Muhs & Torrey met through the mail, introduced by Don Campau. Discovering that they lived not 10 miles from each other on the opposite side of the tracks, they met in Torrey's Garage studio & created the 1st track for the first album in one night. The project proved conclusively that music could be constructed and de-constructed from the most improbable instruments and non-instruments. Ant & Bee's lyrics are derived from found sources including papers in the trash, magazines torn and reassembled, children's tales, and exquisite corpse poetry. The tapes feature guest appearances by Joee Conroy, Charley Rowan, Robert Hinrix, & Johnny Calcagno.

click on this to hear 3 Bad Men from More Ant & Bee

MORE ANT & BEE 1987 ERIC MUHS & R. MICHEAL TORREY

A crisply recorded collaboration with piles of sped up/mixed up vocals, guitar, keyboards, violin, assorted percussion, even kazoos and lots of household objects sprinkled in for good measure. WEIRD ! Songs with simple underlying structures smashed to bits and taped back together. Rich with layers of casual noodling. Very unlike Muhs' solo work, this sounds more like a stretching exercise than a collection of completed works, although it is an interesting exercise.
BRET HARTE, OPTION, MARCH/APRIL 1988

Weird vocals, narrative, and music from the redoubtable Muhs and company. The spaced out narrative is often hard to follow due to the treated voices, but the atmospheric effect is great ... Armageddon low rumblings, a plethora of sonic effects and noisemakers. "Serengeti Freeway" is a great slice of organized sounds, transporting you instantly to Tanzania for a danger filled ride through the wildlife reserve, and doing it all without trite programmatics. The overall feel of this tape is one of white-room insanity, and this opus will appeal to adventurous musical souls.

JACK JORDAN, OPTION, MAY/JUNE, 1988

This follow-up to ANT & BEE is a self-described "noise fest " featuring 8 cuts with distorted and layered vocals. It also features a variety of instruments, from more common items such as guitars, keyboards, and drums, to the more exotic : marbles, kazoos, automobiles, and a popcorn popper ! It all makes for an intriguing and clever tape, with a decidedly playful tone. Muhs & Torrey get a bit carried away on the longer, spoken word tracks (such as the title cut & their epic, four-part "Medley"), leaving the listener waiting for a break in rhythmic style or treatment. In its favor, however, the tape has its share of more ethereal treats, most notably the tracks "Church of the Asteroids" and " Serengeti Freeway ". An unusual and satisfying tape.

PERRY GLORIOSO, SOUNDCHOICE, WINTER 1989


ANT & BEE 1986 ERIC MUHS & R. MICHEAL TORREY

This is the story of an ant and a bee, and their travels around the world in order to find some sun. To carry this children's tale, Mssrs. Muhs and Torrey have assembled a cast of voice characters and intermingled them with some great mutated music. This is twisted, to be sure, and should appeal to us adults who like this sort of thing (I do). But it should also appeal to children, just be the fact of its inherent lunacy and general sense of fun.
BRYAN BAKER, GAJOOB, SPRING, 1990

ANT & BEE WERE BROKENHEARTED 1986 MUHS, TORREY, LAUREL

Never reviewed, but possibly the finest of the Ant & Bee trilogy. Features TIPS FOR SPIES, MATHEMATICS PURE, and YOUR FACE, a song of unabashed devotion to the man who would become President, George Bush. Recorded in between Mata Rata sessions, these songs represent spontaneous insane multitrack recording taken to a new extreme. Many of the songs, most notably PATTY IN THE CLOUDS WITH PANCAKES, a reworking of the famous Beatles song about LSD, come complete with live drumming.