Out Now - MouseRocket CD/LP

Mouse Rocket, the newest project from Memphis art-core luminary,
Alicja Trout (Lost Sounds, Fitts, Destruction Unit)combines the native
intensity of the Lost Sounds with delicate and haunting pop
sensibilities reminiscent of Yo La Tengo's best work. Mouse Rocket's
debut is a record driven by a proto-punk engine but enslaved to a sad
and beautiful melody. Evocative and more accessible than past
projects, it paints with a loose hand the face of a culture eroding.
Poised between sterility and wildness, mouserocket spins, like an
unreliable oracle, pointing out visions more than directions and
revelling in the tension between the sweet and the stark.

http://www.emptyrecords.com/empty/releases/record_detail.asp?
intRecordId=219

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VARIOUS MOUSE ROCKET REVIEWS
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Memphis Flyer
Local Record Roundup
by Chris Herrington
... far more accessible is Water Recordings (self-released; Grade: B+)
, from Trout's other band, Mouse Rocket. With local notables such as
Ron Franklin and Big Ass Truck's Robby Grant and Robert Barnett
helping out, Mouse Rocket seems to be an outlet for material not
really suitable for the Lost Sounds, resulting in a sunnier, poppier
sound --more indie-rock and garage-rock --than anything you'll hear on
Rat's Brains.

Much of Water Recordings sounds pre-punk or proto-punk where Rat's
Brains is definitively post-punk, a quality made most explicit by its
two fabulous covers, one of Love's "Alone Again Or" from the band's
summer-of-love psychedelic classic Forever Changes, the other an
infectious reading of the Nuggets' nugget, "Little Black Egg," where
the head-bobbing guitar-and-drum interplay and Trout's sweetly
affectless vocals combine for one of the most enjoyable moments of
local music I've heard all year.

If there's a flaw here, it might be that the record peaks prematurely
with the swooningly catchy indie-rock opener "Missing Teeth" and the
seductive, keyboard-driven new wave of "Darkest Hour." Other than the
choice covers, nothing else on the record touches those two tracks,
though the instrumentally swaggering (and well-titled) "Flash and
Burn" and the straight-up rock-and-roll love song "Set On You" come
mighty close.

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Mouserocket -7 song demo houseofsmut

You'd think being in just one of the greatest bands the world has to
offer would be enough for most folks. Not so for Alicja Trout. Besides
being a member of the Lost Sounds, she's also doing time in this
phenomenal outfit, Mouserocket. Sure to appeal to Lost Sounds fans,
this material only bears a glancing similarity to that band. It's
definitely just as great, though.

From a sonic standpoint, Mouserocket could be considered vaguely
similar to the Lost Sounds--only in that both play a well-written,
sophisticated sounding kind of music which is often synth-driven.
However, while the Lost Sounds could be described as bleak,
Mouserocket illicits adjectives such as dreamy, spacey, and angular.
What's going on with Mouserocket would probably be considered more
indie sounding in its approach. Alicja's voice rarely slips into the
black metal style screamed vocals prominent on many Lost Sounds
tracks. Instead, her voice tends to stay in its natural range with
this material, slipping from time to time into an angelic sounding
falsetto. It all helps make the Mouserocket vibe a little more upbeat.

Now, this is not to say there aren't Mouserocket tracks which will
appeal to Lost Sounds fans--in fact, it all should be easy to embrace.
This is especially true of the songs "Over-Analytic" and "Walking
Lizard," both of which see Alicja slipping into the aforementioned
screamed vocal style. That's only a small part of what this material
is all about, though. There are songs like "Little Black Egg" which
are almost vintage sounding in nature, from a songwriting
standpoint--this particular song being strangely reminiscent of the
One Way Streets track "We All Love Peanut Butter" off the first Back
From The Grave compilation. However, tunes like "Song of Glass" really
capture the essence of Mouerocket--warm and hypnotic beyond words.

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Mouserocket - Water Recordings (demos)
houseofsmut

It's quite a feat to improve on greatness. Listening to the newest
Mouserocket demo, Water Recordings, you'd never know it, though--they
do so with such seeming ease. Over the course of fifteen tracks,
Mouserocket further assert that they must be considered one of the
most exciting and original bands known to mankind.


With Water Recordings, Mouserocket's style remains the same as on
their previous demo. For the most part, this is synth-ified pop with
an indie edge and is without equal. This music is at once fluid and
fractured--reminiscent of past sounds, yet totally fresh. On paper, it
looks contradictory but, to the ear, it's sonic prefection which makes
perfect sense. The key difference in this demo from the last is an
enhanced sound quality. Basically, what this means is that everything
which was great before is even better now--subtle synth parts and
other auxilliary instrumentation are now audible in mix, making
already superbly textured songs jump out of the speakers with a
lushness and sophistication that leaves you breathless.

This being said, a slew of new songs included with the reworked tracks
ensure more to look forward to than just nicer production values when
it comes to Water Recordings. There are several short instrumentals
throughout this collection which are extremely nice, the highlight of
which being the Thinking Fellers Union-esque "Night Stretcher." As far
as vocal material, the best of the new songs has to be the lead-off
track, "Missing Teeth." Absolutely perfect in every conceivable way,
this song will burrow its way into your consiousness and refuse to let
go--extra class points given here thanks to the inclusion of some
flawlessly understated cello work. Water Recordings also benefits from
the inclusion of "Darkest Hour"--one of Mouserocket's best songs, left
sorely missing from the last demo. It's a synth-driven beauty of a
song featuring Alicja's voice in its more subdued, dreamy sounding
range.

It's hard to believe things could get much better than the previous
Mouserocket demo (review here), but they have with Water Recordings.
This is music of rare excellence. Someone really needs to get on the
ball and properly release these recordings because people deserve a
chance to hear this band. In fact, as special as Mouserocket are, it's
a matter of utmost importance.