Mudhoney

The Flaming Lips, “The Sparrow Looks Up at the Machine”

They should have kept that noise from the first few seconds going throughout. Just go full abrasive. It would make me happy, anyway.

Mudhoney, “Burn It Clean”

One of the delightful bits of early Mudhoney is how often you can just hear someone yelling, belching, or otherwise making noise at the beginning or ending of tracks. It’s an excellent choice to leave that stuff in. The “hey jackass!” at the start of this really sets the tone.

Pavement, “Stereo”

I dunno, I just love Pavement. Just hearing the intro to this song puts a grin on my face. I haven’t gotten sick of it yet, and I hope I never do. Pavement will probably be one of those bands that my kids will look back on fondly as reminding them of their old man, and maybe they’ll even listen to them occasionally as a result. I’ll still be distorting their taste from beyond the grave!

The Fiery Furnaces, “South is Only a Home”

Brother and sister duo the Fiery Furnaces kind of epitomize a certain quirky, challenging strain of indie band. They’re restless, always searching for new sounds, and often end up being kind of difficult as a result. It’s all for good reasons, it’s not just experimentation for the sake of experimentation, but it does require some concentration to really pick up.

Mudhoney, “Magnolia Caboose Babyshit”

A lively instrumental from their debut self-titled LP, this is actually one of my favorite songs on the record. Not that I don’t love Mark Arm’s singing, but they’re just in and out on this one, getting the point across in a tidy 1:07. Great stuff.

Rancid, “Time Bomb”

I sincerely wish that Rancid made more songs like this. It’s just such fun! Who is against this? Other than Rancid, I mean.

Mudhoney, “No End In Sight”

Have we had a lot of Mudhoney recently? It seems like we have. I’m not going to check, though, that would be against the Mudhoney Creed. Which I just made up.

Anyway, not going to analyze this one too deep, this is just a pure ripper in the classic Mudhoney mode. I’ll shut up and you enjoy it.

Mudhoney, “It Is Us”

If you got off the Mudhoney train back in the early 90s, you’re in good company. But it’s worth taking a look at their later catalog - they’ve got five studio albums after the 90s, and they range from solid to excellent. Under a Billion Suns is one of the very good ones, but not the best (that’s The Lucky Ones). But give it a whirl!

Astronoid, “Resin”

We’ve frequently talked here about the blurry space between black metal and shoegaze, and some of the bands occupying that liminal space. There’s a fair bit of distance to travel between My Bloody Valentine and Bathory, mind you, but because they do exist on something of a continuum, most of the spots in-between are viable. So, today, we have Astronoid: those drums and rhythms are pretty metal, but the dreamy vocals and triumphant tilt to the music is very shoegaze. This record really very much sits at the midpoint, I’d say.

Phono-Comb, “Grip ’n’ Grin”

Phono-Comb is a successor band to the great Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet, which you probably guessed if you’re familiar with that band’s work. Two-thirds of the band (Don Pyle on drums and Reid Diamond on bass) played in the band, and their lone LP (1996’s Fresh Gasoline) is great. If you’re not familiar with the Shadowy Men, I just found out that Yep Roc has brought their three outstanding records back into print, and you need to go check them out now.

Mudhoney, “In My Finest Suit”

Ever the self-sabotaging band, Mudhoney found themselves on a major label during the grunge gold rush and released Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge, one of the least grunge-y records they ever released. Sales were not great, and by 1995, Kurt Cobain was dead and the grunge bubble was collapsing. So, of course, they headed back and released one of their MOST grunge-y records, My Brother The Cow. This song, for instance, would have sat comfortably on their self-titled record without anybody really noticing stylistic problems.

Hella, “Women of the 90’s”

I was chatting with my friend the other day about some of the absolutely bonkers drum videos you can watch these days, stuff that just seems totally impossible. And this makes me think I should go watch some videos of Zach Hill doing his thing.

Khemmis, “Torn Asunder”

Just some good ol’ heavy metal going on here. All fuzzed out guitar solos and shit. This should ideally be listened to in a custom van.

Azymuth, “Laranjeiras”

Far Out Recordings released a comp of demos from Azymuth from 1973-5 in 2019, capturing this Brazilian jazz/funk group’s sound at the height of their powers. I don’t know jack shit about them other than this, but this record seriously smokes.

The Apples In Stereo, “Energy”

You know what? Sometimes it’s ok to just enjoy a pop song. This is pleasant. It’s nice! It doesn’t matter that it’s extremely unchallenging.