An article on Modest Mouse.

I, like many fans, fell in love with Modest Mouse in 2004 when Good News for People Who Love Bad News was released. Actually, though, I first purchased We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank (2008), which, contrary to many fans' beliefs, impressed me so much that I spent the next 12 months dipping into their back catalogue.

Over that time, I became so engrossed with the band that I bought all their studio albums (with the exception of Sad Sappy Sucker), one compilation album (Building Nothing Out of Something) and an LP - Everywhere and His Nasty Parlour Tricks.

Their first 'official' album was This Is a Long Drive for Someone with Nothing to Think About. Their first big hit, Dramamine, is the first track of the album. The whole album is quite experimental but it contains many fantastic songs. Some of my favourites are Breakthrough, Custom Concern, Beach-Side Property, Talking Shit About a Pretty Sunset and Mechanical Birds.

They followed this album with the Lonesome, Crowded West (1997) - an indictment of such things as 20th century living and religion, amongst other things. The whole album is absolutely mesmerising, but I'd have to say that The Moon and Antarctica tops it. Some of the best songs from the album are Heart Cooks Brain, Jesus Christ was an Only Child, Doin' the Cockroach, Trailer Trash, Out of Gas, Truckers' Atlas (listen out for Jeremiah Green's drum solos), Polar Opposites, Bankrupt on Selling and Styrofoam Boots. That's quite some line-up for a 15-track album, huh?


Around this time, Modest Mouse released the LP Everywhere and His Nasty Parlour Tricks. The album is eight tracks long but, my God, it's something else. It opens with Willful Suspension of Disbelief (a nod to Descartes, but of course inverted), which is a four-minute-long, spaced-out, ethereal song with a mesmerising main riff, sliding guitars and a driving, drifting bassline. Following this is Night on the Sun - an eight-minute-long dream which opens ominously but then settles into placid ecstasy. Next is Three-Inch Horses, Two-Faced Monsters - this went on to be sampled for the Moon and Antarctica. Finally, we have Here it Comes, So Much Beauty in Dirt, You're the Good Things and Long Walk off a Short Dock (which was kept in its entirety and renamed 'I Came as a Rat' for The Moon and Antarctica).


Their piece de resistance, The Moon and Antarctica (2001), was released next. The whole album is quite trippy, but it produced such favourites as Paper-Thin Walls (which was included in the OC when Modest Mouse made a live appearance). The album is epic. It opens with Third Planet. Just to give you an idea of the song, here's the following lyric: "The third planet is sure they're being watched by an eye in the sky that can't be stopped. When you get to the promised land, you're gonna shake that ice hand." Other songs of note include Gravity Rides Everything, Dark Centre of the Universe, Perfect Disguise, Tiny Cities Made of Ashes, A Different City, The Cold Part, The Stars are Projectors, I Came as a Rat and What People are Made of. This album was also the last time the original trio worked together - Jeremiah Green went off to work on a solo project, leaving just Isaac Brock (guitars and vocals) and Eric Judy (bass).

Next, Modest Mouse hit critical success with Good News for People Who Love Bad News - their only platinum-selling album. The album is listenable and poppy whilst retaining flares of brilliance that only Modest Mouse are able to attest to. The album opens with a brief horn intro. courtesy of the Dirty Dozen Brass Band before settling into The World at Large - a loving, quaint, beautiful song about a disenfranchised young man moving from the east coast to the west coast of America (California or Washington, or the like). Following this is Float On - Modest Mouse's most recognisable song to fans who've not yet dipped into the treasures of Modest Mouse past. The song, though, is absolute gold and one can understand why it's so well-loved. It's thanks to that song, after all, that Modest Mouse have been boosted to their current world stage.

Other notable songs on Good News for People Who Love Bad News are Ocean Breathes Salty, Bury Me With It, Dance Hall, Bukowski, The Devil's Workday, The View, Satin in a Coffin (something which might be suited to a Tarantino movie), Blame it on the Tetons, Black Cadillacs, One Chance and The Good Times are Killing Me. Modest Mouse were aided by additional bands such as the Flaming Lips - they provided additional percussion on the Good Times are Killing Me (listen out for the notable top-hat strikes which nod to Yoshimi or At War With the Mystics).


Their last studio album, We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank (2008), featured Johnny Marr - of The Smiths fame - who's now a resident member of the band. The band were also aided by The Shins (listen out for James Mercer's background vocals on We've Got Everything). The album's opening track - March into the Sea - isn't one of my favourites, but it's an exception to the Modest Mouse rule. Whilst the album firmly launches MM into the stratosphere of the mainstream, there are still a couple of songs which stand out in their brilliance. Track two is Dashboard - a catchy, poppy tune with driving guitars. Other brilliant songs include Florida, Fire it Up, Missed the Boat, We've Got Everything, Parting of the Sensory, Fly Trapped in a Jar, Little Motel, Steam Engenius, Spitting Venom and Invisible. Invisible is perhaps my favourite song from the album - along with Fly Trapped in a Jar.


Modest Mouse have just released their March single Satellite Skin (which sounds like something the Stones might've produced on a good day) and are about to release their new LP in late June/early July. Three much-anticipated songs are to be included - King Rat, Autumn Beds and Whale Song. Listen out for them. I'll be held on tenterhooks 'til the release of their next studio album.

I should also give mention to Building Nothing out of Something - a compilation album released in 2000. This contains some very experimental material but it's all absolute dynamite. One of Modest Mouse's loveliest songs - Sleepwalking - is included on the album, along with such greats as Never-Ending Math Equation, Workin' on Leavin' the Livin', All Night Diner, Grey Ice Water, Positive/Negative and Other People's Lives. The latter two songs are definitely in my list of MM's best 20 songs.

My 20 most favourite Modest Mouse songs:

20: Positive/Negative
19: Other People's Lives
18: Sleepwalking
17: Breakthrough
16: Dramamine
15: Bukowski
14: Satin in a Coffin
13: Talkin' Shit About a Pretty Sunset
12: Willful Suspension of Disbelief
11: I Came as a Rat
10: Custom Concern
9: A Different City
8: Trailer Trash
7: Truckers' Atlas
6: Heart Cooks Brain
5: Blame it on the Tetons
4: World at Large
3: Float On
2: Third Planet
1: Dark Centre of the Universe

Here's a link to Whale Song: http://www.thetripwire.com/listen/2009/06/18/modest-mouse-whale-song/



Enjoy it.