YOU HAVE FOUND THE MUCKRAKERS
"gloriously raw...crafted in the true rock & roll spirit"
CLICK HERE to read the whole review at the All Music Guide!
There you can see previously unreleased photos of the band,
listen to Muckrakers songs,and read/post on our new blog!
NEW MUCKRAKERS REMIXES AVAILABLE:
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Two songs from The Muckrakers May album have been remixed
(with amazingly rocking results) for inclusion on the
Salt Lady Records artist sampler EXTRA CREDIT! Click on the
CD cover to learn more about the album and the fabulous new
mixes of the Muckrakers' classics "Helvetica" and
"...And You in Cloudless Heaven."
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Salt Lady Records presents MAY
the debut album from
the muckrakers
"The Muckrakers are great at
drawing out contrasts: smooth vs.
gritty, melodic vs. rhythmic,
kinda brainless vs. thoughtful.
Maybe it's the mix of writing
styles, maybe it's their actual
personalities in assembling songs
together." -SONGCRAFT
WHO ARE THE
MUCKRAKERS?
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TODD BERG
providing some
of the best and
most bizarre
lead guitar
playing you will
ever hear, plus
great drumming
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DAVID CASIMIR
holding down the
fort on bass, as
well as writing
unforgetable
lyrics such as:
"hanging clothes
or a corpse."
Visit Dave's CAZ webpage.
EMAIL DAVE
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JONATHAN RUNDMAN
multi-instrument
player and song
collaborator
with Dave and
Todd.
Visit Jonathan's webpage.
EMAIL JONATHAN
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HERE'S WHAT THE PRESS IS SAYING ABOUT THE MUCKRAKERS:
"THE MUCKRAKERS low-budget recording approach on MAY intentionally
conveys the image of a garage band belting out oddball songs about
beta tapes, leeches, and type styles. The gimmick has its charms,
particularly on the catchy guitar-driven pop of '...And you in
Cloudless Heaven' and 'Walking at Night'".
-ILLINOIS ENTERTAINER, September 1999
"Pop-rock enthusiasts who can get past the lo-fi production of this
album will be rewarded with high quality material which fairly jumps
out the speakers and straight into your heart. In particular, Berg's
fluid guitar work and the overall level of songwriting and arrangement
will more than compensate for any perceived flaws in sound."
-BIG O MAGAZINE, Singapore, October 1998
"It is almost impossible to nail a specific genre of music to this
band. There are so many styles and influences coming through in these
songs. Everything from modern rock to post-punk comes through the
guitar play. The band provides insightful and tounge-in-cheek lyrics,
kind of like if Bob Dylan was in They Might Be Giants. This provides
the listener with enough hooks to keep him tied up for hours.
This CD boasts several shiny examples of pure rock-n-roll, but for me
the standout songs were 'Helvetica,' '...and You in Cloudless Heaven,'
and 'City in Bloom.'"
-CONCORDIA UNIVERSITY SPECTATOR, October 1998
"The Muckrakers are, if nothing else, a really intriguing concept.
There are some real gems here. 'The Kiln,' recorded in a basement in
Ishpeming features some great interplay and just rocks out, sounding
something like a Violent Femmes song without Gordon Gano's whiny
singing."
-NORTHERN MICHIGAN UNIVERSITY NORTH WIND, October 1998
"This is ear-melting stuff for sure! What these guys lack in numbers,
they make up for in sound. The disc is cohesive and rich. It sounds
like a cross between the Violent Femmes and They Might Be Giants.
There are elements of punk, the catchy hooks found in pop music, and
hard driving rock riffs."
-THE PORCUPINE PRESS, September 1998
THE MUCKRAKERS BIOGRAPHY
The Police. King's X. The Violent Femmes. Rush. Nirvana. Crowded
House. Rock and roll history boasts many fine bands that have existed
in the form of a power trio. There's a special kind of energy that is
created within a skeletal guitar, bass, and drums arrangement, and it
is something uniquely demanding upon the instrumentalists involved.
That captivating, visceral quality, and the amazing music made by
those predecessor trios, is the inspiration behind The Muckrakers.
These three songwriter/instrumentalists have combined the musical
complexity of progressive rock, the reckless abandon of punk, and the
lush hooks of modern pop, and the result is their debut album, May.
Each born during the earliest days of the 1970s, the members of The
Muckrakers were raised in the Western townships of Ishpeming,
Michigan, a remote iron mining community in the state's isolated Upper
Peninsula. Meeting each other in the fall of their 6th Grade year, the
three students already shared a knack for academics, technology, and
music - the same forces that still shape their creative efforts today.
Their high school and college years provided some opportunities for
rock and roll experimentation, but it wasn't until the Winter of 1994
that The Muckrakers officially existed. During a rare reunion in
Ishpeming, the writing, arranging, and recording of the band's first
song "BETA" brought together, for the first time, the talents of:
Todd Berg - engineering and computer whiz, now living in Escanaba, MI
David Casimir - biochemist and lawyer, working in Madison, WI
Jonathan Rundman - freelance musician, based in Minneapolis, MN
The recording of "BETA" was so invigorating that the group was
motivated to write and record more songs, but Berg, Casimir, and
Rundman's geographic separation prevented any one-on-one songwriting
efforts. Turning to the internet and the U.S. Postal Service, the
three composers devised a system of "song-building," involving the
incremental addition of various tracks onto 4-track cassette tapes
sent through the mail to one another. With each band member
contributing lyrics, chord progressions, vocals, guitars, drums, bass,
keyboards, and arrangement ideas, The Muckrakers produced a dozen
songs that possessed a completely fresh sound. This was music unlike
any that Berg, Casimir, and Rundman had ever come up with
individually, and The Muckrakers committed to collect these new songs
in an official "album."
In May of 1997, Berg and Casimir flew to Chicago to join Rundman in a
week-long musical marathon, where the rough Muckrakers song-sketches
were re-recorded for an album. Combining their studio gear, and using
a mixture of live recording, digital editing, and good-old-fashioned
4-tracking, The Muckrakers produced May. The trio's initial
songwriting attempt, "BETA" begins the album with its unpredictable
chord changes and message of media-prompted desperation. "Helvetica"
and "One Night in the Month of May" showcase The Muckrakers' ability
to deliver soaring, driving, and detailed rock and roll. The band puts
a paranoid spin on the unreal sound-sculptures "...And you in
Cloudless Heaven", and "Prometheus", where exotic instruments twang
above grooving drums. Hopelessness and decay echo in the heavy crunch
of "Leech", "The Arson Song", and "Skeletons Everywhere", while the
themes of perseverence and construction power the acoustic based "Box
of Nails" and "City in Bloom". Rural stagnation is represented in the
9/4 time signature of "Chassel Rut", which contrasts to the
freewheeling, Stonesy riff of "Walking at Night." May closes with a
demo version of "The Kiln", a wonderfully ferocious song recorded live
in Todd Berg's basement in the Summer of 1995. The creative spark that
ignites The Muckrakers can be heard in this recording of "The Kiln",
as the song builds into its careening climax.
All sides of The Muckrakers are revealed in May: the spontaneous, the
constructed, the dark, the liberated, the absurd, the genius, the
cynical, the innocent.
The Muckrakers wrote, arranged, recorded, and produced this, their
first album, without ever playing in public.
Todd Berg, David Casimir, and Jonathan Rundman have created, in May, a
testament to the creative possibilities that rest in three brains, a
guitar, a bass, and a drum.
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