MUDHONEY – PIECE OF CAKE (REPRISE)
After sticking around on Sub Pop for an extra album (and thus saving their bacon financially) Mudhoney eventually wound up on Reprise where they made their debut with Piece Of Cake in 1992. Along with Incesticide this was an album that I got as a present on cassette for Christmas that year.
This is a quite a derided record from a critical stance but I feel people tend to be unnecessarily harsh on Mudhoney for some reason. Perhaps they were disappointed in the fact that the band did not go out and make a record that sounded like Nevermind. To their credit though they did their own thing which was to stick completely to their roots and do exactly what they wanted.
Even though I have read this album described as a garage sounding album for me this leans more on the psychedelic elements of the Nuggets movement and sees the band sludging through cakes of controlled feedback, wah and distortion in a most swirling manner. This is the sound of band happily taking their time looking to cater their own desires first and those of the record label (and audience) second.
Most noticeable in the change of their sound from the early stuff is that they not long sound blunt and jagged in a Stooges style. In essence this is the natural progression from Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge, a record itself that felt like a departure but despite having the songs it choked (for whatever reason) at the choking stage, failing to capture the songs at their best (which subsequent live versions revealed and satisfied).
Piece Of Cake opens with techno music. It’s a gag that is so representative of the times, of the playground war between ravers and grungers which for years would not allow me to like The Prodigy or SL2. I guess the 38 second intro was put in place to initially scare fans into they had made a rave record as a joke and perhaps too also display/demonstrate just how easy that kind of music was/is to produce.
The record properly opens with “No End In Sight” which feels like a grunged up version of “Pump It Up” by Elvis Costello only with so much more brought to the table. It’s a truly celebratory start with a pounding and relentless pulse that cannot help but bring a body to motion. Somehow they appeared to discover the scientific formula for turning a clap into a legitimate beat, the Lukin/Peters pairing on rhythm section just sounds terrifying.
The process continues with the towering guitar of “Make It Now” that eventually builds to a swirling crescendo of a truly psychedelic groove and oscillation. Then the band even dares to wheel out a moog on the lethargic but powerful “When In Rome”, seemingly lamenting the imminent demise of the successful scene currently being thrust upon them and their mates.
A quick piece of further fucking about furrows the album’s brow before the lead single “Suck You Dry” fires proceedings into the stratosphere with a galloping jive serving to torment and send an observer insane. This is the music equivalent of taking a deep breath prior to jump out of a plane intoxicated. Maybe.
“Blinding Sun” enters as an almost calming influence to the proceeds as the band takes the pace down a beat while also singing a dark song regarding contemplation and suicide. It was all in a day’s work.
From here the album proceeds to remain in a dark funk, scratching at blues and psychedelic rock as “Thirteenth Floor Opening” serves as a battered drone to career blues while the following “Youth Body Expression Explosion” is another moog filled act of sarcasm in the form of a bounding instrumental that would have felt at home during a jerky scene of a biker movie in the sixties.
As things proceed on the second time the pummelling “I’m Spun” opens things with a dizzying and contentious guitar line that never relents with its frustrating and agonising loop. This is the kind of guitar riff you play to piss people off, to clear a room and to inflict pain on a former loved one.
“Living Wreck” opens with the fantastic declaration “shooting for the stars, my my how lucky you are” before calamity ensues as a crash is soon predicted for the said living wreck. You can’t help but feel the band sounds slightly resentful.
The eggy fart bass sound of “Let Me Let You Down” is quite a humongous gesture as the intentions begin to feel paper thin and temporary. This is probably as close as Mudhoney ever got to achieving the brown note. This is then accompanied by a 29 second literal fart to compliment their achievement.
Just before things close out the band tear into one final explosion of energy with “Ritzville” ending on a mantra of “it’s a good a place as any to go and die”. Then comes the near acoustic emission of remorse in “Acetone” which suggests and exemplifies bad tidings, not least for mentioning “the bitter cup”. Personally I don’t think this is a very good song but then you sense that it wasn’t supposed to be,
With Piece Of Cake the band were making a real statement commenting on a scene currently experiencing a mainstream and financial triumph that would never maintain and was destined to implode. Meanwhile as they sat back and could do no wrong in the eyes of the suits it was all coming like the proverbial piece of cake.
Thesaurus moment: biscuit.
