“I’m not on some grandiose trip; I’m fine with little sips”
So sings Mark Arm on ‘I Like It Small’, the second track on Mudhoney’s latest (ninth) studio album. Perhaps such a sentiment explains rather well the continuing appeal of a band that, despite a wilful commitment to their traditional sound, remains a perennial favourite of devotees of underground American rock. Unlike their contemporaries in Pearl Jam or Nirvana, Mudhoney never really made it all the way to the big time, but that hasn’t stopped them acquiring a legacy that has made them synonymous with grunge. Classic records like ‘Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge’ and ‘My Brother the Cow’ are essential additions to the collection of anyone who claims the nineties as their preferred musical decade.
Yet, despite a twenty-five year career, Mudhoney have never gone the way of so many similar groups of their age. They have never split up. They have never undergone a dramatic reinvention. Frontman Mark Arm still works for Sub Pop, the band’s record label, managing their distribution warehouse. They are just four guys in a rock band, and that is what ‘Vanishing Point’ epitomises better than anything they have released for well over a decade.
‘Slipping Away’ may be something approaching expansive, by Mudhoney standards, but for the most part ‘Vanishing Point’ is more of the straightforward, gritty alt-rock that Mudhoney have been the best at since 1991. The scuzzy bark of two of Mudhoney’s all-time favourites, MC5 and The Stooges, is prevalent most of all in Steve Turner’s riffs. However there is also something of seething early day Nick Cave in Mark Arm’s lyricism, especially with the Biblical references of ‘The Only Son of the Widow from Nain’ and the blatant sarcasm of closer ‘Douchebags on Parade’. It is not so much that Mudhoney sound angry, just vitriolic when it suits them. This is a band that knows how to rock better than almost anyone else in the game and they’ll be damned if they aren’t going to act with the swagger that this earns them.
Incredibly, the fact is that Mudhoney do still do this grunge thing better than anyone else around, and they still do it with the enthusiasm of men half their age. Pearl Jam have always handled the guitar solos and the arena rock side of the style best. Alice in Chains still manage the darkness, and Nirvana brought the unrestrained global domination. Mudhoney brought the dirt under the fingernails and the sneering attitude, and on ‘Vanishing Point’ they are bringing it like it’s 1991 all over again. As Arm sings on the aforementioned ‘The Only Son of the Widow from Nain’…
“Nobody remembers my name; fucking Lazarus got all the fame”
…but then, when you are still this good, it really doesn’t matter. The real kings are back on the throne.
