Mudhoney

When Mudhoney issued its debut EP, Superfuzz Bigmuff (named after the vintage distortion pedals used by guitarists Mark Arm and Steve Turner), and a bilious Stooges-worthy single, "Touch Me I'm Sick," it birthed Seattle grunge. Arm and Turner are Green River alums, just like Jeff Ament and Stone Gossard, who went on to form Pearl Jam. Whereas Pearl Jam updated the anthemic possibilities of early '70s arena rock, Mudhoney played as if it had emerged from the same '60s garage in which Pacific Northwest heroes the Sonics honed their no-frills assault.

Equal parts alienation and inebriation, the quar-tet's music never caught on commercially like that of their peers Pearl Jam, Nirvana, and Soundgarden. That's because Mudhoney's records boast a caustic, dirty-fingernails sound that falls just short of slipshod. The band's best early work is collected on Superfuzz Bigmuff Plus Early Singles, with Arm's cat-scratch wail piercing through a wall of overdriven guitars on the salacious "Sweet Young Thing (Ain't Sweet No More)." Afterward, Mudhoney continued to crank out variations of the same record, distinguished by pithy commentaries on selling out ("Suck You Dry," from Piece of Cake) and runaway rock-star ego ("Generation Spokesmodel" and "Into Yer Shtik," from My Brother the Cow). Tomorrow Hit Today bares a more Southern-fried edge, thanks to production by Memphis legend Jim Dickinson, but it also holds together as the tightest collection of psyche-garage mania since Mudhoney's first handful of singles.

March to Fuzz offers a fine overview of the band's first decade, while Since We've Become Translucent repays its debt to side B of the Stooges' 1970 classic Funhouse, in which free-jazz saxophone rides the rails of protopunk rhythm. Where Funhouse masterfully integrates the worlds of John Coltrane, James Brown, and garage rock, however, Since We've Become Translucent is hit or miss. The horns fall flat on "Where the Flavor Is," and the epic "Baby, Can You Dig the Light?" can't sustain the song's initial intensity for eight minutes. But when Mudhoney simply does what it has always done best -- namely crank up the fuzz pedals, most notably on "Dyin' for It" and "Sonic Infusion" -- they do Iggy proud. (GREG KOT)

From 2004's The New Rolling Stone Album Guide