Martha and the Muffins
Encyclopedia
Martha and the Muffins are a Canadian
new wave
band, active from 1977 to the present. Although they only had one major international hit single
(1980's "Echo Beach
") under their original band name, they had a number of hits in their native Canada, and the core members of the band also charted in Canada and internationally as M + M.
in 1977, when David Millar asked his fellow Ontario College of Art student Mark Gane to help him start a band. Millar recruited Martha Johnson to play keyboards; Johnson brought in a friend from high school, Carl Finkle, to play bass; and Gane's brother Tim signed on as the drummer. With Millar and Mark Gane as guitarists, and Johnson as lead vocalist, this is the line up that debuted at an Ontario College of Art Hallowe'en party in October 1977.
They chose the name "Martha and the Muffins" to distance themselves from the aggressive names adopted by many punk bands of the era. According to Mark Gane: "We decided to use it as a temporary name until we could all agree on something better." The name ended up sticking for the next seven years.
Saxophone
player Andy Haas began performing with the band in early 1978 (initially, as a guest artist). Founding-member Millar left the band shortly thereafter, preferring to work as the band's sound engineer for live shows. He was replaced by Martha Ladly
, who had attended high school with the Ganes. She became the group's second keyboardist/vocalist named Martha, although Martha Johnson remained the group's primary lead singer.
In 1978, they released their first independent single, "Insect Love". This and a demo tape recorded in June 1978 quickly garnered them a recording deal with the DinDisc
offshoot of Virgin Records
.
(1980) for the DinDisc Label - a Virgin subsidiary. The album was produced by Mike Howlett
and recorded at The Manor Studios in Oxfordshire.
This album gave Martha and the Muffins a major international hit single with "Echo Beach
". Although the album didn't spawn any further hits, "Paint by Number Heart" did get some airplay on Canadian radio.
In October 1980, the band released their second album, Trance and Dance
, which was less successful and didn't give the band any hit singles. Ladly left the band after the album was recorded (but before it was released) to pursue an art scholarship. Jean Wilson briefly replaced Ladly on tour in the latter part of 1980, but never recorded with the group.
In 1981, bassist Finkle left the band and was replaced by Jocelyne Lanois
, the sister of then-unknown record producer Daniel Lanois
. After Jocelyne introduced the band to her brother, they figured Daniel was an ideal candidate to produce their next LP. However, in order to utilize his services as a co-producer, Martha and the Muffins had to agree to Virgin Records' demand that, if they were going to insist on working with an unknown producer, they would also have to work with a lower album-recording budget.
Martha and the Muffins' 1981 album This is the Ice Age
, produced by Daniel Lanois and the band, was recorded in Toronto and Hamilton, Ontario
. More experimental than previous efforts, it also gained significant Canadian radio airplay from the singles "Women Around the World at Work" (a #24 hit in Canada, peaking on November 7 of the same year on the RPM national singles chart) and "Swimming". Shortly after the album's release, Tim Gane decided he did not want to tour, and left the band; he was replaced by new drummer Nick Kent.
Despite critical acclaim, This Is The Ice Age didn't spin off any hit singles outside of Canada, and Virgin dropped the band from their roster.
. The band, now a quartet (Martha Johnson, Mark Gane, Jocelyne Lanois, and Nick Kent), signed to Canadian indie label Current Records, distributed by RCA.
1983's Danseparc
was produced by Daniel Lanois, Gane, and Johnson. Gane, eager to drop the name "Martha and the Muffins", proposed that the group be now called "M + M". In a compromise, both names were used for a time, and the Danseparc album cover had both "M + M" and "Martha and the Muffins" printed on it.
The album's title track was another top 40 single in Canada and, for the Danseparc tour, the group was augmented by auxiliary players including guitarist Michael Brook
. At the end of the tour, Gane and Johnson (now a couple) announced that, although they wanted to continue as a recording act, they also wanted to branch out in new directions by using new collaborators. In essence, Gane and Johnson decided that "M + M" was now Martha + Mark, along with studio musicians and sidemen.
