Modest Mouse is an American
alternative rock band formed in
1993 in the Seattle suburb of Issaquah, Washington
by singer/lyricist/guitarist Isaac Brock, drummer Jeremiah Green, and bassist Eric Judy. Since their 1996 debut album,
This
Is a Long Drive for Someone with Nothing to Think About,
their lineup has centered around Brock, Green and Judy.
Guitarist Johnny Marr
(formerly of
The Smiths) joined the band
in May 2006, along with
percussionist
Joe Plummer (formerly of the
Black Heart Procession) and
multi-instrumentalist
Tom Peloso, to work
on the album
We Were Dead Before the
Ship Even Sank.
Guitarist Jim Fairchild joined the band in February
2009.
The band has attained significant mainstream success since being
signed to
Sony's
Epic
Records in 2001 and have been one of the leading bands in the
commercialization of indie rock, beginning with
The Moon & Antarctica and
Good News for
People Who Love Bad News, which have been certified gold
and platinum by the RIAA respectively. They have gone on to sell
over three million records since. Elements of Modest Mouse's early
sound have been likened to or inspired by that of
Pixies and numerous other
alternative rock and
space rock bands. Their name is derived from a
passage from the
Virginia Woolf story
"The Mark on the Wall" which reads, "I wish I could hit upon a
pleasant track of thought, a track indirectly reflecting credit
upon myself, for those are the pleasantest thoughts, and very
frequent even in the minds of modest, mouse-coloured people, who
believe genuinely that they dislike to hear their own
praises."
History
Origins
In 1994, Isaac Brock, Jeremiah Green, Eric Judy, and John Wickhart
recorded their debut
EP,
Blue Cadet-3, Do You
Connect?, at
Calvin
Johnson's Dub Narcotic Studios. It was released under
K Records. John Wickhart played bass guitar on the
EP. Then followed a single, "
Broke", under
Sub Pop that was recorded by Steve Wold (now better
known as
bluesman Seasick Steve) at Moon Studios. During this
time, Modest Mouse also recorded their would-be debut album
Sad Sappy Sucker, but
constant delays caused the album to be shelved and forgotten (it
was officially released in 2001).
Up Records releases
After moving to
Up Records, Modest Mouse
put out two full-length albums and other recordings recorded at
Moon Studios, including the 1996 LP
This
Is a Long Drive for Someone with Nothing to Think About.
This album was produced and recorded by Steve Wold (at this time
Wold was assisting in the recordings as well, but was not
officially a part of the band). The next offering was
Interstate 8, also produced by
Wold. The 1997 album
The
Lonesome Crowded West (also recorded at Moon Studios, by
Scott Swayze) turned out to serve as the band's breakthrough.
The Lonesome Crowded West gained the band a
cult following, and is now popularly
considered to be one of the defining albums of mid-1990s indie
rock. Prior to its release, the band had recorded the EP
The Fruit That Ate
Itself. In 1999, Up Records released a singles and
rarities collection entitled
Building Nothing Out of
Something, which included the entirety of
Interstate
8 except for the songs "Edit the Sad Parts" and "Buttons to
Push the Buttons".
Signing with Epic Records
In 2000, Modest Mouse released
The Moon & Antarctica,
their first album on
Epic Records. The
album was more instrumental compared to their previous work, and
this was partially due to Brock having his jaw broken during
recording. Not knowing if he would be able to sing, he focused on
making a more
instrumental and
experimental album. The band
enjoyed some success on
alternative
radio with the singles "3rd Planet" and "Gravity Rides Everything."
It was critically well-received including a 9.8 out of 10 score
from online music magazine,
Pitchfork
Media. It has subsequently gone on to receive further acclaim.
Brock has since released an album with his side project
Ugly Casanova on Sub Pop. The band licensed
"Gravity Rides Everything" for a commercial for
Nissan's Quest
minivan, a move
that Brock has publicly acknowledged as blatantly commercial but
necessary to achieve financial stability.
In 2001, Modest Mouse released the EP
Everywhere and His Nasty
Parlour Tricks, a collection of unused songs from the
The Moon and Antarctica recording sessions. In 2002, they
joined
Cake,
De La
Soul,
The Flaming Lips,
The Hackensaw Boys and
Kinky on the
Unlimited Sunshine Tour.
