Music Review: Mice Parade - Mice Parade (2007)

Experience so far has led me to preemptively have high expectations for bands with the word "Parade" in their name. And when you precede that word with the name of a furry mammal, you better have something good besides my hasty, worthless, and undeserved admiration.

Despite the similarity of the name Adam Pierce's band with another band, it turns out "Mice Parade" is what you get when you take the letters that spell "Adam Pierce" and move 'em about. (Clever little anagram.) And he's been putting out albums for five more years than that other as-of-yet unmentioned Canadian band. Oh yeah, and he also drummed for fucking HIM.

Now, many people are uncomfortable with, perhaps even despise, the concept of pigeonholing bands into "genres" and "sub-genres." I, on the other hand, am a whore for classification and genre-ing. If for no other reason than it makes it easier to find other music that you might like. You like your Explosions in the Sky so plug in "Post-Rock" to find Mogwai. You like your LCD Soundsystem so you plug in "Electronic[a]" and find The Knife. Maybe you're going a little crazy, so you put in "Post-Rock" AND "Electronic[a]" and Bingo, you get Mice Parade.

Mice Parade presents one constant that wins me over every time: bad-ass steel guitar playing. Of course, as everyone knows, to be a Post-Rocker you have to have at least two tracks with minimal or no lyrics at all. Check out the ambient and chill "Circle None," as well as the rocking "Snow" for these tracks. I was kind of surprised with the more Pop-y "The Last Ten Homes," then kind of freaked out by the voice of Kristin Anna Valtysdottir from Múm in "Double Dolphins on a Dime." My favorite track, however, was "Satchelaise," which carried a awesome beat and kind of reminded me of Jose Gonzalez.

Speaking of... though it's kind of early to be getting anxious, Jose Gonzalez has his next album, In Our Nature, due out September 25. Other, sooner, releases of some note include:

Interpol - Our Love To Admire
Smashing Pumpkins - Zeitgeist
Spoon - Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
The Might Be Giants - The Else

All due to be release on July 10. Two weeks from now!