The duo's 1984 album Mystery Walk
was again co-produced by Daniel Lanois with Gane and Johnson, and it featured a large sticker crediting the band as "M + M o/k/a Martha and The Muffins". Guest players included drummer Yogi Horton, bassist Tinker Barfield, and the Brecker Brothers on horns.
Mystery Walk album gave M + M/Martha and the Muffins their biggest hit in years with "Black Stations/White Stations". The song was an anti-racist anthem whose first verse took radio stations to task for refusing to play a song about mixed-race romance, a story that Martha Johnson had heard related on the radio while driving in her car.
"Black Stations/White Stations" was a hit in Canada; in the United States
, it reached #2 on the dance music
charts, but was ironically banned by many radio stations. "Cooling the Medium", the second single, was also a significant hit in Canada.
In 1985, Johnson and Gane started work on their next album in Montreal before heading to Bath, England to work with producer David Lord, resulting in the album The World is a Ball (1986). Although the lead single, "Song in My Head", garnered them some airplay (and was another top 40 hit in Canada), the album sold poorly, and Gane and Johnson subsequently moved to England for a time.
In 1992, they released the album Modern Lullaby. For these and all future releases, the duo revived the name "Martha and the Muffins",
although the only other original Muffin to participate in the making of this album was Tim Gane (on "additional percussion").
Modern Lullabys lead single "Rainbow Sign" made RPM's "CanCon To Watch" chart at #4 but didn't cross over into the top 100, and the parent album similarly failed to chart. The same year, Martha and the Muffins contributed a cover of Joni Mitchell
's "Shades of Scarlett Conquering" for the Mitchell tribute album Back to the Garden
.
More significantly, however, in 1992 Johnson and Gane's daughter Eve was born. After the disappointing sales of Modern Lullaby, and a new family situation to consider, Johnson and Gane essentially shut down the band and moved on to other projects for the next several years.
for best children's album.
In 1998, Johnson and Gane recorded a single new bonus track ("Resurrection") for the 1998 Martha and the Muffins/M+M compilation album Then Again: A Retrospective
. The following year, another new Martha and the Muffins recording ("Do You Ever Wonder?") appeared on a various-artists compilation called The World According to Popguru.
In May 1999, Martha and the Muffins performed a live version of "Echo Beach" on the show Open Mike with Mike Bullard
. In addition to Mark Gane and Martha Johnson, the band included Jocelyne Lanois and another Gane brother, Nick.
In 2003, the Johnson/Gane duo (augmented by session players) performed at the CFNY
Reunion as Martha and the Muffins. Then in 2005, they performed a number of reunion shows in Toronto, including a double bill with the also-reunited Parachute Club on 14 May. A later concert that year also included Jocelyne Lanois on guitar. However, no other former Martha and the Muffins members participated in these 2005 'reunion' shows, which were the first full-length Martha and the Muffins concerts since 1987. Around this time, one of their later songs, "Paradise", became popularized when the Canadian TV show Paradise Falls
used the song as their closing-credits theme.
In 2007/2008, Martha and the Muffins had both This Is The Ice Age and Danseparc reissued on CD. The latter was billed as Danseparc: 25th Anniversary Edition, and was digitally remastered by Peter J. Moore. Both albums featured bonus tracks.
. As of December 2009 the first single from the album Mess was available on You Tube. The album itself was released on February 2, 2010 on their own label Muffin Music. It was Martha and the Muffins' first album of new material in 18 years.
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
new wave
New Wave music
New Wave is a subgenre of :rock music that emerged in the mid to late 1970s alongside punk rock. The term at first generally was synonymous with punk rock before being considered a genre in its own right that incorporated aspects of electronic and experimental music, mod subculture, disco and 1960s...
band, active from 1977 to the present. Although they only had one major international hit single
Hit single
A hit single is a recorded song or instrumental released as a single that has become very popular. Although it is sometimes used to describe any widely-played or big-selling song, the term "hit" is usually reserved for a single that has appeared in an official music chart through repeated radio...
(1980's "Echo Beach
Echo Beach
"Echo Beach" is a song recorded by the Canadian group Martha and the Muffins in 1979. It was released as a single from their album Metro Music in 1980 and won the Juno Award for Single of the Year. It was certified gold in Canada on October 1, 1980, a month after Metro Music achieved gold status...
