Mudhoney Under a Billion Suns

Mudhoney is a four-piece rock group from the old, weird Seattle. For 18 years they have plugged into wall sockets all over the world, proving to be one of the most consistently electrifying acts to survive the grunge implosion, whatever that was. The wolfish howls of singer Mark Arm, soulful splatterings of guitarist Steve Turner and frenzied fills of drummer Dan Peters have produced 9 albums to date, most of which are considered neo-garage classics. In addition, they have had two bassists over the years, Matt Lukin, who retired in 1999, later replaced by the inimitable Australian Guy Maddison. Under a Billion Suns is the band’s new long-player and it’s performed with the same amplified urgency of their previous work. While history has shown musicians to be a largely unreliable lot, Mudhoney has never swayed in its vision of making really loud rock music and this album is no exception. Produced with the help of three notable knobsters (Phil Ek, Johnny Sangster, Tucker Martine) and boasting a blaring horn section, Under a Billion Suns exposes a more snidely political-fueled side to our shaggy heroes, but one revealed through the invariables of the Mudhoney recipe: thick, soggy punk riffs and underrated guitar dynamics, psychedelic tangents and snot-nosed finger-pointing. It is loud, it is fierce, and it is here for our world right now. Lucky for us, so is Mudhoney.