Muffins - Baker's Dozen [2022] (12 x CDs)

ROCK

Muffins - Baker's Dozen [2022] (12 x CDs)

The Muffins were an American Maryland-based progressive rock/avant-jazz group. They were formed in Washington, DC in the early 1970s and recorded four albums before disbanding in 1981.  In 1998 the group reformed and recorded a further five albums and a DVD. The Muffins played at Symphony Space on Broadway in NYC with Marion Brown in 1979, and also performed at a number of festivals, starting with the ZU Manifestival in New York City in 1978, The Villa Celimontana festival in Rome, Italy in 2000, two appearances at Progday in 2001 and 2002, NEARfest in 2005, and the "Rock in Opposition" festival in France in 2009. In 2010, the Muffins headlined at Progday, making a third appearance at this long running festival. 

The Muffins are largely an instrumental band inspired and influenced by avant-garde jazz, progressive rock, 20th-century music, and the English Canterbury scene. They work in an "underground genre" (Wikipedia)

Released by Cuneiform,  Records Baker’s Dozen is less a retrospective than a long, carefully opened drawer, one that reveals how much ground The Muffins quietly covered over decades. Issued in 2022, the 12-CD plus DVD set gathers almost entirely unreleased live and studio recordings spanning from the mid-1970s into the 2010s, and it plays like a parallel history of the band running alongside their official albums.

What stands out immediately is how alive the material feels. Early recordings capture a group already comfortable juggling knotty written passages and free-moving improvisation, with winds and electric instruments threading through playful, sometimes prickly structures. As the set unfolds disc by disc, the music never settles into a single identity. There are stretches that lean into Canterbury-adjacent whimsy, others that drift toward jazz-rock elasticity, and moments where the band simply opens the doors and lets collective improvisation take the wheel. The sequencing does real work here, allowing those shifts to feel conversational rather than chaotic.

Because the material spans so many years, patterns begin to surface naturally. Certain melodic instincts recur, rhythmic ideas resurface in new guises, and the band’s fondness for surprise remains constant even as the sound matures. Later recordings feel more assured but no less curious, and the live performances remind how much of The Muffins’ character lived in interaction, timing, and quick turns taken together onstage. The included NEARFest footage reinforces that sense of immediacy, showing a group still energized by risk.

By the end, Baker’s Dozen feels complete in a way few archival sets do. Nothing here reads as padding or obligation. Instead, it offers a deep, generous listen into a band that always treated composition and exploration as equal partners, and whose unreleased work turns out to be every bit as essential as what made it to vinyl and CD the first time around. Spending time with this collection highlights what makes The Muffins distinctive. A beautifully crafted testament to one of American music’s most enduring and overlooked treasures. (B)

Another one from Cpt. Hatemonger's personal collection, and he hopes they all have a wonderful time listening☺️