") under their original band name, they had a number of hits in their native Canada, and the core members of the band also charted in Canada and internationally as M + M.
Formation and early years (19771978)
The group's initial line-up came together in TorontoToronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
in 1977, when David Millar asked his fellow Ontario College of Art student Mark Gane to help him start a band. Millar recruited Martha Johnson to play keyboards; Johnson brought in a friend from high school, Carl Finkle, to play bass; and Gane's brother Tim signed on as the drummer. With Millar and Mark Gane as guitarists, and Johnson as lead vocalist, this is the line up that debuted at an Ontario College of Art Hallowe'en party in October 1977.
They chose the name "Martha and the Muffins" to distance themselves from the aggressive names adopted by many punk bands of the era. According to Mark Gane: "We decided to use it as a temporary name until we could all agree on something better." The name ended up sticking for the next seven years.
Saxophone
Saxophone
The saxophone is a conical-bore transposing musical instrument that is a member of the woodwind family. Saxophones are usually made of brass and played with a single-reed mouthpiece similar to that of the clarinet. The saxophone was invented by the Belgian instrument maker Adolphe Sax in 1846...
player Andy Haas began performing with the band in early 1978 (initially, as a guest artist). Founding-member Millar left the band shortly thereafter, preferring to work as the band's sound engineer for live shows. He was replaced by Martha Ladly
Martha Ladly
Martha Ladly, AOCA RGD MCSD is a Canadian academic, designer and musician. She is currently Associate Professor of interaction design, at OCAD University. Ladly has also had a long career as a musician and achieved international fame as part of Canadian New Wave band Martha & the Muffins...
, who had attended high school with the Ganes. She became the group's second keyboardist/vocalist named Martha, although Martha Johnson remained the group's primary lead singer.
In 1978, they released their first independent single, "Insect Love". This and a demo tape recorded in June 1978 quickly garnered them a recording deal with the DinDisc
DinDisc
Dindisc Records was a short-lived independent UK record label, associated with Virgin Records, which issued new releases from mid-1979 through early 1982...
offshoot of Virgin Records
Virgin Records
Virgin Records is a British record label founded by English entrepreneur Richard Branson, Simon Draper, and Nik Powell in 1972. The company grew to be a worldwide music phenomenon, with platinum performers such as Roy Orbison, Devo, Genesis, Keith Richards, Janet Jackson, Culture Club, Lenny...
.
International success (19791982)
In 1979, the band travelled to England to record their first album, Metro MusicMetro Music
Metro Music was Martha and the Muffins' first album, released in 1979. It contained the international hit single "Echo Beach", which reached #3 in Canada, #1 in Portugal, #5 in Australia and #10 in the UK charts in March 1980. It also reached #37 in the U.S. on the Club Play Singles chart. ...
(1980) for the DinDisc Label - a Virgin subsidiary. The album was produced by Mike Howlett
Mike Howlett
Mike Howlett is a Fijian-born musician, Grammy Award winning producer and teacher based in the United Kingdom and Australia....
and recorded at The Manor Studios in Oxfordshire.
This album gave Martha and the Muffins a major international hit single with "Echo Beach
Echo Beach
"Echo Beach" is a song recorded by the Canadian group Martha and the Muffins in 1979. It was released as a single from their album Metro Music in 1980 and won the Juno Award for Single of the Year. It was certified gold in Canada on October 1, 1980, a month after Metro Music achieved gold status...
". Although the album didn't spawn any further hits, "Paint by Number Heart" did get some airplay on Canadian radio.
In October 1980, the band released their second album, Trance and Dance
Trance and Dance
Trance and Dance was Martha and the Muffins' 1980 second album, and like the previous Metro Music was produced by Mike Howlett...
, which was less successful and didn't give the band any hit singles. Ladly left the band after the album was recorded (but before it was released) to pursue an art scholarship. Jean Wilson briefly replaced Ladly on tour in the latter part of 1980, but never recorded with the group.
