Happy to celebrate 200 episodes of the mighty Audio Tree Live! Watch our session video below, support this amazing series by buying the audio and video for just six bucks.
“Dialed down but certainly as intense as some of their previous harder rocking efforts, the new Mutts release has some of the bands best songwriting and a sweet reworking of “Prizefighter” which you first heard on Local Anesthetic off a Mike Maimone solo disc in 2008. Maimone is the keyboardist, vocalist and principal songwriter in Mutts but bassist Bob Buckstaff and drummer Chris Pagnani make the music swing. And sway. I describe the Mutts sound on Object Permanence as late-night cabaret meets Tom Waits meets Kurt Weill in a Wiemar Republic speakeasy. It’s already perched itself as one of the Anesthetic Best of ’13. Enjoy.” – Richard Milne
“Chicago’s rock trio Mutts, is known for gritty, grungy guitar distortions and loud in-your-face blues rock. But on their newest album, Object Permanence, you’ll hear none of that. Mike Maimone’s guttural vocals take the center of attention, delivering poignant social commentary over stripped down, unplugged arrangements. The band joined Jesse Menendez on The MusicVox to talk about the new songs and the change of sound.” – Vocalo.org
“Mutts music embraces the inner turmoil, the things that are striven for, the ways that we fall short, the ways we’re let down, as well as the few things that spark us back onto the right track, even if those are the rare moments, the briefest of comebacks.” - Sean Moeller
View Session Page for full review and hear Mutts performing 5 songs in the Daytrotter studios, including two from the new LP, Object Permanence.
Object Permanence has arrived:
- Download it free through the end of April.
- The CD comes in a super-classy gate fold recycled wallet.
- It’s also available on limited edition, audiophile grade 180g gold-translucent vinyl.
Click here to watch Mutts’ national television debut, performing If It’s Hot It’ll Sell with help from Lying Delilah‘s Jodi Rosenthal, from the new LP Object Permanence
Separation Anxiety has arrived:
- Free to download.
- The CD comes in a gate fold recycled wallet with a fold-out poster.
- It’s also available on limited edition, split-color “Mending Wall” vinyl. It’s a two-tone tribute to the Robert Frost poem that inspired the cover art. And it also comes with a poster.
Check out our music video for “So Many So Many,” the first cut on our follow-up LP: Separation Anxiety. The album is available August 2, 2012 on CD, split-color “Mending Wall” Vinyl and for free download at download.muttsmusic.com. Thanks to Bill Wiser for help filming.
Celebrate the release of Separation Anxiety on Thursday, August 2nd at Fireside Bowl in Chicago.
This short documentary covers a three-show run crammed into just 18 hours from first to last note. It kicked off at 6:45pm on July 5th on the US Cellular Stage at Summerfest in Milwaukee. We then hustled to pack up and get to Madison, where we played a Midnight set for the Lost City Music Festival at High Noon Saloon. After a few hours of sleep we got to WSUM 91.7FM for a live on-air show from noon to 12:45.
The soundtrack from this clip is from the upcoming Mutts LP – Separation Anxiety – coming on August 2nd, 2012 on CD, free download and limited edition split-color “Mending Wall” vinyl. Go here and pre-order it for a discount.
Thursday, August 2nd
2648 W. Fullerton Ave., Chicago, IL
8:00pm | 17+ | $5
To commemorate the release of our follow-up LP, Separation Anxiety, on CD and split-color Mending Wall vinyl we’re visiting all (or most) of our favorite Midwestern spots to play throughout August.
We’re happy to kick it off with Hidden Hospitals, The Empty Spaces and Audiences at Fireside Bowl in Chicago.
From there we head to Fort Wayne, Madison, Milwaukee, Wausau, and more. Check here for updates.
Preview and pre-order the CD here. You’ll get a couple tracks right away, and we will mail your copy out on August 3.
The LP comes on split-color “Mending Wall” vinyl with a lyric sheet insert poster. The CD comes in a matte finish digi-pack with a poster as well.
For those of us without cash to spare, it’ll be a free MP3 download here on release day, August 2, 2012.
Thank you to everyone who contributed to our new double-feature LP project. And also thanks to everyone who couldn’t make a monetary pledge, but helped spread the word.
We are excited to finish the albums, and also to get busy sending out all that good stuff to our backers!
With under 3 days left, here are all 11 songs from the unplugged half of our double-LP endeavor. Go easy, it’s not mixed yet… that’s what this is for!
Please help us reach our goal by Sunday, June 17th! Pass around our update videos, the project video, or this link:
Thanks!
We’re previewing a new song from Separation Anxiety each day on the Updates blog, as well.
Earlier this month we headed down to Bloomington, IN to tape a live set for Midwest Underground. Check out Blind Truth:
And here’s a link to a live version of a new song called Five of a Kind, which opens Side B to Separation Anxiety. It’s about overcoming the divisions between different races and cultures, using the obvious imagery of a river…
Here’s some more songs from our Midwest Underground set. This should help your procrastination on this Friday morning. Then you might as well just leave work early and enjoy the weekend.
I suppose I should be grateful that the US Congress has my back. But I know that they aren’t proposing this bill for me (because I don’t “bolster the economy” or “pay taxes” or “contribute to Super PACs”).
Anything that could potentially prohibit my silly little tunes from reaching the ears of someone who might enjoy them, especially at the behest of conglomerate media corporations, is garbage.
