Since Spy Likes The Melvins...

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Mudhoney Recording New Album

Jason Toon reports:
For an icon of slackerdom, Mark Arm is a busy dude. When he isn't managing the Sub Pop warehouse or standing in for Rob Tyner with the touring company of the MC5, he's recording with Mudhoney for the band's first new album since 2002's Since We've Become Translucent.

Sub Pop tells Pitchfork that they're shooting for a February release for the 'honey's as-yet-untitled disc. According to an official label announcement, the new songs are undergoing waxage in three different studios with three different producers, like a Dirty South hip-hop album, only without Jermaine Dupri. Shins/Modest Mouse/Built to Spill producer Phil Ek will join the band at Avast II in Seattle to work on "Hard-On For War", "Empty Shells", "It Is Us", and "On the Move". Meanwhile, Johnny Sangster (Posies, Young Fresh Fellows) is recording the songs "I Saw the Light", "That Trench You're Digging", "The Rag Is on the Boil", "Let's Drop In", "Blindspots", and another take of "On The Move" at Mushroom in Vancouver. Finally, Seattle's Flora studio hosts sessions with Tucker Martine (Steve Turner, Wayne Horvitz) for "Where Is The Future?", "In Search Of...", "Under A Billion Suns", "I Like To Make Noise and Break Things", and a thus-far-untitled instrumental. The Mudhoney lineup remains unchanged since 2001-- Arm, guitarist Steve Turner, drummer Dan Peters, and bassist Guy Madison-- but these sessions also include a five-piece horn section and vocal harmonies from Christy McWilson and Amy Allison, daughter of Mose.

Sub Pop founder Jonathan Poneman told Billboard, "The stuff I've heard is amazing. It's more political than they have been. It's not overtly political, like protest songs, but it is great Mudhoney." A bit of politics in your Mudhoney shouldn't come as too great a surprise - this is a band who covers the Dicks' agit-core classic "Hate the Police". They'll play that very choon next month as they reprise their classic debut, Superfuzz Bigmuff in its entirety, at a pair of London shows. The gigs are part of the perversely titled "Don't Look Back" series curated by All Tomorrow's Parties, which will also feature the Stooges doing their self-titled debut, Gang of Four ripping up Entertainment! and Belle and Sebastian quietly weeping through If You're Feeling Sinister, among many others.

Touch Me I'm Sick:

09-05 Seattle, WA - Memorial Stadium (Bumbershoot)
09-15 Dublin, Ireland - The Village
09-16 London, England - Koko *
09-17 London, England - Koko #

* with Immortal Lee County Killers
# - with Bird Blobs

* Pitchfork Review: Mudhoney: Since We've Become Translucent
* Mudhoney: http://www.subpop.com/scripts/main/band ... php?id=159