all posts in the 'General' category


we’re recording a live ep

this saturday we’re recording a live ep in our rehearsal space, and we’re inviting you to join us.  here are the details:
when: saturday, 11/22, 8pm doors
where: 2 prince street, brooklyn, ny (google map)
why: to make the mugs live ep.  we are recording the whole performance, and the material that is recorded will then be properly […]

Groinstrong-a-Thong Tonight!

Groinstrong benefit at Bell House. More show info here.

monday night is vinyl night

brett is hosting the “MONDAY NIGHT VINYL CLUB” in the front lounge of the bell house, and the first vinyl night is this monday (11/10).  it starts at 7:30pm, and it’s free.
bring one 33/45/78rpm record and play one side of it.  anything goes.  and when brett says anything…that means anything. just know that there will […]

yeah, that started here

we got a nice write-up from chictini, a fashion-centric website based here in new york city and a destination for the inner-fashionista in all of us. you can read what they had to say here, as well as create accounts, put up pictures, and vote on people’s fashion sensibilities.
some people have already commented on our […]

wake me in the morning

“could it be“, a song from our new album, “ravel day ep“, will be featured as part of  KEXP’s “Song of the Day” podcasts on the Morning Show with John Richards on november 6th. here is a complete list of this coming week’s podcasts:
November 3 - Passion Pit - I’ve Got Your Number
November 4 - […]

what day is it?

well another cmj has come and gone.  and good times still prevailed.  my brain is still recovering from the goes cube day show and ponytail early am sets i caught.  both worth seeing for sure.
as for our show, thanks to everybody who came out as well as thanks to union hall for hosting another amazing […]

the mugs get dirty…cmj to blame

it’s thursday already?  somebody call cmj and tell them to just open up the fire hydrants all over the city because these people need a bath.  with soap.  the mugs got dirty earlier this week, and we’re planning on getting dirtier the rest of the week.  here are the details:
thursday (10/23), before, between, and after […]

live in the morning

this tuesday (10/21), we’ll be kicking off our cmj experience with a live performance on WRXP at 9:15am here in new york.  you can tune in online or you can put your local new york city radio to 101.9 on your FM dial.

we’ll be performing a couple songs acoustic, and if we’re lucky, maybe a […]

colin greenwood is the controller

so i did a reckoner remix, and you can listen and vote for it here.  i started the whole thing by searching out some choice colin greenwood bass work, and thus the inspiration for the title.  thanks to nick for helping me finish this one up last night.
hope you enjoy the remix, and remember to […]

quality of life

our good friend sam horine, along with three other very talented photographers, will be showing their work at factory fresh starting next week (from oct 10 - 31st), and the opening reception will be next friday (october 10th) from 6 to 10pm.
i’ll be dj’ing the opening party, so come on out, listen to a mugs […]

firm ground

watch in high quality.  it makes a difference.  enjoy.

ma bell. das bell house.

gowanus now has a full-frontal rock shop and lounge in the bell house, and we think gowanus likes it.  it was our honor to start things off for this amazing space on wednesday night, and we had a great time warming the stage for tim fite, eugene mirman, ac newman and a whole slew of […]

wrxp and more pictures/videos

this morning we were featured on the “local licks” portion of the morning show on wrxp here in new york city.  a special thanks to matt for the support.
todd posted some more videos, so be sure to check them out.  brett put up some great shots of our artwork. we’ve also got a show coming […]

more studio fun

As previously mentioned in the “good stuff happening” post, we are mining the studio hard-drives for choice morsels of sound; these morsels are then moved to our studio archive where everyone is welcome to explore, listen, and/or collaborate.
2008-02-29_Part1 (37:43) - Grubles : a supergroup (in their eyes…)
Grubles is an example of what’s great about having our own studio space: […]

thanks…i needed that!

