Recent Stories with tag mudhoney

If 2009 was an unusually nostalgic year in local music for certain wistful Seattle Gen-Xers, 2010 was the opening cymbal crash of an encore. Defunct old favorites reunited. Extant old favorites continued to soar. A tight-knit community that first rocked the world a quarter-century ago grew ever closer, through remembrance of lost friends and the sharing of new music. Here are five 2010 music-related events that tickled those Seattleites who’ve been listening all these years. (Part one here.)

 

5. Cameron Crowe Shoots Pearl Jam Film

Director Cameron Crowe’s relationship with Pearl Jam goes all the way back to 1991, when he shot Singles in town, casting Stone Gossard, Jeff Ament, and Eddie Vedder as members of local rock band Citizen Dick (wink, wink). In 2010, Crowe was shooting the band again, this time to commemorate its 20th anniversary. (He also directed the video for Backspacer single "The Fixer.") As reported in June, Crowe and crew were spotted in Madrona and Capitol Hill, presumably recapturing important locales from the band's past. Details on the film, Pearl Jam Twenty, are hazy, but it will see some sort of release this year. (Just in: said film will be accompanied by a soundtrack and book.) Stay tuned.

4. Pigeonhed Brings Back the Funk

Meh. That's what I thought of Mudhoney in 1993, after seeing the unabashedly scrappy band open for Pearl Jam. And what I've thought, for almost as many years, of New Belgium Brewing's beer resume.

Sometimes you're just wrong about shit.

Lucky for the ignoramuses among us, Mudhoney's still around and making fantastic fuzzy rock. In fact, as announced yesterday, the band's exhibiting its classic grunge style at Neumos next month. Also fortuitous: New Belgium's plugging the massive hop-hole in their product line with the new 7% ABV Ranger IPA.

But what really has the angels singing in my animated, clouds-parting sky is this: Mudhoney is playing Neumos on February 8 to celebrate the launch of said India Pale Ale. (As is opener Sleepy Sun.) And you can catch the iconic act's set for free by purchasing a Fat Tire amber (still...meh!) at Moe Bar. (No ticket price is listed on Neumos calendar, and no Mudhoney show exists at TicketsWest, so this, what, four dollar? beer may be your only means of admission.)

Get thee to Neumos that Monday, fellow ignoramuses (and already-enlightened ones). A Mudhoney show can change your life. Great beer can too, but unless there's a Ranger keg tapped (as there damn well should be), it probably won't happen this night.

If you grew up when grunge blew up—in the Northwest or unfortunately far away, like me—you probably felt a few tugs at your heartstrings via your eardrums (and eyeballs) this year. Maybe what you heard gave you a little thrill. Maybe it pissed you off. Either way, it was a fine year for remembering and reliving Seattle’s flannel-rock heyday. Here's the most compelling (second half of the) evidence. (Check out items 10-6 in Part 1 here.)

5. Mudhoney plays the West Seattle streets

Grunge's elder statesmen could have passed on playing under a tent on SW Alaska Street. They've toured all over the planet—since 1988—after all. But Mudhoney embraced its neighborhood roots (frontman Mark Arm and former bassist Matt Lukin are residents), and West Seattle Summer Fest attendees were given a (free) sonic treat not soon forgotten.

Introduced by then-King County Exec candidate Dow Constantine (who apparently knows Arm, among other musicians, from the scene's early days), the always-full-throttle band played a 75-minute set to a delighted sea of friends and families. Thirty- and forty-something fans danced with kids on their shoulders. Younger people crowdsurfed—courteously, if that's possible. In the street. While Mudhoney brought it. It was an experience, I believe, nearing what the church folks call "fellowship."

4. Pearl Jam returns home to KeyArena

It's become a tradition of sorts: Pearl Jam executes a tour without playing Seattle. (The Gorge doesn't count.) Then, when the city's feeling most neglected, the greatest band around gives us two incredible nights at KeyArena. This time, four years had passed and new factors played into the band's shows and Eddie Vedder's banter. New president. No basketball team. New album. The fresh enthusiasm and optimism found on that record, Backspacer, fired up both September shows, making each (rarity, fan favorite, and big hit-boasting) two-hour night yet another standout event. Hope the wait is shorter this time.

3. Nirvana’s records, Reading show get special treatment

Nirvana would have marked its 20th year in 2009 had things gone well for Kurt Cobain and the trio stayed together. (The odds weren't good.) Because of that, the band was remembered this year more than in many years past. Sub Pop reissued Nirvana's debut, Bleach, on 180g white vinyl and CD on November 3. (Both versions featured a previously unearthed 1990 Portland show.) On the same day, Geffen released the band's legendary 1992 Reading Festival performance on vinyl, CD, and DVD. A month later, Nevermind, In Utero, and the MTV Unplugged record were given the limited-run 180g treatment. That much-hyped Reading set, finally available for all to see, lived up to its praise; Cobain, Krist Novoselic, and Dave Grohl were truly amazing—and obviously feeling it—that night. You have to believe there could have been many more like it.

2. Chris Cornell joins Pearl Jam for Temple of the Dog reunion

It was just for one song, "Hunger Strike," but when Chris Cornell joined Pearl Jam on LA's Gibson Amphitheater stage in October, Temple of the Dog was back. Formed in 1990 as a reaction to Mother Love Bone frontman Andy Wood's death, the band included Cornell and all of Pearl Jam's current members. (Drummer Matt Cameron was with Soundgarden at the time.) Temple of the Dog existed only briefly, putting out just one self-titled record in 1991. This four-minute alignment was the first since all the guys joined for two songs in 2003. When will it happen again?... (more)

"Bad name. Lame name, actually. But kinda funny in its lameness. That was the point, to some degree. It was the late 1980s and Nirvana, Mudhoney, Soundgarden, and swarms of other Seattle area bands released albums on Sub Pop Records, the label started by Bruce Pavitt and Jonathan Poneman. The kids were so uncool, they were beyond cool. They embraced and reclaimed their high school denigration: LOSER. Sub Pop Records even threw an event they called Lame Fest."

That's how Grunge, a new book of photographs by Michael Lavine, starts—with contemporary indie rock figure Thurston Moore's intro spotlighting the wink-wink, Can you believe this shit is happening? side of Seattle's inevitably overblown musical era.

He would know. Moore, of Sonic Youth, was making noisy guitar rock when Kurt Cobain was a hormonal, directionless teen. And he introduced honchos at Geffen Records imprint DGC to Cobain's band in 1990. (Nevermind hit on the label the following year.) And you could argue that thanks to grunge's massive success,... (more)

Though I didn't see it at Sub Pop's (much-deserved) self-congratulatory SP20 music fest last summer, Elysian's Loser Pale Ale was brewed specifically for the occasion.

"Loser" pays tribute to Sub Pop's classic, faux-emasculating slogan, of course. What's cooler yet is the label, featuring a B&W Charles Peterson original: Mark Arm's guitar neck splitting the crotch of fellow Mudhoney guitarist Steve Turner, circa 1988-ish. (Or is it Turner's guitar violating Arm? It's all axes, legs, and hair.)

You can't ride a fuggin' six-pack of this bright, tasty, 7% abv ale, unfortunately. It's only available in 22oz bombers. You can pick it up at the Elysian or, if you're lucky, find it at a city bottle shop or upscale grocery. I scored the pictured bottle a few weeks back at West Seattle's Metropolitan Market.