Just in...Mice Parade: What it Means to be Left-Handed

    Mice Parade is a group that hails from NYC, led by percussionist Adam Pierce. Hardly coincidence, Adam Pierce is an anagram for Mice Parade. Other members are from various groups: Doug Scharin (HiM or His Imperial Majesty), Dylan Cristy (The Dylan Group), Rob Laakso, Caroline Lufkin--who I assume is the female vocals--, Dan Lippel and Josh McKay (Macha). Mice Parade is on the Fat Cat Records label, and has a fairly extensive discography dating back to their first release in 1998. Pierce also used to have his own record label, Bubble Core Records, which has produced albums for HiM.
     Mice Parade is a trifecta of interesting styles: indie post-rock, shoegaze and flamenco. Their album released today, What it Means to be Left-Handed, has, however, expanded their sound to also include tidbits of plain old indie rock and electronica too. What defines Mice Parade, though, is their driving complex at times rhythms, soft even wispy vocal tones and brilliant use of hemiola and mixed meters. The influence of flamenco is evident there and the use of folk, world instruments (i.e. ukulele, hammered dulcimer, mallet percussion, etc.), or simply mixing their guitar sound to resemble such is fresh and well implemented. The other groups certain members are a part of--HiM, The Dylan Group, Macha, as well as the experimental post-rock group múm from Iceland that has close ties to Mice Parade are all similar in their use of experimental instrumentation and combining of various styles.
    Other albums I also enjoy are Bem-Vinda Vontade (2005) and self-titled Mice Parade (2007), but I have not really listened to the earlier releases. It is interesting that their earlier compositions seem more eclectic than they are now, but unlike many groups that lose their identity and grow stale, I think Mice Parade has improved its focus and created an even better sound as a result. I'm tired of writing out entire track listings, and I don't think anyone cares that much anyway, unless I discuss specific songs, so I'm not going to anymore. Instead, go to this site and hear the entire 13 track album on the Fat Cat Records release page:
http://fat-cat.co.uk/fatcat/release.php?id=329. I believe their whole discography can be previewed there as well, full tracks even--worth checking out. (EDIT: they have since updated their website, check here instead, and listen to clips of, not full songs--sorry!)
    I've also uploaded the seventh track, "Old Hat" to the MixPod player. It thoroughly displays the talent and ingenious use of hemiola, almost poly-rhythm, with the post-rock influenced looming electronic chords in the background, and the underlying acoustic foundation. The drum set laying down the duple and the guitars in triple, plus the piano in fours sometimes is really quite brilliant and this group deserves a lot of props for their ingenuity. When I first heard Mice Parade almost a year ago, I knew they were special, but I didn't know they could possibly become one of my favorite groups. We'll see.