Mudhoney

The Sound and the Fury from Seattle

Keith Cameron

• Publisher: Voyageur Press
• Year: 2014
• ISBN:
  9781627881449
• Topic: Media & Performing Arts
• Subtopic: Punk Music

The complete story of the band that many consider the inventors of "grunge, " produced with their full cooperation. Before everybody loved their town, Mudhoney was just an unlikely quartet of Seattle-music-scene knockabouts—two college dropouts, a carpenter, and the best drummer in town. But in 1988, the band's debut single, "Touch Me I'm Sick, " and subsequent EP, Superfuzz Bigmuff, turned the indie-rock world on its ear and lit the way for the grunge movement that would put Seattle on the map. In Mudhoney: The Sound and the Fury from Seattle, veteran music journalist Keith Cameron recounts stories from founding members Mark Arm, Steve Turner, Dan Peters, and Matt Lukin, as well as current bassist Guy Maddison. Cameron also interviews a large cast of other witnesses to the Mudhoney story, offering insight from Sub Pop label founders Bruce Pavitt and Jonathan Poneman, former manager Bob Whittaker, producers Jack Endino and Conrad Uno, and members of bands like Nirvana, Sonic Youth, and Pearl Jam, among others. What emerges is an entertaining account of the band that arguably launched grunge, but never sold out. Cameron explores the childhoods and musical influences of each member and offers frank narratives of record-business tomfoolery, tour shenanigans, Arm's 1990s drug use, the Seattle music scene at its frenzied peak, and more. But most of all, readers will learn how Mudhoney outlasted their more financially successful peers by forging ahead purely on their camaraderie and shared vision for the band's music. Illustrated with a selection of photos from the full span of Mudhoney's history, this is the story of one of the most irreverent—yet most reverently adored—bands of the post-punk era.