Paper Mice are back with the three-song covers EP, Neurotic City!
These aren’t so much covers as they are complete page-one rewrites. The band has reimagined three well-known anthems, dismantling and reassembling them into their signature brand of puzzling post-punk peculiarity. And to make this special release extra special, they’ve enlisted the vocal talents of three of Chicago’s most talented vocal talents – Nnamdi Ogbonnaya (NNAMDÏ, Monobody, Sooper Records), Miranda Winters (Melkbelly, Mandy), and Calvin Fredrickson (Gerund, Sewing Needle).
The three songs also neatly trace the nearly 20-year history of the band. Tina Turner’s “Private Dancer” recalls the more punk-forward aggressiveness of their debut Paint It Pink, while “Love Will Keep Us Together” hints at the melodicism that emerged on their sophomore album, The Funny Papers. Their most recent reworking of ABBA’s “S.O.S.” embodies some of the eccentricity and heaviness from their latest record, 1-800-MONDAYS. Fans of Paper Mice will be delighted to hear the band’s oddball takes on these classic songs, while uninitiated listeners who unintentionally click on these unconventional versions while searching for the original recordings will be… um… surprised?
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. Over the years, they’ve toured and/or performed with musical peers Pinback, NNAMDI, Meat Wave, Melkbelly, Oozing Wound, and The Spektral Quartet, amongst others. Influences include The Beach Boys, The Residents, Abba, The Talking Heads, Nomeansno, This Heat, and Susana Baca.
Neurotic City EP:
Love Will Keep Us Together (feat. Calvin Fredrickson)
Private Dancer (feat. Nnamdï AKA Nnamdi Ogbonnaya)
S.O.S. (feat. Miranda Winters)