The Muffs
Whoop Dee Doo
Reviewed by: Brian Roser
If Joan Jett and Lita Ford are the mothers of hard rock, then Kim Shattuck of The Muffs is the kid sister. Maybe she doesn’t have the gravitas of the women who came before her, but she has definitely earned her place in the family. Whoop Dee Doo is their newest album after a ten year hiatus. TEN YEARS! There are bands who go away for ten years and when they return they just play their old hits to relive their youth, or they phone it in so they can pay their mortgage. For The Muffs, its not so much ‘why are you back?’ as ‘where the hell have you been?’ Ok, yes, Kim Shattuck was playing bass with The Pixies, but not the entire time. Whoop Dee Doo is definitely a good album to start their revival: the rock is hard, the energy is high and the music is awesome.
The Muffs was formed in the early 90s around a core of refugees from the Pandoras. The band changed a few members around until finally settling on the trio of Kim Shattuck, Ronnie Barnett and Roy McDonald. One of their songs was also on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which gets them huge brownie points in my book. In 11 years they made five albums before disappearing off the face of the earth for a while. Luckily they have decided to return to us.
I really like this album. There are a dozen songs on here and they’re all good. Not only do they have a great sound, they also have a good sense of humor. Whoop Dee Doo has no patience with cheezy guys, or people who take themselves too seriously and neither do they. There’s a great line from the song “Up and Down Around” – “Maybe I’ll go ahead and do what I can do, but I’ll keep my pjs on and sleep till noon.” Good advice.
Welcome back, Muffs; don’t keep us waiting so long next time.
Rating: 
