Superfuzz Bigmuff (1988)

Superfuzz Bigmuff is the debut EP and first major release by the Seattle grunge band Mudhoney. It was released in October 1988, through record label Sub Pop. The album was later re-released in 1990 in the form of Superfuzz Bigmuff Plus Early Singles.

Background and writing

The album was named after two of the band's favorite guitar effects pedals: the Univox Super-Fuzz and the Electro-Harmonix Big Muff, which helped to provide the band's signature "dirty" sound.

Guitarist Steve Turner considers the release to be Mudhoney's first official studio album, despite it being an EP initially.

During the writing process, some of the songs were named after a band that inspired it or whose material the song resembled. For instance, "No One Has" was originally called "The Wipers Song." As Turner put it, "all these songs came together so quickly, there wasn't a whole lot of thought, but usually in my mind, I always try to think of something that I think it sounds like... Like, you know, 'What are we accidentally ripping off?' if you will. And sometimes it's like, 'Great, we're ripping it off. Cool.'"

Singer-guitarist Mark Arm has described "Chain that Door" as "a kind of an homage to [Australian band] Feedtime," while Turner has stated that it was influenced by the Meat Puppets song "Split Myself in Two" from Meat Puppets II.

The band approached "In 'n' Out of Grace" as a direct homage to Blue Cheer's debut studio album Vincebus Eruptum, even initially naming the song "The Blue Cheer Song." According to Arm, the song's "bass and drum break" and "dual out of tune guitar solo" were particularly inspired by the album. "In 'n' Out of Grace" opens with a sample of the eulogy from Peter Fonda's character in the 1966 movie The Wild Angels, saying "We wanna be free to do what we wanna do…"; a similar sample was later used on Primal Scream's song "Loaded", and also a refraining soundbite and quote in the 2013 film The World's End.

Cover

The cover artwork is a photograph of frontman Mark Arm (left) and guitarist Steve Turner (right) performing live by photographer Charles Peterson. Other artwork on the album includes more photos of the band performing and them posing topless.

Reception and legacy

During initial release, the EP proved a success for Sub Pop, becoming one of the labels biggest selling early releases, alongside Nirvana's Bleach and Mudhoney's Debut LP. Bruce Pavitt, co-founder of Sub Pop, commented in 1993: “If Superfuzz Bigmuff hadn’t been on the U.K. charts for a year and Mudhoney hadn’t been a big sensation, who knows what would have happened to Nirvana?” It has since been acknowledged as one of the seminal records of the Seattle scene. In mid-2008 the EP charted at #25 on the UK Indie Album Chart, a peak for the album, twenty years after its release.

Along with Mudhoney's second album Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge, it was included in 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. In its review, Jamie Gonzalo called it "sexy, smart, humorous and hard", as well as writing "[Mudhoney] emerged from the underground with this mischievous workout, achieving tense and dramatic musical structures with Turner's scalping guitars, Mark Arm's angry vocals, Matt Lukin's mighty bass and Dan Peters' propulsive drums." Kurt Cobain listed the EP in his top fifty albums of all time. Krist Novoselic said in 1993: "When that EP came out it was a must-have, and those were magical times. That was the Seattle scene."

Personnel

Adapted from the album liner notes.

• Mudhoney
• Mark Arm – vocals, guitar
• Steve Turner – guitar, backing vocals
• Matt Lukin – bass
• Dan Peters – drums
• Technical personnel
• Jack Endino – producer, engineer, mixing
• Charles Peterson – photography