Mudhoney
Reprise
After sticking around on Sub Pop for an extra album (and thus saving their bacon financially) Mudhoney eventually wound up on Reprise where they made their debut with Piece Of Cake in 1992. Along with Incesticide this was an album that I got as a present on cassette for Christmas that year.
This is a quite a derided record from a critical stance but I feel people tend to be unnecessarily harsh on Mudhoney for some reason. Perhaps they were disappointed in the fact that the band did not go out and make a record that sounded like Nevermind. To their credit though they did their own thing which was to stick completely to their roots and do exactly what they wanted.
Even though I have read this album described as a garage sounding album for me this leans more on the psychedelic elements of the Nuggets movement and sees the band sludging through cakes of controlled feedback, wah and distortion in a most swirling manner. This is the sound of band happily taking their time looking to cater their own desires first and those of the record label (and audience) second.
Most noticeable in the change of their sound from the early stuff is that they not long sound blunt and jagged in a Stooges style. In essence this is the natural progression from Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge, a record itself that felt like a departure but despite having the songs it choked (for whatever reason) at the choking stage, failing to capture the songs at their best (which subsequent live versions revealed and satisfied).
Piece Of Cake opens with techno music. It’s a gag that is so representative of the times, of the playground war between ravers and grungers which for years would not allow me to like The Prodigy or SL2. I guess the 38 second intro was put in place to initially scare fans into they had made a rave record as a joke and perhaps too also display/demonstrate just how easy that kind of music was/is to produce.
The record properly opens with “No End In Sight” which feels like a grunged up version of “Pump It Up” by Elvis Costello only with so much more brought to the table. It’s a truly celebratory start with a pounding and relentless pulse that cannot help but bring a body to motion. Somehow they appeared to discover the scientific formula for turning a clap into a legitimate beat, the Lukin/Peters pairing on rhythm section just sounds terrifying.
The process continues with the towering guitar of “Make It Now” that eventually builds to a swirling crescendo of a truly psychedelic groove and oscillation. Then the band even dares to wheel out a moog on the lethargic but powerful “When In Rome”, seemingly lamenting the imminent demise of the successful scene currently being thrust upon them and their mates.
A quick piece of further fucking about furrows the album’s brow before the lead single “Suck You Dry” fires proceedings into the stratosphere with a galloping jive serving to torment and send an observer insane. This is the music equivalent of taking a deep breath prior to jump out of a plane intoxicated. Maybe.
“Blinding Sun” enters as an almost calming influence to the proceeds as the band takes the pace down a beat while also singing a dark song regarding contemplation and suicide. It was all in a day’s work.
From here the album proceeds to remain in a dark funk, scratching at blues and psychedelic rock as “Thirteenth Floor Opening” serves as a battered drone to career blues while the following “Youth Body Expression Explosion” is another moog filled act of sarcasm in the form of a bounding instrumental that would have felt at home during a jerky scene of a biker movie in the sixties.
As things proceed on the second time the pummelling “I’m Spun” opens things with a dizzying and contentious guitar line that never relents with its frustrating and agonising loop. This is the kind of guitar riff you play to piss people off, to clear a room and to inflict pain on a former loved one.
“Living Wreck” opens with the fantastic declaration “shooting for the stars, my my how lucky you are” before calamity ensues as a crash is soon predicted for the said living wreck. You can’t help but feel the band sounds slightly resentful.
The eggy fart bass sound of “Let Me Let You Down” is quite a humongous gesture as the intentions begin to feel paper thin and temporary. This is probably as close as Mudhoney ever got to achieving the brown note. This is then accompanied by a 29 second literal fart to compliment their achievement.
Just before things close out the band tear into one final explosion of energy with “Ritzville” ending on a mantra of “it’s a good a place as any to go and die”. Then comes the near acoustic emission of remorse in “Acetone” which suggests and exemplifies bad tidings, not least for mentioning “the bitter cup”. Personally I don’t think this is a very good song but then you sense that it wasn’t supposed to be,
With Piece Of Cake the band were making a real statement commenting on a scene currently experiencing a mainstream and financial triumph that would never maintain and was destined to implode. Meanwhile as they sat back and could do no wrong in the eyes of the suits it was all coming like the proverbial piece of cake.
Thesaurus moment: biscuit.
Mudhoney
Reprise
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