Mainstream success
In March 2003, Green quit the band after suffering a
nervous breakdown; the official word was
that he was quitting to work with his side project,
Vells. The same year, he and bassist Eric Judy
appeared on
Adam Forkner's debut solo
album,
VVRSSNN. Green was replaced
with two new members, drummer
Benjamin
Weikel (who also drummed for
The
Helio Sequence, as well as playing keyboard) and guitarist
Dann Gallucci (who had been a member
of Modest Mouse previously, and appears on
Sad Sappy
Sucker and
The Lonesome Crowded West). On April 6,
2004, Modest Mouse released their fourth album, the
platinum-selling
Good News for People Who
Love Bad News, which scored two hits with "
Float On" and "
Ocean Breathes Salty" (both of which
they performed on
Saturday Night
Live on November 13, 2004). The album was nominated for a
Grammy for Best Alternative Rock Album that year. Later that year,
Green returned to the band, and Weikel returned to drumming
exclusively for The Helio Sequence. Gallucci left the band in
August.
Modest
Mouse was mentioned by name in the 2005 U.S.
Supreme Court decision in the case of MGM v. Grokster.
Justice
David Souter wrote that on the Grokster
P2P network, "Users seeking
Top 40 songs, for
example, or the latest release by Modest Mouse, are certain to be
far more numerous than those seeking a free
Decameron, and Grokster and StreamCast translated
that demand into dollars."
Recent work
In May 2006,
Dann Gallucci (who had
left the band amicably in September 2004) was replaced on guitar by
Johnny Marr.The album, entitled
We Were Dead
Before the Ship Even Sank was released on March 20, 2007
after being delayed from December 19, 2006. The album was
successful in being the first Modest Mouse album to reach number
one on the US
Billboard 200
charts, and spawned the hit single "
Dashboard", as well as "
Missed the Boat" and "
We've Got Everything".
In issue 1045 of
Rolling
Stone magazine, Brock reported that his biggest priority
is to finish a Modest Mouse EP; referring to the songs that did not
make it onto
Good News and
We Were Dead. He says
there are songs named "The Whale Song" and "Satellite Skin" as well
as another song with
The
Dirty Dozen Brass Band.
Isaac Brock says he will begin writing music for their next album
during March. An update on the band's blog featured a picture of
the band rehearsing
new
songs. The band had a tour with
R.E.M.
and
The National in 2008 which
ended in Atlanta.
The band had begun a North American tour beginning in June 2008.
The band returned to Florida for the first time since their
November 2006 Bang Music Festival show where they were cut off
stage early, with three shows in Miami, Orlando, and St. Augustine.
While an update on the Modest Mouse blog was subtitled catching up
on some words for the next tour, it is in fact the lyrics to Heart
Cooks Brain. Modest Mouse recently finished their tour supporting
We Were Dead after 2 years of promoting the record.
Modest Mouse released singles for the songs
Satellite Skin,
Autumn
Beds and
Perpetual
Motion Machine were released in limited edition (a run of 4,000
each) vinyl 7 inches, featuring artwork by Joshua Mark Levy,
J.Alex Stamos, and
Natasha
Wheat.
Jim Fairchild of
Grandaddy and
All Smiles
replaced Marr as touring guitarist during the support of
No One's First and
You're Next, which was released on August 4 2009, composed
of unreleased tracks from the recording sessions of
Good News
for People Who Love Bad News and
We Were Dead Before the
Ship Even Sank.
Members
- Current
with
- Former
Discography
Studio albums
EPs
References
- The Mark On The Wall by Virginia Woolf - Read
Print
- Epitonic.com: Your Source for Cutting-Edge
Music
- Many fans of progressive rock enjoy this album, as much of the
instrumentation echoes prog rock tendencies. Modest
Mouse | The A.V. Club
- Modest Mouse: The Moon & Antarctica (2000):
Reviews
- [1]
- Listology: Pitchfork's Top 100 Albums of
2000-2004
- Modest Mouse | The A.V. Club
- SNL Archives - Episode. Retrieved June 12, 2007.
- Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios, Inc. Et Al. vs.
Grokster, Ltd., Et Al. - Supreme Court of the United States
Retrieved November 6, 2008.
- Music
- Modest Mouse Retrieved November 6, 2008.
- Pitchfork Reveals Modest Mouse's New EP
pitchforkmedia.com, retrieved April 6, 2008
- Billboard Article for MM,
billboard.com/, retrieved April 6, 2008
- NME news article, NME.com, retrieved May 8,
2008
- Modest Mouse blog, modestmouse.com, retrieved
May 20, 2008
External links
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