Unsurprisingly it was John Peel who first championed Mudhoney in the UK.
One night in 1988 he excitedly announced the arrival of the rama lama fa-fa-fa blast and menace of Touch Me I’m Sick, the awesome debut single by the Seattle band, named after a Russ Meyer exploitation flick.
The band’s line-up reunited members of Seattle rock legends Green River and The Melvins, with snarlicious vocalist Mark Arm and thrashy guitarist Steve Turner providing Mudhoney’s enduring core.
The band were equally grounded in punk and irreverent Pebbles style garage music and turned it up to 11 to produce a raging counterblast to the pristine sonics of 80s AOR.
Heading the admittedly short list of classic mini-albums named after guitar effects pedals (ok, it’s probably just this one), Superfuzz Bigmuff (1988) sounded the opening salvo of the all-conquering onslaught that would become grunge.
Mudhoney would arguably make more rounded albums, but they would never again release anything as earth-shaking as this six-song collection – and they quickly found themselves out-gunned by Nirvana‘s superior songsmithery.
Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge (1991) persists in the memory as one long smug sneer, from the irreverent title to the vocal delivery and lyrics.
Mark Arm
Vocals, guitar
Steve Turner
Guitar
Matt Lukin
Bass
Dan Peters
Drums
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