Recordings

Wooden Circle (2012)

See reviews here.

Stream, download and buy CD at Bandcamp (also on CD Baby, eMusic, iTunes, Amazon & Play)

1. Spring of 1805
2. Worrisummer
3. Three More Days
4. Eight O'Clock Walk
5. Wooden Circle
6. The Other Side
7. Church of Bitter Souls
...

8. The Snowshoe Blues
9. House of Light
10. So You Say You Lost Your Baby
11. No Regrets Now
12. The Captain
13. He Told Me You Could See Your Soul in the Sunrise
    on the Coast of California
14. Daily Drone

Wooden Circle is Mud Pie Sun's first full-length release in 20 years. The album continues the duo's usual themes of summer sun, impending doom, cicadas, feedback, tall pines swaying in the night, middle age, loud combo organ, the sky open wide, two sisters in the fifties, ba ba ba ba ba da de da, farfisa mornings, red Trans-Ams, barking dogs, Kay twelve-strings, lovely stories about the coast of California over a tea, square waves, painted ponies going up and down, red Harmony six-strings, wet blades of grass, elderly men lost on the side of the road, and young people going in circles with no way home. Plus a Gene Clark song.

Written, recorded and mixed at Franklin Street and Sprague Street on the trusty Porta Two 4-track (3,5,7,13,14), the iffy 488 8-track (2,4,6,8,9,10) and the occasional digital contraption (1,11,12). Recording started in the summer of 2004 and ended in the summer of 2011, except for guitars on “Daily Drone” which were recorded at Church Street on the Porta Two in the winter of 1993. Mastered by Carl Saff.

All songs written by Steven and Tom © 2012 Semipermeable Songs (ASCAP) except for “So You Say You Lost Your Baby” written by Harold Eugene Clark and published by Gene Clark Music (BMI).

New Swing Mood Things/Two At Noon (1992, remastered 2015)

See reviews here.

Stream, download and buy remastered CD or Cassette at Bandcamp

A.New Swing Mood Things:

1. New Thing Mood Swing
2. Someone I Know
3. Any Minute
4. Month of Sundays
5. Aztec Head
6. 5 Days After
7. Where You Belong

B. Two at Noon:

1. Sending Everything (Silly Pillows cover)
2. Just Like You
3. Blue Saturday
4. Hurt Me More (Jacobites cover)
5. Revisited
6. Goodbye

full cover lyric sheet

In the winter of 1991-92, Steven and Tom made their third home-recorded 4-track cassette combining two distinct EP’s. With Opal’s “Early Recordings” in regular rotation at Tom’s West Philadelphia house, the duo gravitated towards their most acoustic sound to date. New Swing Mood Things starts with a gentle strum and acoustic bass on the title track, moving into stark and dark folk-rock territory before ambling into the melodic pop centerpiece "Month of Sundays." Then it sidewinds into a psychedelic desert landscape before layering feedback and fuzztone on top of melancholy in "Where You Belong.” Two At Noon is a live recording born out of necessity and serendipity. With Tom leaving town in few days, they quickly worked up and recorded 6 more songs including 2 covers (Silly Pillows and Jacobites) one cold January afternoon with just an acoustic guitar and ramshackle stand-up drums. The spontaneous sound that resulted seems to have touched down somewhere between Olympia, Dunedin, and Devault.

When it was done, Tom was gone, Steven sent a few tapes to friends and zines, and that was end of that. Now remastered by Carl Saff from the original tapes, New Swing Mood Things/Two At Noon in a way sounds timeless while giving a bit of a glimpse into a long gone time and place.

Info

Side A written and recorded December 1991 - Feb 1992 at Tom's and Steven's homes in West Philadelphia and West Chester, PA. Side B recorded live at Tom's house Jan 19, 1992. All songs © 1992 except: "Sending Everything" by J. Caws-Elwitt © 1986 Strangest Songs (ASCAP) "Hurt Me More" by Godfrey / Cusworth © 1984 Edward Kassner Music Ltd.

First released on cassette in May 1992. Remastered by Carl Saff and reissued in Nov 2015

Also released on Acid Tapes (TAB 097). "Someone I Know" is on the Acid Tapes Open Channel D comp (TAB 100) with Reefus Moons, Ant Bee, The Mirrors and more. All Acid Tapes now out of print.

"Where You Belong" was also released in 1994 on the Town and Country #1 double 7" compilation with Amy Denio, Azalia Snail, Crawling with Tarts and The Billy Tipton Memorial Saxophone Quartet on the Sedimental label. It's still available from Sedimental, or contact us for a copy ($5 USD postpaid).

These Days (1991)

See reviews here.

format: cassette album, selected downloads. A limited number of orignal cassettes are available; contact us if interested.

Side Everyday:

1. These Days / Lazy
2. Now Here/Here Now
3. Something Awful
4. Everything Around Me Wasn't RightD
5. I Can't Do Anything
6. Slip, Fall Down

Side Anyday:

1. On This Cold Day
2. Rob Goes to the A
3. Your Word Is Good For Nothing These Days
4. Silver Noises
5. One Minute
6. I Didn't Know

full cover lyric sheet

Written and recorded by Steven and Tom (with help from Rob on 3 songs) Oct 1990 - April 1991 at Tom's and Steven's homes in West Philadelphia and West Chester, PA. All songs © 1991. Released on cassette June 1991.

Also released on Acid Tapes. (TAB 086 - out of print).

Rustle (1990)

See reviews here.

format: cassette album, selected downloads. A limited number of orignal cassettes are available; contact us if interested.

aside:

1. tilt-o-whirl
2. hum drum
3. september
4. a feeling
5. prayer

bside:

1. who I was
2. theny whent
3. i saw how
4. hat pie
5. what you wanted to hear

full cover lyric sheet

Written and recorded by Steven, Tom and Rob Aug 1989 - April 1990 at Tom's and Steven's homes in West Philadelphia and Germantown Philadelphia, PA. All songs © 1990. Cover art by Suzanne. Released on cassette June 1990.

Also released on Acid Tapes (TAB 074). "Who I Was" is on the Acid compliation tape High Everybody (TAB 072) with Cleaners From Venus, Narc Twins, James T. Rao, Childe Roland and more. All Acid Tapes now out of print