Mudhoney may have been the first so-called "grunge" band -- some might even call them Seattle's best export. In any case, there's no question they were the funniest and most consistently interesting group Seattle spawned in the late '80s. From the classic riffs that exploded from "Touch Me I'm Sick" to the twisted tales frontman Mark Arm brought to life on "Into Your Shtick," the quartet never failed to raise an eyebrow. But while they won over plenty of cognoscenti -- including such devotees as Nirvana's Kurt Cobain and Spiritualized's Jason Pierce, who covered their "When Tomorrow Hits" in his Spacemen 3 days -- Mudhoney were unwilling to tame their innate weirdness for mass consumption. As such, the band exited the major label ranks after 1998's Tomorrow Hit Today, which they followed with a retrospective, March to Fuzz. The departure of longtime bassist Matt Lukin, as well as the steady stream of side projects, made it seem as if Mudhoney had joined the ranks of the dearly departed. But then the Puget Sound-borne fog lifted to reveal a shadowy new offering, appropriately titled Since We've Become Translucent. Singer Mark Arm cleared the air for Barnes & Noble.com's David Sprague

Barnes & Noble.com: There was a four-year gap between Tomorrow Hit Today and Since We've Become Translucent. Did you know it was a hiatus, or were you thinking the band might be over for good?

Mark Arm: We always figured we'd be doing another record, but after Matt left, it took us time to figure how we were going to do it. It went really smoothly once Guy [Maddison, the band's new bassist] decided to join. [It started] as an offer to go down to Brazil -- a trip Guy actually couldn't make because he's in nursing school and was having finals at that time. So other than having to teach two different people our songs, everything was pretty simple.

B&N.com: Several of the songs on the new album use horns, which is something new for you. How did that come about?

MA: We'd never really done it before, but we'd considered it. Like a lot of ideas, we'd talk about it and then throw it out the window. We came close to doing some things like that on Tomorrow Hit Today, but we really got excited about using horns on "Where the Flavor Is" after going to Brazil and listening to some stuff down there.

B&N.com: Was Since We've Become Translucent a long time in the making?

MA: Yeah. "Inside Job" is probably the earliest recording, which comes from a session we did back in 2000 with [MC5 guitarist] Wayne Kramer playing bass. Some of the other songs came from sessions I was doing with the Monkeywrench. Most of the album was put together in three sessions that extended over a pretty long period of time. We've always worked best when we did things that way.

B&N.com: Is the band as much fun now as it was when you started?

MA: I think it's a lot easier to have fun these days. I take things for granted a lot less than I used to when we were starting out or when we were on Warner Bros. I'm thankful that I can do this. We're all getting older and we pay more attention to other things, but we can basically make our living doing things that we want to do. Plus, when we were all f**king off, Dan's wife went to law school, which lets him be a stay-at-home dad, which he loves.

B&N.com: Did you ever get caught up in the whole "Seattle scene" hype when that was at its peak?

MA: I always thought it was really funny that anyone would take any of that seriously. I never thought for a second that the kind of music that I was doing or what I was interested in would even remotely attach to some sort of fashion trend.

B&N.com: Were you very involved in putting together the "greatest hits" package?

MA: We put it together, basically. None of us are really prone to looking back, even though it's all good. Dan, of course, was the one saying "doing a best-of is really a lame thing to do," but he got into it before too long.

B&N.com: Some of the new material has a vibe a little bit like the Fleshtones, what with a little garage and R&B mixed in.

MA: Well, I'd be more flattered if you said it sounded like the Flesheaters, but I guess I can see that comparison, especially on the songs where I'm playing organ. I like to think of what we do as being a little more f**ked up than just three-chord rock. The stuff I've really loved over the years -- Hawkwind, the Wipers, Pere Ubu -- has gone beyond that simple rock thing. It's not like we're all over the map stylistically, though. It's not like we're going to do a reggae song, and do a little techno number, and see which one radio picks up.

B&N.com: Does the title of the album reflect a little bit of bitterness on your part?

MA: [laughs] Well, I guess it could be taken that way. Not really. I've never been concerned with being the center of attention, or with being a star. I know that there are a finite number of people that get what we do, and I hope they're still paying attention to what we're doing. We're not going to be able to do an extended tour since everyone has other responsibilities, so we'll play dates here and there. It's more fun that way anyhow, kind of like it was 14 years ago.