INDY'S WEEKLY ALTERNATIVE NEWSPAPER HIGHLIGHTING ARTS, ENTERTAINMENT AND SOCIAL JUSTICE
Puddle of Mudd
Tuesday, Nov. 6, 8 p.m., $25/$27, 21+
Puddle of Mudd’s style of straight-ahead guitar rock has little to do musically with hip-hop. But that didn’t stop the band from seeing a common practice in hip-hop that it could apply to their new CD, Famous.
Where most rock bands work with a single producer in making a CD, Puddle of Mudd borrowed a page from a hip-hop trend and tried to match producers to the types of individual songs on Famous.
That wasn’t the original plan. In fact, Puddle of Mudd appeared poised to surprise its fans by teaming up with two of the biggest names in punk rock as its producers: Bill Stevenson (drummer for Black Flag and The Descendents, who has produced Rise Against, MxPx and others) and Jason Livermore (whose credits include NOFX and The Lemonheads).
“We did go to Colorado and worked with Jason and Bill on a full record’s worth of material,” Wes Scantlin, Puddle of Mudd singer/guitarist, says. “Then when we listened and sat back with it … we realized, ‘Hey, maybe we should hit up some more avenues rather than this punk direction.’”
That’s when the group began seeking out other producers.
In the end, another half-dozen producers contributed to the Famous CD, including Brian Howes (who has worked with Daughtry and Hinder), Jack Joseph Puig (whose long resume includes projects with John Mayer, The Goo Goo Dolls and Jellyfish) and Howard Benson (My Chemical Romance and the All-American Rejects, among others).
What’s surprising, given the number of production cooks in the kitchen, is that Famous still sounds very much like the work of Puddle of Mudd, which hit big with a 2001 debut, Come Clean, selling more than 5 million copies.
Like that album (and 2003’s far less successful Life On Display), Famous features plenty of straight-ahead melodic rock and a couple of sturdy ballads. The one song that truly breaks formula is the Puig-produced “Radiate,” which blends in some touches of techno and electronica.
Scantlin is pleased with the results of the multiproducer approach. “We got the best work from each person respectively at his forte,” he says.