The band grew out of the solo recording projects of Bloomington, IN raised Alex Arnold. After spending his teen years digging through his dad's vinyl collection of vintage prog greats and self-recording in his parent's basement, Arnold went on to study music theory and earn a B.A. in Music Composition, focusing on 20th-century composition techniques, electronic music, and orchestral writing.
At his home studio, now in Portland, Arnold collaborates with friends to flesh out !mindparade's recordings and live iterations. Their output is as kaleidoscopic as their influences, resulting in albums that balance varied stylistic tendencies- from rock to pop to experimental noise- and live shows that feature a revolving lineup of players.
!mindparade self-released it’s debut record Everything Is Happening in Bloomington, Indiana, in 2012, described by NUVO magazine as “an ambitious low-fi bedroom symphony marked by flourishing psychedelic arrangements and dreamy tunes that recall everything from Deerhunter to T. Rex to the Elephant 6 Collective”. The band went on to release Hero EP (2013) and Dead Mystics (2015) on tape cassette and vinyl via Tree Machine Records, followed by Aleatoric Phase (2017), which featured ambient avant-garde synth explorations.
In 2020 the group founded their own label, Neon Underground Archives, in Portland, OR, in order to self-release their experimental rock album entitled Hypertonic. The LP is a sprawling epic of indie-orchestration, touching on everything from 20th century atonalism to post-modern minimalist composition like Steve Reich. There are smacks of grungey fuzz laden guitar riffs, huge moog bass swells, and even samples from the late Frank Zappa and Sun Ra, distorted and squeezed through psychedelic speakers and smatterings of effects
Currently, the band has started performing around the Portland metro area for the first time since COVID-19, and is slated to perform at the local Buddystock Festival outside of Hood River, OR, on August 28th. Rumor is that there is an acoustic oriented EP in the works, for which they are testing new material out live. Influences in the new tunes include the likes of 70s folk luminaries like Nick Drake and The Grateful Dead. With !mindparade's orchestral sound and experimental bent, though, it is likely to be more complicated than that. Each new release that the band
In 2020 the group founded their own label, Neon Underground Archives, in Portland, OR, in order to self-release their experimental rock album entitled Hypertonic. The LP is a sprawling epic of indie-orchestration, touching on everything from 20th century atonalism to post-modern minimalist composition like Steve Reich. There are smacks of grungey fuzz laden guitar riffs, huge moog bass swells, and even samples from the late Frank Zappa and Sun Ra, distorted and squeezed through psychedelic speakers and smatterings of effects
Currently, the band has started performing around the Portland metro area for the first time since COVID-19, and is slated to perform at the local Buddystock Festival outside of Hood River, OR, on August 28th. Rumor is that there is an acoustic oriented EP in the works, for which they are testing new material out live. Influences in the new tunes include the likes of 70s folk luminaries like Nick Drake and The Grateful Dead. With !mindparade's orchestral sound and experimental bent, though, it is likely to be more complicated than that. Each new release that the band
