Mice Parade Preview

Mice Parade
Empty Bottle, Chicago
Monday, February 13, 2006

Adam Pierce, aka Mice Parade, sure has a problem with names. His pseudonym sucks, but only a quarter as much as his album titles (Ramda, The True Meaning Of Boodleybaye, Mokoondi, All Roads Lead To Salzburg, Obrigado Saudade, Bem-Vinda Vontade), and then he inevitably gets dumped into a genre called post rock. Ugh. But ain’t nothin’ like soul.

His fondness for xylophone notwithstanding, the emotional core of Mice Parade’s Bem-Vinda Vontade (Fat Cat) is the consistently redeployed nylon-string acoustic guitar. Disallowing the tempered fuzz mulling “Passing & Galloping,” Pierce is helpless when it comes to layering a percussively strummed Yamaha, frequently leading the drums instead of chasing them. Explosions are rife within “The Days Before Fiction,” and Múm’s Kristinn Anna Valtysdottir is eventually run over during “Nights Wave.” It’s an astounding exposition for such a meekly named outfit, one frequently undone by its more conscious decisions.

Del Rey opens.

–Steve Forstneger

Category: Stage Buzz, Weekly