Mudhoney: The Sound and the Fury from Seattle - Softcover

Cameron, Keith

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0760346615 ISBN 13: 9780760346617

Publisher: Voyageur Press, 2014

Synopsis

The complete story of the band that many consider to have been the inventors of "grunge," produced with their full cooperation and released on their 25th anniversary. Before everybody fell in love with the "Seattle sound", Mudhoney was just an unlikely quartet of Seattle-music-scene knockabouts--two college dropouts, a carpenter, and the best drummer in town. In 1988, the band's debut single, "Touch Me, I'm Sick," and subsequent EP, Superfuzz Bigmuff, turned the world of indie-rock world on its ear, litghting the way for the grunge movement that would put Seattle on the map. In Mudhoney: The Sound and the Fury from Seattle, veteran music journalist Keith Cameron recounts stories from founding members Mark Arm, Steve Turner, Dan Peters, and Matt Lukin, as well as bassist Guy Maddison. Cameron interviews a large cast of other witnesses to the Mudhoney story, offering insight from Sub Pop label founders Bruce Pavitt and Jonathan Poneman, former manager Bob Whittaker, producers Jack Endino and Conrad Uno, and members of contemporary bands like Nirvana, Sonic Youth, and Pearl Jam, among many others. What emerges is an entertaining account of the band that arguably launched grunge, but never sold out. Cameron explores the childhoods and musical influences of each member and offers frank narratives of the Seattle music scene at its frenzied peak, record-business tomfoolery, tour shenanigans, Arm's 1990s drug use, and more. Most of all, readers will learn how Mudhoney outlasted their more financially successful peers by forging ahead purely on their camaraderie and shared love/vision for the band's music. Illustrated with a selection of photos from throughoutthe full span of Mudhoney's history, this is the story of one of the most irreverent--yet most reverently adored--bands of the post-punk, pre-indie-rock era.

About this title

About the Author:

Keith Cameron has written for Sounds, NME, and Mojo magazines. He's interviewed Nirvana, Iggy Pop, U2, Lou Reed, and the Foo Fighters, among numerous others. His writing has also appeared in Q, Kerrang!, The Guardian, and The Times, and he has been a DJ on XFM. Cameron is the author of Mudhoney: The Sound and the Fury from Seattle (2014) from Voyageur Press.

https://twitter.com/KeithCameron2

Review:

"While they never enjoyed the commercial and popular success of Nirvana or Soundgarden, Mudhoney is one of grunge's seminal groups. Formed in the suburbs of Seattle in 1988 out of the ashes of the protogrunge band Green River, which included future members of Pearl Jam, Mudhoney went on to help define and influence the metal/punk musical genre that went global in the early 1990s. In this first full bio of the group, ­Cameron (contributing editor, Mojomagazine) stakes a claim for the band as one of the key pioneers and innovators in the scene. The author's history of the group is deftly doneâ??a compelling combination of setting the scene from which they emerged and letting the musicians tell their own story. While it is primarily a book about Mudhoney, it is necessarily a memoir of the grunge scene, and should be considered alongside key titles such as Michael ­Azerrad's Our Band Could Be Your Life and Mark Yarm's Everybody Loves Our Town.VERDICT Because of its exhaustive detail about a lesser-known (if highly regarded) band, this book will have specialized appeal to Mudhoney and grunge fans, and moderate appeal for general music readers." â?? Library Journal

". . . a superb, life-affirming book; as much an important reappraisal of an influential band as it is the story of the people, time, place and sound that changed rock forever. . ." â?? George Garner, Kerrang!

". . . deep reporting and prose that crackles like well-loved punk vinyl. . ." â?? David Fricke, MOJO

". . . probably the best book written about grunge, its contradictions and conflicts, its successes and ingrained capacity for self-sabotage." â?? Paul Brannigan, Classic Rock

"Mudhoney: The Sound And The Fury From Seattle (Voyageur Press) is an in-depth look into the band's whole long life, featuring interviews with all five band members, label folks, and members of Sonic Youth, Pearl Jam, Nirvana, and more. It's a story that goes beyond just the band, but then "just" Mudhoney went pretty beyond itself. Author Keith Cameron is a longtime British rock journalist who's chatted up loads of biggies for NME, Sounds, Mojo, the Guardian and more, and was down with all that flannel action from the get-go." - CMJ.com

"A must-read for anyone who wore plaid in the '90s." â?? Niall Doherty, Q

"One of the better books to come out about the Northwest music scene." - SeattleTimes.com

About this edition

• Publisher: Voyageur Press
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 0760346615
• ISBN 13: 9780760346617
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 304