After years of touring, two LPs with Sub Pop Records, and solidifying the band, he’s since grown into a prodigious songwriter, to say the least. The band recorded Showboat Honey—co-produced by Craft, Clark, and Slater—at their own Moonbase Studios in Portland over 2018. “We approached this record differently for sure,” Craft says. “I’d make a demo, and after putting the songs together, shoot it to the band for ideas.” Tracks such as “Broken Mirror Pose” ended up being highly collaborative, while others settled into Craft’s original vision. “Deathwish Blue,” for instance, was tracked in a similar fashion to his solo debut, Dolls of Highland, with Craft tracking every instrument by himself.

Kyle and the members of Showboat Honey worked at such a feverish wine-fueled pace that they actually ended up with two completely different albums. But at the end of the day, they decided to combine the two into what is now Showboat Honey, a moonstruck rock ’n’ roll record teeming with reckless abandon.

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Smoke ‘Em If You Got ‘Em is hands-down my favorite release from the Texas psychobillies. Their debut, it was the only record I had heard the first time I saw them in ’93 (Madison, at the late great Club de Wash, Taz was still on drums); I listened the bejeezus out of it. I’m fairly certain Friday’s show led with the instrumental, “Bullet,” the LP’s first track.

Other tops from the record are “I’m Mad” and “Baby, You Know Who,” both wild psychobilly rompers, plus the spaghetti-western tinged almost-instrumental “Marijuana” on which Heath shows his finger-picking and shredding prowess, Jimbo relentlessly bass-slaps, and Taz keeps time with a crazed jungle beat. The album closer “Love Whip” is a sultry rockabilly song tinged with a bit of danger, harmonica and horns. And while “Eat Steak” is absolutely ridiculous, kitschy as hell, it still makes me laugh.

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Since I wasn’t at the show, I’m not sure what the set list at Summerfest was (and can’t be bothered to look it up!) but when we saw them perform at the Rave this past October, the band focused on the tracks from Liquor in the Front. Mostly wild surf-meets-punk rockabilly, my top rockin’ tracks from LP include the breakneck “Baddest of the Bad” which is, according to the liner notes, “just a song about staying out late and drinking too much to recover from heartbreak,” the dark and menacing single from the record “One Time For Me” (#40 US Modern Rock Tracks), the monstrous “Yeah, Right” — “The lyrics are born out of me being an arrogant little shithead,” and “Rockin’ Dog” which “is one of the oldest Reverend Horton Heat songs…[Ronnie Dawson] liked that song and asked if he could record it…but he was on a European label and they never gave me credit. That always bugged me.”  There are a couple of really excellent more mellow songs that I totally dig: “In Your Wildest Dreams” about which the Rev writes “…many of our songs have a strong Latin influence. Growing up in Corpus Christi, Texas, half of my schoolmates were Mexican-American…it reminds me of listening to Flaco Jimenez as a kid” plus their cover of “Jezebel” made popular by Frankie Lane (1951).

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Joe and the Rev

Reverend Horton Heat at the Rave

We saw Reverend Horton Heat back in ’93 in Madison at Club de Wash when they toured for this LP. I don’t remember that much about the show, but I do remember Jimbo hanging out at the bar by us either before or after the show — I think he was being very funny and very crass. We’ve seen the Rev several times since, including in ’96 when they also played with the Toadies; both bands opened for Butthole Surfers. (Gibby Haynes of the Buttholes produced Full Custom Gospel Sounds.)

They played a great set at the Rave: while the main focus of their show was their performance of the entirety of Liquor in the Front (1994), they did play songs from some of their other albums, including Full Custom Gospel Sounds.

Full Custom is, of course, rockabilly and psychobilly. The sort-of more mellow, rockabilly-leaning songs like “Beer:30” and “Bails of Cocaine” are great, witty and irreverent. But the wilder psychobilly songs are the best: “Big Little Baby” is a rollicking great time; that track was first released in ’88 as a 7″ on Four Dots Records (pre-Jimbo: “Swingin'” Jack Barton is on upright bass and Bobby Baranowski is on drums). The album opener “Wiggle Stick” is hilarious and, fittingly, was showcased on Beavis and Butthead (season 4 episode 3 “Trouble Urinating”). But my favorite is “400 Bucks” which I was able to catch on video Saturday night:

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Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge was Mudhoney’s second full-length album and is considered to one of the best of the grunge era/genre; it went to # 34 on the UK charts. Its success is also credited with helping to keep Sub Pop afloat at a time just before grunge hit the big-time.

