Lead guitarist and co-founder of Soundgarden Kim Thayil has named who he thinks is “the archetypal grunge band”.
While many people may assume his answer would be Nirvana, Thayil actually believes that Mudhoney best embodies grunge.
“Grunge was this generic label of referred to bands from Seattle in general, but also included bands like Smashing Pumpkins, and Stone Temple Pilots get thrown in with grunge a lot — they were in L.A. and Pumpkins were in Chicago. There’s certainly a cultural aesthetic that we shared with all those bands, but I think musically, the idea of a big power chord that’s all fuzzy and distorted,” Thayil told Lifeminute.
“I think Nirvana might embody the musical identity of grunge, maybe — the band that’d best embody grunge, I would think, is Mudhoney, Mudhoney’s sound, and their style and attitude. That’s, that’s like the archetypal grunge band.”
Mudhoney is an American band that formed in 1998 and it’s members currently consist of singer and guitarist Mark Arm, lead guitarist Steve Turner, bassist Guy Maddison and drummer Dan Peters.
In another interesting Nirvanan and Mudhoney crossover, Kurt Cobain actually listed their Superfuzz Bigmuff as one of his favourite albums in his journal in 1993.
Last year, Mudhoney were immortalised with a hulking tunnel boring machine in Seattle.
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Seattle Public Utilities decided to emblazoned the boring machine with the name of Mudhoney following a publicly voted campaign. The machine is being used to dig a tunnel through the city to reduce the city’s sewer overflow within the next four years.
“MudHoney was the top vote-getter after more than 35,000 votes were cast to choose a name among the top five finalists,” SPU said in a press release. “Since the late ’80s, Mudhoney, the Seattle-based foursome whose muck-crusted version of rock, shot through with caustic wit and battened down by a ferocious low end, has taken a stand against overflows in our waterways,” Seattle Public Utilities said in a statement.
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