The Exploding White Mice were a punk-pop band from Adelaide, Australia in the 1980s. Punk Pop or (Pop Punk) is a musical style which emerged at the on-set of punk rock in 1975 with Americas answer to the Englands Sex Pistols, The Ramones. ... For other uses, see Adelaide (disambiguation). ... The 1980s in its most obvious sense refers to the decade between 1980 and 1989. ...
Their name was taken from a scene in the film Rock 'N' Roll High School, in which a laboratory mouse spontaneously explodes upon being exposed to the music of The Ramones, the band's major influence. The Ramones (L-R, Johnny, Tommy, Joey, Dee Dee) on the cover of their debut self-titled album (1976), cementing their place at the dawn of the punk movement. ...
The band started in 1983 in Adelaide when Paul Gilchrist (vocals) hooked up with Andy MacQueen (bass), Gerry Barrett (guitar) and Craig Rodda (drums) for a one-off show at a party. Paul had never been in a band before, while Andy had been in bands called the Deviants and the Crunch Pets, and Craig was the drummer for the Screaming Believers. The set consisted of covers of their favorite songs, the intent being only to have a laugh. But they had so much fun that they decided to try to get a hotel gig, and they managed to get signed up for a couple nights at a local establishment. One of these shows was attended by Giles Barrow, who had played guitar for bands called Zippy and The Coneheads and Kaos. He ended up joining as rhythm guitar player. By mid 1984 these five started playing a regular gig at the Cathedral Hotel in the north of Adelaide. Towards the end of the year Gerry left and was replaced by former Spitfire and Tombstone Shadow Jeff Stephens, who was a friend of Giles.
The band hit it big in late 2005 with their single "Looper5920 is a Fucking Cuntbag" because of the songs universal message against censorship and generally being an asshole.
At any rate, things had gotten off to a fairly flying start for the ExplodingWhiteMice, but 1986 and 1987 have to rate as years of consolidation in which they played fairly steadily both in Adelaide and interstate to Melbourne and Sydney.
A new lp entitled The ExplodingWhiteMice is finished and should be out as you read this (this being the writers way of saying he ain't got it to tell you about it, but don't let that stop you!).
Aside from their powerhouse music, the Mice have a refreshingly honest and realistic viewpoint of being in a band that I'm convinced can be heard in their playing as well.
Thus the new Mice lp Collateral Damage has every bit of the power of their early records, showing the band take a step forward when their contemporaries are treading water or falling back.
The change may have actually recharged things; where many bands start to sound stale after several years, the new Mice album has a very fresh feel to it, and a lot of it is due to the new vocal sound.
He'd been singing with the ExplodingWhiteMice for seven years and was sick of it (fair enough!).
Feeds |
Contact