In 1981, bassist Finkle left the band and was replaced by Jocelyne Lanois
Jocelyne Lanois
Jocelyne Lanois is a Canadian musician, bassplayer and songwriter from Hull, Quebec, who has been a member of the bands Martha and the Muffins and Crash Vegas. She has also had touring stints as bassplayer with Ani DiFranco and Chris Whitley, and played on Sarah McLachlan's album Solace...
, the sister of then-unknown record producer Daniel Lanois
Daniel Lanois
Daniel Lanois born September 19, 1951 in Hull, Quebec) is a Canadian record producer, guitarist, vocalist, and songwriter. He has released a number of albums of his own work and has produced albums for a wide variety of artists, including Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Peter Gabriel, Emmylou Harris, Willie...
. After Jocelyne introduced the band to her brother, they figured Daniel was an ideal candidate to produce their next LP. However, in order to utilize his services as a co-producer, Martha and the Muffins had to agree to Virgin Records' demand that, if they were going to insist on working with an unknown producer, they would also have to work with a lower album-recording budget.
Martha and the Muffins' 1981 album This is the Ice Age
This Is the Ice Age
This is the Ice Age was Martha and the Muffins' third album, released on LP and cassette in 1981. The track "Women Around the World at Work" was released as a single in the UK and Canada....
, produced by Daniel Lanois and the band, was recorded in Toronto and Hamilton, Ontario
Hamilton, Ontario
Hamilton is a port city in the Canadian province of Ontario. Conceived by George Hamilton when he purchased the Durand farm shortly after the War of 1812, Hamilton has become the centre of a densely populated and industrialized region at the west end of Lake Ontario known as the Golden Horseshoe...
. More experimental than previous efforts, it also gained significant Canadian radio airplay from the singles "Women Around the World at Work" (a #24 hit in Canada, peaking on November 7 of the same year on the RPM national singles chart) and "Swimming". Shortly after the album's release, Tim Gane decided he did not want to tour, and left the band; he was replaced by new drummer Nick Kent.
Despite critical acclaim, This Is The Ice Age didn't spin off any hit singles outside of Canada, and Virgin dropped the band from their roster.
The M+M years (19831986)
After the tour for This Is the Ice Age, Haas left the band over creative differences in a very public spat carried out in the "letters to the editor" column of Toronto's NOWNOW (magazine)
Now is a free weekly newspaper in Toronto, Canada. It was first printed on September 10, 1981 by Michael Hollett and Alice Klein. Now is an alternative weekly mixing arts and entertainment news with political coverage....
. The band, now a quartet (Martha Johnson, Mark Gane, Jocelyne Lanois, and Nick Kent), signed to Canadian indie label Current Records, distributed by RCA.
1983's Danseparc
Danseparc
Danseparc was Martha and the Muffins' fourth album, recorded in 1982 at Grant Avenue Studios in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada and released in 1983....
was produced by Daniel Lanois, Gane, and Johnson. Gane, eager to drop the name "Martha and the Muffins", proposed that the group be now called "M + M". In a compromise, both names were used for a time, and the Danseparc album cover had both "M + M" and "Martha and the Muffins" printed on it.
The album's title track was another top 40 single in Canada and, for the Danseparc tour, the group was augmented by auxiliary players including guitarist Michael Brook
Michael Brook
Michael Brook is a Canadian guitarist, inventor, producer, and film music composer. He plays in many genres, including rock, electronica, world music, minimalism and film scores....
. At the end of the tour, Gane and Johnson (now a couple) announced that, although they wanted to continue as a recording act, they also wanted to branch out in new directions by using new collaborators. In essence, Gane and Johnson decided that "M + M" was now Martha + Mark, along with studio musicians and sidemen.
The duo's 1984 album Mystery Walk
Mystery Walk
Mystery Walk is a 1984 album by M + M, produced by Daniel Lanois. The opening tracks, "Black Stations/White Stations" and "Cooling The Medium" were both released as singles, with the first track being the more successful of the two, achieving hit status in Canada and reaching #2 on the U.S...
was again co-produced by Daniel Lanois with Gane and Johnson, and it featured a large sticker crediting the band as "M + M o/k/a Martha and The Muffins". Guest players included drummer Yogi Horton, bassist Tinker Barfield, and the Brecker Brothers on horns.
