Before the national and international press pounced on "The Seattle Sound" as the next big thing and started calling bands like Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, and Alice in Chains grunge, the main pillars of what I thought grunge was at the time were Tad, Nirvana and Mudhoney. And personally, I always liked Mudhoney best. Mark Arm seemed to harness some of the same energy Iggy Pop had when fronting The Stooges, and I definitely heard more garage and punk influences in their early work.
There is this little tradition among my friends of having a "Mudhoney Freakout" at parties that always reminds me how great of a band they are. There is nothing like 30 drunk people screaming along to "Touch Me I'm Sick," "Burn it Clean," "You Got It" or "In 'n' Out Of Grace" at midnight. Granted, "In 'n' Out Of Grace" has a long jammy guitar part that always slows the party down a little, but then it builds up to the part where everyone yells "Oh god how I love to hate!" and it's pretty damn awesome. Seriously. Go play "Superfuzz Bigmuff" right now (or for those that don't have it on vinyl, your "Superfuzz Bigmuff Plus Early Singles" CD) and rock the fuck out. You will feel much better.
(Oh, these live photos are from a fantastic show Mudhoney put on in April 2002 at the Crocodile Cafe)
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