Mudhoney: Here Comes the Fuzz

Mark Arm and Steve Turner have seen it all in Mudhoney’s 21 year career to date, from unwittingly triggering a worldwide phenomenon with their dirty and distorted shitstorm of howling punk rock to visiting the Clinton White House after a toke on the philosopher’s blend. The duo also recently reformed Green River and intend to record again under that name with its full lineup next year. But none of this gets them off the hook for having played Auld Reekie just the once in their lifespan so far. The Skinny gives them a right telling off...

Mudhoney gigs are a rarity in these parts. Mark, the last time we talked you said you’d try and get to Scotland for the next touring cycle but you never showed. The kids cried that Christmas. When did you last play Scotland and what memories of our beloved land do you hold dear?
Mark Arm [checks the internet]: “Glasgow with the Catheters in 02 at the QMU…that’s not really a long time ago in Mudhoney terms, that’s recent history. One of the most memorable times we played up there was with the Wildebeests and Cosmic Psychos in some sort of weird cavern.”

Steve Turner: “Around 1995, I recall our bass player at the time – Matt Lukin – and Ross Knight from the Cosmic Psychos stayed up drinking all night on our tour bus and were absolutely destroyed by the time we got to Glasgow, That was kinda funny."

Arm: “I remember the first time we came over though, hanging around in Edinburgh and Glasgow: we stayed up late with this kid Damian at his mum’s flat listening to Joy Division and Hawkwind records. We tracked down the kids from the Vaselines, Eugene and Frances…drank with them for a while. I’m pretty stoked to be playing with them at this Edinburgh show."

But Mark, your birth name is McLaughlin, don't you have roots here?
Arm: “Apparently. My dad keeps staying things like, ‘well, you know I’m a Scotsman’, which means he’s cheap. He’s frugal. I don’t know if that’s really a trait of the Scottish, but he keeps saying that. He grew up in Kansas!”

You’ve been in bands with everyone from Ron Asheton to Thurston Moore over the years [Arm also occasionally fronts MC5], when was the last time you were star struck?
Turner: “That doesn’t happen often. Early on, all the musical heroes of mine were pretty low level, it ended up that I was meeting so many of them really quickly. People like Sonic Youth were huge to me and we met them in 1985! That said, seeing Nick Knox from the Cramps walking about backstage and looking as badass as possible, I was definitely star struck, afraid of him even. Iggy Pop was a big one; I remember Mark was really nervous. I didn’t even see a say a word...”

Arm: “We played with the Stooges a couple of years ago and even though I’d met Ron before and we’d played with Iggy in ‘93 and ’98, the very first time I met Iggy I actually ran into the bathroom to compose myself first.”

Your mate Iggy has taken a lot of stick for punting car insurance lately. I’ve heard people call that “the true death of punk rock,” but then the man does have to eat. Could you picture Mudhoney writhing around topless in an advert, or licensing a song to a product? 
Turner: “Nobody’s asked, strangely enough [laughs]. I don’t think we’d have so much of a moral problem with it though, it seems like that line was broken a long time ago. Some people just won’t allow it, Neil Young has always been very adamant about that. That’s great, if that’s your position.”

Still, there’s always bad taste. I mean Courtney Love certainly opened the floodgates when she licensed Breed to that Clive Owen film a few years back, which was just unnatural. Then there’s the Kurt Cobain avatar on the new Guitar Hero, an abomination...
Turner: “I agree, and they don’t need the money. You could try to keep it pure, but I don’t think there’s much pure about Courtney Love.”

If Mudhoney could pick a product to endorse with its music, what would it be?
Turner: “Maybe toilet cleaner.”
Arm: “Oh, I think drain cleaner would probably be the most appropriate.”

Which song from your repertoire would you market it with?
Arm: “Something with a big scream as it flushes…”
Turner: “Touch Me, I’m Sick.”

You reconvened your old band Green River to celebrate Sub Pop's 20th anniversary last year. How easy was it to get back on that bike?
Arm: “This was no bike ride [laughs], because when you’re riding a bike you don’t need to remember a bunch of lyrics you’d forgotten for songs you hadn’t thought about in 20 years… trying to revisit that fucked up youthful mindset. It did come together pretty easily, I think we did four practices and played a small club show then the Sub Pop 20. Those first two practices, the first in particular – we were really, really rusty. But things started to click pretty quickly.”

Do you imagine you’ll do anything else with the band? It seems there’s a demand...
Turner: “Green River would be an easy thing to do, five of us live in Seattle and I live down here in Portland. We want to do more next year, for sure. Pearl Jam’s really busy, they have a new record coming out, and so we’ll have to wait probably till next year. We want to record some stuff actually."

Arm: “Yeah, we’ve got nothing to lose! It’s not entirely up to me or Steve, or Alex, or Bruce though. It’s finding time between Pearl Jam records. It would be super fun to do. It was great to get together with everyone, because we did the three guitar lineup – Steve and Bruce were in the band at the same time for the first time. I hadn’t really seen Alex that much in the last few years. And I see Bruce separately from when I see Jeff and Stone, so it was great to see everyone all together in the same room at the same time.”

Many of your contemporaries have famously found another lease of life by playing their songs acoustically. I’d like to see ‘Mudhoney Unplugged’ sometime…
Arm: “Oh no, you wouldn’t.”