Mystery Walk album gave M + M/Martha and the Muffins their biggest hit in years with "Black Stations/White Stations". The song was an anti-racist anthem whose first verse took radio stations to task for refusing to play a song about mixed-race romance, a story that Martha Johnson had heard related on the radio while driving in her car.
"Black Stations/White Stations" was a hit in Canada; in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, it reached #2 on the dance music
Dance music
Dance music is music composed specifically to facilitate or accompany dancing. It can be either a whole musical piece or part of a larger musical arrangement...
charts, but was ironically banned by many radio stations. "Cooling the Medium", the second single, was also a significant hit in Canada.
In 1985, Johnson and Gane started work on their next album in Montreal before heading to Bath, England to work with producer David Lord, resulting in the album The World is a Ball (1986). Although the lead single, "Song in My Head", garnered them some airplay (and was another top 40 hit in Canada), the album sold poorly, and Gane and Johnson subsequently moved to England for a time.
Martha and the Muffins revived (19871992)
Johnson and Gane took several years to record a follow-up to The World is a Ball. Recording started in Bath, where the couple had moved to in 1987, and it continued in Toronto when they moved back to their home city in 1989.In 1992, they released the album Modern Lullaby. For these and all future releases, the duo revived the name "Martha and the Muffins",
although the only other original Muffin to participate in the making of this album was Tim Gane (on "additional percussion").
Modern Lullabys lead single "Rainbow Sign" made RPM's "CanCon To Watch" chart at #4 but didn't cross over into the top 100, and the parent album similarly failed to chart. The same year, Martha and the Muffins contributed a cover of Joni Mitchell
Joni Mitchell
Joni Mitchell, CC is a Canadian musician, singer songwriter, and painter. Mitchell began singing in small nightclubs in her native Saskatchewan and Western Canada and then busking in the streets and dives of Toronto...
's "Shades of Scarlett Conquering" for the Mitchell tribute album Back to the Garden
Back to the Garden
Back to the Garden is a 1992 tribute album to Joni Mitchell .It was released on Intrepid Records, after the Canadian chart success of their 1991 Bruce Cockburn tribute, Kick at the Darkness....
.
More significantly, however, in 1992 Johnson and Gane's daughter Eve was born. After the disappointing sales of Modern Lullaby, and a new family situation to consider, Johnson and Gane essentially shut down the band and moved on to other projects for the next several years.
Side projects and reunions (19932008)
In 1995, Johnson released an album of children's music entitled Songs from the Tree House. Credited simply to "Martha", the album was an M+M/Martha and the Muffins project in all but name, as the record was written, arranged and produced by Gane and Johnson. Songs from the Tree House won a 1996 Juno AwardJuno Award
The Juno Awards are presented annually to Canadian musical artists and bands to acknowledge their artistic and technical achievements in all aspects of music...
for best children's album.
In 1998, Johnson and Gane recorded a single new bonus track ("Resurrection") for the 1998 Martha and the Muffins/M+M compilation album Then Again: A Retrospective
Then Again: A Retrospective
Then Again: A Retrospective is a 1998 compilation album by Martha and the Muffins. Although credited to the band's original name, it includes songs from both the full name and M + M phases of the band's career....
. The following year, another new Martha and the Muffins recording ("Do You Ever Wonder?") appeared on a various-artists compilation called The World According to Popguru.
In May 1999, Martha and the Muffins performed a live version of "Echo Beach" on the show Open Mike with Mike Bullard
Open Mike with Mike Bullard
Open Mike with Mike Bullard was a Canadian late-night talk show which was broadcast live from 1997 to 2003 on CTV and on The Comedy Network in primetime. It was hosted by comedian Mike Bullard and initially taped at a studio at the back of Wayne Gretzky's restaurant in Toronto, Ontario before CTV...
. In addition to Mark Gane and Martha Johnson, the band included Jocelyne Lanois and another Gane brother, Nick.
In 2003, the Johnson/Gane duo (augmented by session players) performed at the CFNY
CFNY-FM
CFNY-FM, promoted under the branding 102.1 The Edge, is a Canadian radio station, broadcasting at 102.1 FM. The station rose to prominence in the 1970s and 1980s due to its freestyle DJing format and unique choice to play alternative music...
