Paper Mice

Paper Mice is a three-piece whirligig from Chicago that blends a freakish range of influences into miniature, prog-punk puzzles. Started in 2008 by Dave Reminick, Adam McCormack, and John Carroll, Taylor Hales took over for Adam on bass duties in 2013, and the band has been writing and performing together since that time. The band is a fixture in Chicago’s tight-knit DIY community, performing their high-wire “stop-start mess of rhythmic tics and awkward face plants” for dance-soaked warehouse hounds throughout the Midwest and East Coast. 

Paper Mice returns with their third full-length, and second for ThreeOneG Records, 1-800-MONDAYS. Still centered on their dense-but-slamming post-punk trio compositions, the arrangements broaden in scope, adding orchestral instruments and Beach Boys-inspired vocal harmonies, while the band incorporates new stylistic elements with occasional Metal riffs and twisted Latin-tinged melodies.

These choices cleverly tie in with the pun-strewn lyrics about bizarre true-life stories: a parrot who flies away from home and returns four years later speaking Spanish; an educator who secretly- and repeatedly- defecates on the school’s track; an arachnophobic driver who tries to kill a spider at the gas pump… with a cigarette lighter! The band also expands their sonic footprint, recording the album at famed Electrical Audio. The ten songs go by quickly, but repeated listens are rewarded with new details and new laughs-- provided you don’t throw your neck out trying to bob your head.