216 union street
Seattle, Washington 98101

MICE PARADE
Genre: Experimental Rock/Electronica
Related Artists: Tortoise, Mouse on Mars
Most Recent Release: Mice Parade (Fat Cat Records, 2007)

From its outset, Mice Parade has shown a boldly inventive and highly individual take on post-rock / electronica. Following 1998's Bubble Core album, 'The True Meaning Of BoddleyBaye', their first FatCat album, 'Ramda' (‘99), forged a distinctive, immersive audio space of piled-up percussion and atmospheric, hook-laden melodics.2001 saw the release of a third album, ‘Mokoondi’, which marked a shift in the Mice Parade sound, including the increased influence of Eastern harmonics and African beats, and the formation of a proper band of musicians.

What started out as a studio project has since developed into a full touring band, based around the cheng (Chinese harp) and a two-drumkit rhythm section, with HiM’s Doug Scharin on the other kit. Also in accompaniment are vibes, violin, classical guitar, rhodes piano and old synths, forging Mice Parade into a seriously talented and energetic live unit.A new single 'Focus On The Rollercoaster' was released in December 2003, and followed by an album, 'Obrigado Suadade', the following month. This album, Mice Parade's third for FatCat, saw the band moving into a poppier, more accessible terrain, with Pierce introducing full vocals for the first time, including contributions on several tracks by Kristin from múm.

For more information, visit http://fat-cat.co.uk/fatcat/artistInfo.php?id=18

TOM BROSSEAU
Genre: Contemporary Folk, Singer-Songwriter
Related Artists: Nick Drake, Anthony & The Johnsons
Most Recent Release: Grand Forks (Loveless Records, 2007)

Tom Brosseau, a North Dakota native, sings songs of lost love and poetic observation that shimmer like aural tintypes. His songwriting comes from such diverse influences as Nick Drake, Cole Porter, and Woody Guthrie. The ingredient in this mix that will flat out give you chills is Brosseau’s voice, which sounds eerily like a high-lonesome reincarnation of Jeff Buckley.

Brosseau stands out from the populous independent song-slinger pack. With his high, limber and sometimes vibrato-colored voice, he seems to float between masculine and feminine vocal qualities. Brosseau’s playing elicits a hushed reverence from admiring listeners blessed with the intimacy and emotional immediacy of his live performances. He is a cherished treasure in Los Angeles, and a fixture at the revered club Largo. He makes instant connections with audiences everywhere he plays, and has managed to sell out of his two self-released records.

Tom’s newest effort, What I mean to say is Goodbye, is a record that touches on, in Brosseau’s words, “abandoned buildings, new love, the praireland, being haunted, roaming around, and being thrilled and killed.” It is the work of a master storyteller, who draws from such diverse influences as Marty Robbins, Led Zeppelin, Bob Dylan, Nick Drake, and Billie Holiday. The record has that quality of an intimate conversation at the next table that you just can’t pull your ear away from. Brosseau’s voice is center stage, supported by his delicate guitar playing and a cast of players that drop in and out of the recording providing subtle responses to Brosseau’s lyrics. He can be hauntingly moody and atmospheric, and avoids easy garden-variety verse-chorus-bridge song structures in his writing. Brosseau is on to something new by way of something old — deep, heartbreaking, and entirely worth hearing.

For more information, visit http://www.tombrousseau.com

Opener Kira Kira

Kira Kira is Kristín Björk Kristjánsdóttir’s one-girl band, most of the time although kite symphonies and dictaphone orchestras sometimes play along. She’s a founding member of Icelandic art collective Kitchen Motors. For the past 10 years or so she has tinkered with noises in bands such as Spúnk (not to be confused with the Swedish one missing the comma), Big Band Brútal, Stórsveit Sigríðar Níelsdóttur and as Kira Kira since autumn 1999 when she lived in Japan. She has composed music for theatre, dance and movies and performed \ exhibited in various odd places in the world –on shelves, in church towers and parking lots.

Skotta, Kira Kira’s debut album was released on Smekkleysa Records (Bad Taste Ltd) in 2006. Kira Kira is also a visual artist and her work is often a staged haunting of some sort created with sound, smoke, wind machines and light presented in cinematic installations or on film –always with horror, awe and silliness at heart: Singing black holes, duels between smoke machines or black slime blubber, beset tape recorders, eternal explosions, trembling doors. And somewhere there’s always someone dying of laughter or romance.

The relationship between adventurous music and primitive moving arts is of particular interest to Kira Kira. She creates performances where physical visuals such as remote controlled ghosts and blood driven cowboy hats floating in thin air with a bullet hole through the middle are set in context with electronic music, sometimes blending in theatrical elements, home made 16 mm film or anything that serves the mood for each show. She either plays solo, singing and toying with small acoustic events and a classical guitar inside electronic textures or with a band that usually consists of random friends whispered on board for each show.

Official Website: http://www.tripledoor.com

Added by lele on May 17, 2007