Gary Wertz, Bruce Aparton, Darren Thompson, Mark Pistel
Influences
The Beatles, the Kinks, Queen, the Cure, Joy Division, David Bowie, the Velvet Underground, The Cars, the Rolling Stones
Sounds Like
Hearing Queen for the first time at your friend's birthday party. The smell of comic book ink. After-school make out sessions to Bowie or the Velvets.
These are the moments of trancendence that HOT MUTE are chasing like puppies in a room full of rubber balls.
San Francisco's HOT MUTE will continue to mine their pop fantasies, searching for that one true moment - THE MAJESTY OF ROCK - that is the brightest light or the darkest day.
The first stirrings of Hot Mute were on a foggy night in late 1999 when Bruce stumbled into San Francisco's legendary Lusty Lady peep show where Gary was working as a janitor. Gary was forced to remove Bruce from the premises when the latter, high on cough syrup and itcin' for love, inappropriately serenaded an obscure Beatles song to a skittish little dancer in an afro wig. As Gary kicked Bruce to the curb, the two got to talking about the Beatles song and music in general, discovering a mutual love for the Beatles, the Stones, the Stooges, Bowie and 80's Goth rock bands like Joy Division and the Cure. A newfound friendship was celebrated as the pair finished off the remainder of Bruce's cough syrup and went on to make beautiful music together.
The two jammed together until Gary met Darren when both were dissed by same girl they were both trying to pick up in a bar. Darren happened to play drums and a rock band sounds pretty shitty without drums, so he was in. Next came Mark Pistel of Consolidated and Meat Beat Manifesto fame who fell in love with the music of the now gestating band after hearing them in their practice space, he would later come to tolerate the band itself. He joined in with his amazing long unused library of killer guitar riffs and his exceptional production skills. Now the intrepid not so youngsters needed a name. This came in the form of Gary and Bruce's nerdy obsession with the movie Planet of the Apes in which the lead human female is a "Hot Mute". Many shows and recordings later Hot Mute continues to create epic pop songs for you and yours.
Greetz! Just got Extended Player. I went in with low expectations, but my gourd was blown skyhigh instead. SILENCE is nothing short of a masterpiece. Thanks for putting your music into the world for dorks like me to discover.
