''Muscle Museum'' is the second EP by English rock band Muse. Recorded in 1998 at Sawmills Studios with producer Paul Reeve, it was released on 11 January 1999 by Dangerous Records, limited to 999 hand-numbered copies. The EP features six tracks, five of which were released again later – "Instant Messenger" (as "Pink Ego Box") was featured as the B-side to the band's third single " Muscle Museum", while four were re-recorded for the group's debut full-length album '' Showbiz''.

Recording and release

As with their self-titled debut EP, Muse recorded ''Muscle Museum'' at Dennis Smith's Sawmills Studios with producer Paul Reeve, with the sessions taking place in 1998. Reeve also performed additional backing vocals " Unintended" and "Instant Messenger". ''Muscle Museum'' was released in the same way as the ''Muse'' EP, on Smith's Dangerous Records limited to 999 numbered copies, on 11 January 1999. Some additional copies were pressed on CD-R not including the second version of "Muscle Museum", while media contacts were sent non-numbered copies. Journalist Mark Beaumont has described the EP's release as "low-key", calling it a "stop-gap" release.

Reception and legacy

The ''Muscle Museum'' EP gained Muse national exposure, thanks in part to the '' NME'' who featured Muse following its release. The EP entered the ''NME'' Indie Singles Chart at number 3, behind major label acts Mercury Rev and

Fatboy Slim Norman Quentin Cook (born Quentin Leo Cook, 31 July 1963), also known by his stage name Fatboy Slim, is an English musician, DJ, and record producer who helped to popularise the big beat genre in the 1990s. In the 1980s, Cook was the bassist f ...

. However, according to ''Muse: Inside the Muscle Museum'' author Ben Myers, early reviews of the release were not particularly positive: fanzine ''Robots and Electric Brains'', for example, sarcastically likened the band's sound to that of

Radiohead Radiohead are an English rock band formed in Abingdon, Oxfordshire, in 1985. The band consists of Thom Yorke (vocals, guitar, piano, keyboards); brothers Jonny Greenwood (lead guitar, keyboards, other instruments) and Colin Greenwood (bass) ...

, with whom they were compared often. A number of tracks from the EP were played on Steve Lamacq's show on BBC Radio 1 a few weeks after its release.

Track listing

Personnel

Muse * Matt Bellamy – vocals, guitars, piano,

Hammond organ The Hammond organ is an electric organ invented by Laurens Hammond and John M. Hanert and first manufactured in 1935. Multiple models have been produced, most of which use sliding drawbars to vary sounds. Until 1975, Hammond organs generated s ...

mellotron The Mellotron is an electro-mechanical musical instrument developed in Birmingham, England, in 1963. It is played by pressing its keys, each of which pushes a length of magnetic tape against a capstan, which pulls it across a playback head. A ...

, production *

Chris Wolstenholme Christopher Tony Wolstenholme (born 2 December 1978) is an English musician. He is the bassist and backing vocalist for the rock band Muse. Early life Chris Wolstenholme grew up in the English town of Rotherham before moving to Teignmouth, D ...

–

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, backing vocals, production * Dominic Howard –

drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...

, production Additional personnel *Paul Reeve – production, engineering, mixing, backing vocals (tracks 4 and 5) *Mark Thomas – engineering assistance *John Cornfield – mastering *Phil Andrews – photography *Steve Conner –

graphic design Graphic design is a profession, academic discipline and applied art whose activity consists in projecting visual communications intended to transmit specific messages to social groups, with specific objectives. Graphic design is an interdiscipli ...

References

Bibliography

* *

External links

''Muscle Museum''
on the band's official website * {{Authority control 1999 EPs Muse (band) albums