Mudhoney

Since We've Become Translucent (Sub Pop)

A A A Comments By John La Briola Thursday, Oct 31 2002

The last thing that I'd ever expect to hear on a Mudhoney song is a lone saxophone staggering through the psychedelic mist of hippy-dippy organs, twittering electronica, and slow-burn guitar rumble. Yet thar she blows in meandering amplitude on "Baby, Can You Dig the Light?" the opening extended salvo from the band's eighth full-length, Since We've Become Translucent. And thar she blows some more on the album's final cut, "Sonic Infusion," a similarly lengthy and droning opus that bookends matters with a strangely unlocated sense of time and place. Imagine Roxy Music chewed up loose and spit out hard by the Butthole Surfers.

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For what it's worth, the 'Honeys have been covering Hawkwind's "Urban Guerrilla" during encores recently, demonstrating a new application for deep space nebulae. Rebuilt for paganistic, astral travel, the grand elders of grunge take plenty of surprising detours on their one-record deal with long-lost flame Sub Pop but manage to reenter Earth's gravitational pull in one solid piece. In addition to exploring uncharted dimensions via skronking free jazz and velvet-toned vibes, they dive into unexpected brass arrangements on both "Where the Flavor Is" and the amusingly punchy "Take it Like a Man" (lyrical chestnut: "Once you realize that you're not in charge/It makes your codpiece feel a little too large.")

The album otherwise relies on gunk rawk's three-chords-for-beer formula and owes its overall sonic diversity to the use of three producers in three studios. Recording ace/odd-man-out Jack Endino even drops by for a nostalgic trip down Superfuzz/Bigmuff lane on "Inside Job," a crunchy call to arms featuring the MC5's graying white panther, Wayne Kramer. Ironic self-loathing likewise enhances "In the Winner's Circle," a tune that finds hysterical frontman Mark Arm -- seemingly happy with whatever attention his band has received over the years -- screeching on the verge of a nosebleed: "Yeah, I'm a winner/'Cause I got nothing left to lose/I got nothing/And I feel alright." It's a fitting emotional state for a band that not only predated the hype of grunge but outlived its usefulness.

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