SIR MILLARD MULCH

An interesting album to say the least SIR MILLARD MULCH's 'How to Sell the Whole F#@!ing Universe to Everybody ...Once and for all!' is an extraordinarily long and persistent album spanning 3 discs and way more time than it's worth, while it does have some funny and interesting parts it's entirely disposable when it all comes down to it.

The majority of the music is ironically commercial poppy metal with harmonised vocals, the only merit is in the lyrics which are often quite witty and funny but once the novelty has worn off it gets old fast, it's mostly about how he's an artist and shouldn't have to work for a living and how he desperately wants to be famous and successful and it's a fairly thin charade as you can tell deep down he really means it (someone should tell him that you do that by making interesting music with genuinely funny lyrics). A lot of the other tracks are satirical infomercials and general mindless banter and after about half an hour it's hard to not find yourself bored I forced myself to sit through the whole 2 and a half hours, once is enough.

Overall I could recommend people into this kind of music listen to it simply for curiosity's sake, there are a scant few good interesting moments considering how much time this album occupies, mostly it's repetitive and redundant - recommended only to the curious or adventurous, you'd be well advised to stay away from this one.

In 2005, Paul Mavanu, under the pseudonym Sir Millard Mulch released a triple album that went by almost completely unnoticed by even the underground. It utterly confuses me as to why most people here on Prog Archives haven't even heard of this guy when he is practically the epitome of what I think moder music should be (and not to mention some awesome guests from Spock's Bear, Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, etc.).

While obviously influenced by Frank Zappa, Primus, Mr. Bungle, and Rush, Mulch's album is a step toward the future of music with only small nods to the past. The songs are extremely tight as Mulch uses various effects and instruments. He isn't afraid to change the style or rhythm in the middle of a songs. Some of the tracks are difficult to listen to at first, but on repeated listens make more sense. Like Frank Zappa, Mulch uses humor throughout most of his songs, but it never compromises the music or makes you feel like you bought a comedy album. In between the tracks on the album are short spoken words pieces of fake advertisements and infomercials that add to the humor and uniqueness of the album. Throughout the three discs Mulch explores themes of commercialism, greed, and the difficulties of being an artist. I wouldn't call Mulch a very poetic songwriter, but his lyrics are extremely enjoyable and you can really understand the frustration of a man who had several prior albums that failed.

I highly doubt you'll find this album in a store, but it can be bought from itunes for only $10. Thats three discs and over two hours of music for $10. If you like chaotic, bizarre, and challenging music, you'll probably love Millard. This is easily one of the most fascinating albums I've ever heard and should not be passed by.

The average attention span of a person is around 40 minutes. Well, it's something like that. So why would anyone want to listen to this triple disc, four hour long atrocity of an album? Also, how did a no name like Sir Millard Mulch manage to get so many high ranking people on his album? Virgil Donati (Steve Vai), Nick D'Virgilio (Spock's Beard, etc...), Devin Townsend (come on, you know him), Dave Meros (Spock's Beard), Nils Frykdahl (Sleepytime Gorilla Museum) and Morgan Agren (Kaipa, Zappa, Mats/Morgan) all got suckered into being on this album. Some of them are on here more than once too! Not to mention that this whole thing was released on Trey Spruance's record label Web of Mimicry!

Millard wrote this album not with a message about marketing. His own ideas are found everywhere on this album and in the 222 page companion book of his that goes along with this thing. The music is insane on this album. It will appeal to fans of all different kinds of music. Mostly progressive in style (there are a few that are more like commercials and infommercials), each song is humorous while managing to avoid sounding dated or cliche.

This is an album that is about one man's frustration with the music world, and why wouldn't Millard be frustrated? His music is far beyond that of many other artists these days and yet he recieves almost no recognition. I'll just come out and say that I can't believe more people haven't heard of him on this website. I'd think this place would love what he does. This album is enough to make any progressive music lover happy for an incredibly long period of time. It's 3 cds long!!!! This album is something you can't regret buying, you won't be able to permit yourself to feel anything but fulfillment after obtaining this Commercial Magnum Opus. So what are you waiting for? Go look it up and buy it!!!

It seems strange that Millard would start out this strong and release such a poop turd of an album afterward (To Hell with...). There are 53 tracks of interestingly thought out goofball goodness on this release and it is not only the foundation for James Pitts and the Boy with the Perfectly Square Butthole, but it also portrays Millard's potential which he eventually got together and put to excellent use with the De-Evolution of Yasmine Bleeth EP and, his triple disc masterpiece: How to Sell the Whole F#@!ing Universe to Everybody...Once and for all!

From the beginning, Millard has the support of many different people such as Devin Townsend (Millard use to sell Townsend's albums on his website and he almost got to play on Devin's masterpiece Infinity), and Mike Portney (Millard interrupted a Dream Theater concert to give him a demo, a year later Mike bought on of Millard's albums from his website). This insane masterminded music virtuoso really let everyone have it with his first album, this thing is a beast diguised as a quarky video game loving goofball. Highly recommended for musicians, those who enjoy music that is hard to keep up wth, people who have a sense of humor, and the insane.