New Bedford, MA post-rockers Blind Mice is streaming “Nervous,” off their Nervous Digital EP out March 17, 2015 via Animal Style Records, here.
Especially in a place like New Bedford, MA, a frequent victim of winter’s worst, a band like Blind Mice could only be formed in the summer. Their high energy level, penchant for crunchy guitars, and catchy choruses all call back to warm temperatures. Even on slower songs, Blind Mice still works from a heightened level of intensity that, while unconventional, works flawlessly and gives the band the ability to stand out as something truly special.
Fueled by nostalgia for 90s alt-rock and 2000s emo, but inspired enough to create music that’s far from rehashed, Blind Mice make it no easy task to wrap them into a neat little box of genre descriptions. They so freely and effortlessly incorporate elements of Third Eye Blind, Weezer, Polar Bear Club, and Jimmy Eat World into their music, that an attempt to give their impressive style-bending sound a valid description turns into a laundry list of genres clumsily tagged together with excessive hyphenation and far too many “meets” and “mixed with’s.” That’s not to say they’re unfocused – quite the opposite, in fact. After the release of the their first EP, the Comedown EP, in 2014, Blind Mice wasted no time. They got right back to work on a brand new EP in an impressive display of prolific determination, and headed into the studio with Clinton Lisboa at Sound Box Recording.
The resulting Sunday Songs functions as a cohesive unit in a manner that so many modern bands fail to achieve. Each song serves a deliberate role within the context of the whole, allowing the listener enough variety to find something new within every track. Guitarist A.J. Mills blurs the line between rhythm and lead guitar without trampling the rest of the band. He syncs up seamlessly with bassist JoJo Rose and drummer Mike Ashley to provide the perfect backdrop for Ross Nunes’ passionately delivered vocals.