Saturday night was amazing.  Thanks to everyone for making it such a great night.
Union Hall, The Lovely Sparrows, Mr. Richard Swizzle - fantastic as always.
Thanks as well to BrooklynVegan for helping us get the word out about the new album and the show.
Todd and Bob, thanks for taking video of the show (”Arizona” featured below).  […]

from the space

we’re excited about the upcoming show (8/23 with the lovely sparrows) and the upcoming release of our new ep (”ravel day ep” on 8/26).
and we went into rehearsal.  it had been a few weeks since we were all in the space at the same time, and i took a few pictures.  it felt pretty good.  […]

from the streets


good stuff happening

First, some light reading music: 2006-01-28 - 70’s Theme
Added a new category to the links - kemosabes. As may seem somewhat evident from the title, these are musical extensions of The Mugs friends/family. Chocopine has just started playing out in this fair city (and doing a mighty fine job at it too). Their shows are […]

up

I guess we now know which way is up…

the new ep and you. wax poetics.

we have a new ep, and we will be self-releasing it on august 26th.  you’ll be able to order a copy at this website as well as a few other establishments, and we’ll provide more details as the date gets closer.
we also have an album release party scheduled and that will be at union hall […]

polaroid two


polaroid one


mugs in trouble


mugs in the sky with writing


at the western wall


dirty deeds


mugs oven t-shirt

you can pick up one of these mugs oven t-shirts by heading over to our buy page and clicking some buttons (nick moy available separately).
in other news, our new ep is now mastered.  we are now in packaging (brought to you by our packaging expert, brett tieman, see example below, photo by sam horine).  more […]

rollin’ with the river

taylor milne of canada just ran an olympic A+ standard in the 1500m, and he’s in good shape to qualify for the canadian olympic team heading to beijing.
taylor’s track club, speed river, did an interview with him, and they included a little mugs sweetness at the beginning and end of the interview.  you can see […]

intravenus de milo


mona lisa dada mugs


Nick w/Ryan’s Mustache

EP cover art process has begun…

window drummer


keyboard ceiling


doppler vs f.trainer


studio view

while we record…

paper scissors rock. going going gone.

in 2005 we put out our first full-length album called paper scissors rock. we’re still very pleased with the music that came out of us at that time, but the album is unfortunately going out of print. we have 20 copies left, and after that… they are all gone.
we don’t have any immediate […]

studio view

while we mix…

our microphones work

we’ve been giving our microphones and pre-amps a workout over the past few weeks. there is a lot of material going around. and about an EP’s worth is getting recorded, and re-recorded. and then re-re-recorded. and we’re having fun. and it looks like the EP will appear sometime this summer.
here […]

our hearts

we unfortunately have canceled our upcoming shows at rockwood (3/19) and magnetic field (3/26).
brett is heading to taiwan to be with his wife, and our thoughts and hearts are with them and their families during this trying time.

3 week residency starts wednesday

for the next 3 weeks, the mugs will be putting on a free show every wednesday at 9pm at rockwood music hall. march 5, march 12, and march 19th to be exact. the first wednesday will be part of the rebel spirit music series.
see you there.

friday night - it’s on!

yes. we’ve got a show this friday night (1/18) at cake shop, and it’s gonna be fun fun fun. here are details:
the mugs @ cake shop
friday, 1/18
8pm doors
the line-up for the night is:
the mugs (4th)
the diggs (3rd)
mussels (2nd)
excellent (1st)
see you there.

2007-12-30 In Sound

Inviting people to 6+ hours of spontaneous jamming involves a bit of hope. You hope people will be comfortable standing in a small-ish room next to two drum kits at full tilt. You hope people will be patient during those rough-edged beginnings of each jam when the participants seek out instruments and work to sync […]

New Years Eve Eve 2007

2007 was a good year. We recorded and mixed an album entirely on our own in a studio housed by walls we built and filled with equipment we funded, selected, collected and connected ourselves. DIY. *High Five* It feels good, especially since we are still very much proud of that album. Here Tomorrow sums 2007 up well […]

we put it on wax

because we wanted to provide our latest album in the highest of fidelity, we decided to put our new album, Here Tomorrow, on 180 grams of america’s finest vinyl. you can order your own copy on our merch page, or you can click the paypal link below:
[…]

The Mugs by Isak Tiner

Our friend & neighbor over at Pinnacle, Isak, took some photos. Here is a sample.

