Mark Arm

Yeah.

And he's like, Ali, Mark, because Mark sang with the Saints last year.

True.

No, he was standing next to us for so long, I went, oh, really?

Oh, wow.

No, he's a legend.

And I hear that the Saints with Mark Arm was amazing last year.

Yeah.

So even though Mudhoney helped invent the Seattle grunge sound, by 1991, they were already getting sick of it.

Frontman Mark Arm stated that the album was an intentional reaction to the heavy, sludgy, gloomy aesthetic taking over the Pacific Northwest.

Interesting.

And yeah, I sort of picked up on some of the things they do.

They popped out of the ashes of Green River in January '88, right on the cusp of the city’s first wave of noise and rebellion.

The core was Mark Arm at lead guitar and vocals, Steve Turner on rhythm, bassist Guy Madison, and drummer Dan Peters, each a straight-up punk kid who had never cared to write perfect chords or record 24 tracks.

Back then, Seattle didn’t even have a real underground radio station that’d put a punk single on the dial.

So when Sub Pop founder Bruce Pavitt heard Mudhoney’s demo and handed it over to his label, they knew they were looking at something special.

At full blast, the sound swamped the room with a saturated hum that made it feel like your ears were in a tin can.

Lyrically, Touch Me (I’m Sick) is just a sarcastic jab at romance, disease, and the emptiness of suburban life.

Mark Arm sings about feeling like a creep and being full of rot in a way that’s both self-deprecating and irreverent, but the real punch comes from how he delivers it, raw, with a sneer that feels like an insult to your dignity.

It’s almost a confession written in a broken sentence.

Anyway.

Mark Arm, the lead singer of Mudhoney, was in Green River, one of the most important bands in Seattle history.

And Mudhoney are still around to this day.

They will play somebody's garage like they don't give a shit.

I saw it a few years ago and they're just likable guys and they totally open up about that.

They thought that they were going to become famous like all their friends and it never happened.

And at the time, uh, Mark Arm was working as the warehouse manager for Sub Pop.

Sure.

So what a thrill it was for me to interview really David Gedge from the wedding present too, but for the cover story, but also especially the Ivor Hay and Ed Cooper interview I did for the saints who have been touring the world as the saints, 1973 to 1978, to make sure, you know, it was the original band.

One of the most incredible bands that ever walked the planet and still are with Mark Arm doing the late Chris Bailey's vocals and Mick Harvey on guitar and keyboards.

I mean, wow, it's a really fabulous lineup.

Just fantastic.

Here's a fun fact about where it came from.

The first known usage of grunge as a musical term dates back to the '80s, and Mark Arm, so he was in the band Green River-

Yep

... with Jeff A'Stone.

Hey, I'm Mike McCready from Pearl Jam.

Hey, kids, this is Mark Arm from Mudhoney.

I'm Kevin Martin from Cannaboss.

I'm Kim Pfeil from Soundgarden.

Hello and welcome to Listen Carefully.

I'm your host, Nathan Jolly, and my guest today is Mark Arm from Mudhoney.

Mudhoney are touring Australia this October.

So, Mudhoney, coming back to Australia, you guys have quite the affinity with our country.

Sure thing,

Nathan.

That was Mark Arm from Mudhoney.

And their tour starts October 16th in Melbourne.

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, so got, you know, Mark Arm's coming up in the next few weeks from Mudhoney.

Yeah, got-- Yeah, it's just interviews.

No, no real premise other than talking about music as opposed to, you know, someone's personal struggles.