amadans – "Jon Wahl used to play in Clawhammer and he’s put out a couple of records on his own. One of his records, the one that came out on Birdman called Sour Sweets, is one of my favourite records of recent years and never got any kind of attention whatsoever – I’m not sure why."
· Total Sound Group Direct Action Committee – "That’s Tim Kerr from Monkeywrench and Mike Carroll who sang in Poison 13 and the Lord High Fixers."
· Mark Pickerel – "(He) used to drum in the Screaming Trees, but he’s a troubadour now." |
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