Melbourne Band’s Moving Tribute To The Muffs

Melbourne band The Wellingtons met American band The Muffs in 2006. 

“We’d been trying to talk our way onto the lineup of a Tiki festival The Muffs were headlining in Montclair, California,” The Wellingtons’ bass player and singer Kate Goldby recalls. “And when the opener, a band from Malaysia, couldn’t make it, we got the spot.”

When they met The Muffs’ singer Kim Shattuck, Kate says they “overexcitedly” invited her to The Wellingtons gig at The Knitting Factory in LA, not thinking more about it. “Well, she turned up, introduced us to her husband, we exchanged emails and kept in contact from then on.

“Kim was so warm and generous on that first tour, even offering to help find guitar repairers when we had some gear issues.”

The Wellingtons’ 2008 album, Heading North For The Winter, opened with Song For Kim.

“It was such a trip to have someone you’ve looked up to for years treating you as a peer with absolutely no pretension, just a bubble of goodwill and joy,” Kate says of the band’s friendship with Kim. 

“And we’re always looking for new lyrical material that’s not just boy meets girl/girl breaks boy’s heart, so we decided to dedicate a song to her as a thank you.”

The album also featured Kim singing on Freak Out, which shares its title with a Muffs song.

“This is the perfect example of, it pays to ask,” Kate smiles. “We’d been exchanging emails and hung out a few times by that point, so we thought we’d just ask, and she replied with an enthusiastic yes. 

“The first time we heard her tracks in the studio was a bit of an out-of-body experience.”

Kim then joined The Wellingtons onstage in Hollywood to sing Freak Out.

“As an enthusiastic photographer, she’d offered to take band pics while we were in town. We gratefully accepted and asked if she’d be keen to join us for Freak Out at the LA show.”

There was no soundcheck – “Kim Shattuck doesn't need a practice run!” And Kim kindly remarked that she preferred The Wellingtons’ Freak Out.

The Wellingtons treasured every moment with Kim. “Each time we found ourselves in LA on tour, we’d try and catch up, playing with her a couple of times acoustically, apparently a very rare occurrence. Each time, the same beautiful ray of sunshine with the best voice in the business.

“Always responsive to emails, always eager to catch up, join in, and help. We’ve got other friends around the world in the power-pop/garage pop scene who echo this experience too.

“She was just the most giving, enthusiastic and warm person you’d ever hope to meet.”

The Wellingtons’ lead singer Zac Anthony introduced Kate to the punky American power-pop band in the early 2000s. Zac had become a fan after seeing Ben Folds play a Muffs video while guest programming Rage.

Six years ago next month, Kate was out for a walk when she found out that Kim Shattuck had died.

“I heard the news via Zac when I was out with our 11-month-old. The news stopped me in my tracks. I did some frantic Facebook searching to try and disprove him, but alas ...

“It was difficult to make it home through streaming tears with a bulky pram. To then discover the illness she’d been keeping quiet from almost everyone was heartbreaking.”

Kim died from complications of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (better known in Australia as MND – motor neurone disease), an illness she had kept secret from her fans and friends. She was 56.

The final Muffs album, No Holiday, was released two weeks after Kim’s passing.

To honour Kim, The Wellingtons have released a song called Sad Today, which is a sequel of sorts to The Muffs’ much-loved song Sad Tomorrow.

Sad Today is the third single from The Wellingtons’ sixth album, Baby Moon, which is released today. In the liner notes, the band gives a “special dedication to Kim Shattuck – your talent was only surpassed by your generosity and excitement. Your constant support meant the world to us.”

“We’d been working on this album just prior to having our first child, so we wanted it to represent the big moments throughout that time lyrically, and this was one of the big ones,” Kate explains.

“It also felt right to have a counterpart to Song For Kim. The line ‘I’m feeling really, really sad today’ is likely obvious to Muffs fans, but it’s a reference to two of our favourite songs – Sad Tomorrow and Really Really Happy.”

“I really wanted to try and find the raw vocal tracks Kim sent us for Freak Out, to add her signature scream, but I think they’ve been lost to time. I occasionally get excited and attempt it live, but there’s no replicating it.”

In Sad Today, Kate Goldby sings:

“Looks like your time is over, but I’m still thinking of you tonight/ You left us one more record, you sure put up one hell of a fight.”