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Within a few years, Turner's band, Mudhoney, would go on to help revolutionize the sound coming out of Seattle in the early 1990s, giving rise to a new rock genre — grunge — and inspiring members of "Generation X."
Turner, 43, and the rest of Mudhoney will perform Sunday for the first time in Central Pennsylvania, at the Chameleon Club in Lancaster.
"Time kind of speeds up as you get older, and nothing seems like 20 years ago," Turner said from the band's tour bus on Interstate 91 in Massachusetts. "I can't believe 1998 was 10 years ago."
Mudhoney's current 18-show tour through the East Coast is its longest in several years, Turner said, because most of the group's members now have second jobs and families.
Turner himself is married with two young sons living in Portland, Ore. He supplements his band income by selling rare vinyl albums on eBay and landscaping.
Turner said the members of Mudhoney have been more motivated in the last eight years to make music, saying it feels more necessary in their lives.
The band has two new albums out, "The Lucky Ones," released in May, and a remastered edition of its first EP, "Superfuzz Bigmuff," considered one of the quintessential albums of the Seattle sound.
The first time Turner picked up a guitar was as a joke at the age of 16, saying he was "in the thralls of punk rock" and wanted to pretend he was in a band.By the time he was 17, Turner was given a Peavey electric guitar for Christmas, and within a couple of months, he was in a band, The Ducky Boys, with future Pearl Jam guitarist Stone Gossard.
The first live show Turner played was in the early 1980s with Mr. Epp and the Calculations. He recalled being a nervous wreck, not being able to figure out where to plug in his guitar. At his second show, he said, all the electronics of his cheap Kalamazoo guitar fell out because it was duct-taped together.
Turner said during the early days of the Seattle music scene the musicians didn't know what they were doing but were excited by the possibilities. He said they just went out and played.
"You just do whatever you can as fast as you can," Turner said. "I think we were a little luckier than most bands, of course."
Mudhoney will play with Pittsburgh-based band The Cynics and local group Hopeland at 7 p.m. Sunday at the Chameleon Club, 223 N. Water St. Tickets are $18 at the door. Call 299-9684 for more info.
E-mail: myoder@lnpnews.com
