While most grunge-era bands have been relegated to the dustbin of history, Mudhoney have plowed forward with a brutal consistency, releasing ten solid albums over the past 20 years. On Friday night, the band will play their celebrated 1988 debut, Superfuzz Bigmuff Plus Early Singles, in its entirety as a part of All Tomorrow's Parties' Don't Look Back series. If you can't make the trek to the concert at Kutshers Country Club in Monticello, New York, don't fret; WFMU will be broadcasting audio from the show on Sunday afternoon from 3-9 p.m. EST.

Pre-dating his tenure as Mudhoney's feral frontman, Mark Arm, already boasted an impeccable underground rock pedigree. From 1984 to 1988, Arm fronted Green River, Seattle's proto-grunge band. Green River's dissolution in 1988 is something of a Great Schism in grunge lore; Arm and guitarist Steve Turner went on to form Mudhoney, and their bandmates Stone Gossard and Jeff Ament founded Pearl Jam in 1990. Despite the disparity in their approaches to music, the former members of Green River remained friendly over the years. In 2008, the band reformed for the first time to celebrate Sub Pop Records' 20th anniversary. The reunion went so well that they played additional shows in 2009. Ever since, there's been a buzz building about more Green River activity -- possibly even an album of new material.

Arm's recent projects seem to be steeped in nostalgia, but Mudhoney is a band that doesn't suffer sentimentalists. Arm took a break from his day job managing the Sub Pop Records warehouse to talk with PAPERMAG about the future of Mudhoney and Green River, which old Mudhoney lyrics make him squeamish, and why Aretha Franklin inspires him.

Are you at work in the Sub Pop warehouse right now?
Yes, I am.

When I read that you manage the Sub Pop warehouse, I imagined you ordering dockworkers to load crates of vinyl onto a freighter in Puget Sound. What does your day-to-day job at Sub Pop actually entail?
[Laughs] That would be pretty amazing if it were true. It's basically just me. The title of "Manager" is meaningless. I'm just the warehouse dude.

How long have you been the warehouse dude?
About 5 years now.

So at All Tomorrow's Parties, Mudhoney is going to blaze through Superfuzz Bigmuff Plus Early Singles as a part of the Don't Look Back series. That album came out in 1988. When you sing all those songs back-to-back-to-back, do you find yourself slipping back into the mindset of a 26-year-old Mark Arm?
I did definitely when we started revisiting stuff that had fallen by the wayside, and it
really happened when we were working on Green River stuff. It was some weird, mental
time travel. Every once in a while I'll have a flash to the circumstances under which a
particular song was written. And I'll think, "Jesus Christ, I was young and naïve then!"

Are there any specific, old lyrics in the Mudhoney songbook that make you laugh and ask yourself "What was I thinking?" when you sing them today?
The lyrics to "Need" kind of make my skin crawl. It's so over the top and earnest...well,
not earnest, but it sounds oddly desperate. It didn't really warrant the situation at all.

The titular character in "Sweet Young Thing (Ain't Sweet No More)" is draped over a toilet bowl (vomiting, I assume) while her mother reprimands her. It's been 22 years since that song was written. If you were to write a sequel, what would that Sweet Young Thing be doing in 2010?
She'd probably have gotten her shit together and being going to church with a bunch of
children or she'd be in front of the methadone clinic.

So, one or the other?
Those are the only two options.

Your last album, The Lucky Ones, came out in 2008, and it's arguably one of Mudhoney's best. What's the secret to creating an album so vibrant and vital 20 years into your career?
I don't know. I guess being focused and yet methodical. At this point, we're far from
the days when we have to do another record and strike while the iron is hot, and use the
previous record as a stepping-stone for the next one and it's all supposed to grow. We're
so far beyond that. So when we actually do work on songs, it's not like we're rushing to
get anything out before it's cooked.

On The Lucky Ones, you abandoned your guitar and only handled vocal duties. What do you enjoy more: performing with or without your guitar?
It is probably more fun live without. But also I really do enjoy playing guitar. It comes
down to the difference between performing and playing music.

When you sing live without your guitar, you tend to flail around like you're possessed and your eyes bug out like you're channeling Screamin' Jay Hawkins. What singers have inspired your performance style?
My favorite singers would be Nick Cave, Iggy -- especially with the Stooges and the first
couple records thereafter. Rob Tyner [the late singer of the MC5]. Captain Beefheart.
Aretha Franklin, although she doesn't roll around and bug her eyes out.

What about those singers inspires your performances?
Well, they all have really unique qualities to their vocals. There's a lot more that I'm
spacing on right now. And with the exception of Rob Tyner and Aretha Franklin, those
folks aren't considered technically great singers, but there's a lot more to it than that.

One random question: what's the best piece of advice you've ever received, and who
gave it to you?
I didn't receive this directly, it came from my friend Tom Price who was in this band Gas Huffer and they did some touring with Wayne Kramer [of the MC5], back when they were both on Epitaph, and he told them, "The most important thing you can do is get your sleep." When you're on tour, it's totally true! It's hard to get eight hours. That lack of sleep builds up after a while, and over a long period of time it can be wearing, and can throw you into crazy territory.

At some point in the next couple of years, your bass player, Guy Maddison will have been a member of Mudhoney for longer than your original bass player, Matt Lukin. How has the Maddison-era differed from the Lukin-era?
Well, in the Lukin-era, we didn't work during that time period! With Guy in the band, he's got the most real job of any of us. He works as a nurse at Harborview, which is a major trauma hospital in Seattle. We have to do our touring around his schedule. And the other guys have responsibilities, too. I probably have the most freedom to take off because the good folks here at Sub Pop understand that the more we're on tour, the more likely it'll help record sales. So that's the big difference. I hate to say that this is a more adult version, because we're not an adult version of a band, but we're definitely living in an adult world. Whereas in the Lukin-era, we were putting off the adult world as much as possible.

In the past decade, Mudhoney's albums have showcased a wide range of styles, from tight garage rock nuggets to sprawling, psychedelic, Sun Ra-inspired freak-outs. Looking forward, is Mudhoney working on new material, and in what direction do you think you'll take your sound?
I don't know what direction we'll take our sound. That remains to be seen. And we aren't
working on new songs right now because we're working on fine-tuning our Superfuzz set
for ATP. But we have been working on new material and we have about five new songs
down. Unfortunately because of our schedules, and the fact that Steve moved to Portland,
we don't get to practice as much as a band really should.

So there's no immediate plans to make a new record?
We need to get more songs together before going into the studio. On our last record, The
Lucky Ones, we pretty much recorded all eleven songs that we had. It turned out to be a
good record, but we would like to have a little more of a cushion. You know, have songs
for B-sides or whatever.

What's the status on Green River activity? Is that going to happen or not?
It's not not going to happen. Since we got together for Sub Pop 20, there's been a little bit of talk about doing it, but it's not a super high priority. Jeff and Stone have this other little band they're working on, and Steve and I spend a lot of time on Mudhoney. But it would be great to be able to do something. I just don't know when that would actually be.