When I first started really getting into Punk Rock and bands from smaller labels and such, one of the first bands that really made an impact on me was The Mice. Funny too because it was them and the Hard-Ons that quickly became my two favorites of the time. Both were from Australia.
I guess they took their name from the mouse scene in "Rock And Roll High School".
A Friend of mine Kevin, had brought over a pile of records for me to check out, and we ended up listening to his some-what small, but awesome catalog for that entire summer.
Included on the soundtrack from that summer ('88) was Dayglow Abortions - "Feed Us A Foetus", Rudimentary Peni - "Death Church", a couple records by the Lime Spiders, Peace Corpse - "Terror Of History", a bunch of Dead Kennedys, a shit-ton of Ramones, The Exploding White Mice - "In A Nest Of Vipers", and The Hard-Ons self titled L.P. which was an American issue of "Smell My Finger" with The Girl In The Sweater" single added to it.
I associated the "Mice" with the Ramones a lot, because I thought of them as "The Australian Ramones", some time later I would learn that I wasn't the only one with this particular point of view.
I just assumed it was because we were listening to a lot of Ramones as well.
Both the Hard-Ons L.P., and the Mice L.P. (E.P.?) were on Bigtime Records. Which I'm assuming had some deal with Aussie labels like Greasy and Waterfront since that's what both of these records were on. "In a Nest Of Vipers" was originally released in Australia on Greasy in 1985 titled "A Nest Of Vipers".
A local record store called Northern Lights, had just gone out of business and they ended up throwing a lot of new imports out at a buck or two a piece. I picked up brand new copies of "Black Metal" by Venom (original on Neat), Motorhead "Iron Fist" (Bronze), Motorhead "Bomber" (Bronze) and "Brute Force And Ignorance" (1988) by the Expolding White Mice, on Greasy Records.
Upon my second trip to the blowout sale I found my copy of "In A Nest Of Vipers" (Bigtime). This record really blew me away! It was raw, simple, noisy, everything that was essential to me in a new band. By the time I got into "Brute Force.." I was a full fledged "Mice fuckin' NUT". I still really love them, in fact, I still look them up on regular rounds.
Later on I found two 7" E.p.'s. "Make It" b/w "Ain't It Sad" and "I Just Want My Fun" b/w "The First Time Is The Best Time" and "Do The Crunch"
The latter single seemed a bit more mellow to me at the time, but upon recent spins, it still does the exact same thing to me that the Mice have always done. Not as raw as "Nest", but true to formula.
Somewhere down the line I found a copy of the "Breakdown #2" b/w "Bury Me" 7" that I read a review for. It used to drive me crazy trying to find that 7" after I read about it, but most people I talked to around here didn't really know all that much about the band. Both songs are from "Brute force..", and "Breakdown #2" in my opinion, is probably one of the highest points of the album. And there are a lot!
Just finding articles on the band was hard enough. And even still, I've only found one more copy of "In A Nest.." since. together with the copy that Kevin owned I've only seen three, ever! And I've never found anything else since.
There's two more older 7" singles that I don't have, "Blaze Of Glory" b/w "He's Gonna Step On You Again" (1987), and "Fear (Late At Night)" b/w "Without Warning" (1988).
After Greasy went out of business, they released a half studio/half live album in 1990. It was released on Normal Records from Germany, and NKVD Records in the U.S.A. It was after this release that Paul Gilchrist, the lead vocalist left the group and I've never herd them without him. Those can be testy waters. I know replacing a front man can greatly effect the sound of a band, but I remain optimistic, and eager to hear them without him.
In 1992 thet released an album called "Colateral Damage", and their final album "We Walk Alone" came out in 1994 on Au-Go-Go.
Odds are I'll write something here whenever I find them.
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