Modest Mouse
This year, Modest Mouse celebrate their fourteenth birthday – but it ain’t been easy. Formed in Washington in 1993 by Isaac Brock (vocals, guitars), Jeremiah Green (drums), John Wickhart (bass) and Dann Galluci (guitar), they recorded their debut EP ‘Blue Cadet-3, Do You Connect’ for K Records a year later, before a single with Sub Pop and the doomed ‘Sad Sappy Sucker’ LP, which due to unavoidable delays wasn’t actually released until 2001. The name comes from a passage in Virginia Woolf’s ‘The Mark on the Wall’, which reads “...and very frequent even in the minds of modest mouse-coloured people...”
The band moved to Up records, and along the way lost Wickhart and Galluci, but picked up bassist Eric Judy. Amidst these new surroundings the band would release many records, including 1996’s ‘This Is A Long Drive For Somebody With Nothing To Think About’, their debut LP proper, recorded and produced by Steve Wold – who also found himself a full time member of Modest Mouse at the time. Keep up.
A breakthrough of sorts came in 1997 with the release of the much lauded (and rightly so) LP ‘The Lonesome Crowded West’. After Up records released a singles and rarities collection entitled ‘Building Nothing Out Of Something’, the considerable success of ‘Lonesome…’ lead to an inevitable move up to Epic records in 2000, and the release of their first album for a major label – ‘The Moon & Antarctica’. However, the move to more corporate climes didn’t persuade them to release material in more of an easily traceable way – the next Modest Mouse releases would be the EP ‘Everywhere and His Nasty Parlour Tricks’ in 2001 and the eventual release of what would have been their debut LP, ‘Sad Sappy Sucker’ the same year.
After Jeremiah Green left the drummer’s chair due to a mental breakdown in 2003 (only to return refreshed later that year), Benjamin Weikel stepped in to the role, bringing one time guitarist Dann Gallucci with him once again (though only until the August, when he’d be off once more – sheesh…). This line up would release the band’s most commercially successful album to date, ‘Good News For People Who Love Bad News’, the single ‘Float On’ catapulting the band in to the big leagues of arena tours and heavy MTV rotation.
In May 2006 came something of a curveball, when it was confirmed that ex Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr would be joining up with Isaac and co. to record their fifth full length proper ‘We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank’. Propelled by the new addition to the ever mutating line up, it spent weeks at the top of the US Billboard chart, selling hundreds of thousands of copies. With Marr confirmed to stay on for the recording of their sixth rekkid also, the modest mice should continue to develop even more muscle.
MODESTMOUSEMUSIC.COM: Hear some tunes, watch some interview footage, sign your life away etc.
MODESTMOUSE.COM: Do much the same, but in different colours. Why both of these official sites exist is a mystery to me, mate.
MODEST MYSPACE: Three tracks to stream from ‘We Were Dead…’, in a try before you buy style.
A MODEST FAN SITE: Though now defunct, this once vibrant labour of love is still a great resource for all things to do with the past of this fascinating band.
LIVE MP3s & DEMOS: Rare and sketchy material, the like of which you won’t be finding anywhere else.
OCEAN BREATHES SALTY: A pleasing snapshot of Modest Mouse, mid-breakthrough…
LIVE 2004 w/BRIGHT EYES: Tim Dellow wants a cuddle…
WE WERE DEAD BEFORE THE SHIP EVEN SANK: Modest Mouse has an alter ego, and it’s called Muscle Mouse…
DRAMAMINE:
FLOAT ON:
DASHBOARD: