Muck and the Mires

If Phil Spector could produce the Ramones, then Kim Fowley can produce Muck and the Mires, local faves whose sound has always been two parts Ramones to five parts British Invasion. On their three previous CDs, Muck seemed incapable of getting a studio sound that approached their live one; the tracks sounded like clean demos and their devastating live volume wasn’t even hinted at. Enter Fowley, the legendary LA eccentric who wrote “Alley Oop” in the early ’60s, discovered the Runaways a decade later, and currently DJ’s on Little Steven’s Sirius channel. Part of his contribution appears to have been creating a manic vibe in the studio. Lead singer Evan Shore sounds grittier than ever before; the band sound far less polite. And this four-track EP (a teaser for an eventual album) is still plenty Beatlesque, but now they’re the scruffy Hamburg Beatles instead of the cleaned-up ones. The title track has long been one of their best live numbers, but the standout is “Hypnotic,” which Shore seems to have written after Fowley told him his existing songs weren’t stupid enough. It fills the bill, with a wonderfully silly whammy-bar bit that introduces each chorus. And Fowley throws in enough handclaps and surf guitar to evoke one of those mythical Sunset Strip parties.

- The Phoenix

MUCK & THE MIRES singer/guitarist Evan Shore has always been fueled by his love for the British Invasion, as anyone can attest who knew his previous bands — the Voodoo Dolls(for whom he wrote the shoulda-been-classic "This Town Makes Me Feel So Lonely") and the Nines. Yet he’s always tempered his ’60s leanings with a touch of modern punk sound. It was only when he came out of the ’60s closet for good that the band caught on.

Muck didn’t even start out as a real band: while he was demo-ing some new songs for the Nines, Shore decided to have some retro fun and make the tapes sound as ’60s as possible, using clean guitar sounds and wide stereo separation and playing all the instruments himself. He licensed the result to the Canadian label Amp, gave the fake band members some joky ’60s-type names (Joey Muccarino on guitar, Jessie Best on drums, Brian and Frankie Mire on bass and guitar), and packaged All Mucked Up as a Nuggets-style reissue. When two years ago a few local gigs were booked to support the album, he called in the rest of the Nines; they went with the ’60s concept by wearing matching suits and shades and added a few period covers (the two they play most often — the Knickerbockers’ "Lies" and the Honeycombs’ "Have I the Right" — are buried treasures from 1965).


Sure enough, the fake band proved more popular than the real one, and before long the Nines morphed into Muck & the Mires full-time. Along with the more palpable ’60s influences, the only real difference is the attitude. "We had gotten pretty burned out on the Nines," Shore admits over beers with Mires bassist Chris Miller and me at the Abbey. "I think the main thing the Nines lacked was an image; we didn’t have anything that made us different from everybody else. People just thought of us as the Voodoo Dolls without the lead singer, which is basically what we were. With Muck & the Mires, it started as a total joke — ‘Let’s have the silliest name we can think of, let’s wear matching suits.’ And I think that made a lot of difference. We get people telling us, ‘You guys look like you’re really having fun,’ and that’s because we are." Thus the real band members — drummer Linda Khoury, bassist Miller, and singer/guitarist Brian Martin — have stepped into the Mires pseudonyms. And most local fans who’ve picked up the debut CD probably haven’t figured out that Shore plays everything on it. "They have figured out that we sound better live, though," he laughs.


As the first CD to feature the real band, Beginner’s Muck benefits from the obvious chemistry and the mostly live production. (The entire thing, they note, was made in 21 hours: seven for the tracks, seven for the overdubs, and seven for the mix.) Khoury is a power drummer in the Keith Moon mold, and Martin trades off spirited lead vocals with Shore. "I’m Down with That" is the obvious hit, sporting one of those titles that just cried out to be used in a pop song. But what with the concise solos, catchy verses, and catchier choruses, virtually everything on the album is a hook.


Still, the CD-release show at the Abbey this Saturday presents the band with a problem: they’re booked to play an hour set, but all their songs clock in at two minutes or less. So if they play all 24 of the numbers on their two albums and throw in every cover tune they know and a few brand new songs, they should just about manage it. They’re also hoping for a top-secret guest appearance from a Boston rock legend from the ’60s; they’ve learned a few Barbarians covers and reserved a space at the drum kit in case Victor Moulton turns up.


On Beginner’s Muck, they blast through 12 songs (plus a bonus track) in 23 minutes — a feat of brevity that even Shore’s two heroes, the Beatles and the Ramones, never pulled off. "We could’ve made ’em longer, but that would just be filler," he says. "What could we do — add a longer intro, or a longer guitar solo? The point is keeping the energy up from start to finish, and to me songwriting is an art — I didn’t just want to have a good chorus, I want the verse and the bridge to be good too. I think it was [Beatles producer] George Martin who said that you can sell a song in the first seven seconds, and I think that makes sense."