 
We’ll add some more stuff to the gallery soon so stay posted.
And remember: WOXY next week.

Picture Show - 10.27.07

Our friend, and photo badass, Sam is putting on his first solo show. The opening promises to be a fine, fine time. Saturday, Saturday, Saturday…

Brooklyn… sweet, sweet Brooklyn…

CMJ Week/Live WOXY Broadcast: 10/19, 5:15 est

CMJ arrives next week [10/16 - 10/20]. I recommend that anyone in range call in sick at least one day. Day parties are a great way to spend an afternoon enjoying a grand buffet of rock bands as quality acts from all over the world converge here in the ‘Funbox2000′ that is NYC. Plus, these day parties are usually free […]

A Little Sunshine for the Weekend

First off, this is sweet:

Also quite notable is this nice mention/review over at Floodwatchmusic. Ben writes one of the finer music blogs on the NET (new music, old music, any genre: he’s on it) so it was great news to hear he wanted to do a post on The Mugs. It was even better news […]

get your farm on!

i spent over a week in upstate new york working at the Hermann J. Wiemer Vineyard located on the west side of seneca lake (the largest of the finger lakes). it is harvest time, and i told frederick t. merwarth, a close friend who leads the winery, vineyard, and nursery at the Wiemer Vineyard, […]

Listen to “Here Tomorrow” Now!

Well, we’re a couple days behind schedule getting this posted up here, but we finally figured out how to get it working. Enjoy!
Get the Flash Player to listen to this album.
/**/ The album will be officially sent off into the world at our release show at Union Hall on Saturday, and will be available […]

two new songs are up

so we put two songs from the new album up on our myspace page.  we had the songs arm-wrestle over the weekend, and the songs “lady liberty” and “woman opens man” reigned victorious.  enjoy.

Here Tomorrow available for pre-order

Here Tomorrow will hit the streets on 8/28/07, but you can pre-order it here if you would like:

we’ll send out all pre-orders the second we get them back from production (which will most likely be just before the street date). Here Tomorrow is going to look something like this:

we’d […]

news, news, blah, news, blah

so the new album has a name, which is “here tomorrow”. the cd version of “here tomorrow” will be coming out on 8/28 (full moon that night). the vinyl version will come out sometime in september/october. no massive distribution deals on the horizon as of yet, so it will be available locally […]

shows this week

so we got a show this saturday and wednesday, and we are going to rock them so hard.  and then we’re taking a rest.  whoa!  we need some sleep or something.  here are the details:
the mugs @ rockwood music hall
saturday, 7/21, 11pm
the mugs @ maxwell’s w/the hazey janes
wednesday, 7/25, 9pm
hope to see you there.

hot enough for you?

whoa. now this is some serious heat in the nyc. it made for a sweaty final mixing session over the last couple of days. but we finished it up, and it sounds so sweet. not much sleep all around, and it was all worth it.
it is the one year anniversary celebration week over at union […]

mark the calendar

august 28th is the date set for the release of our yet-to-be-named new full-length album.
we’re excited about setting the date, and we’ll have more details in the coming weeks. we’ll be putting the record out ourselves (on our label, SkinnyFat), and we’re pretty sure we’ll be using the compact disk and vinyl formats.
in related […]

how was your weekend?

it has been a while since i wrote a marathon session of a post, and there is no better time to write a wrap-up than in the splendor. having returned home from a brooklyn cookout of the house of a true brooklyn family, i figured it was the right time to do what i […]

Dub Market Fuzz

During our ‘06 tour, Ryan picked up a dub/reggae compilation, Dread Meets the Punk Rockers Uptown, mixed by Don Letts. The disc’s soulful tunes filled the van with rattling drums and deep rumbling bass. Dub sounds great in the van, so great in fact, that I’ve gone searching for more to enjoy during our next tour. […]

Flood

Just added Floodwatchmusic to our ‘Mixed Bag’ (better late than never). If you haven’t visited this site before, now is the time: Ben is celebrating his one year anniversary on the Net. The amount of thought and love he puts into his craft is down-right inspiring and always a pleasure to read. So head on over and check out what he’s been […]

Surfrider Benefit - May 9

Let the Endless Summer begin…

Brought to you by the Surfrider Foundation.

