Fragile Porcelain Mice frontman Scott Randall doesn’t have your average punk rock singer’s second job.

And, as a teacher’s aide, he has a hard time relating the two.

“I hate my job as a teacher,” Randall said from his home in Belleville, Ill. “Music is basically my form of release. I can’t punch a kid obviously, so there has to be a way.”

Although his anger has found a way into both of FPM’s records, Randall laughs that he has yet to write a song about the job.

“There’s not any good song material about being a teacher aide,” he said. “Except, for maybe, ‘Hot for the Teacher.'”

Randall said he has a tendency to pick up a pen and paper when he is “pissed.” “It sounds corny but I like to take the negativity and make it positive.”

As esteemed leader of the power angst quartet, Randall is praised in the band’s press kit for his “unpredictable antics.”

“Those press things are so stupid,” Randall said. “I used to wear dresses, but nothing ground-breaking. I guess I do goofy things and people give me stupid clothes to wear, but there’s no pyrotechnics or anything.”

The same press kit describes FPM as “abrasive, yet hypnotic, post punk.” Once again, Randall begs to differ.

“I don’t even know what post punk is,” he said. “I would say we’re a rhythmically based loud rock band. We use dynamics too. I don’t know what the fuck I’m talking about. I’m just rambling.”

Although they do not know what they are, FPM does know what it is not. Supposedly, on a recent tour of New York, the band had a hard time fitting in with the local hard-core bands they were paired up with.

“We weren’t punk rock enough I guess,” Randall said. “These bands we’re playing stuff I listened to back in ’89 that I guess I just forgot all about.”

Randall added that the Midwest crowd they’re used to is much more open-minded. FPM played its first Ames show last month with The Urge at Peoples’.

“It was kind of wild to play a small place like that with The Urge,” Randall said. FPM is used to playing with The Urge in their home town of St. Louis, where Randall said they sell out two nights in row in much larger venues.

“They try to help us out in town,” he said. “Now that we’ve got a crowd of our own, they try to take us out with them as much as they can. I’m really happy for them, they’ve been doing it for 10 years. Not any of that overnight shit.”

FPM is following in the footsteps of The Urge by building a fan base as a live band. Although they’ve released two discs, Frostbidding in 1996 and Amigo de Fuego in 1994, they take the most pride in their live show.

“Being called a live band doesn’t offend me,” Randall said. “We take pride in it. It’s more personable. I think we’re better live than recording, especially for the record label people. They aren’t going to hear a single on our record.”

But if FPM were to ever release a single, Randall said it would probably be “22.”

“I don’t even think about that,” he said. “It’s not like there is anyone knocking our door down to say the least.”

The band will celebrate its five-year anniversary in January. Guitarist Tim O’Saben, bassist Dave Winkeler and drummer Mark Heinz have been playing together in other bands for eight years.

As the story goes, the side project band booked a show after a few months of practice, but had yet to come up with a name.

“I just finished reading Letterman’s Top Ten list of least likely names for an NFL expansion team,” Randall said. “I don’t know why it stayed on my mind, but the show went well so we kept it.

“Sometimes I wish we would have used The Fighting Amish, but I guess we’re not pissing anyone off now. I don’t know how big of an Amish fan base we have anyway.”

Fragile Porcelain Mice play at the M-Shop Saturday, Nov. 9 as part of a short Midwestern tour with the punk-rap outfit NIL8.

Come early, as local powerhouse 35″ Mudder is set to open the 9 p.m. show. Tickets are still available and are only $6 for students.