Seattle sludge slingers

Possibly no one that saw this band live in 1988 expected them to be around for more than a few weeks, let alone 30 years, and not because they were awful, but because Mudhoney was volatile. Now approaching senior-citizen status, the band still is. Mudhoney music sounds like discordant, sloppy annoyance at anything and everything. Always has. Most all of the original members have clung to this band, including vocalist/guitarist Mark (McLaughlin) Arm, guitarist Steve Turner, and drummer Dan Peters. Guy Maddison replaced founding bassist Matt Luken some time ago.

The sound off their Superfuzz Bigmuff EP would become the formula for grunge itself, which at the time of this record’s release during the late 1980s had yet to be invented. I fancy Mudhoney today as a band that survives for no other reason than it becomes a place for old-timers to meet and make the old sounds. For even though Mudhoney influenced a generation, they themselves never saw commercial success. Money and the band went together like, well, mud and honey. Ten records, some of them brilliant, but they never earned the financial comfort of such followers as Nirvana or Soundgarden.

The roots of what would become Mudhoney began during high school as teen-boy humor; listenability came second on the list. But membership in a band was a good thing and eventually, classmates Stone Gossard and Jeff Ament would hook up with Arm to form Green River, which begat Mother Love Bone, which begat Pearl Jam with ex–San Diegan Eddie Vedder. Mudhoney (not to be confused with Mudbone or Mudcrutch), in keeping with the theme of bad-boy humor, is actually the title of a lo-fi sexploitation film from the late ’60s. Not counting Pearl Jam, today, Mudhoney are among the last men standing in a much-loved genre that has long since disappeared. I’m not entirely sure that they’ve noticed or care.

Tar Halos and the Grids also perform.