Mudhoney

Since their formation in 1988, Mudhoney have been one of Seattle’s sharpest musical exports, their grinding-gears guitars and pummelling drums combining with the caustic vocals of Mark Arm in a way that echoes a certain strain of Gen X world-weariness. Arm and fellow guitarist Steve Turner had been in the proto-grunge band Green River until 1987; they formed Mudhoney with Bundle of Hiss drummer Dan Peters and ex-Melvins bassist Matt Lukin. Their debut single, the raucous, irascible “Touch Me I’m Sick”, became one of the defining songs of its era, putting the band’s label, Sub Pop, on the map. That song’s attendant EP, Superfuzz Bigmuff, also became an underground hit. Mudhoney’s self-titled full-length followed in 1989, and two years later they released the garage-y Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge. The early-’90s alt-rock gold rush led to them being signed to Reprise, and their first album for that label, the hammering, sarcasm-scorched Piece of Cake, came out in 1992. Mudhoney's Seattle-hype broadside “Overblown” was one of the highlights of the Singles soundtrack, and their uneasiness with being in the major-label machine gave a heavy energy to 1995’s blistering My Brother the Cow and 1998’s blues-tinged Tomorrow Hit Today. Lukin departed the band and Mudhoney left Reprise after that album, returning to Sub Pop. In the 2000s, they expanded on their aesthetic, leaning into psychedelia on 2002’s Since We’ve Become Translucent and bringing in brass for 2006’s Under a BIllion Suns, but they doubled down on their fury and returned to their raw, powerful form on the albums that followed, including the 2018 collection of 21st-century salvos Digital Garbage.