Photo by Jason Trasher.
“But the fact remains that there’s a whole catalog of stuff under the Muuy Biien banner, including the newest album This Is What Your Mind Imagines, and it’s safe to say the overwhelming majority comes straight outta Evans’ heart of darkness. His musical touchstones run the gamut from Black Flag to Rudimentary Peni to The Fall. In very real terms, Muuy Biien isn’t a “punk band” but a band of punks. If there were ever a case of the ends justifying the musical means, this is it.”
Muuy Biien is the real thing. No college degrees, no connections, no future. Kids in their 20’s raised in the Georgia countryside, born to work in fast food—the band members met while all working at fried chicken chain Raisin’ Cane’s, eventually moving in together like some kind of white trash Monkees. But art springs forth from the unlikeliest of places (though you’d think everyone would know by now that being rich in Brooklyn doesn’t give you access to anything besides access. Or excess. Yet for all their antics—getting kicked out of local awards shows, self-mutilations both verbal and physical—the members of Muuy Biien are first and foremost artists. The power of DYI is palpable and real, but so is the sense of craft that hangs over it. Like the latest Laurel Halo, the album closes with a fractured piano instrumental. They might go anywhere from here.