Mark Gane
Martha Johnson
et al
ARTIST CONTACT
muffinmusic(at)sympatico.ca
MANAGEMENT CONTACT
Graham Stairs
PopGuru Sound & Vision
Graham(at)popguru.ca
RELEASES
Modern Lullaby
Danseparc - 25th Anniversary Edition
Metro Music - 2002 Remaster
This Is The Ice Age - 2005 Remaster
Then Again - A Retrospective
Songs From The Tree House
Influences
In no particular order: Beatles Roxy Music JMW Turner Hendrix Sun Ra Steve Reich John Tilden Vassily Kandinsky Claude Debussy Frederick Law Olmsted King Crimson Dennis Lee Mark Rothko Billie Holiday Tecumseh Judy Garland George Crumb Bobby McFerrin Gershon Iskowitz William Shakespeare Brian Eno Louis DeNiverville John Oswald Lambert, Hendricks & Ross Talking Heads Motown Virginia Woolf Kronos Quartet Gus Weisman Bob Marley Rem Koolhaas Jackie DeShannon Erik Satie David Milne Chet Baker Mike McKenna Michael Ondaatje Krzysztof Penderecki Captain Beefheart JG Ballard Brian Wilson...and the list goes on...
Martha and the Muffins emerged from the early punk/new wave/art pop scene in 1977 which was centered around various clubs along Toronto's Queen Street West and the Ontario College of Art, where several members of the band were students.
The band was signed by Virgin Records UK and recorded their first album, Metro Music at The Manor near Oxford, England in 1979. After Echo Beach became a top ten single around the world in 1980 MatM toured extensively in Britain, Europe and North America. Since then, the band has released seven studio albums internationally, three of which were co-produced with Daniel Lanois (U2, Bob Dylan, Peter Gabriel). In 1983, lead vocalist Martha Johnson and guitarist Mark Gane pared the band down to a duo and briefly changed the name to M+M. Combining sonic textures and art funk in their dance single Black Stations/White Stations, the song reached 2 in Billboard's Dance Chart in 1984.
Martha and Mark spent much of the '90's scoring music for various television and film projects. The birth of their daughter in 1992, inspired Martha to write and record an album of original children's music, Songs From The Tree House which won the 1996 Juno Award for Best Children's Album. Over the last few years, EMI Canada has reissued several MatM albums on CD, including Metro Music, This Is The Ice Age and the CD compilation Then Again - A Retrospective. In keeping with Martha and Mark’s plan to make the remaining original albums available on CD, the 25th Anniversary CD reissue of Danseparc was released on Cherry Red Records in August 2008 in the UK and is available through CD Baby.
MatM have completed their long-awaited album, Delicate, the first new release in 18 years, coming 02 02 2010.
Hey! Congratulations on your new release. I won your album on CBC Radio 2 Drive and cannot wait to give it a listen. Loved "Drive!" Wishing you all the best. DW Barnes, PEI
Just a reminder to listen to MARTHA AND THE MUFFINS on THIS GREAT WHITE NORTH. It's an ALL CANADIAN music show FRIDAYS 4:30-6pm CST on 91.7 KOOP FM in Austin, Texas. You can listen online at www.KOOP.org.
My favorite M+M song is Casualties of Glass... I can't find it anywhere (on Youtube or on a Web radio), so I will have to buy This is the ice age :-) Happy New Year 2010!
IndieCan Radio, the best music you've never heard, airs on XM Satellite Radio The Verge (Channel 87) twice a week plus ten FM and internet radio stations across North America. Downloaded and streamed by over 120 countries.
love the new single. I heard a sneak preview on IndieCan Radio. Can't wait to see a show. Just watched some old videos. From 9 to 5 I have to spend my time at work My job is very boring I am an office clerk The only that helps me pass the time away Is knowing I'll be back at Echo Beach some day
Words that helped south an aching soul for years. Thanks for bringing the spirit back. How many sax players on the live tour?
Anyway, thanks for being a friend. 100s of thousands of kids are missing. It's epidemic and there will never be the number of law enforcement officers working those cases as there are issuing parking infractions, so it's up to social networking on the internet to solve these cases. Music brings people togther and your friendship means a great deal.
GREAT!
please come in europe!!!!!