Blues-Rocking Icons The Muggs to go Full Tilt in Ferndale

Raw, live and in-the-moment

That's always been the natural environment, the ideal incarnation of The Muggs' music. Charging full-speed ahead after a dozen years in operation, this local blues-rock institution has finally compiled the closest thing to a best-of with Full Tilt, a double-LP vinyl featuring recorded rock ballads from one wild night last autumn in the Cadieux Cafe down in east-side Detroit. 

"We didn't even practice that night," said bassist Tony Denardo. "But, the stars just seemed like they were aligned for us."

[Listen: "Born Ugly" - by The Muggs (Full Tilt LIVE at the Cadieux Cafe)]

As the Detroit band prepares for another European tour this spring, Ferndale-based Bellyache Records is bringing stacks of Full Tilt to the merch table for fans new and old to experience The Muggs' specially-styled sturm n' drang; more than 20 tracks tracing their brand of fuzzy, fiery, retro-rock, live, in all its sweat-speckled swagger and blue-collar-bruised, riff-heavy glory.  

"This album's just a time-out, sort-of," said Denardo. "It's a celebration and it's also a period-piece, capturing us in the moment. Mostly, though, it's a demonstration that we can bring it live."

Until now, the trio (with singer/songwriter Danny Methric and drummer Todd Glass,) could never find the time to set aside for a proper "live album." If they weren't on the road, then they were either back home writing and demo-ing or just heading into the studio for whatever the next album would be. 

The Cadieux Cafe is a unique bar/restaurant on the east side revered for its mussels and, quirkily, the premiere place to experience feather bowling. For more than ten years, the Cadieux has always been the Muggs' home-away-from-home, the local watering hole where they've played the most (and their most memorable) shows, so far. So, choosing the proper venue for this long-in-the-making LIVE album was a no-brainer for the brotherly band.

"Danny and I always say to ourselves that: Hopefully someone's listening to this 50 or 100 years from now and wonder who were these guys, who were these Muggs ..."

That sentiment's demonstrated by Methric and Denardo's appreciation for the staying power of music. To hear some of The Muggs' jams might take a lot of you back to some Trans-Am revving days of hot-blooded youths in the late 70's, singed with all the grimy, boogie-able rock that soundtracked that era.

But The Muggs aren't exactly "revivalists" in that sense.

"It's more just, to the lineage of Detroit," Denardo said. "There's this unspoken electricity in the air here, or something in the water, there has to be ..."

He nods, quickly, toward contemporaries like Outrageous Cherry and Ferndale's own Jeecy & the Jungle, both a pair of stately pop-rock outfits who are ideally experienced: LIVE. 

"We play to our strengths," Denardo mused. "I write pop ballads, that's just my heart and soul and Danny plays to his strengths which goes back to the riff-rock, the Led Zeppelin, Queen, just go down the line. I think we're all about being honest with yourself, who you are."

Denardo said that there can be a lot of posturing around Detroit and even around the world when it comes to modern rock and pop, that not a lot of people have the heart-and-soul like The Muggs. 

Come see and hear it, first-hand live Friday, April 26, at the Magic Bag and then on vinyl (via Full Tilt). 

If you go

• What: The Muggs record release party
• When: 8 p.m. Friday, April 26
• Where: Magic Bag
• Cost: $10