t.Mule

written by John Liberty

For years, he chased unsuspecting college students from various open-mic nights with his raucous freak-show rock music and on-and-off stage antics that would make even Raoul Duke hide under the covers.

The Mule, whose real name is Sean Lamborne, is a 2002 Western Michigan University graduate who has been living in Somerville, Mass., outside of Boston, since September. He will return to the town of his many musical crimes at 7 p.m. Tuesday to perform at Ravenwood Coffee, 773 W. Michigan Ave. This time he'll be carrying his debut EP, ``The Earth Is Hungry,'' which he wrote and recorded in the past few months.

``It will be a mixture of rock 'n' roll and folk tunes and there will be an element of weirdness,'' The Mule said of his live show during a phone interview from Somerville.

The Mule's five-track EP contains songs about love separated by great distances, loneliness and drinking whiskey. In addition to presenting his new material, which he said was partially inspired by Tom Waits, Modest Mouse and Iron and Wine, among others, The Mule will hook up with his former collaborator and partner in on-stage insanity Jason Heystek (Divining Rods). The pair made up the notorious duo The Pants, which performed regularly around here before The Mule departed for Boston.

The Mule said they will reunite and perform their brand of ``nonsensical songs'' and ``fun little ditties.''

Opening the show will be Ann Arbor country singer Jen Koppin, whose style is similar to that of her good friend Daisy May.

For more information on The Mule, go to www.myspace.com/mulewax. - Kalamazoo Gazette

Though I really need to just ask Tom for the night's list, because most everyone was simply so spectacular, there were a couple of gems that really stood out. Shortly after Heather and Whitney and Kyle and I sit down, "T. Mule" takes the stage - he's intense and frightening and a cross between country and Satan and was right up there for my personal picks of the night. His first tune was a great country dirge about hunting down his father (and laying him down by his momma, but momma would never take him back) and the second one was apparently about marmalade... I waited for this to become a metaphor, but really, I think it may just have been a tune for the sheer Love of breakfast foods. - Rob Hinkal

written by:
Meredith Goldstein

The Mule headlines
tonight’s ‘‘Other Side of
the Bear’’ acoustic series
at T.T.’s. The folk-rock
singer is sometimes loud
like his classic-rock and
country influences, and
sometimes soft and gruff
like Tom Waits. The
Detroit rocker who now
lives here plays at 10:10.
Caleb Aronson and Theories
Revisited open at
8:30. Tickets: $3. T.T. the
Bear’s, 10 Brookline St.,
Cambridge, 617-492-2327.
www.ttthebears.com - Boston Globe