Click the picture to

download the new single December 17th

Double Door

Magatha Trysty

10,000 Light Years

The Elements of Stlye

Tickets



January 4th

Schubas

Innkeepers

Shiloh

Tickets



January 24th

Cole's

Jacob Horn Trio

Big Dammit

Info





Click Ryan to buy, buy, buy! Bandcamp moonerband.com Facebook Twitter Email YouTube Mooner sub-Reddit DECEMBER 2013 Hi everybody,



Wow, you did not at all receive Mooner mail last month. How do you feel about that? Are things okay? Are you upset? If you are, I'm sorry. If you're one of the 40 people that opens this email every month and you are not upset then God bless you. Quenchers, Oct. 30, 2013 | Mooner plays Zevon October was a good month for shows. We did an apartment show above a church with Aerial Ballet Records. We played to a jam-packed jam-band audience at Tonic Room. We impressed even ourselves with our ability to play seven Warren Zevon songs in a row. We also enjoyed a nice set by Vaudveleins and their impeccable Guns N' Roses set.



What were things like in November? We didn't do anything. I recorded some demos. Whatever, it was the holidays. Mooner

Magatha Trysty

10,000 Light Years

The Elements of Style



Tuesday, Dec. 17th

Double Door

8PM | $7

However, on December 17th we're playing a show with a local bill of Magatha Trysty , 10,000 Light Years and The Elements of Style . I used to work with the guys in Magatha Trysty and 10,000 Light Years so during the on-stage banter you'll get to hear all sorts of workplace in-jokes that have no doubt developed since I left my old job. We've never played the Double Door before so I'm excited to be introduced to the very same stage on which I saw Jason and the Scorchers and Mission of Burma in 2010. Adam and Taylor have played there before and said that when it's cold there's a draft that goes right over the heads of the audience and hits the band right in the face. That's okay cause we have a new song that is just hot and could use some cooling off. CHICAGO MIXTAPE 2013 We must be charmed because we just got on the Chicago Mixtape for a second time! I listened through it yesterday and I am a fan of this new band called The Pillowhammer and their song 'Meltdown'. The guy kind of sounds like Stephen Merritt or Leonard Cohen.



Click here to download the whole thing for free. It's only good till next week, then it's in the archives. Today I'm gonna write about The Mice's For Almost Ever Scooter. Who knows why, but there's a Mooner Record Club Vol. 6! The Mice - Not Proud of the USA This last week I decided that it's time to start sending out lots and lots of emails to publicize our single that came out almost four months ago and I thought that picking a genre for the band might help writers click on us. I say we're a powerpop band when I send stuff to blogs, radio stations or other uninterested people because 1) self-promotion is what it is 2) some people have powerpop blogs 3) powerpop sounds like a cool word. For some bands this branding is easy because they're a thrash band and there's no two ways about it. Some people put together lots of descriptors until they have obscured the definition and/or confused the reader. Other people say that their band just "sounds like music" or that they "effortlessly blend elements of jazz, folk rock and electronica" or something else ridiculous. It's hard to strike a balance when self-promoting. The eight-year old side of me that wants his parents to appreciate his abstract watercolors thinks he's too good for your pigeonholed definitions, man, and the adult in me thinks that just about any mercenary term that can get the most clicks from a blog guy will suffice for an email subject. I think this is partially why bands hire publicists.

Anyway, The Mice are easy to identify with powerpop because they embody the term literally, like Metallica does metal. Frontman Bill Fox writes pop songs with a lot of power. Distorted, double tracked rhythm guitar, bass guitarist plays with a pick, drummer plays Buddy Holly stuff but a lot louder, Bill screams with his beautiful angel voice. Every recording the band has put out sounds like the you're in the middle of the best show they've ever played. Thanks to some post-breakup marketing smarts, you can hear their first two albums in one convenient package with For Ever Scooter. The Mice - Downtown (Live)



I recently saw a show by Chicago rock band Zapruder Point and talked to their singer/guitarist Dan about Bill. I saw that Zapruder Point opened for him only a few months ago at Uncommon Ground, a fauxhemian restaurant in Wrigleyville. I knew from the Believer article that Bill Fox wasn't the warmest guy but I was surprised to see Dan refrain from giggling like a schoolboy at the mention of his name. It was more like we were talking about a distant black sheep in his family. Dan is from Cleveland and last year got in touch with some people that worked with The Mice back in the day. These guys got Bill to come to Chicago to play. Before Dan knew it he was on the bill and playing to a crowd of about 20 to 30 people in the intimate, stageless music room next to the restaurant. Bill was mostly absent during Dan's set, choosing to instead to sit in the basement alone with some beer. After the show, Dan invited Bill to hang out with some people at his apartment and every time they passed the guitar around, Bill would decline. By two or three in the morning, Bill finally agreed and played a song for those that were left. "It was like he was one with his guitar," Dan said. The Mice have all the characteristics of the mythical rock bands that I love and idolize: limited, economical output, roots in American guitar music, a reclusive, angry songwriter with a talent for big hooks and idiosyncratic production methods. I don't understand why they aren't mentioned in the same breath as Big Star or even fellow Ohioans Guided By Voices. Maybe it's a case of the right band at the wrong time. If the excellent profile on Bill Fox by Believer writer Joe Hagan is to be believed, Bill was also aggressively indifferent towards any kind of career in the music industry, displaying more interested in drinking than spending months at a time on the road. While the band had a devoted local following, they lacked a champion on the national front and they dissolved quietly under unknown circumstances. Then a label combined their two albums into one and made it possible for me to buy The Mice on the internet.I recently saw a show by Chicago rock band Zapruder Point and talked to their singer/guitarist Dan about Bill. I saw that Zapruder Point opened for him only a few months ago at Uncommon Ground, a fauxhemian restaurant in Wrigleyville. I knew from the Believer article that Bill Fox wasn't the warmest guy but I was surprised to see Dan refrain from giggling like a schoolboy at the mention of his name. It was more like we were talking about a distant black sheep in his family. Dan is from Cleveland and last year got in touch with some people that worked with The Mice back in the day. These guys got Bill to come to Chicago to play. Before Dan knew it he was on the bill and playing to a crowd of about 20 to 30 people in the intimate, stageless music room next to the restaurant. Bill was mostly absent during Dan's set, choosing to instead to sit in the basement alone with some beer. After the show, Dan invited Bill to hang out with some people at his apartment and every time they passed the guitar around, Bill would decline. By two or three in the morning, Bill finally agreed and played a song for those that were left. "It was like he was one with his guitar," Dan said. Unable to load thumbnail for YouTube Video Id: 1gcVtSHycKw. Please make sure they exist and try again later. # Bill Fox - Over And Away She Goes



That's it-

Lee This is the only time I've ever heard of what Bill Fox is like and he remains a complete stranger to me, so I don't know if he's really a recluse or a drinker. I think it's interesting that his stated disinterest in working in show business makes him that much more interesting to me. Why would someone with the talent and work ethic want to stay off the road and the airwaves? Maybe there has never been enough interest in The Mice to necessitate a tour or a multiple album deal with a label. Maybe it's a mix of both disinterest and missed opportunities. I'm not ready to mark them up as a tragedy of the industry because we did get two solid albums out of the band and some continuously awesome solo records from Bill (start with 1996's Shelter From the Smoke and then 1998's Transit Byzantium ) all the way up to last year. Maybe he'll let me play bass on some Mice shows if I ask.That's it-Lee

The Mice - Little Rage The Canoes should cover this if they ever reunite.