Sure, SOPA seems like artistic altruism, protecting inventors and writers. But the only ones it’ll end up protecting are the conglomerates who chew up and spit out the inventors and writers they profit off of.
It could potentially put an end to Twitter, Vimeo, Flickr, and many other ways we have come to love sharing and discovering honest and genuine art. Art for the sake of art… and maybe making a buck or two to pay the rent and eat a sammich a day. It’s us little guys who will be caught in the shuffle. And all I want is to play piano and hope it’ll pay for my sammich a day. mmmm, sammich. It’s almost lunch time…
Anyway. I protest the passing of SOPA, and with the full knowledge that this bill’s purpose is to “protect” my financial interest as a professional musician. If you believe that art-for-the-sake-of-art can benefit from free transfer of information on the internet, you should protest too. Wikipedia will help you, they’re blacking out their own site today in protest with information on what you can do.
And by the way, our music is free.
Click here:
Our first full-length album is now available:
- It’s free to download .
- The CD comes in ultra-hip recycled packaging with a fold-out poster.
- Coming May 12 on mixed-color, limited edition 180 gram vinyl with a poster insert!
We’re proud of how our first full-length album turned out, and that it even turned out at all… (see the recording journal here for further explanation). Also to our surprise, it charted on the CMJ Top 200 for 6 weeks, peaking at #107 twice, made some Best-of-2011 lists including Huffington Post and was recently featured in national magazines The Deli and Alternative Press.
Here’s what some kind online reviewers have said about it:
“… with so many angles—so many stories, so many tones and sounds—ragged, raw, explosive, all these words are just a taste, a first-bite, a start to describing something so human.” – Hiawatha Review
“To say that an artist is “coming forward with a truly unique sound” is a cliché that, more often than not, doesn’t even truly apply, as there is very little ground that hasn’t been traversed before. However, that is the most accurate way to describe this album and its feel.” – Lumino Magazine
Give it a spin and let us know what you think! Thanks for listening.
Thursday, December 1st
2011 W. North Avenue Chicago, IL 60647
8:00pm | 21+ | $5
This is a special event, and we’re happy to share it with Hemmingbirds, Glittermouse and Sleepy Kitty. We’re going to celebrate the release of our first full-length album, which is called Pray For Rain.
Everyone in attendance can get a copy of the limited first pressing before the official release date of Dec 13.
If you’re not in Chicago, or you can’t wait until December, preview and pre-order the CD here. You’ll get a couple tracks right away, and we will mail your copy out on December 5.
The CD comes in a matte finish digi-pack with cover photography by Lisa Victoria Geisler – click here for more information on the images. The inside photo is by Bob Buckstaff. CD also includes a poster with the full cover photo and hand-written lyrics.
For those of us without five bones to spare, it’ll be a free MP3 download here on release day, December 13, 2011.
Saturday, October 1st
2100 W. Belmont Avenue Chicago, IL 60618
10:00pm | 17+ | $12/advance $15/door
Directions | Facebook Event | Tickets
We kick off October opening for AM Taxi, one of the best rock bands around. It’ll be a hell of a night, can’t wait!
We also just finished mastering our new album, Pray for Rain. We’re thrilled with how it came out, thanks to Dan Smart’s mixing and Jason Ward at Chicago Mastering. For our first full-length release we’ve got a lot of work to do before it’s actually available. So in the meantime, get the first single on next week’s Chicago Mixtape.
Thursday, June 16th
1035 N Western Ave. Chicago, IL 60622
9:00pm | 21+ | FREE *
It’s our first time headlining Empty Bottle, and it’s FREE * with RSVP: just send an email to rsvp@emptybottle.com with your name and ours, otherwise it’s $8 at the door. First band goes on at 9, we hit at 11. Summertime Thursday night rock show – spread the word, invite friends, hit up the Facebook Event page. Thanks, and see you there!
2nd Friday each month, starting June 10
2105 S. State St. Chicago, IL 60616
6pm | 21+ | FREE
The first Unplugged Mutts show went great, and we’ll be doing it monthly starting on June 10th. Our first Mutts & Friends set featured Ben from This is Cinema on clarinet and bass clarinet, while Mike played acoustic piano and Bob switched to upright bass. We’re looking forward to welcoming more friends from the Chicago music community, playing more covers and writing new Mutts tunes for this arrangement.
Mutts recording journal, day 2:
The second session at Dan Smart’s place, and we got two new songs down. Once again we tracked keys, bass and drums live, then added some auxiliary bits of keys and percussion. This video has un-mastered rough mixes of both songs, whose working titles are “Throwback Jersey aka RICH” and “Dirty Ol’ Bastard aka DIRTY.”
Bob Buckstaff – Bass, electric guitbox, special effects
Chris Faller – Drums, tambo, car horgan
Mike Maimone – Keys, noises, auxiliary barks
Dan Smart – Mics, bells, whistles
Lucy – Lead barks, yaps, growls
2 days down, 3 songs tracked. Hope to have it all wrapped up this year and it seems on schedule (famous last words, I know). In the meantime, our first 3 EPs are still free here.
And we’ve got a new Mutts Mailing List sign-up contest where you can win free signed CDs, handmade unique Mutts merch, or an autographed copy of the new LP when it’s finished this Fall. Check it out here.
We will email the winner(s) each Sunday to find out where they’d like the goods sent – so keep an eye on that inbox.
