Dusk is a low light joint just off the highway in Providence. It’s buried among old mill buildings, railroad tracks and overpasses. Wasn’t the Living Room around here somewhere? Where’s the GPS. Inside, to the left, a rectangular bar takes up 2/3 of the room. The stage is wide, low and uncluttered. It looks like the kind of place that will throw the rockers out at 10 to be replaced by leggy women in Jimmy Choo’s and dudes in athletic cut designer suits and Italian leather shoes. Doesn’t happen. Don’t judge the book by looking at the cover.

   Instead, Providence’s Thee Itchies walk on. Two guitars fill the sound stage. The bass is rounded and busy in a good way. The bass player likes to hit the front of the stage for big bombs and a photo op on the kicks. The crowd starts small but grows as the night goes on. Something is funny - off. The kindling is damp. It’s going to be hard to light a fire tonight. Thee Itchies do their best and the crowd appreciate the effort. They do the 60’s retro garage rock thing including a revved up cover of Bill Haley’s dream ode to the wonders of a post H bomb world - Thirteen Women.

   Muck and the Mires are up next. They had their record release bash in Boston the prior night. I reviewed Muck and crew in BGN's 05/26/14 issue. Tonight they’re a blast. But, rather than say it all again, let’s talk about their new disk, Dial ‘M’ for Muck!

   In some parallel multi-verse it’s always summer and Dial ‘M” for Muck blasts out of transistor radios across the land. People hang on street corners and make up moves called the Three Step and the Kara Lee. That heavy, bloodshot red vinyl looks good and feels right. The old Thorens turntable likes the idea. The needle drops and Dial ‘M’ jumps on the stick with Three Steps Closer a ripping overture of the disks strengths – in the room sound, big vocals, hot wire fuzz guitars, popping ohh oooohh’s, crack drum fills, tight bass, jangly, whacked tambourine and voxy keys.

   Muck main man, Evan Shore, rummages through the moldy hope chest in the attic and manages to rejuvenate the faded love letters, the scars of romance and the sweet taste of infatuation. The lyrics are straight-forward and better for it. The pairing of words and arrangements is familiar, driving and infectious. Whether it’s the strutting throaty burr of Someday I’ll Get My Way, the sizzle on the cymbals on You Can’t Run Away From Love, or the double tracked vocals on Double White Line the craft is on display - but always in the service of the rock.

   Flip the disk and Muck drop Candy Apple Red an unabashedly perfect pop confection. It hits a sweet spot and manages to avoid cloy. A low strung guitar solo adds contrasting color. In the multi-verse it’s an AM staple. Kara Lee kicks. I’m thinking her uncle Jerry Lee may jump up for the next piano solo. Let’s go live to the Star Club. Love Is Gonna Let You Down will sound great at the Beachcomber come July. Bad Omen and Pocket Change just up the ante.

   Dial ‘M’ for Muck is late entry front runner in the race for local best of accolades. These tunes open up, pick up grit and light up even more live. Dial ‘M’ is a blue-eyed garage rocker through and through. Hope you find one under your Christmas tree. Open, add electricity and do the Kara Lee.

   Meanwhile, back at Dusk, Daddy Long Legs strip things down to the essentials. Vocals, harmonica, a minimalist drum kit played with a flaming orange maraca and one stick, an electric guitar and the blues. Muck has primed the siphon and the crowd flows to the front. Daddy Long Legs knows what to do. That harmonica is dirty. It talks dirty to the old school mic. The mic talks trash to the vocals. Somewhere Lux is tapping his patent leather pumps. All this dirty is getting to the guitar. Marat Akturk slips on a slide and starts pumpin’ them strings. They start to twitch and howl. The audience is barking like dogs. Eyes a bulgin’ and hips a humpin’. John Styles pummels the tom and snare with that maraca. He’s the coxswain calling out the rhythm to the skull. DLL chews on the Horner and hollers out another tune. He’s down on his knees, rolling his eyes and speaking in blue tongues. Take us to the one night juke joint, underneath the highway, out by the mills down by the railroad tracks.

BGN caught up with Evan Shore to talk about Muck and the Mires new disk, Dial 'M' for Muck!

BGN: Tell us about making the album.
ES: We recorded 11 of the 12 songs in Detroit with Jim Diamond using an all analog studio. Jim is well known in the garage rock world having done the first few White Stripes records, The Mooney Suzuki and most recently, The Sonics. We played all together in one small room with no headphones, which was really quite liberating. Most producers are concerned with instrument tracks bleeding into each other and usually separate each band member into their own separate rooms or booths. Our goal with Dial M for Muck was to capture the live energy of the band, and it is really hard to do that when we are not all together feeding and playing off of each other. We prepared for weeks, so there were very few mistakes that needed to get "punched in" as they say. We worked really quickly and completed the record over a weekend. But we were still thorough; we've added lots of rich harmonies, organ and layers of guitar to really fill out our raw live sound.

BGN: How did you guys end up working with Kim Fowley to produce Double White Line?
ES: Kim produced our 2009 full-length LP "Hypnotic". We were in California for some shows, so we contacted Kim to see if he wanted to do some more recording and he said he had about 6 hours free. We quickly banged out "Double White Line" and an early version of "Three Steps Closer". In typical Kim Fowley fashion, we had been rehearsing another song, but when he arrived at the studio, he said he didn't like it and asked if we had anything new. The result is a recording of us playing the song for the first time. Kim joined us on stage later that night for a bunch of songs. That was pretty memorable. Anyway, the Jim Diamond version of "Three Steps Closer" opens our album and the Kim Fowley version is the B-side of the "Double White Line" 45 on Rum Bar Records.
BGN: Did you have any specific things you wanted to accomplish with this album?
ES: Well, you always want to try and make a record better, that is as good if not better than your last one, and perhaps show a little growth, but our goal has always been to get our music out there, build our audience and make great music.

BGN: Anything else you want to talk about?
ES:We are touring Italy for the second year in a row this March, so things seem to be going well there, but we do have some great shows coming up locally in Boston, so keep an eye out on our website, www.muckandthemires.com