SOURCE:  http://www.dailystar.com/dailystar/caliente/20950.php

05-07-04

Section: Caliente / Music

Puddle of Mud makes big splash on radio dial

Nela Koenig

Puddle of Mudd wants to make it on the radio - not modern rock radio. They did that already.

In 2002, you couldn't get from 87.9 to 107.9 on the dial without hearing "Blurry." Twice. For which bassist Douglas Ardito apologized last week during a phone interview.

No, Ardito and the other members of this guitar-rock quartet have their sights set on a different, more aged format.

"The question is whether or not you're going to end up on classic rock radio," Ardito said. "It's going to be fun to find out.

"I would probably cry if it happened," he added. "And I don't cry very easy."

Puddle of Mudd is scheduled to play at 7:10 p.m. Saturday, filling the penultimate slot at KFMA Day 5.

The band's setlist, Ardito said, can't change very much from night to night.

"We have to play 'Blurry,' 'She Hates Me,' 'Drift and Die,' and we have to play 'Control,' " Ardito said, talking about four radio hits off 2001's "Come Clean."

Then they have to play songs off last year's "Life on Display."

After the requisite tracklist, they might get to play one or two numbers that haven't had radio play.

Ardito has been sort of surprised by people's reaction to the Mudd sound - often slammed for being neo-grunge or smacking of God- smack.

"I always thought of the music as melancholy," he said. "But people would come up and tell us that they played that at their wedding."

"Jimmy Page said if someone plays your song at a wedding, you're doing all right," Ardito added.