Reunion as Martha and the Muffins. Then in 2005, they performed a number of reunion shows in Toronto, including a double bill with the also-reunited Parachute Club on 14 May. A later concert that year also included Jocelyne Lanois on guitar. However, no other former Martha and the Muffins members participated in these 2005 'reunion' shows, which were the first full-length Martha and the Muffins concerts since 1987. Around this time, one of their later songs, "Paradise", became popularized when the Canadian TV show Paradise Falls
Paradise Falls
Paradise Falls is a weekly soap opera shown nationally on the Showcase channel in Canada, starting in 2001. It is set in a summer cottage community in Central Ontario....
used the song as their closing-credits theme.
In 2007/2008, Martha and the Muffins had both This Is The Ice Age and Danseparc reissued on CD. The latter was billed as Danseparc: 25th Anniversary Edition, and was digitally remastered by Peter J. Moore. Both albums featured bonus tracks.
Delicate
In June 2008, Martha and the Muffins announced that their long-in-the-works next album would be called Delicate, and would be mixed by David BottrillDavid Bottrill
David Bottrill is a Canadian record producer. He has won three Grammys. Currently, he owns Rattlebox Studios in Toronto, Ontario with producer Brian Moncarz...
. As of December 2009 the first single from the album Mess was available on You Tube. The album itself was released on February 2, 2010 on their own label Muffin Music. It was Martha and the Muffins' first album of new material in 18 years.
Careers outside Martha and The Muffins
- Martha LadlyMartha LadlyMartha Ladly, AOCA RGD MCSD is a Canadian academic, designer and musician. She is currently Associate Professor of interaction design, at OCAD University. Ladly has also had a long career as a musician and achieved international fame as part of Canadian New Wave band Martha & the Muffins...
moved to the United KingdomUnited KingdomThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
where she sang backing vocals and played keyboards for The aAssociates 1982 album SulkSulk (album)Sulk is the third album by Scottish New Wave band Associates. It was released in May 1982, and reissued as a CD in 2000 with extra tracks...
and supporting tour. She also recorded two solo singles ("FinlandiaFinlandia (song)"Finlandia" is a song by Canadian Singer/Keyboard player Martha Ladly released as a single in 1981.Ladly left Canadian New Wave band Martha & the Muffins in December 1980 to form the Scenery Club, this was her first independent single released in Canada and the UK in June 1981....
," and "Light Years From LoveLight Years From Love"Light Years From Love" is a solo single by Canadian singer/keyboard player Martha Ladly, Released under the name of "Martha" in 1983.Ladly left Canadian New Wave band Martha & the Muffins in December 1980 to form the Scenery Club, this was her second and final solo single...
" with fellow Canadian Brett WickensBrett WickensBrett Wickens , is a Canadian and British Creative Director living and working in the USA.Canadian-born Brett Wickens is a creative director and partner in the design studio Ammunition, which was named one of the top ten Most Innovative Companies in Design in 2011 by Fast Company magazine -- for...
of Ceramic HelloCeramic HelloCeramic Hello was a duo from Burlington, Ontario, formed by Brett Wickens in 1980 after leaving Spoons. He teamed up with Roger Humphreys who added a more classical bent to the minimal synthesizer tunes ....
and a designer at Peter Saville Associates.) and went on to join Robert Palmer's band. However, she also continued her work in visual arts, including a stint at Peter Saville Associates. She later joined Peter GabrielPeter GabrielPeter Brian Gabriel is an English singer, musician, and songwriter who rose to fame as the lead vocalist and flautist of the progressive rock group Genesis. After leaving Genesis, Gabriel went on to a successful solo career...
's Real World multimedia production team. She is now a professor of design at the Ontario College of Art & DesignOntario College of Art & DesignOCAD University is Canada's largest and oldest educational institution for art and design. It is located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada on McCaul Street beside the Art Gallery of Ontario...
.
- Martha Johnson recorded a children's album in 1995, which won a Juno AwardJuno AwardThe Juno Awards are presented annually to Canadian musical artists and bands to acknowledge their artistic and technical achievements in all aspects of music...
for Best Children's Album. The album (credited simply to "Martha") was produced by Mark Gane and Martha Johnson.