Sure

Just added Sure Juror to our selection of Sonic Bourbons. They might be the Knob Creek of the list. 100 proof real deal rock. Envigorating.
Definitely recommend seeing these guys live.

When It Rains It Pours

Not sure if it was a dream or not, but I vaguelly recall waking briefly to the sound of thunder crashing into the night. The lovely rainy day outside my window seems to confirm it did happen. Nice. It’s the perfect kind of day to wander over to the ski-lodge vibe of The Delancey and […]

Rock Show Deluxe

Thanks Chris.
9 Sure Juror > 10 The Mugs > 11 Mussels > 12 Beat Radio

Getting Down in China Town

Friday the 13th… Rock show tonight. Fontanas. Condo.
Ryan helped share some Can love on Earfuzz. Take a listen. And, while you’re over there, snag some of those tasty soul tunes. Good music has no expiration date.
Speaking of good music, check out apoundforabrown. It’s a gold mine of jazz, folk, vintage psych, forgotten heavy jams, and more… the […]

RIP Kurt Vonnegut

Sad news.
You will be missed.

Cold / Warm Rock Fronts Converge Over Brooklyn

Electricity’s crackling in the air, and, from the looks of Ryan’s divinin’ ’stache, storms a brewin’ …
We’ve been working hard in the studio for the past few months carefully coaxing lightning into a bottle and chiseling new classics out of the ether. It’s been over 6 weeks since our last show. Needless to say, we’re overdue […]

Fresh Fuzz

I put up a new post on Earfuzz; it’s, um , … well… it’s progressive rock.

cold enough for you

most people will be inside today, so here are a few treats for your listening/viewing pleasure:
kate bush - army dreamers
suicide - ghost rider (live)
spacemen 3 - part 1 and part 2 (live)
gary numan - metal
for a little fun, i’d recommend watching them all at the same time. makes for some good noise.
also, brett recently […]

Fuzz

Just put up a new post at Earfuzz. It’s some “free jazz.” Hopefully, you’ll dig it.
Meanwhile, the NYE 2K7 jams are still ripe for the pickin’ (just inches below this post). Pour the wax.

pour the wax

thick. heavy. delicious. those are the words i’ll use to describe this years new years eve jam-fest-alot. and maybe i’ll throw in tasty. just press it straight to vinyl. here are a few selections from the evening, in the order that they appeared in the evening. not sure […]

Looking Forward to 2007, NYE 2006, A Look Back

Looking forward to this year’s jam.
We decided to celebrate the arrival of 2006 by holding an open house jam celebration at our rehearsal space. Fortunately Joe and Lori Raffa found the idea intriguing enough to make the trip from Syracuse. Armed with two well-stocked coolers and a folding table, they transformed our space into a […]

Play B Sides

When it rains, it pours. Right after getting the go-ahead to contribute at Ear Fuzz, Mike Roeder at Time to play b sides invited me to work some of our email correspondences into a guest post for his site. If you’re not familiar with Mike’s blog, it’s worth a visit. He writes very thoughtfully about […]

Fuzzy Uncles

Hello hello. Just wanted to let you know that the good folks over at Ear Fuzz were kind enough to let me join on as a contributer. I’m pretty amped; launched my first post this afternoon- some early 70’s calypso.
For those unfamiliar with Ear Fuzz, I recommend checking the site out. Dig around in the archives. It’s a steady […]

the mugs have a show on friday (12/15)

climbing troll sign posts again? there is another way to make the most of your days. we have a show this friday (12/15) in brooklyn. here is the info on where to raise some hell:
12/15/06 @ Galapagos (Brooklyn, NY) - 10pm doors **Crashin’ In Party**
we’ve been getting the room ready for […]