Bringing up the Beatles begs the question of whether the Mires are a retro band, but to them the sound never went out of date "Let’s face it," Miller (who’s dressed incongruously in an SSD T-shirt) notes, "everybody listened to the Beatles and the Stones when they grew up. Everyone knows this kind of music, and nobody ever loses it." "The first album was the attempt to be retro; now it’s a real band," Shore concludes. "But a real band that obviously grew up listening to the Beatles."
- Boston Phoenix

MUCK & THE MIRES singer/guitarist Evan Shore has always been fueled by his love for the British Invasion, as anyone can attest who knew his previous bands — the Voodoo Dolls(for whom he wrote the shoulda-been-classic "This Town Makes Me Feel So Lonely") and the Nines. Yet he’s always tempered his ’60s leanings with a touch of modern punk sound. It was only when he came out of the ’60s closet for good that the band caught on.

Muck didn’t even start out as a real band: while he was demo-ing some new songs for the Nines, Shore decided to have some retro fun and make the tapes sound as ’60s as possible, using clean guitar sounds and wide stereo separation and playing all the instruments himself. He licensed the result to the Canadian label Amp, gave the fake band members some joky ’60s-type names (Joey Muccarino on guitar, Jessie Best on drums, Brian and Frankie Mire on bass and guitar), and packaged All Mucked Up as a Nuggets-style reissue. When two years ago a few local gigs were booked to support the album, he called in the rest of the Nines; they went with the ’60s concept by wearing matching suits and shades and added a few period covers (the two they play most often — the Knickerbockers’ "Lies" and the Honeycombs’ "Have I the Right" — are buried treasures from 1965).


Sure enough, the fake band proved more popular than the real one, and before long the Nines morphed into Muck & the Mires full-time. Along with the more palpable ’60s influences, the only real difference is the attitude. "We had gotten pretty burned out on the Nines," Shore admits over beers with Mires bassist Chris Miller and me at the Abbey. "I think the main thing the Nines lacked was an image; we didn’t have anything that made us different from everybody else. People just thought of us as the Voodoo Dolls without the lead singer, which is basically what we were. With Muck & the Mires, it started as a total joke — ‘Let’s have the silliest name we can think of, let’s wear matching suits.’ And I think that made a lot of difference. We get people telling us, ‘You guys look like you’re really having fun,’ and that’s because we are." Thus the real band members — drummer Linda Khoury, bassist Miller, and singer/guitarist Brian Martin — have stepped into the Mires pseudonyms. And most local fans who’ve picked up the debut CD probably haven’t figured out that Shore plays everything on it. "They have figured out that we sound better live, though," he laughs.


As the first CD to feature the real band, Beginner’s Muck benefits from the obvious chemistry and the mostly live production. (The entire thing, they note, was made in 21 hours: seven for the tracks, seven for the overdubs, and seven for the mix.) Khoury is a power drummer in the Keith Moon mold, and Martin trades off spirited lead vocals with Shore. "I’m Down with That" is the obvious hit, sporting one of those titles that just cried out to be used in a pop song. But what with the concise solos, catchy verses, and catchier choruses, virtually everything on the album is a hook.


Still, the CD-release show at the Abbey this Saturday presents the band with a problem: they’re booked to play an hour set, but all their songs clock in at two minutes or less. So if they play all 24 of the numbers on their two albums and throw in every cover tune they know and a few brand new songs, they should just about manage it. They’re also hoping for a top-secret guest appearance from a Boston rock legend from the ’60s; they’ve learned a few Barbarians covers and reserved a space at the drum kit in case Victor Moulton turns up.


On Beginner’s Muck, they blast through 12 songs (plus a bonus track) in 23 minutes — a feat of brevity that even Shore’s two heroes, the Beatles and the Ramones, never pulled off. "We could’ve made ’em longer, but that would just be filler," he says. "What could we do — add a longer intro, or a longer guitar solo? The point is keeping the energy up from start to finish, and to me songwriting is an art — I didn’t just want to have a good chorus, I want the verse and the bridge to be good too. I think it was [Beatles producer] George Martin who said that you can sell a song in the first seven seconds, and I think that makes sense."


Bringing up the Beatles begs the question of whether the Mires are a retro band, but to them the sound never went out of date "Let’s face it," Miller (who’s dressed incongruously in an SSD T-shirt) notes, "everybody listened to the Beatles and the Stones when they grew up. Everyone knows this kind of music, and nobody ever loses it." "The first album was the attempt to be retro; now it’s a real band," Shore concludes. "But a real band that obviously grew up listening to the Beatles."
- Boston Phoenix