Battle of Mice

Lore & Background

Battle of Mice was formed when vocalist Julie Christmas and guitarist/keyboardist Josh Graham met in Austin, Texas while touring with their respective bands in 2005. Graham and Christmas were in an on-again-off-again relationship during the recording of the band's debut album, A Day of Nights. Released under Neurot Recordings, the album contains seven tracks heavily influenced by the metal, post-rock and noise rock roots from which the group was derived. The song 'At the Base of the Giant's Throat' features a recorded 911 call between vocal sections.

In March 2008, Josh Graham revealed in an interview that Battle of Mice was currently 'on an indefinite hiatus.' He also said that the band recorded two songs, about nine months after A Day of Nights was finished, for a split EP with Jesu on the Robotic Empire label. The EP was released on August 4, 2008. On September 3, 2009, a blog was posted on the band's MySpace page stating that the band was parting ways.

The band's members included Julie Christmas (ex-Made Out of Babies) on vocals, Josh Graham (ex-Neurosis, ex-Red Sparowes, A Storm of Light) on guitars, keyboards, and vocals, Joel Hamilton (Book of Knots) on guitar, Tony Maimone (Book of Knots, Pere Ubu) on bass, and Joe Tomino (Fugees, Dub Trio, Peeping Tom) on drums.

Reader's Guide

Battle of Mice occupies a notable place in the post-metal landscape as a supergroup that brought together musicians from influential acts such as Neurosis, Made Out of Babies, and Pere Ubu. Their sole studio album, A Day of Nights, is recognized for its fusion of metal, post-rock, and noise rock, and for the inclusion of a recorded 911 call in the track 'At the Base of the Giant's Throat.' The band's brief existence—from formation in 2005 to official dissolution in 2009—produced only a handful of releases, including a split EP with Jesu. Despite their short career, the group is remembered for the intense emotional dynamics between vocalist Julie Christmas and guitarist Josh Graham, which informed the album's recording. Their legacy is primarily carried by the continued influence of their members in other projects and the cult status of A Day of Nights among fans of experimental heavy music.

Did You Know?

• The band's name was derived from a saying by Alexander the Great pertaining to a military invasion of Crete.
• The song 'At the Base of the Giant's Throat' features a recorded 911 call between vocal sections.
• Battle of Mice recorded two songs for a split EP with Jesu, released on August 4, 2008.
• The band officially parted ways on September 3, 2009, as announced on their MySpace page.

Formation & The Supergroup Concept

Battle of Mice emerged as a post-metal supergroup born from a chance encounter in Austin, Texas, in 2005. Vocalist Julie Christmas and guitarist/keyboardist Josh Graham first crossed paths while touring with their respective projects, and the meeting sparked a collaborative ambition that would draw in a remarkable roster of musicians. The final lineup brought together Joel Hamilton on guitar (of Book of Knots), Tony Maimone on bass (known from Book of Knots and Pere Ubu), and Joe Tomino on drums (a name familiar to fans of Fugees, Dub Trio, and Peeping Tom). Christmas herself carried vocal experience from Made Out of Babies, while Graham brought a deep well of influence from his work with Neurosis, Red Sparowes, and A Storm of Light. The band's name itself carried a classical weight, drawn from a saying attributed to Alexander the Great concerning a military invasion of Crete. This confluence of seasoned players from across the metal, post-rock, and noise rock landscapes gave Battle of Mice a distinctly layered sonic identity from its very inception.

A Day of Nights: Recording Under Personal Turmoil

The band's debut full-length, A Day of Nights, was released in 2006 on the Neurot Recordings label and stands as the group's defining statement. The seven-track record draws heavily from the metal, post-rock, and noise rock traditions that shaped its members' individual backgrounds, weaving them into a dense and atmospheric whole. What makes the album's creation particularly compelling is the personal context surrounding it: vocalist Julie Christmas and guitarist Josh Graham were navigating an on-again-off-again romantic relationship throughout the recording sessions, a tension that arguably seeped into the raw emotional intensity of the performances. One track in particular, "At the Base of the Giant's Throat," stands out for its unconventional production choice, embedding a recorded 911 call between vocal sections to create a jarring, documentary-like texture within the song's structure. Alongside this album, the group also issued a split album titled Triad in the same year, further expanding their brief but concentrated output.

The Jesu Split & Indefinite Hiatus

By early 2008, the creative momentum behind Battle of Mice had begun to wane. In March of that year, Josh Graham publicly acknowledged in an interview that the band had entered an indefinite hiatus, signaling to fans that new material was unlikely to materialize in the near future. However, the group was not entirely finished. Approximately nine months after completing A Day of Nights, the band had recorded two additional songs specifically for a collaborative split EP with the post-metal act Jesu. This release, issued on the Robotic Empire label, finally saw the light of day on August 4, 2008, arriving as a posthumous gesture from a project that was already effectively dormant. The Jesu/Battle of Mice split EP thus became the last new music the group would ever produce, a small but significant artifact connecting two distinct post-metal sensibilities. For listeners, it offered a final glimpse of the band's evolving sound before the hiatus became permanent.

Dissolution & Final Legacy

The uncertain limbo of the indefinite hiatus ultimately gave way to a definitive end. On September 3, 2009, a blog entry appeared on the band's MySpace page announcing that Battle of Mice was parting ways, closing the chapter on a project that had existed for barely four years. In the end, the group's recorded legacy was compact but distinctive: the 2006 split album Triad, the 2006 full-length A Day of Nights on Neurot Recordings, and the 2008 split EP with Jesu on Robotic Empire. Three releases in four years captured a concentrated burst of post-metal ambition before the personal and professional lives of its members pulled them in different directions. The band's name, rooted in a saying by Alexander the Great about a military invasion of Crete, lent an almost mythic gravity to what was ultimately a very human story of collaboration, tension, and dissolution. For fans of the post-metal and noise rock underground, Battle of Mice remains a brief but memorable footnote in the broader narrative of 2000s experimental metal.