Battle of Mice - A Day of Nights

Battle of Mice is a Neurot records super-group of sorts. I'm a complete fan of banshee-like, tortured female vocalists and Julie Christmas (Made Out of Babies) delivers just that on A Day of Nights. I've read in some places that Christmas showed up for some of the recording sessions without any written lyrics and simply improved the session. Whether this is true or not, Christmas delivers some very haunting and sometimes disturbing lyrics.

Backing her are Josh Graham (Red Sparrowes) on guitars/keyboards; Tony Maimone (Book of Knots) on bass; and Joel Hamilton on drums, who has worked with Sparklehorse, Unsane, Frank Black, Elvis Costello, Talib Kweli, Tom Waits and a host of other projects.

The musical content definitely falls into the realm of post-rock and shoegaze with a mix of ambient soundscapes that only help to increase the haunting charm of Christmas's vocals.

While some listeners may find it hard to wrap their head around Christmas's vocal stylings, give the record a chance before tossing it into the circular file.

Battle of Mice - A Day of Nights (2006)

"The Lamb and the Labrador" (6:56)
"Bones in the Water" (5:21)
"Sleep and Dream" (5:58)
"Salt Bridge" (5:49)
"Wrapped in Plain" (5:32)
"At the Base of the Giant's Throat" (9:10)
"Cave of Spleen" (7:16)

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