The first LP in this deluxe edition is the reissue of the 1991 original, though remastered from the “low-quality tape via an 8-track desk” upon which it was originally recorded. My top tracks are “Let It Slide,” “Good Enough” (such a great beat!) and “Fuzzgun ‘91″ (another killer beat).

The second LP is a collection of unreleased tracks, EP and single-only releases, demos and selections that appeared on other comps. “March to Fuzz” is from 12 Drunkest Bands in Showbiz 7″ box set (Estrus Records). “Ounce of Deception” appeared on the Let It Slide EP (1991). “Paperback Life (alt. version)” and “Flowers for Industry,” were both previously unreleased to this point, as were five 24-track demos. Those demos were recorded in 1990 were supposed to be the start of their next album but “We decided we didn’t much care for it. It didn’t sound right to me, it sounded a little too fancy, too clean. It didn’t have the dirt.” (Steve Turner) “Fuzzbuster” appears on a couple of comps: Nardwaur the Human Serviette Presents…Clam Chowder and Ice vs. Big Macs & Bombers (1991) as well as March to Fuzz (2000). “Bushpusher Man” was also on March to Fuzz and also Puget Power III (1992). “Thorn (1st attempt)” and “You’re Gone” are from the “You’re Gone” single (1990). Most notable of the bunch is “Overblown” which appears on the Singles soundtrack (1992) and was the first exposure to Mudhoney for many many people.

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Spin’s review of Digital Garbage says, “Rock bands who express left-leaning politics in their songs are often described as preaching to the converted. But [Mark] Arm writes like he’s condescending to the opposition, as if he’d want nothing more than to sing these antagonistic lyrics directly to the “evangelical hypocrites” who’d be most offended by them. While many of these lyrics could have been written in Mudhoney’s early years, when Reagan and Bush Sr. were in office and televangelists like Jim Bakker and Jimmy Swaggart were exposed as frauds, Arm’s anger sounds renewed now by presidency of Donald Trump, whom white evangelicals have stood by like no other demographic…If the lyrics are getting all the attention on Digital Garbage, it’s only because the music is exactly what you’d expect. Mudhoney’s sound hasn’t changed much since the early ‘90s, when they broadened their palette of scuzzy Stooges homages with Arm’s whirring garage rock organ, which livens up “Kill Yourself Live,” and guitarist Steve Turner’s harmonica, which makes an appearance on “Next Mass Extinction.” The band’s talent and chemistry is well preserved, with drummer Dan Peters’s incredible sense of swing and Turner’s bluesy solos both on display to great effect on “Messiah’s Lament.” There just isn’t much in the way of surprises, save for the slow, spacey “Night and Fog,” which rides a menacing groove laid down by bassist Guy Maddison, who joined the band in 2001 when founding member Matt Lukin retired from music (he’s reportedly now working as a carpenter).”

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I’ve written about seeing Murder City Devils at O’Cayz Corral in Madison, WI back in ‘99 (and still consider it one of the best shows I’ve ever seen) and will quote myself here: It was probably about 98 degrees that night and inside O’Cayz it had to have been topping 120 degrees. The Murder City Devils played with the Black Halos, I don’t remember who opened for who. I do remember sweat pouring, a sea of people in the small club (likely over-capacity) and fighting for a place to stand. I cannot put into words the massive energy of the show or the blistering sound and heat.”

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“Rock the Nation” is dirty thrash-pop, late 60′s/early 70′s inspired garage punk in the vein of The Stooges and MC5. “Why Don’t We Do It In the Road?” is a sludgy, grungy, guitar-screamy cover of the Beatles classic from the White Album. It’s definitely not an improvement on the original, but is a good interpretation and representation of the alternative rock/grunge sound of the early 90′s.

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