The Muffs return: Whoop Dee Doo!

In July the Muffs released Whoop Dee Doo, the L.A. pop-punk trio’s sixth album, a decade after 2004’s Really Really Happy set the group’s legacy in stone. That gap was an unplanned hiatus that happened when a break from touring turned into a break from one another. Singer and guitarist Kim Shattuck says she didn’t even cross paths with bassist Ronnie Barnett and drummer Roy McDonald for about two years.

So in 2008, after Shattuck had written a batch of news songs she liked, she was unsure what to do with them — if anything at all. “I’m super content to just write songs and be the only one who hears them,” Shattuck says.

Fortunately a mutual friend of all three of the group’s members held a dinner party that brought them all face to face. When talk of new material came up, Barnett and McDonald were taken aback when they learned that Shattuck had a slew of her razor-sharp pop-punk numbers ready to go. “I think they were kinda weirded out that I’d sort of not told them about the songs,” Shattuck says. “But I don’t need to branch out on my own. I love those guys. They’re my family.”

Indeed, the Muffs have been a solid musical unit since 1994, when McDonald joined Shattuck and Barnett between the band’s self-titled debut and its sophomore album, Blonder and Blonder, each a near-perfect collection of power chords and buzzy guitars plus Shattuck’s bubblegum melodies and ragged howl. Both albums are overlooked classics of the Nirvana/Green Day era that swept countless ’90s alt rock bands into the arms of major labels.

This summer the Muffs sated longtime fans with Whoop Dee Doo. Of the album’s 12 songs, “Weird Boy Next Door” rides a roller-coaster hook for nearly a minute before Shattuck screams, hoarse with the passage of time, but no less powerful. “Like You Don’t See Me” and “Up and Down Around” are driven by unshakeable melodies and chugging guitar riffs.

Deeper cuts, such as “Cheezy,” “Forget the Day” and “I Get It” explore the Muffs’ longstanding interest in twang and ’60s pop.

In 2013 Shattuck replaced Kim Deal as the Pixies’ bassist for five months. As she told NME last December, she speculated that her firing came because “I get the feeling they’re more introverted people than I am.” So whether excitement for Whoop Dee Doo is a result of that high-profile gig or the Muffs’ extended absence is unclear. “A little of both, probably,” she says.

Not that it matters. “I’m glad people are picking up on our record,” she says. “It’s nice to have it be recognized and have people listen to it. But my ultimate goal isn’t the final product. It’s doing it. It’s writing songs and learning them with the guys and recording them. Once we get it out it’s like it’s off my plate.”

Shattuck may be content to be the only one who hears her songs, but Muffs fans would no doubt prefer that she get more off her plate before another decade goes by.