Covers Courageous #7: Mudhoney - Hallowe'en

It seems strangely apropos that we find Mudhoney covering Sonic Youth here. Both bands were seminal bands of their time, but ended up being overshadowed by other, more commercially successful bands, only for both bands to gain notoriety later on in their careers.

Sonic Youth started in the heady early days of the New York City punk scene in the late 70s and early 80s. While The Ramones, Talking Heads, Television and Blondie were tearing up CBGB's and signing contracts to major labels, no-wave bands like Suicide, Teenage Jesus and the Jerks, DNA and Sonic Youth were twisting the post-punk sound into highly abrasive and unstructured noise. Sonic Youth toiled at their music for more than ten years, releasing albums on several obscure and defunct labels until the rise of grunge in the 90s saw them signing to the DGC label, alongside of bands like Nirvana and Beck. Their first unlikely mainstream success came soon after, with the albums Goo and Dirty getting rotation on MTV and alternative radio. After Sonic Youth's day in the sun, they slunk back into the underground for several excellent albums ranging from their traditional sludgy noise to more structured work with David Grubbs of Gastr del Sol, until they went on hiatus in 2011.

Mudhoney's story is similar. A groundbreaking band in the late 80s in the Seattle grunge scene, Mudhoney formed out of the ashes of early grunge band Green River (which also featured members of Pearl Jam, Soundgarden and Mother Love Bone). Mudhoney pioneered the grunge sound of fuzzed out, heavily distorted guitar rock, which other bands took to much greater success, like Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden and Alice in Chains. Like Sonic Youth before them, their more successful co-horts went onto major label contracts while Mudhoney stayed local with Sub Pop Records. Mudhoney eventually graduated up to the Warner label for a few years and had a few minor hits, like having theiir “Touch Me I'm Sick” song featured in the movie “Singles”, then headed back to their old Sub Pop home. The band still records and tours, seemingly outlasting the bands they inspired.

Mudhoney's cover of Sonic Youth's “Hallowe'en” comes from a split single released by Sub Pop in 1990, with Sonic Youth covering Mudhoney's “Touch Me I'm Sick” on the A-side and “Hallowe'en” on the B-Side. Theoriginal Sonic Youth tune is a creepy, creeping, minimalist noise-fest. Mudhoney turn it into a feedback-drenched wall of guitar noise.It also appears on the deluxe edition of Mudhoney's Superfuzz Bigmuff.