- Johnson and Gane have also scored several Canadian films and TV series.
- Jocelyne LanoisJocelyne LanoisJocelyne Lanois is a Canadian musician, bassplayer and songwriter from Hull, Quebec, who has been a member of the bands Martha and the Muffins and Crash Vegas. She has also had touring stints as bassplayer with Ani DiFranco and Chris Whitley, and played on Sarah McLachlan's album Solace...
returned to the Canadian pop charts in 1989 as a member of Crash VegasCrash VegasCrash Vegas was a Canadian folk rock band which formed in 1988, and achieved moderate success in the early 1990s.-Biography:The band was formed by Michelle McAdorey and Greg Keelor of Blue Rodeo in 1988. Jocelyne Lanois joined the band as bassist and shortly after Ambrose Pottie as drummer...
.
- Tim Gane became a driver for the Canadian Automobile AssociationCanadian Automobile AssociationThe Canadian Automobile Association , commonly known as CAA, is a non-profit federation, founded in 1913, of nine clubs across Canada, providing roadside assistance service, a complete range of auto touring and leisure travel services, insurance services, and member discounts with preferred...
.
- Carl Finkle became an architect and swimming pool designer
- Andy Haas became a security guard in an art museum.
Studio albums
| Year | Album details | Chart peak positions | |
|---|---|---|---|
| UK UK Albums Chart The UK Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales in the United Kingdom. It is compiled every week by The Official Charts Company and broadcast on a Sunday on BBC Radio 1 , and published in Music Week magazine and on the OCC website .To qualify for the UK albums chart... |
US Billboard 200 The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists... |
||
| 1979 | Metro Music Metro Music Metro Music was Martha and the Muffins' first album, released in 1979. It contained the international hit single "Echo Beach", which reached #3 in Canada, #1 in Portugal, #5 in Australia and #10 in the UK charts in March 1980. It also reached #37 in the U.S. on the Club Play Singles chart. ...
|
34 | 187 |
| 1980 | Trance and Dance Trance and Dance Trance and Dance was Martha and the Muffins' 1980 second album, and like the previous Metro Music was produced by Mike Howlett... Virgin Records Virgin Records is a British record label founded by English entrepreneur Richard Branson, Simon Draper, and Nik Powell in 1972. The company grew to be a worldwide music phenomenon, with platinum performers such as Roy Orbison, Devo, Genesis, Keith Richards, Janet Jackson, Culture Club, Lenny... |
– | – |
| 1981 | This is the Ice Age This Is the Ice Age This is the Ice Age was Martha and the Muffins' third album, released on LP and cassette in 1981. The track "Women Around the World at Work" was released as a single in the UK and Canada.... EMI The EMI Group, also known as EMI Music or simply EMI, is a multinational music company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the fourth-largest business group and family of record labels in the recording industry and one of the "big four" record companies. EMI Group also has a major... |
– | – |
| 1983 | Danseparc Danseparc Danseparc was Martha and the Muffins' fourth album, recorded in 1982 at Grant Avenue Studios in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada and released in 1983.... RCA Records RCA Records is one of the flagship labels of Sony Music Entertainment. The RCA initials stand for Radio Corporation of America , which was the parent corporation from 1929 to 1985 and a partner from 1985 to 1986.RCA's Canadian unit is Sony's oldest label... (credited to Martha and the Muffins/M + M) |
– | 184 |
| 1984 | Mystery Walk Mystery Walk Mystery Walk is a 1984 album by M + M, produced by Daniel Lanois. The opening tracks, "Black Stations/White Stations" and "Cooling The Medium" were both released as singles, with the first track being the more successful of the two, achieving hit status in Canada and reaching #2 on the U.S... |
– | 163 |
| 1985 | The World is a Ball The World Is a Ball The World is a Ball is a 1985 album by M + M.The album's only notable single was "Song in My Head". Due to the album's poor chart performance, the band retired for several years, not releasing a new album until 1992's Modern Lullaby.-Track listing:... |
– | – |
| 1992 | Modern Lullaby Modern Lullaby Modern Lullaby is a 1992 album by Martha and the Muffins. Although it was released under the band's original name, on this album the band consisted only of Martha Johnson and Mark Gane, the duo who had continued as M + M following the original band's breakup.The album's most successful single was... Intrepid Records (Canada) Intrepid Records was a Canadian independent record label in the late 1980s and early 1990s. People associated with the label included founder Stuart Ravenhill and A&R rep Graham Stairs.... |
– | – |
| 2010 | Delicate
|
– | – |
Compilation albums
| Year | Album details |
|---|---|
| 1987 | Far Away In Time Far Away in Time Far Away in Time was a 1987 CD compilation of tracks by Martha and the Muffins. The compilation consisted of Metro Music in its entirety , plus four tracks from Trance and Dance , two tracks from This is the Ice Age , and the non-album single "Insect Love" .The album was compiled without any...
