May 07th, 2006:
It's been almost a year since the last release launched from My Mean Magpie... but the wait has proved to be well worth it.

Power Craig makes the quiet return for Illinois recluse Jonas Crenshaw. Jonas Crenshaw's Colossal Failure was a brilliant endeavour, but Jonas' fear of success all but buried the album. During a short hospital stay, he met Sam Gwin, a soundtrack writer for non-existent films.

For two years Jonas and Sam would meet and record sketches of songs, single parts, harmonies and random moments. Sam would piece these moments together, and add his own parts. The end result is remarkably beautiful. Listen to it here.

May 29th, 2005:
A few weeks ago a new album (well, new to the world) by Struggle at the Snuggle Factory's Mike Richard was quietly released. Affections, Affects 1-4 (for speaking/ singing performers) (MMM027) a "21st Century Composition" has been difficult to promote. However, it is a great piece of music (spanning two CDs) and I'm proud to release it.

Mike Richard is an Image-Music-Text-Theater Re-Writer, independent researcher, and undisciplined theorist. His compositions are written out within the experimental tradition of the autographed score a la The New York School and/or California School. Highly modular, literal, and systematic, Mike refers to this process as "crippled serialization," (a spin-off of Morton Feldman's "crippled symmetry"). Certain words, phrases or ideas in the text are programmatically linked to a sample of a randomly composed signifier (melodic and harmonic fragments of dark-folk-pop, rather than the pointillistic serializations of Webern, Schoenberg, or Stockhausen), which appears like a song or Lieder.

More recently, Georgia's Nothing New (Deluxe Edition) (MMM013) has been reissued with 4 bonus tracks. Cover versions of Eric's Trip, Beat Happening, the original version of "Highway Soul," and the never before heard "One Last Fuck." The album also features a cover of "Amazing" (available on The Tidbits' Of Geldwen release), and "I Don't Want to Live on the Moon" (originally performed by Sesame Street's Ernie).

Georgia was the work of Patti Kim (Meowch / Tel Quel) and Five Seventeen (Toys for Elliot / 5MP) who carefully crafted songs with their 4-tracks in separate houses rather than walk the half-block to each others houses. The album also brings in outside talents of Wendal's Jef McLarnon and Oval-Teen's Brad Davis to reach levels far beyond their scrappy debut cassette released three years prior.

Also reissued is the 5 minute Don't Think for a Minute (MMM014) single from Oval-Teen. Originally issued as a business card sized CD to promote Yorkville, IL (Bi-Fi Records). "Don't Think for a Minute" appears here in it's original form (a long intro was added to the double CD version), and "Man, Don't even Sweat It" is a new mix of a song that appeared on Secular Songs for Broken Hearts ep (Motorway Records, Japan).

"Comedian" Chris Peterson makes an appearance at the end of the second track.

Finally, thanks go out to GrapeJuicePlus for a few words about The Linger Effect's Charmer (MMM024):

Existing somewhere between New Order, Felt and Unrest, The Linger Effect have managed to capture a sound that isn't quite what you expect. Imagine if Factory Records where still around and you'd probably expect the Linger Effect to be on their roster.

The UK's Lost Music site also chimed in:

So what do The Linger Effect sound like? Warm summer breezes, cold spring mornings. Imagine a lower budget Magnetic Fields. Imagine sweet indie pop with hummable tunes. Then you'd be getting close to The Linger Effect. I can hear echoes of The Velvet Underground and a general sense on the 80's indie scene pervades. There is also the creep of electronic technology which invades the track "Moonpond" like a visiting Looper song. We also get some more of a fragile shoegaze sound on "Weider" which shimmers for about 2 minutes before disappearing into the ether from where it appears to have came.

April 2nd, 2005:

A new development on the status of Relax Brother Relax: A Tribute to Teenbeat Records (MMM025) which, thanks to a link from Copy, Right?, has shot up to #8 on the NetLabels site with close to 2000 downloads. A huge thanks to them and to all the bands and websites involved.

Released to coincide with the 20th Anniversary celebrations of Teenbeat records on February 23rd, 2005. The release features the work of many amazing artists including The Linger Effect, Snoozer, Struggle at the Snuggle Factory, Scrabbel, The Smittens, and many, many more. (Read more here...)

In other news Jef McLarnen, of Wendal, after several years of delay has finally sent me some artwork to use on the cover of his CD (scroll down) and it will be released in the next few weeks after the long-awaited double CD of experimental classical music from Struggle at the Snuggle Factory's Mike Richard.

March 31st, 2005:

Another of My Mean Magpie's older releases has made it to Net Labels. This time it is the compilation Peeler: for Right or Left-Handed Use (MMM020). Plenty of excellent tracks by Jack Breakfast, Wendal, Georgia, Oval-Teen and others.

To coincide with this release the MMM028 - M3U Playlist has been updated adding a few tracks from this release along with all other releases. Click on the link to stream the Hi-fi (vbr) or Lo-fi (64kb/s) versions.

March 16th, 2005:
There is enough of the My Mean Catalogue online (13 releases) to warrant the creation of an .m3u file for easy sampling. Thus, MMM028 - M3U Playlist was created. It will be continually updated highlighting tracks from the new or archived releases. Click on the link to stream the Hi-fi (vbr) or Lo-fi (64kb/s) versions. In the coming weeks I'll try and get a handy link up on the much-neglected right side of the screen.

March 07th, 2005:
Today marks the re-issue of 5MP's 5MP is Dead 1995-2001 (MMM015).

Originally released as a gift for the Christmas of 2000, this recording was issued on a buisiness card sized CDR and lasts an apt 5m17s.

5MP was the side project of Five Seventeen who was involved experimenting with sounds outside of the more traditional Toys for Elliot and prior to his involvement with Georgia. (Read more here...)

Also recently uploaded is Relax Brother Relax: A Tribute to Teenbeat Records (MMM025).

Released to coincide with the 20th Anniversary celebrations of Teenbeat records on February 23rd, 2005. This album has been downloaded an amazing 956 times since the initial upload (averaging about 43 downloads a day!). The release features the work of many amazing artists including The Linger Effect, Snoozer, Struggle at the Snuggle Factory, Scrabbel, The Smittens, and many, many more. (Read more here...)

February 11th, 2005:
Today with little fanfare (as it should be), The National Tapes (MMM018), a double CD collection of songs by Toys for Elliot is re-issued on NetLabels.

The Toys for Elliot cassette was the very first release issued on My Mean Magpie (then called My Mean Mustard) with six songs in May of 1995. Consisting of Kymberly Drake and Five Seventeen, Kym was an accomplished self-taught pianist and Five was still figuring his way around a fretboard. From 1994-1995, they would get together whenever they could and try to come up with a few songs. A purchase of a 4-track and a year later they compiled a few of their songs onto a cassette and dubbed a reserved 30 copies. (Read more...)

February 1st, 2005:
Today marks the first release of new material by My Mean Magpie since October of 2003, and the very first to be released solely on the internet.

Charmer (MMM024) is the work of Newfoundland's The Linger Effect (MMM024) who, it has been said, "manages to build a tension that shakes cups of tea and cigarettes, drops flies from the ceiling and crashes computers when it's most inopportune [... The Linger Effect's Kent Burt] emulates a time when it was cool for guys to wear make-up." (Current Magazine, Oct '99).

Also recently uploaded is Lake Holiday's American Summer EP (MMM019B) featuring a cover of The Magnetic Fields "Born on a Train."