Friday 22 October 2010

Trapped Mice's Trapped Mice EP Kommentary!

It might be a boringly predictable choice, but I'd have Neutral Milk Hotel's In The Aeroplane Over The Sea as one of my all-time favourite albums. Edinburgh's fledgling lo-fi folkists Trapped Mice remind me a bit of Jeff Mangum's cult mob. Earlier this year they brought out their self-titled Trapped Mice EP for free on bandcamp. If you ask me, this collection of songs is very exciting indeed! Let's hear what the EP is all about, straight from the horses mouth, or Ian as he likes to be called...

<a href="http://trappedmice.bandcamp.com/track/secret-letters">Secret Letters by Trapped Mice</a>
"This is a song about being bored. Not the most original story ever I'm sure - country boy in the city, feels like breaking out of the urban trudge, doesn't bother in the end but commits vague aspirational sentiments to song... But that's our first track pretty much nailed. A middle-class cigarettes and alcohol cynically repackaged for the Mumford and Sons generation, if you will. It's worth sticking with because it goes a bit louder at the end - that's another trick we borrowed from other bands! I think it's quite a good introduction to our music and that's why we've opened with it at all four of our gigs so far."

<a href="http://trappedmice.bandcamp.com/track/the-priest-and-the-boy">The Priest and the Boy by Trapped Mice</a>
"This is a love song. If it was a Hollywood B-movie it would probably have the tagline: “Mormon Paedo Attack!!” or maybe "The Bloodening" because that always sounds cool. I wrote this shortly before the latest Catholic abuse scandal, which I guess makes it kind of prophetic. But don't tell anyone!"


"This one is about an ex-circus performer who's down on his luck and decides to come back for one last stunt, in the manner of Houdini/Evel Knievel/the French guy from that film (on their hands a dead star). It's a glorious triumph and a happy ending for all concerned. There was some other stuff as well I think but I don't want to bore people. This one features Brian playing ukulele, a band first!"


"This one's the oldest song we play - I think I wrote it sometime in the spring last year. It's a song about long-distance relationships and how it's probably best not to get too disheartened about the whole thing. It's a song about a love that spans two coastlines, and a song about the M8. I hope that one day they'll use it in the Visit Scotland ads, but that might be wishful thinking (me and my true love will never meet again). I recorded this version before we started playing together and I think it sounds a lot better now - hopefully we'll have a chance to record it properly soon!"

The EP is available for free download over on the band's bandcamp. Just click the cover art above! If you fancy catching them live, then they'll be playing gig numbers 5, 6 and 7 in Edinburgh over the next month or so.

Upcoming Gigs
26th Oct - Southern Bar, Edinburgh
12th Nov - The Wee Red Bar, Edinburgh (The Scottish Enlightenment album launch)
26th Nov - Roxy Art House, Edinburgh (Steve Heron's album launch)

No comments:

Post a Comment