Search - Mudhoney :: Superfuzz Bigmuff & Early Singles

Kimber R. from BEAVERTON, OR
Reviewed on 11/2/2008...

This gets 5 stars for Touch Me I'm Sick alone, which is an incredible song, along with Hate The Police. Great album in general, it contains some of their best songs.

A highly cromulent collection

Wheelchair Assassin | The Great Concavity | 12/14/2003

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Mudhoney are yet another band that, unfortunately, got left behind in the aftermath of the whole alternative-rock explosion of the late 1980's and early '90's. In fact, they've been even more unfairly neglected than the Pixies, Faith No More, and Jane's Addiction. As a result, I'm just getting into them now, but I must say these guys held their own with any of the genre's leading lights. This collection of early singles, packaged along with their EP "Superfuzz Bigmuff," showcases a blues-dirge-punk sound somewhat similar to that of early Soundgarden, but with an even higher level of guitar fuzz produced by the distortion pedals that gave "Superfuzz Bigmuff" its name.Leading off this collection is their first single, "Touch Me I'm Sick," which is the perfect summation of Mudhoney's musical mission and easily one of the defining songs of the "grunge era." With the volume and distortion both cranked way up, "Touch Me I'm Sick" boasts one of the biggest, rawest, dirtiest, and above all catchiest riffs in history. The drumming sounds like they took a guy having a seizure and put him behind the kit, and Mark Arm spits out the depraved lyrics in his unmistakable feral howl. Put it all together, and you've got everything that rock music is supposed to be compressed into two and a half triumphantly lowbrow minutes.The disc never quite reaches the lofty heights of "Touch Me I'm Sick" again, but there's certainly a lot more great stuff here. For the remaining eleven tracks, fast-paced, fuzzed-out blasts of aggression share space with slower, bluesier material that allowed the band to stretch out its sound. "Sweet Young Thing Ain't Sweet No More" and the Sonic Youth cover "Halloween" are slow-burning, woozy dirges highlighted by swirling guitar noise and Mark's acidic voice. As much metal as it is alternative, the dark, chugging "No One Has" would've sounded right at home on an early Alice In Chains album. "If I Think" is an early display of the loud-soft dynamics that would later make Nirvana famous. And there's plenty more explosive, addictive riff-rock to be found in the form of songs like "Burn It Clean," "You Got It (Keep It Outta My Face)", and "In 'N' Out Of Grace." By the time this CD ended with the swooning mini-epic "Mudride," I was in full-fledged shock that Mudhoney didn't get more attention than they did. Of course, since it's nothing new for great music to be underappreciated, maybe I shouldn't be surprised. That said, if you're a fan of the better-known bands to emerge from the Seattle scene, you need to pick this one up pronto."

Cheap beer, distortion pedals in a flannel hurricane.... aww

Shotgun Method | NY... No, not *that* NY | 08/01/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Everything coming out of Seattle from the mid-'80s to about '94 was seemingly labeled "grunge" when in fact most of the outfits from there were widely varying in their sound. However, make no mistake--Mudhoney ARE "grunge" to a T. Continuing the legacy of the defunct Green River, these guys played a frothy concoction of punk, metal, and garage rock that predated MTV's homogenizing interest in "alternative." And yet they were and continue to be unfairly overlooked in favor of a certain three-piece starting with the letter "N."



Superfuzz Bigmuff (named after the distortion pedal--how cool is that?) & Early Singles displays this scruffy quartet at their best, creating untamed monster slabs of strung-out, slithering, primal sleaze that would do Iggy Pop proud. Mudhoney captured all the rage of youth without wallowing in the angst of some of their contemporaries. The overriding themes are misanthropy, sex, drugs, and more sex. You almost feel like taking a shower after listening--the stuff of great rock 'n' roll.



The feral howls of Mark Arm and Steve Turner's feedback-driven chunks of riffage are all over this album, showcased to absolutely best effect on the gleefully trashy opener Touch Me I'm Sick, the grinding and woozy Sweet Young Thing Ain't Sweet No More, the frantic Burn It Clean, an absolutely evil cover of Sonic Youth's Halloween (way better than the original in my estimation), and the irrevent powerhouse In 'N' Out Of Grace. When they DO turn the volume down for a moment on Mudride and If I Think, it merely serves to enhance the pummeling.



Despite a couple of weak tracks (No One Has and Chain That Door aren't too great) and the fact that the singles are definitely stronger than the LP, Superfuzz Bigmuff is utterly mandatory listening for anyone who claims allegiance to the banner of alternative rock."