So last year I won a prize after I pledged to the CKUT funding drive. I got a Music Lover's package which entitled me to gift certificates to three record stores in Montreal. It made me realize that ever since I stopped running the record label about five years ago, my interest in new music has sorta wanned. So, cruising on the excitement of the win, I decided to get into it again and figured I'd commit to purchasing an album a week. The rules I set for myself were that I needed to first make my way through the certificates I got after which I had to prioritze getting albums at local stores. Albums need to be on vinyl and in as much as possible need to be purchased used and/or by independent artists. Of course, I'm allowing myself to break the rules whenever I feel like it as long as I have a rationale for it. My first purchase was Mudhoney's 1989 self titled album.
It's a satisfyingly crunchy record that took me back to yesteryear and got me thinking about the aspects that I loved, and loved-somewhat-less about Seatle grunge. It's been twenty odd years for me since this would have been a current release and I'm glad I've made my way to it, via Mudhoney precursors such as Blue Cheer, the Stooges and the Dead Boys.
And there’s the little turnaround in there that’s obviously a ripoff from “I Wanna Be Your Dog.” [Sings guitar part.] That was some beautiful humming there. And then, when it comes to the end of the song and the picking part becomes the two chords, we realized it sounded like “Lowdown” by Wire. So that’s why it ends with, “That’s the lowdown.” That wasn’t intentional. That was something we realized once we were playing it. “Hey! That sounds an awful lot like this song.” But that little “I Wanna Be Your Dog” turnaround was an intentional thing. - Mark Arm interview, AV Club, April 9, 2013
It's a loud and fun album with the kind of oomph that got me excited at changing musical direction for a spell. Right on Mudhoney.
