Mudhoney's seminal EP, Superfuzz Bigmuff, is 35 years old (yesterday)...

[PorkyPrimeCut]

The original game-changer for me. A wonderful, short, sharp shock!



Memories? Loves? Hates? Let's hear 'em...

[zhivago]

This is an absolute favourite of mine,

I fell head over heels in love with Mudhoney in the early 90s and the honeymoon is still going strong.

At the time, I couldn't find any of their actual records in Greece...I had found a CD live bootleg that I had on constant repeat...some of the song titles were wrong on the back cover, but it didn't matter...the band's sound was unmistakable.

When I finally got my hands on Superfuzz Bigmuff, aside from it having one of the greatest names for a record ever, I was blown away by how concise it all was...all killer, no filler!

A timeless classic, for sure!

[s_mcsleazy]

funny you should mention this album. i had a rough week and decided to grab my superfuzz clone and my mustang and rip out some mudhoney songs.

i've said it before but that album is still one of my favorite sounding albums ever despite it not being what we'd consider nowadays as good production. using that much fuzz on a recording is difficult but they made it work.

[eggwheat]

Crazy…I saw them play that year with Soundgarden supporting! Quickly followed by Nirvana and Tad double bill.. already had seen MBV then Dinosaur Jr with Lunachick.. all in the same year within weeks. We really had an amazing venue at Portsmouth Polytechnic …so many great bands played. Never realised how lucky we were at the time.

[cestlamort]

Maybe my favorite record of the era... certainly the one that made me really think about local music being something special.

I first heard Mudhoney when they opened up for Danzig at the Underground, a goth-ish dance club in the U-district. (I was still too young for the 18+ age restriction but somehow was let in. The Teen Dance Ordinance basically made it impossible to see all ages shows in Seattle, other than at the UW. In the ensuing years, we'd often have to drive down to Tacoma to see Seattle bands, with some exceptions like the OK Hotel.) I was in line behind Kurt Bloch (Fastbacks) and was minorly star struck.

Mudhoney were absolutely epic and kinetic. (They tossed out a t-shirt into the crowd, which I still have). Mudhoney of this era era is still one of the best live bands I've ever seen. (They're still good now, too, but were a force of nature). Just a visceral, fuzzy blur.

The Superfuzz Bigmuff ep is my favorite release of theirs, followed by some of the singles. (The sides were labeled Inside and Outside, and I never knew which was supposed to be side A). I soon started buying all the new local music I could get my hands on (some good, some not so good), and then started growing my hair out (only cutting it all off after studying in Germany to return to a post-Nirvana/year-punk-broke world). Exciting times, and I'm happy I happened to be in the right place at the right time. Even if I was too young to get into bar shows.

[PorkyPrimeCut]

Crazy…I saw them play that year with Soundgarden supporting!

Woah! I'd have thought they'd be supporting Soundgarden who seemed to be the biggest fish back then.


I guess my most endearing memory will be seeing them at the Reading festival in 1990 - a rainless, sunny one which made all the difference! I'd only heard about the festival about 2 months before it was happening, being very new to the scene at that point. I shared a tent with a guy I'd only known for a few months, Simon, who's now my dearest friend & soulmate.
There were 4 of us who went down from Leeds on a National Express double-decker coach. We wangled a fantastic table seat downstairs & played Shithead (a card game) all the way down.

When we were on our way to watch Mudhoney I bought one of those woven hippy wristbands & had just about got it securely fastened by the time we started squeezing through the crowd towards the front. This was by far the biggest, moodiest crowd I'd ever been in & I vividly remember the swell of anticipation as they started the feedback & drum laden intro to In 'N' Out of Grace. Then it dropped...."Jesus take me to a higher place!...." I was literally swept off my feet by the surge of crusties, hippies & punks & dumped 10 rows closer to the stage, then immediately swept up again & thrown back to where I started. Such a rush!!

The wristband was long gone, as was my head & my festival moshpit virginity!