by Brian Mosher
Are Muck & The Mires a garage rock band? Are they a Beatles tribute band? Maybe a bit of both, but really much more. They're a damn fine pop band, with some terrific songs and matching red shirts. I'm not sure what that has to do with anything, but it's an inescapable fact of the Muck & The Mires live experience: red shirts, tight jeans, and pointy-toed boots. Oh, and one other thing: they play as tight and concise as any early-'60s Mersey Beat band, but with all the passion and energy of your favorite punk-rockers.
Muck: Technically Muck & The Mires have been around since 2001. That was the year that home demos I titled All Mucked Up - the Best of Muck & The Mires were released in Canada and in Europe as a CD and LP. I'm pretty sure that we are the first band to ever have a greatest hits record out before we even played a note together.
Noise: Has it been the current line up the entire time?
Muck: After All Mucked Up was released, the band was invited to play in Canada to support the record. The label didn't know that it was one guy playing all the instruments on the CD and that there was no real band, so for the original Canada shows we went up with the members of my old group, The Nines. Back in Boston, we added Pete Sjostedt (The Apehangers) on lead guitar for a handful of shows, but by the end of 2002 we had the current line-up in place, and that is when we went from being a side project to a full-time band.
Noise: The '60s pop/ rock influence is obvious, particularly The Beatles/ Mersey Beat thing. Has that music always been a favorite of yours?
Muck: You'd never know it, would ya? Many years ago I actually had a bass player quit one of my bands saying his reason for leaving was that I was into the 'early Beatles' and that he was into the 'later Beatles.' I don't really draw the line there, but I do think that there is something really special about that period from 1962-1964_a certain energy and sound and look that was captured by groups like The Dave Clark 5 and The Big Three. That was a very short period of music, some might argue too short, so our goal has always been not to recreate that sound, but to expand on it.
Noise: Would you say that you were already into that type of music even when you were playing in punk bands?
Muck: Yeah. I discovered Buddy Holly and The British Invasion first. Then later on I discovered The Buzzcocks and The Ramones, who were both essentially doing that same thing, only faster and louder. Noise: What other music do you enjoy?
Muck: I really don't spend a lot of time listening to music. I mean, I go out and see a lot of music, and I go out and play a lot of music, and when I get home I write a ton of music. So at home I listen to WBZ: traffic on threes, weather on the tens. What else do you need? In the van we'll listen to everything from Louie Prima to Kiss. SIRIUS Gold is great. I hope to be played on there in 30 years.
Noise: What other bands have you been in-what types of music did they play?
Muck: I was a young punk rocker. I played bass for The Queers for about a year. I am on the sessions that they did with legendary Rolling Stones producer Jimmy Miller. I also played drums in Jay Allen's punk band Quest For Tuna. Aside from those bands, I've always played in sixties garage rock sounding bands, and every band I have been in has morphed out of the previous one. My first band, The House Pets, was based in New York. Half of us moved to Boston and became The Pets. I formed The Voodoo Dolls, which was half of The Pets with Cam Ackland from The Prime Movers on vocals. The Nines were half of The Voodoo Dolls, and Muck & The Mires are half of The Nines. I guess the rule of thumb is always keep your best employees! It took a while, but with Muck & The Mires, I think we've finally got the best of the best. Noise: Was JJ Rassler in The Queers at the same time you were?
Muck: Yes. In fact, he was a major reason why I joined. I was big fan of his post-DMZ band The Odds. The Queers line up was Joe King on rhythm guitar, JJ on lead guitar, Hugh O'Neil on drums, and I played bass. I auditioned for the band using Alpo's Fender Mustang bass. They were trying to get him in the band, but it didn't work out, so I got the job. I remember being nervous that Alpo was gonna walk into the audition and see me playing his bass, but fortunately he never found out... although in hindsight, I doubt he would have minded. I sort of regret not being able to stick it out a little longer, 'cause it would have been nice to be on the Lookout Records LP, but it was time for me to move on.
Noise: You write pretty much all the songs, other than the covers. Do the various Mires have input into arrangements or that sort of thing?
Muck: Believe me, I'd write the covers too if I could. There's more money in those songs. As with All Mucked Up, I still record demos of all my songs and present them to the band that way. I'm a lousy salesman, so it's easier for me to 'sell' a new song to the group that way, rather than muddle my way through them on a guitar. Generally, the band's versions of the songs come out pretty close to my home recordings, but yes we do arrange the songs together. My demos are only meant to be suggestions. Like the front of the Rice Krispies box says, "serving suggestion." If someone wants to throw a few strawberries in there, that can be a good thing.
Noise: Tell me something about you that no one who reads The Noise already knows
Muck: My grandfather owned a shop in the Bowery right near CBGB. Noise: Umm, what kind of shop?
Muck: He built bars-probably built the one in CB?s
Noise: Tell me about the song that Andrea Gillis does on her latest CD... did you write it specifically for her? It sure doesn't sound like something Muck & The Mires would do
Muck: I wrote 'Moonlight Eyes' before I met Andrea, but I thought it was perfect for her. It was supposed to be an Annette Funicello or Peggy Lee kind of thing... like the sad song that the girl sings in those early '60s movies while she's walking home in the rain. My demo of 'Moonlight Eyes' sort of sounds like a Muck song. Andrea is a phenomenal singer and she has a great way of putting her unique mark on everything that she sings, so no, her version doesn't sound like us, but it's great.
Noise: Is that the only song you've written intentionally from a female point of view?
Muck: No. One of my favorites is one I wrote for The Other Girls called 'I'm Not Getting Anything for Christmas.' I really hope someone records that someday.
Noise: Evan writes almost all the original songs for this band-Brian, do you write any songs?
Brian: I am just like Ringo Starr. I will write a song, be all excited about it, bring it to practice, play it for everybody, stand there all happy with myself and be told, "Yeah, that-s a great song. It was even better the first time I heard it when (enter band name here) wrote it." I'm very good at changing the words to other peoples? songs but I can't write my own.
Noise: I thought I heard more of Brian's voice on the new CD in comparison to the last one.... How is the decision made for you to sing some songs rather than Evan?
Brian: Evan likes to write songs in keys that he can't sing in.
Noise: Do you other guys ever get the urge to show up to a gig wearing a different colored shirt?
Brian: I always show up in a different shirt.–I usually change right before we play.