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Music

Meet the Band

A look at a band with local connections.

By JULIE GARISTO
Published June 22, 2006

Mouse Fire

MEMBERS: Joey Bruce, vocals and guitar; Shane Schuch, guitar, keyboards, programming and BGV; Aaron Venrick, drums; and Cory Carmichael, bass.

HOME BASE: Polk County

FORMED: January

WHAT THEY SOUND LIKE: Not the easiest band to categorize, Mouse Fire takes the modern touches of indie-pop and applies them to traditional pop song structure. You can hear influences of middle-of-the-road '70s pop with dancey rhythms, plus the Beatles mixed with contemporary bands as disparate as No Knife and the Dismemberment Plan.

"We don't just want to play bar chords," Schuch says. "We play unique minor chords, chords with emotion behind them."

WHAT'S IN A NAME? Schuch says he got it from a news segment on Bay News 9 about 81-year-old Luciano Mares, who threw a rodent onto a pile of burning leaves in his back yard in New Mexico. The mouse ran into the house, and the place went up in flames.

KILLER DOUBLE-HEADER: Two tunes that stand out, Mexican Weather and Goes Around Comes Around, are on the band's self-titled CD.

DAYTIME LIVES: Schuch - "I'm a house-husband, dad." Venrick - "I'm between jobs." Carmichael - "Server for Garfield's." Bruce - "I work on a golf course."

THE LENNON TO HIS MCCARTNEY . . . OR VICE VERSA? Though Bruce is the front man, Shuch operates as band leader, handling Mouse Fire's publicity and arranging songs. His idol is John Lennon, but he comes across more as a McCartney, the responsible one who's sentimental about his love of music and family. Meanwhile, Bruce is a bit more obtuse, spouting off sarcasm and irreverence in true Lennon style.

"I'm like the Scotty Pippin to Shane's Michael Jordan," Bruce says.

FAMILY TIES: Bruce and Carmichael are cousins. Carmichael, the youngest at 18, doesn't say much about his background, except that he used to play in a jazz band in high school.

"I can't believe how talented he is for his age," Bruce says.

EARLY SUCCESSES: In the short time Mouse Fire has been together, it has played several times a month, gotten 4,000-plus hits on MySpace (www.myspace.com/mousefire) and is one of four local bands invited to play at the St. Petersburg stop of the Vans Warped Tour. It finished in 15th place out of 4,500 acts in Verizon's online contest "Calling All Bands."

FROM THE HEART: "Mouse Fire is the brainchild of four guys who believe in music more than anything else," Schuch says. "I was missing something when we weren't playing (the band had a six-month hiatus while forming last year). I was in the deepest, darkest depression. Once I heard Joey's songs and Cory was onboard, and Aaron was playing drums, then everything just came together."

CHECK 'EM OUT: At 10 a.m. Friday before the Vans Warped Tour in Vinoy Park, downtown St. Petersburg; and on Saturday during Summer Jam 2 music festival at New World Brewery, 1313 E Eighth Ave., Ybor City. The event runs from 3 p.m. to 3 a.m. Mouse Fire is scheduled to go on at 9. Cover is $10. www.mousefire.net.

[Last modified June 21, 2006, 10:07:01]