Tag Archives: The Mice

Donewaiting 9: Bill Fox

MP3: Bill Fox – I Only Did it Cuz I Felt So Lonely
MP3: The Mice – Little Rage

I think we’ve spent plenty of time talking about Bill Fox’s two solo albums and most recent record, One Thought Revealed, so let’s take a second to revisit Fox’s beginnings with Cleveland power-pop band The Mice. Fox started the band with his drummer brother, Tommy Fox, eventually bringing bassist Ken Hall on board. The For Almost Ever EP came out in 1985, and it made a believer out of many, including Bob Pollard, who shares Fox’s love of tasty hooks and faux English accents. “Not Proud of the USA” is like a Cleveland kid’s version of the Sex Pistols.

A full-length, Scooter, followed in ’86, adding some jangle to the fuzz and further perfecting that mix of power and pop. (Superchunk later covered the track “Bye Bye Kitty Cat.”) You can now download both releases as one, For Almost Ever Scooter, courtesy Scat Records. A final album, Canterbury Bells, was never released, but you can probably find it if you dig around the Internets a bit. Continue reading

Bill Fox reveals new album details in interview

Bill Fox at the Treehouse, July 2010

Bill Fox — he of Cleveland’s The Mice, subject of Joe Hagan’s 2007 legend-establishing piece in The Believer and an Overlooked in Ohio alum — hasn’t released any new music since his two decade-old solo albums, Transit Byzantium and Shelter from the Smoke (the latter of which was reissued on vinyl in 2009 by Robert Griffin‘s Scat Records.) Nor has Fox granted an interview in years.

So I didn’t expect much more than a polite decline when I contacted Fox about his upcoming Columbus show on Saturday (details below). To my surprise, he emailed responses to some questions and revealed a new album coming in January:

As far as new material is concerned, there will indeed be an album released in January. The record is titled One Thought Revealed and will appear on Jar Note Records, a label which is being created by [friend and manager] Tim Rossiter. The CD was recorded autumn 2009 into last year with a couple of tracks written right around that time, a couple others around the millennium’s turn and several more 2006/2007, to the best of my recollect.

Read the full interview over at The Other Paper, where Fox also talks about Nada Surf’s cover of “Electrocution” and his song “Men Who are Guilty of Crimes,” which soundtracks a recent Occupy Wall Street video by ex-Clevelander Michael Nigro.

Bill Fox will play Cafe Bourbon St. (2216 Summit St.) Saturday (11/5) alongside acoustic sets from Jim McKeivier and Marcy Mays (Scrawl). Doors at 9 p.m. Cover: $6.

Video: The Mice (live in Cleveland, 1988)

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Recorded on June 4, 1988 at Mather Courtyard on the campus of Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland Ohio, power-pop legends THE MICE perform two songs that began their appearance on the WRUW radio series LIVE FROM CLEVELAND.