Muhoney are still together! The rumors resurface over and over, seemingly after each album, that the Northwest's dirtiest rockers are cashing it in and leaving the rawk behind. And then comes another album, this time in the form of the sludgiest set of songs since their debut. While few things will rank as powerful on first listen as Touch Me I'm Sick, the band lost their way for a time with the album Piece of Cake. However, they are back in the dirt and have turned away from the pop culture references that polluted so much of Piece of Cake and My Brother the Cow--in jokes and irony replaced with anger and earnestness.

Mudhoney has always been a blues band. They slog through songs of death and ne'r do wells so often and so well that one can't help think of the angst of Ledbelly, but harness this wrath to the garage rock of the fifties and sixties and it's easy to see the connection. After all, Mudhoney don't know a lot of chords, and make up for it with spirit and intention.

While no body wants to hear a band repeat itself, Tomorrow Hit Today alludes back to their debut but takes a few new chances of its own. The simplicity and direct ferocity has been supplanted with something akin to maturity, a willingness to craft a song instead of just scream it. As always they allow themselves to delve deep into a song with syrupy dripping bridges and droning fuzzed out guitars, as if seeking to get as close to destruction before slogging their way back to the song again. It's a dirty trip they take you on.

It's hard to discredit a band for not being able to write the stand-out anthems (see Touch Me I'm Sick) but I can't help but wish they stepped up once with the simplest chorus they could find and just belt it out, something perfect for a grunge football game's bleacher set to chant. On the other hand, we don't need another Gary Glitter chant infecting us, but there was something so deliciously backward about that once song. The new album contains nuggets such as "Get behind me / Stand back all you devils" from A Thousand Forms of Mind, and Real Low Vibe crawl's with the mark of the serpent in the Garden.



Recommended: Yes