[1] With Millar and Mark Gane as guitarists, and Johnson as lead vocalist, this is the line up that debuted at an Ontario College of Art Hallowe'en party in October 1977.
Martha and the Muffins' 1981 album This Is the Ice Age, produced by Daniel Lanois and the band, was recorded in Toronto and Hamilton, Ontario.
More experimental than previous efforts, it also gained significant Canadian radio airplay from the singles "Women Around the World at Work" (a No.
Shortly after the album's release, Tim Gane decided he did not want to tour, and left the band; he was replaced by new drummer Nick Kent.
Despite critical acclaim, This Is the Ice Age did not spin off any hit singles outside of Canada, and Virgin dropped the band from their roster.
[1] After the tour for This Is the Ice Age, Haas left the band over creative differences in a public spat carried out in the "letters to the editor" column of Toronto's NOW.
The band, now a quartet (Martha Johnson, Mark Gane, Jocelyne Lanois, and Nick Kent), signed to Canadian indie label Current Records, distributed by RCA.
"[4] The album's title track was another top 40 single in Canada and, for the Danseparc tour, the group was augmented by auxiliary players including guitarist Michael Brook.
[1] The duo's 1984 album Mystery Walk was again co-produced by Daniel Lanois with Gane and Johnson, and it featured a large sticker crediting the band as "M + M o/k/a Martha and the Muffins".
Guest players included drummer Yogi Horton, bassist Tinker Barfield, and the Brecker Brothers on horns.
[5] Although the lead single, "Song in My Head", garnered them some airplay (and was another top 40 hit in Canada), the album sold poorly.
After the disappointing sales of Modern Lullaby, and a new family situation to consider, Johnson and Gane essentially shut down the band and moved to other projects for the next several years.
[1] Credited simply to "Martha", the album was an M+M/Martha and the Muffins project in all but name, as the record was written, arranged and produced by Gane and Johnson.
Then in 2005, they performed a number of reunion shows in Toronto, including a double bill with the also-reunited Parachute Club on 14 May.
In June 2008, Martha and the Muffins began work on a new album, to be called Delicate, in collaboration with producer David Bottrill.
Johnson's M+M/Muffins partner Mark Gane was involved in every stage of the album, co-producing all 11 tracks, playing on nine, and co-writing seven.
After another long layoff from being an active performing entity, Martha and the Muffins released a video and downloadable song in May 2020 called "Stay Home and Dance".
A reworking of the 1984 M+M track "Come Out and Dance", the new song and video was released in response to the stay-at-home orders surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic.