MUDVAYNE
WANT YOU ON NEW BAND SITE
MUDVAYNE are
throwing their weight behind the new band networking site AMIE Street. They’re
seeking out bands they like to endorse on the service with a link from their
page. Even if you’re not a musician, you can still register through their site,
and they’ll give you five bucks to buy music credit as a way for you to vote
for who you think they should endorse.
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Mudvayne - By the People For the People
2007 Epic Records
Ray Van Horn, Jr.
Sometimes greatest hits compilations after a handful of albums in a band’s
career are a bit suspect, none more so than A Flock of Seagulls shortly after
only two albums. However, if you’re going to do band anthology after four
full-lengths in the case of Mudvayne, then do it with an angle; give your fans
something they don’t quite already have!
By the People For the People
is Mudvayne’s bonding time with their fans. The album’s selections were
generated strictly by fan votes, however the twist is that Mudvayne serves up
demos, live versions and other assorted goodies (such as four
previously-unreleased songs) instead of cleaned up product their devout legion
currently owns in their collections. And to lend the album a personal touch,
vocalist Chad Gray introduces each song.
The expected songs such as "Death Blooms," "Dig,"
"Fall Into Sleep," "Not Falling" and "World So
Cold" all appear on By
the People For the People, albeit in alternate forms, plus other
fan-favorites as "Happy," "(Per)Version of a Truth" and
"Skrying." To up the ante, Mudvayne does an acoustic redux of
"Forget to Remember" from Lost
and Found along with two outtake songs, a brand spanking new jam,
"Dull Boy" and a cover of The Police’s "King of Pain."
The best cut on the entire project is one of the newer songs "On the
Move," a slapdash funkfest recorded during the End of All Things to Come sessions. Shame
that it couldn’t have appeared on the final album because it has a lot of
spunk, pep and personality with a soothing breakdown in-between the manic
sections of the song. The guitars are especially vibrant on this one as well,
which in hindsight leads one to think "On the Move" could’ve been a
sleeper hit for Mudvayne.
As for the other newer tracks, "Goodbye" is presented in raw form, a
tinkering session for Mudvayne right before they began officially recording End of All Things to Come.
In some ways, the song comes off like a trippy Cure ditty ala The Top and Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me
era. As progressive an album as End
of All Things to Come is, it’s no surprise that it spawned these
two highly diverse outtakes.
"Dull Boy" is a preview of what’s to come for Mudvayne as it was more
recently tracked following the Lost
and Found sessions. As Mudvayne has been driving towards a more
rock-oriented direction, the song is metallic and straightfoward with acoustic
accents and subtle jazz syncopation from Greg Tribbett and Ryan Martinie.
Drifting away from the brash and crash of the L.D. 50 days, Mudvayne is gradually steering
towards becoming a straight-up rock band with shades of the soulful artistry
that has been a part of their genesis.
Perhaps the biggest surprise of By
the People For the People is their "King of Pain" cover.
The song is so complicated (along with "Wrapped Around Your Finger"
from Synchronicity)
that even The Police themselves struggled with it live at the Virgin Fest this
past summer. Hearing Mudvayne nail the core melody and have the courage to
alter the tempo of the choruses with jacked bass and crunch chords, along with
some terrific layered guitars from Greg Tibbett makes this version of
"King of Pain" a worthy endeavor.
Kudos to Mudvayne for putting a little extra effort into something as tepid and
everyday as a greatest hits package. Linking this to the fans was a nice step,
but presenting the tracks as they have on By
the People For the People is taking things in a much cooler
direction.
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Mudvayne Score The Second Highest Chart Debut This Week
The
fans have spoken.
This week, MUDVAYNE–who’ve sold over 4.5 million units sold worldwide, with each
of their six releases certified gold in America–scored the second highest
debut on the Billboard Top 200 chart, entering at #51 with their entirely
fan-generated rarities collection BY THE PEOPLE FOR THE PEOPLE (Epic Records).
This news comes as the MUDVAYNE–featuring singer CHAD GRAY and guitarist GREG
TRIBETT (also of HellYeah) and rounded out by drummer MATTHEW McDONOUGH and
bassist RYAN MARTINIE–is preparing to record their fourth studio album for release in mid-2008. As
always, the new disc will reunderline MUDVAYNE’s position as one of the most
creative and distinctive bands in the heavy music world.
BY THE PEOPLE FOR THE PEOPLE is a 16-song offering–which features the new
single “Dull Boy” and an unreleased cover of “King of Pain” by The Police–that
consists of live recordings, rarities and demos chosen by fans at MUDVAYNE.COM
with the band deciding on the final selection. BY THE PEOPLE FOR THE PEOPLE
includes demo versions of some of the group’s most popular songs such as “Death
Blooms, “Fall To Sleep,” “Not Falling” and “Happy” as well as live and acoustic
versions of many fan favorites (see below for track listing).
For the collection, the group allowed fans to create the album artwork and
contribute liner notes. Fans have also been invited to participate in creating
the video for the first single “Dull Boy.” Utilizing editing technology from
the Eyespot and Kaltura websites, fans are able to select
from all of MUDVAYNE’s past video clips, mix their own mash up version, overlay
the “Dull Boy” audio and send it to the band all in one setting. On Eyespot,
fans can choose from all MUDVAYNE videos to create their own personal clip,
while on Kaltura fans have access to live and rare videos and are able to
collaborate with other fans when making the video. Currently, MUDVAYNE are
reviewing submissions and their favorite fan-generated video will be featured
on the band’s MySpace page and
their website and all other social networking sites with the band’s profile.
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Mudvayne - By The People, For The People
By the
People, for the People is the second compilation album, and fifth album release
by Mudvayne. It was released on November 27, 2007 by Epic Records. The album
features a track listing chosen entirely by the band’s fans, with the band
determining which version appears on the record (e.g. live, demo, acoustic), as
well as two new songs, "Dull Boy" and a cover of The Police’s song
"King of Pain" (both produced by Dave Fortman). Initially, if the
album was pre-ordered through the Sony Music Store, it was packaged with a free
lithograph of the lyrics to "Dull Boy", signed and numbered by Mudvayne
vocalist Chad Gray.
By the
People, For the People is presented in a format where each song is introduced
through a short interlude generally no longer than 30 seconds long, where Chad
Gray debriefs the listener on surrounding facts such as where the song was
recorded or performed live, or distinguishing a demo from an album version
(obviously limited to in the case of demos).
The album
debuted at number 51 on the U.S. Billboard 200 chart, selling about 22,000
copies in its first week.