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| 1998 | Then Again: A Retrospective Then Again: A Retrospective Then Again: A Retrospective is a 1998 compilation album by Martha and the Muffins. Although credited to the band's original name, it includes songs from both the full name and M + M phases of the band's career.... |
Singles
| Year | Single | Chart peak positions | Album | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CAN Canadian Singles Chart The Canadian Singles Chart is currently compiled by the U.S.-based music sales tracking company, Nielsen SoundScan . The chart is compiled every Wednesday, and is published by Jam! Canoe on Thursdays.... |
CAN CHUM CHUM Chart The CHUM Chart was a ranking of top 30 songs on Toronto, Ontario radio station CHUM 1050 AM, from 1957 to 1986, and was the longest-running Top 40 chart in the world produced by an individual radio station... |
AUS Kent Music Report The Kent Music Report was a weekly record chart of Australian music singles and albums which was compiled by music enthusiast David Kent from May 1974 through to 1998... |
UK UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ... |
US Hot 100 Billboard Hot 100 The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday... |
US Dance Hot Dance Club Play The Hot Dance Club Songs chart is a weekly national survey of the songs that are most popular in U.S. dance clubs... |
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| 1978 | "Insect Love" | – | – | – | – | – | – | — |
| 1979 | "Insect Love" (re-recorded version) | – | – | – | – | – | – | |
| 1980 | "Echo Beach Echo Beach "Echo Beach" is a song recorded by the Canadian group Martha and the Muffins in 1979. It was released as a single from their album Metro Music in 1980 and won the Juno Award for Single of the Year. It was certified gold in Canada on October 1, 1980, a month after Metro Music achieved gold status... " |
5 | 5 | 6 | 10 | – | 37 | Metro Music |
| "Saigon" | – | – | – | – | – | – | ||
| "Paint By Number Heart" | 69 | 20 | – | – | – | 37 | ||
| "About Insomnia" | – | – | – | – | – | – | Trance and Dance | |
| "Suburban Dream" | – | – | – | – | – | – | ||
| 1981 | "Was Ezo" | – | – | – | – | – | – | |
| "Women Around the World at Work" | 24 | 10 | – | – | – | – | This is the Ice Age | |
| 1982 | "Swimming" | – | 16 | – | – | – | – | |
| 1983 | "Danseparc (Every Day It's Tomorrow)" | 31 | – | – | – | – | – | Danseparc |
| "Several Styles of Blonde Girls Dancing" | – | – | – | – | – | – | ||
| 1984 | "Black Stations/White Stations" | 26 | 11 | – | 46 | 63 | 2 | Mystery Walk |
| "Cooling the Medium" | 72 | – | – | – | – | 34 | ||
| 1986 | "Song in My Head" | 30 | 25 | – | – | – | – | The World is a Ball |
| "Someone Else's Shoes" | – | – | – | – | – | – | ||
| "Only You" | – | – | – | – | – | – | ||
| 1992 | "Rainbow Sign" | – | – | – | – | – | – | Modern Lullaby |
| 2010 | "Mess" | – | – | – | – | – | – | Delicate |
External links
- Official website
- Music Review: Martha And The Muffins - Danseparc Richard Marcus for Blogcentric Magazine
- Sclafani, Tony; interview with Martha Johnson and Mark Gane, Perfect Sound Forever, 2005