The Muffs debut reissued with ten bonus tracks!

When the Pandoras turned to metal and subsequently dissolved in the wake of Paula Pierce’s death, Kim Shattuck and Melanie Vammen joined with Ronnie Barrett and Criss Crass to form the pop-punk Muffs. Vammen moved from keyboards to guitar, and Shattuck from bass to guitar, principal songwriter and lead vocalist. Barrett (bass) and Crass (drums) provided a solid rhythm section behind Shattuck and Vammen’s wall of electric guitars, and Shattuck sang with the assertiveness of someone who, after years as a band member, was raring to step out front. Shattuck wrote about her relationship with then-boyfriend Barrett, those around her, including the stalker of “Everywhere I Go” and her former bandleader Paula Pierce on “Eye to Eye,” and the occasional fiction, including the girl-group tinged “Baby Go Round.”

Omnivore’s reissue expands the original album with ten excellent bonus tracks, including a radio remix of “Lucky Guy,” the demo version of “Everywhere I Go” (which was on the original cassette release of the album), and eight previously unreleased 4-track songwriter demos. The latter include early versions of the album’s “All For Nothing” (with an electric guitar that was changed to acoustic for the finished track), “Not Like Me” (without the final version’s bouncy bass and drums), “Saying Goodbye” (originally titled “Saying Goodbye to Phil” and taken at a slower tempo), and a demo version of Blonder and Blonder’s garage rocker “Ethyl My Love.” Also included are four otherwise unrecorded titles, including the Joan Jett-styled “I Don’t Expect It” and the retro “Something on My Mind.”

The reissue includes remastered sound (by Gavin Lurssen and Reuben Cohen of Lurssen Mastering), a 16-page booklet with liner notes from Kim Shattuck and Ronnie Barnett, informative, track-by-track song notes from Shattuck, detailed credits and a wealth of period photos. This is a nice upgrade for fans who already have the original release, and a good introduction for soon-to-be fans. [©2015 Hyperbolium]

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