Skip to main contentSteve Turner doesn't think his band, Mudhoney, playing at the tiny Northwest Portland bar Slabtown is that big of a deal. "The stage is, what, one foot off the ground?" he says, laughing. "We've played a lot of clubs that size before."
But to fans, the prospect of seeing a band like Mudhoney on such an intimate level is a coup. The Seattle band has a pedigree that rivals any to come from the region. It helped put indie label Sub Pop on the map with 1988's "Touch Me I'm Sick," which endures as one of the best rock songs of any decade, paved the flannel-lined way for grunge's success in the early '90s and has continued to make good to flat-out great records to this day. "There would have been no Nirvana without Mudhoney," says Sub Pop founder Bruce Pavitt in Michael Azzerad's Our Band Could Be Your Life. "In '88, '89, Mudhoney would blow Nirvana off the stage."
The band succeeded, to a large extent, because of the mythos Sub Pop created and sold to the hungry and eager British music press: Mudhoney's members were beer-guzzling, flannel-wearing, long-haired lumberjacks who found time to get wasted and create thick, mossy sludge after a day spent cutting down trees and kicking it with Sasquatch. While some of that was true (especially the beer and flannel), the band's four members (Turner, singer/guitarist Mark Arm, drummer Dan Peters and bassist Matt Lukin, who left the band in 2001) came from middle-class backgrounds and were well read and articulate. The band's early material, especially the primordial Superfuzz Bigmuff EP and self-titled debut, illustrate that point by displaying a sly sense of humor in addition to rocking harder than anything the Northwest has seen since the Sonics.
While grunge died in the '90s, Mudhoney lives on, adding subtle melodic elements to its arsenal but never gunning for a more commercially viable sound. Part of the group's secret is the close relationship between Turner and Arm, who met 25 years ago and have barely separated since. "We've never gone more than six months without being in a band together," Turner jokes. The pair's closeness drives Mudhoney's most recent record, 2008's The Lucky Ones.
For The Lucky Ones, Mudhoney recorded with famed Portland producer Tucker Martine. "I met Tucker through [Seattle songwriter] Jesse Sykes and had him help me with my second solo record," says Turner, 43. "We loved working with him, so I suggested him for Mudhoney."
Martine is an interesting choice: He's best known for working with the Decemberists and Sufjan Stevens—artists reared on folk music, not the Stooges. His production is evident—the sound is crisp but not clean, emphasizing Turner's admission that the songs were built from the rhythm up.
Arm and Turner's raw guitars still thrash like it's 1992, applying a thick layer of fuzz to the best songs the band has written in a decade. The Lucky Ones is a synthesis of not only Mudhoney's career but Northwest rock 'n' roll, taking cues from '60s garage rock, grunge itself and seminal Portland garage band Dead Moon (two-thirds of which will play after Mudhoney as Pierced Arrows at the Slabtown show).
In fact, Mudhoney agreed to play this weekend in part because of Pierced Arrows' involvement and Mudhoney's own enjoyment of Portland, Turner's hometown since he moved here with his family a year and a half ago. There was never a rivalry between bands in the Northwest's two largest cities, he says, though Oregonians "were always a bit irked because Seattle got all the attention."
Turner says Mudhoney's recent shows have provided a new sense of urgency, with Arm leaving his guitar at home to focus on singing and flailing around the stage. The Slabtown gig—part of the club's third annual Bender Festival—gives the band the chance to return to its roots.
Turner speaks fondly of playing larger shows, especially Sub Pop's 20th anniversary blowout last summer, but the dives have always had his heart. "We're coming in cold on borrowed gear to play a short set of punk rock," he says. "I haven't been this psyched to play a small bar in years. Let's hope Slabtown is still standing afterward."
Mudhoney plays Saturday, Feb. 7, at Slabtown as part of the Bender. $12 per night, or $28 for a wristband. 9 pm. 21+.
WWeek 2015