Let’s remember when Sub Pop released Superfuzz Bigmuff into the world, on this day in 1988 (October 20)
If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a thousand times, but no rock band to come out of Seattle has ever ruled as much as the mighty Mudhoney. That reign began 31 years ago today. As Wikipedia notes, “Superfuzz Bigmuff is the debut EP by the Seattle grunge band Mudhoney. It was released on October 20, 1988 through record label Sub Pop.”
When the album got a grand re-release for its twentieth anniversary, Pitchfork wrote this:
A strange thing happened on grunge’s way to the mainstream: the best band got left behind. Maybe that’s not so strange, since the best in any scene is rarely the biggest. What’s odd is, before grunge’s breakthrough, Mudhoney were pretty huge. Their brain-shaking 1988 single “Touch Me I’m Sick” was a definite indie rock hit — at that year’s CMJ Conference, so many people asked me if I had heard it that I nearly got a complex. A follow-up six-song EP, Superfuzz Bigmuff, was almost as popular, and certainly as good. At the time, it seemed a foregone conclusion that Mudhoney would make grunge big.
Why Nirvana did so instead is no mystery, but the indelible mark left on indie rock by Mudhoney’s first few records shouldn’t be obscured. While the impact was partially due to buzz and circumstance, it came mostly because the music killed. Rising from the ashes of sludge-masters Green River, Mudhoney blurted a Technicolor yawn of 60s garage, Stooges-style howl, Jimi Hendrix fuzz, post-Black Flag steam, and proto-slacker slop. And they wrapped it in a blissfully primal package — as animalistic as Iggy, with even less pretense. In 1988, Mudhoney were cool, especially because it didn’t sound like they wanted to be.
“Touch Me I’m Sick” and Superfuzz Bigmuff are still powerful two decades later: Steve Turner’s guitar bleeding over “Twenty Four”, Mark Arm’s screams pumping the veins of “No One Has”, Dan Peters filling every open drum space in “Burn It Clean” — none of it has been diminished by time. That’s evidenced by Sub Pop’s deluxe 2xCD set, which adds singles, compilation tracks, and demos, plus two fine live sets from winter 1988. Three versions of “Touch Me I’m Sick” all slay, but it was with follow-up single “You Got It (Keep It Outta My Face)” that Mudhoney peaked. The tune’s lopsided sway is both urgent and half-awake, like a muttering drunk who blows your mind with off-handed profundity. An all-together-now “Fuck you!” at the end is Mudhoney in a nutshell — they’re laughing cause they really mean it, and vice versa.
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