In 1992, Sub Pop had a license to print money. It was mere months after "Smells Like Teen Spirit" and Badmotorfinger. In that year and the next, other Sub Pop acts made the major-label jump: Mudhoney, Afghan Whigs, L7. Even the Singles Club was still relevant. Grunge had graduated (though some would say gentrified) from indie playground to pop phenomenon.

One of Sub Pop's strongest 1992 releases was the Monkeywrench's debut, Clean as a Broke Dick Dog, a stylish, bluesy batch of straight-ahead rock and roll. It was slapped with those lazy and meaningless tags, "super group" and "side project," but it was an understandable conceit. The band consisted of Mudhoney mates and ex-Green River bad seeds Mark Arm (guitars, vocals) and Steve Turner (bass, vocals), as well as U-Men axe-man and future Gas Huffer Tom Price, Lubricated Goat's Australian-import drummer Martin Bland, and Texan guitarist Tim Kerr, whose resume charts the rise of punk-qua-indie music in America from the early '80s to the present: Big Boys, Bad Mutha Goose and the Brothers Grimm, Poison 13, Jack o' Fire, King Sound Quartet, and Lord High Fixers.

In fact, you could say Kerr was the spark behind Dog, with Arm fanning the fire. "The first time (The Monkeywrench) came about was because we met Tim in Texas," says Turner from his home in Seattle. Mudhoney's members have a reputation for being sneakily sarcastic, and Turner's sense of humor creeps into sentences like a sly straggler to class who's obviously absent when the bell rings but the next time you notice his seat is filled. "We were Poison 13 and Big Boys fans. And Tim mentioned to Mark that there was a bunch of unrecorded Poison 13 songs. And the plan was hatched for him and Mark to see about recording them. So Mark recruited Tom because the U-Men hung out with Poison 13 and came home from Texas playing (the Poison 13 song) 'One Step Closer' up in Seattle and that was kind of a big anthem. So he was brought in and I begged to be allowed to play bass because there was no more guitar spots to fill. And Martin just happened to be coming into Seattle - moving to Seattle that same weekend basically. And since he was a drummer Mark figured, well, shit - Martin's available. So it was really easy to put that together."

Dog was a refreshing mix of Kerr's hip-shaking guitar lines and Arm's perfectly pitched, off-key vocals, lending songs such as "Bottle Up & Go" and "Cold Cold World" a soulful, snide electric glide part throwback, part throw-down. After recording, the band played three Seattle shows and went back to its respective projects. Eight years later, Sub Pop isn't the force it once was. Its release schedule doesn't make record geeks reach for their wallets as quickly and the only recent Singles Club 7-inch worth scouring for is by the Dead C. Meanwhile, Bellingham, Washington's Estrus Records - the home of trash rock, trash rock, and more trash rock - has somehow managed to put that small Pacific Northwest town on the indie-music map, surviving a fire that virtually wiped out its stock in 1996. It did so by never straying from its high-concept but bare-bones approach to gloriously low-fidelity raunch and roll. Estrus is the perfect home for the Monkeywrench's new album, Electric Children, a Jack Endino-recorded helping of '60s garage psych that's more Stoics than Stones.

Besides, the timing was right. "Tim has been coming up to Seattle a lot over the years, for recording, producing other bands, and what not," Turner says. "He always stays at my house when he comes through town. And we always vaguely talked, 'We should do that again.' Or I'd get together with Tom and say, 'Hey, I had this great idea for a Monkeywrench song.' It was bandied about a little bit but never seriously. And then about a year ago, Mudhoney had just finished doing a bunch of touring and it didn't look like we were going to tour again for at least a while. Gas Huffer wasn't touring. Tim was always coming to Seattle anyway. It seemed like this would be really easy right now. And Martin, Tom, and Mark all work together, so we knew where to find them. So then I mentioned it and started increasing the pressure on everybody. And Tim called back and said, 'Hey, Dave Crider just said we can play Garageshock in a couple of weeks if we wanted to.' So that really got the ball rolling."

Children recalls the post-Summer of Love garage psych-outbursts from bands of blotter-fried, 'Nam-avoiding malcontents who collectively pinched out a frothy heap of vinyl LPs and acetate singles that have since seared the supple cerebellums of punks the world over. "In the City Tonight" is a rhythmic rumble Mouse and the Traps forgot to write. "The Weasel's in the Barn" is the sound of the Standells hearing the Velvets' sinister guitar-sorcery and inciting a riot on the Sunset Strip. And with three solid covers in the fold - from the Groundhogs, Roy Loney, and Jesus Rodriguez - Children goes digging for some Nuggets-era gems and strikes gold.

"We kind of consciously tried to do something a little more psychedelic, but also try to keep some of the same bluesy vein," Turner says. "Plus, all of the songs are kind of written by all of us in different various degrees. So to me it sounds pretty similar in feel, but we're wearing uglier suits."

The 'Wrench is even hitting the road for the first time. It cranked out six shows in four days in the Northwest, has the two upcoming Texas dates, and then heads to England for two London club gigs and two shows opening for Pearl Jam. And with some Japan dates slated for fall as well as a slot on this year's Las Vegas Shakedown bill, it probably won't take another eight years before the next Monkeywrench album surfaces, though the band isn't locked into any timetable. "We kept it pretty relaxed," Turner says. "We had no plans. We have no plans still. It's fun to do, though. We're really looking forward to touring. And Tim's going to be so excited about (the band) playing in Texas, finally."