(HUDSON, N.Y.) – Experimental rock outfit Mice Parade performs as an acoustic trio at Club Helsinki on Friday, April 20, 2012, at 9 p.m. The long-time project of bandleader/visionary Adam Pierce, Mice Parade is an experimental music group that connects disparate strains of post-rock, electronica, and outré folk music, creating a playful, twee sound all its own – the group can sound like Bjork one minute, Radiohead the next, My Bloody Valentine down the hall and Devendra Banhart an hour later.

Joining founder and multi-instrumentalist Adam Pierce will be classical guitar virtuoso Dan Lippel and a special guest Icelandic female vocalist. The newly quieter threesome, featuring Pierce on vocals, guitar and Spanish cajón drum, will perform reworked versions of material spanning Mice Parade’s kaleidoscopic catalogue, including the debut of several songs from its ninth studio album, Candela, slated for release this fall on FatCat Records.

Throughout its impressive career, Mice Parade has explored post-rock, IDM, African rhythms, Spanish flamenco, indie rock, instrumental, Tropicália and more. Next up, the always unpredictable Pierce and his cohorts have an album of catchy shoegaze pop on the way. The band’s ninth studio album, Candela, will be their first ever using standard tuning.

The experimental post-rock of New York’s Mice Parade, aka Adam Pierce, blends live instrumentation, layers of overdubs, and intricate percussion into a distinctive, playful sound. Mice Parade’s 1998 debut single, “My Funny Friend Scott,” introduced Pierce’s genre-bending style, which he expanded on with that year’s full-length debut, The True Meaning of Boodleybaye. On 1999’s Ramda, Pierce upped the ante once more by recording the tracks and mixing the album in one take, lending it an improvised feel. The year 2000 saw the release of Collaborations, which featured contributors like Curtis Harvey, Jim O’Rourke, Doug Scharin, Aki Tsuyoko, and Nobukazu Takemura.

Pierce formed a loose recording and touring band around Mice Parade in 2001, the year of Mokoondi, and also added harmonic influences from Africa and India. Vocals were the next frontier, introduced on 2004’s and expanded upon with 2005’s Bem-Vinda Vontade, 2007’s self-titled Mice Parade, and 2010’s What It Means to Be Left-Handed.

Mice Parade was originally the solo project of New Yorker Adam Pierce, who has also played in Swirlies, The Dylan Group, HiM, múm, and Philistines Jr.

From its outset, Mice Parade showed a boldly inventive, highly individual take on instrumental music and electronica. Following 1998’s Bubble Core album, The True Meaning Of BoddleyBaye, their first FatCat album, Ramda, forged a distinctive, immersive audio space of piled-up percussion and atmospheric, hook-laden melodics.

2001 saw the release of a third album, Mokoondi, which marked a shift in the Mice Parade sound, including the increased influence of Eastern harmonics and African beats, and the formation of a proper band of musicians. What started out as a studio project has since developed into a full touring band, based around a two-drumkit rhythm section, with HiM’s Doug Scharin on the other kit. Also in accompaniment are vibes, violin, classical guitar, Fender Rhodes keyboard and old synths, and a variety of acoustic / world instruments, forging Mice Parade into a seriously talented, energetic live unit.

Focus On The Rollercoaster was released in December 2003, followed sharply by the LP, Obrigado Suadade, the following month. This album, Mice Parade’s third for FatCat, saw the band moving into poppier, more accessible terrain, with Pierce introducing full vocals for the first time, including contributions on several tracks by Kristin from múm. The subsequent LP, Bem-Vinda Vontade, expanded this theme, albeit with more sonic emphasis on FX driven indie-rock guitars.

Featuring guest vocals from Letitia Sadier and Kristin Valtisdóttir, Mice Parade’s June 2007 eponymous offering, could be seen as a refined take on the ground made over the previous two, merging folk-tinged electronica with the ‘Loveless’ era swoon of My Bloody Valentine, the rhythmic subtlety of Can, and the opaque melodic experiments of Brian Eno. Yet as ever, Mice Parade’s sound is essentially modern, informed by an esoteric palette, retaining a familiar acoustic presence via an uncliched take on folk/world influences.

Mice Parade released a new album – the frolicking, giddy-paced and critically acclaimed What It Means To Be Left-Handed – in September 2010, followed by an extensive tour of the UK and Europe.

For reservations in The Restaurant or in the club call 518.828.4800