Happy Anniversary: Mudhoney, TOMORROW HIT TODAY

20 years ago this month, Mudhoney released their third and final album for Reprise Records, a trifecta which helped cement their reputation as one of the strongest bands of the so-called grunge movement.

Produced by the band with Jim Dickinson, who twiddled the knobs for such other notable alt-rock icons as Green on Red, Mojo Nixon, and The Replacements, TOMORROW HIT TODAY was an album that was appreciated by critics, as evidence by its strong reviews in Rolling Stone and on AllMusic.com, but it was not one that set the charts on fire. In fact, it didn’t even singe them: unlike their previous two LPs for Reprise, it didn’t make it onto any Billboard chart, not even the much-vaunted Heatseakers chart, and – perhaps more disconcertingly – it was the first album by the band since their self-titled 1989 debut that didn’t crack the UK charts. 

Mudhoney’s tenure on Reprise Records may have ended with TOMORROW HIT TODAY, but the story ends a bit like the episode of The Simpsons where a movie studio tried to film a Radioactive Man movie in Springfield but ended up having to return home to Hollywood defeated, except in this case Mudhoney returned home to the label that started their career in the first place. We’d like to think that Sub Pop said, “We know you don't have any more money left, but that doesn't matter, just take whatever you need from our merch store until you can get back on your feet,” and then Mark Arm said, “Thank God we’re back on Sub Pop, where people treat each other right!”

He probably didn’t, of course. But we sure wish he had.