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Track lists

CD01

01 Muffins - Prelude 0:30

02 Muffins - Phase 1 – Portable Hollow 14:01

03 Muffins - Interlude 1 0:39

04 Muffins - Phase 2 – Buzz Aldrin 19:05

05 Muffins - Interlude 2 0:34

06 Muffins - Phase 3 – What a Place for a Wart 5:09

07 Muffins - Brix 3:23

08 Muffins - Three Days That Won’t Soon Fade 2:41

09 Muffins - English 2:50

10 Muffins - Bartok Stockpot 8:13

11 Muffins - The Return of Uncle Don 4:31

12 Muffins - Blind Cave Tetra 2:36

CD02

01 Muffins - English 2:47

02 Muffins - Teddy Roosevelt 3:30

03 Muffins - Egress Gnome Odd/Impromptu Factory 8:45

04 Muffins - Wombat 2:58

05 Muffins - 1916/Why Pursue It/Captain Tugg Tocatta/Swashbuckler With a Brainblock 10:06

06 Muffins - Courtesy of Your Focal Interest Span/Please Do Not Open Dr. Fisher 4:21

07 Muffins - The Manilla Robots/Joe Crop on a Toxic Planet/The Bush 10:43

08 Muffins - Chronometers 21:19

09 Muffins - Creznor Okay 4:30

CD03

01 Muffins - Intro 0:22

02 Muffins - Solemn Music 1:39

03 Muffins - President Nixon’s Retirement 14:04

04 Muffins - 3 Ways Till Sunday 4:36

05 Muffins - Carbons 15:52

06 Muffins - Expected Freedom 6:10

07 Muffins - Prince Albert in the Can 7:24

08 Muffins - Monkey With the Golden Eyes 4:44

09 Muffins - Amelia Earhart 18:12

CD04

01 Muffins - Intro 0:28

02 Muffins - Expected Freedom 9:25

03 Muffins - Band of Brothers 4:15

04 Muffins - Expected Freedom 10:45

05 Muffins - Not Alone [solo] 1:25

06 Muffins - Amelia Earhart [solo] 1:21

07 Muffins - Imprimatur 10:58

08 Muffins - Not Alone 14:18

09 Muffins - Closing Hours 17:07

CD05

01 Muffins - Monkey in the Middle 6:45

02 Muffins - Lady in a Brown Paper Bag 13:33

03 Muffins - Amelia Earhart 19:41

04 Muffins - Monkey With the Golden Eyes/Hobart Got Burned 9:57

05 Muffins - The Adventures of Captain Boomerang 24:44

CD06

01 Muffins - Not Alone [solo] 1:22

02 Muffins - Whistling While We Work 3:01

03 Muffins - To-ing and Fro-ing 18:24

04 Muffins - Children and Art 22:25

05 Muffins - Not Alone 12:19

06 Muffins - Under Dali's Wing 4:17

07 Muffins - Horsebones 4:32

08 Muffins - The Grammy Snap 6:17

CD07

01 Muffins - Under Dali's Wing [false start] 0:13

02 Muffins - Under Dali's Wing 3:34

03 Muffins - Horsebones 3:01

04 Muffins - Horsebones 3:52

05 Muffins - Zoom Resume 8:05

06 Muffins - Boxed and Crossed 6:22

07 Muffins - Zoom Resume 2:58

08 Muffins - Bit Hand 3:03

09 Muffins - Wonder World 4:16

10 Muffins - Not Alone [solo] 1:52

11 Muffins - [silence] 0:07

12 Muffins - Chrestomathy 5:32

13 Muffins - Through Shawn’s Lens 4:27

14 Muffins - Father Tongue 4:31

15 Muffins - Dirty Trousers 3:16

CD08

01 Muffins - Horsebones 2:25

02 Muffins - Under Dali's Wing 3:11

03 Muffins - Squeaker's Dream 5:34

04 Muffins - Boxed and Crossed 6:17

05 Muffins - Zoom Resume 7:28

06 Muffins - Queenside 6:44

07 Muffins - Angle Dance 5:28

08 Muffins - Antidote to Drydock 5:08

09 Muffins - World Maps 10:25

10 Muffins - Bob the Bat 1:44

CD09

01 Muffins - In the Black Room 3:15

02 Muffins - Ups and Downs 4:27

03 Muffins - Poetry Drive 4:53

04 Muffins - North of Muffin Head 3:57

05 Muffins - She Wears Her Dead Mother's Hat 2:51

06 Muffins - Talking With the Planets 5:32

07 Muffins - Down From the Sun Tower/Impossible John 3:46

08 Muffins - Dancing in the Street 2:43

09 Muffins - Horny Toads 7:17

10 Muffins - There Not There 4:46

11 Muffins - Vocabulario 5:25

12 Muffins - Hobart Got Burned 6:14

13 Muffins - [silence] 0:23

14 Muffins - The Highlands 6:05

15 Muffins - The Two Georges 5:33

16 Muffins - Breaking the X 7:42

CD10

01 Muffins - Walking the Duck 3:14

02 Muffins - These Castle Children 6:37

03 Muffins - World Maps/Down From the Suntower/Impossible John/Military Road 12:13

04 Muffins - Under Dali's Wing 3:49

05 Muffins - Horsebones 2:33

06 Muffins - Dear Mona 2:59

07 Muffins - People in the Snow 5:12

08 Muffins - Out of the Boot/Nan True’s Hole 8:12

09 Muffins - East of Diamond/The Adventures of Captain Boomerang 12:34

10 Muffins - [silence] 0:10

11 Muffins - Writing Blind 5:48

12 Muffins - Combo 10:39

CD11

01 Muffins - Intro 0:46

02 Muffins - These Castle Children 6:24

03 Muffins - The Adventures of Captain Boomerang 25:41

04 Muffins - The Ugly Buttling 3:47

05 Muffins - Walking the Duck 3:05

06 Muffins - Dear Mona/Impossible John/People in the Snow 10:19

07 Muffins - East of Diamond 13:49

08 Muffins - The Man in the Skin-Painted Suit 3:19

09 Muffins - Childhood’s End 6:46

10 Muffins - Stethorus Punctum 3:51

CD12

01 Muffins - Intro 0:18

02 Muffins - Exquisite Corpse/Out of the Boot/Sam’s Room 14:53

03 Muffins - Smaller but More Heads 5:17

04 Muffins - Maya 4:44

05 Muffins - Aquatone 5:15

06 Muffins - Angel From Lebanon 6:26

07 Muffins - Queenside/Antidote to Drydock/Angle Dance 7:25

08 Muffins - Choombachang 4:22

09 Muffins - Amelia Earhart 12:06

10 Muffins - Beat 10/In the Ghost Light 8:09

11 Muffins - KGB 4:34

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