Monkeywrench

Monkeywrench is a group from Texas, United States, active from 1990 to the present. It forms around musicians associated with the American underground rock and punk scenes, and its membership includes Mark Arm, Martin Bland, Tim Kerr, Tom Price and Steve Turner.

Formation and members

The band comes together in 1991 after Mark Arm and Steve Turner of Mudhoney meet Tim Kerr, who has previously played guitar in the punk groups the Big Boys and Poison 13. After Arm and Turner express their admiration for Kerr’s work with Poison 13, Kerr suggests they record together. In the original arrangement, Kerr plays guitar, Arm sings and also plays piano and harmonica, and Turner moves to bass.

The lineup is completed by Tom Price, known for work with U-Men and Gas Huffer, on second guitar, and Martin Bland on drums. Bland is an Australian musician who is associated with Lubricated Goat, the Primevils and Bloodloss; Arm also plays vocals and guitar with Bloodloss.

Recordings and labels

When Sub Pop Records hears of the band in 1991, it signs them immediately. The group records its first album, Clean as a Broke-Dick Dog, at Egg Studios in Seattle with producer Conrad Uno later that year. The album appears in 1992, along with a 7-inch single containing two tracks from the record, “Bottle Up & Go” and “Cold Cold World”, plus a cover of Blue Cheer’s “Out of Focus”.

The band takes a break in the mid-1990s while Arm and Turner remain active with Mudhoney, but it still issues a split 7-inch of the Germs song “Shut Down” on Gasatanka Records in late 1995. That track also appears on the tribute album A Small Circle of Friends on Grass Records.

In the late 1990s, Kerr becomes increasingly involved with Dave Crider at Estrus Records, working on productions for the label and appearing in other bands on its roster, including Lord High Fixers and Jack O’Fire. Monkeywrench then signs to Estrus in 1999. The band records its second full-length album, Electric Children, at Private Radio Studios in November 1999 with producer Jack Endino, and it is released in 2000.