Yeah Country2

Here are some election day treats:
The Mugs @ KEXP (10.12.06)
-> Broken Signals, Frank, Lady Liberty, Arizona
[You’ll notice the file is hosted on our friends’, the Putrid Flowers, web site; make sure to check out the rest of their site for more rock classics (and some NYC history).]
and
Seattle->NYC Slideshow
-> NYC photo genius Sam Horine (f.trainer) joined […]

Fresh Links

It’s been a while since we added any links on the side navbar so here it goes; new Mugs friends/accomplices:
- Elijah Craig : a bourbon that just seems to come up (and go down) a lot.
- Battering Room : Chris invited us to play his first ever showcase. We had fun, it went well. He […]

Yes Yes Y’all

We are back in the great NYC. Ryan’s write-ups did well to capture the spirit of our brief journey, so I won’t retread the details. All I will add is that the trip was a celebration through and through. Life is good when you travel with such quality folks as Jeremy, Ryan, Nick, and Sam […]

yeah country

this trip/tour/adventure has had a tremendous affect on us, and i wanted to first thank everyone who let us sleep on their floors, fed us, welcomed us to play at their venues, came out to see us, cheered us on, and made us laugh for the past 3 weeks. after this last leg of […]

revolution radio/home away from home

this is a photo brett took when we finished our kexp event show at the sunset tavern this past friday. smiles all around. similar to describing rock music to someone who has never heard it before, it’s hard to convey completely our amazing experience in seattle in one post. i’ll try though with a few […]

american pie/richie havens

so it is 5:30am here in seattle, and we just pulled into the kexp parking lot. we’re missing a hubcap, and we’ve got a crack in the windshield, but besides that, we’re doing pretty good. while the melody section sleeps in the van, brett and i are sitting here in the lobby of […]

music to our ears

tonight we are packing up our stuff here at alex’s place, and it’s a little tough to leave san francisco. the city has been more than kind and generous to us, and we have given as much back as we could to repay for the good times it provided.
i’ll be brief since my last […]

alternative tentacles/serious delirium

only one week in, and i’m not sure what day it is.  when i last signed off, we were heading right to omaha to get some dinner and some rest.  after a nice greasy dinner and a few pints of beer, the rest came easy.  brett, jeremy, and i went for a run the next […]

chicago and the entire state of iowa

both of these places have a good thing going.
when we left off, we were “resting” at ron’s house in plainville, il. and by “resting”, that meant celebrating ron’s birthday at 7:30am with a few bottles of homebrew and pancakes (with grade b maple syrup from new hampshire). that’s a good way to start […]

boston nights and pittsburgh coffee

the “yeah country: an american idiodyssey” tour is underway, and as we sat in traffic on the BQE on our way up to boston on thursday, we were just thinking, “we’re on tour…yes!” we started it all off for the abbey lounge portion of the nemo festival, and we used every second of our […]

VT in the House / The Harvest / 10 Days

A nice discovery; a post from Flatlander at False 45th up in beautiful Montpelier, VT. I could write volumes on how much I love VT, but I will spare us all for now. There was a time when I would make the NYC->Burlington drive almost once a month and goddamn did I love that easterly drive from […]

13 Days

Just checked the weather report for the weekend and it looks like more of the same for tomorrow: cool, cloudy, light rains (ie: perfect running weather). I love these mellow grey days that gently usher in the Fall; they warn of the impending chill and seem to actually inspire physical change inside our bodies. It’s […]

23 Days

So Labor Day weekend has passed and we’re a few steps into September. ‘Weld’ disc 2 fit pretty well for me as a soundtrack to a busy, post-holiday Tuesday. I picked this disc up for $3 at the great Haight Amoeba in San Fran a few years back and have loved it (and the store) ever since. In […]

day free of labor

here is a new track i put together, and it is the first one i did with samples. my brother, todd, and i found these two cases full of 45’s on the street about 2 years ago, and they are now getting put to some good use. i’m going to get better at this, but […]

