Seattle has a long history of rock music, from the glorious garage sounds of the Wailers and the Sonics to the weirdness of Modest Mouse. But it was grunge music that leaped out of the pack and became the signature musical style of the Pacific Northwest. Though other acts garnered more fame and money, it was Mudhoney who defined the scene's sound and attitude. So what does a grunge band sound like in 1998? Lois Maffeo, a Northwest belle of the rock & roll ball, sits down to a spicy Indian dinner with Mark Arm and Steve Turner to talk about Tomorrow Hit Today, find out who wrestled Nick Cave, and get answers to her burning question...

Amazon.com: So, what is grunge, anyway?

Mark Arm: I'm not sure what the term is supposed to mean. I never thought most of the bands that were described as grunge ever lived up to the term. To me, it's like dirty, icky, poopy stuff you want to get rid of.

Steve Turner: And we're the closest thing to that, as far as our guitar sound. Early Nirvana was a grunge band.

Arm: Ironically, we never really embraced the term until our last record.

Turner: Yeah, but 1995 was a bad year to be a grunge band. We were caught in the backlash. But it's a historical fact. We're grunge.

Amazon.com: What do you call the rest of the so-called grunge bands?

Arm: Hard rock or just rock & roll.

Turner: Ballsy, swaggering guys in scarves!

Amazon.com: When did you guys meet each other?

Turner: We met at a TSOL show at the Showbox [a Seattle club].

Arm: That's also where I met a kid in my philosophy class named Kim Thayil.

Amazon.com: From Soundgarden?

Arm: Yeah. He would always come to class no earlier than 10 minutes late, start arguing, and piss everyone off. So I said, "Hey, you're in my philosophy class," and then he proceeded to argue about TSOL.

Turner: And at the time he only had a mustache.

Amazon.com: How was the show?

Arm: It wasn't a great show, but it wasn't horrible.

Turner: Nineteen eighty-two wasn't the greatest year for music. It was the year that all the great bands weren't really too good.

Amazon.com: You sound pretty confident about that. Are you record completists?

Turner: I don't have all the TSOL records!

Amazon.com: What band do you have the most records by?

Turner: Billy Childish.

Arm: By sheer volume, Sun Ra or Mingus.

Amazon.com: What bands did you want to sound like when you started out?

Turner: We wanted to sound like Blue Cheer and the Stooges.

Arm: Which we did, in a way.

Amazon.com: Where does the Birthday Party fall on the list of inspirations?

Turner: I love the Birthday Party. We all do, except it took (bassist) Matt (Lukin) a long time to like them. It took a wrestling match. The strangest male bonding I've ever seen in my life was Nick Cave and Matt Lukin wrestling. We were at this festival in Australia, and it just erupted. There were about 30 people watching them go at it.

Amazon.com: What would you be doing now if you hadn't chosen music?

Arm: Well, music is important to me, but I'm not sure it's important in the big scheme of things.

Turner: I'm not even sure there's a big scheme of things.

Amazon.com: What the best-case and the worst-case scenario for Mudhoney?

Arm: The worst case is that the band doesn't get along and breaks up.

Turner: The second worst case is that September 22 comes around and we find out on tour that the record company isn't releasing the record. That would be the worst case as far as outside forces. As for inside forces, we could implode.

Arm: That's just your refusal to believe there's a grand scheme!

Amazon.com: Are you ready to be icons?

Turner: We're not going to be icons. We've just continued doing this a lot longer than we planned. Amazon.com: Tomorrow Hit Today sounds more introspective. There's a lot of soul in it. Not Motown soul, but soulfulness. Lots of hard rock isn't about anything, but you defy that convention. Your songs are actually about things.

Arm: You don't have to worry. They're not about anything.