Worldwide lovers of the finer things are rejoicing at the news that Mudhoney, yep Mudhoney, is back in vinyl and digital action in 2008 with The Lucky Ones, the band’s eighth full album in a mere 20 years of triumphant rocking.

The Lucky Ones redefines stripped-down, “back 2 basics” ramalama, certainly when it comes to Mudhoney’s recent past. I mean, it’s not like the band’s other twenty-first century works (2002’s Since We’ve Become Translucent and 2006’s Under a Billion Suns) were proggy, topographic explorations or anything—far from it. Yet this new one is deliberately and aggressively raw. It sounds as lean and as full-on as any modern equivalent one cares to mention. Recorded in a scant 3.5 days (including overdubs) with Tucker Martine (who also recorded four songs on the previous album), Mudhoney went in armed with a batch of new material expecting to spend a fair amount of time getting it right. Bang—and bang again after some mixing—and a new album was birthed in record time, faster than anything else the band’s done to date.

Borrowed from Sub Pop Records’ Mudhoney page

Wooden Ships, SF Dirty Stealer, Sleepy Sun support and open the show.

Show time: 8:00 pm Tickets $15 adv, $18 door available at: Ticket Web, Streetlight Records 831-421-9200, The Crepe Place 831-429-6994

We arrived at the Crepe Place half way through Daddy Crimbo’s set. All I can really say about them is that I thought it was pretty cool that they got their name from The Kingdom Of Loathing.

Aside from that they were loud and made it difficult to buy a drink. We slowly pushed our way through the crowd to get to the back door. To tell you the truth we spent most of the opener’s set chain smoking in the outdoor dining area which was fantastic. After a conversation about how our friend’s cousin got really into saving the world through meditation and inflating his own ego i decided to go check out Misty Mountain. The place was packed. I stuck around long enough to get the
gist of it. The songs were stony but lacked the energy that backs the singers other band Mammatus. I love Mammatus but this was clearly not them.

I spent the next forty minutes or so watching my friends dive face first into a vat of whiskey and gateway drugs. As sober driver i got to watch the entire ordeal unfold in front of my less than willing eyes. Ugh. Anyways Sleepy Sun was about to go on so once again I found myself wading through a mass of slightly irritating UC students, stoned psyche-rock fans and of course, drunk assholes. I finally got the front of the stage where i found a cozy little spot next to a group of people who very obviously never heard any of the bands on the bill and a little out of their element. I waited for a bit then the lights started to dim, the band members took their places, amps were turned on. then we waited again.

Sleepy Sun kicked off the set with the very appropriately titled song Sleepy Son. AWESOME! LET’S PARTY! The only thing i didn’t enjoy was the tone deaf girl standing next to me trying to sing along while her friend just kept yelling “this song is totally on the cd!! I totally listened to this song!” Good fucking grief Lucy.

Five or six songs into their set i somehow ended up in the back near the bar which was less than awesome. Most of my friends ended up too drunk to stick around, the sound sucked and i couldn’t see shit. The people behind me would not stop screaming at each other so i turned around to politely ask them to PLEASE SHUT THE FUCK UP. But as luck would have it they were the other half of my very drunk friends that lacked the presence of mind to realize that they needed to leave or shut the fuck up. I am kind of a pushover so i let slide.

After a set of new and old material they finished with the hit single White dove. God they are so good. If you haven’t heard them before just buy the album, buy it now. You won’t regret it. So the official verdict.

Crepe Place- Awesome venue, it can get a little cramped at times, but it’s an all ages venue with a bar. Rad.

Sleepy Sun- Totally rad.

Mammatus- Totally rad.

Kingdom Of Loathing- Totally rad.

I can’t wait to do it again…

- Hiram Coffee.