Infotainment

We have some time off before the next show. It’s nice to have a break since we now have time to work on some new material to take on the road. Our goal is to work some of these songs into shape for debut at Magnetic Field and Rockwood. In the meantime, there is still plenty of great […]

That New Van Smell

So we have pretty much booked our 3 week journey for this fall. There are still a few dates to flesh out between Iowa and California, but the majority of the trip is set. At this point, we felt it might be interesting to give an update on what’s going down. Basically, a few months […]

hold on, i’m coming

here is a video of sam and dave with booker t and the mg’s backing them up. the shit is hot.
watch it here.

asleep all day

now that i stopped “working” so much, i got some time to put some ideas down. after a few frustrating trials, i got something together that i was excited to play for the group. jeremy put some vocals down on it, and i tried a few new things in terms of tracking. […]

drum beat dada

the summer has been pretty amazing this year, and each experience has been followed up with another amazing experience. there have been a few events i was thinking of doing a recap for, but last night’s fire party demands to be written about, so here we go.
i received a forwarded e-mail from a good […]

shows, shows, shows

the mugs have a few shows coming up. one up in boston, and one here in new york.
on monday (7/31), the mugs are playing at the paradise lounge in boston, ma with simon dawes and the films.
then on wednesday (8/2), the mugs have a show at southpaw with the coffin daggers and tall hands. […]

minds will always get blown

when josh garza used to work at sam ash, i would go there just to buy drum sticks. he sold me my favorite cymbal, which was a used jazz ride. his quote was “you can always buy a sweet ride“. josh told me a story about how he went to this show where the […]

mugs show this wednesday

the mugs have a show this wednesday (7/12) at 11pm at the rockwood music hall. it’s a great place to have a drink and enjoy some free music. the small brick room opens to the street with some massive windows so you can’t miss it. and it has a piano.
see you there.

pick mugs daily

some sweet lovin’ from The L Magazine, and they know what’s hot. now you’re really going to have to come to the show this saturday.
 

borrow a drum machine

my cousin owns the Dr. Groove DR-202 boss drum machine, and i have wanted to borrow it for a while. so i traded him the fugs “second album” for it. i tinkered around with it for a while (haven’t figured out how to incorporate the roll function yet) and came up with a […]

Attention Huxtables; there is a rock show tomorrow.

Since I’m at the office and can’t watch the Spain/France game, I’ll instead focus on the rock show that’s going down tomorrow (Wed. 6/28). It’s going to be good for (but not limited to) the following reasons:
- Condo will be playing. They’re a great band we met back in the days of Luna. Condo also […]

mezcal might be my personal savior

enthusiasm for alcohol is both celebrated and shunned here in the u. s. of a. when you do a search for “alcohol”, “united”, and “states”, you are flooded with reports of addiction, firearms, birth defects and mortality. just before the amendment that prevented the federal and any state government from excluding voting rights […]

Support KEXP

some of you may have listened to the KEXP showcase that we were a part of here in nyc. well they are currently doing a pledge drive (public radio station = great music). if you are interested in supporting a great radio station, pledge here.

That Milk Was Butta’

wow. we finally had a chance to catch our collective breath after two enjoyable shows last week. the buttermilk was fantastic- shit karate and proton proton both played excellent sets. they also roll with excellent folks. we had a great time getting to know everyone. very important: thanks to steve for throwing such a mind-melting […]

Chicago Shakedown

the mugs’ trip out to chicago was all and much more than expected. the people of chicago have got a good thing going out on the coast of lake michigan, and music is alive and well in and around the windy city. all accounts below are as accurate as possible since we spent […]

KEXP In-studio

You can download our performance from the KEXP showcase from iTunes for free. Search for “KEXP” in the iTunes store, click on “KEXP Live Performances Podcast”, and you’ll find it. Or grab it here.
Many thanks to KEXP for being a great radio station and a supporter of what The Mugs are up to. […]

Welcome to TheMugs.com v4.0

We’ve decided that traditional HTML is too clunky for this modern world so we’re migrating to a more streamlined blog-based format. Hope you find the changes an improvement.