Modest Mouse

styles: indie rock
others: Built to Spill, 764 Hero

The Moon and Antarctica
Epic, 2000
rating: 9.4
reviewer: cowboy dan

Wow. So much to say about this album. Skipping all the background of Modest Mouse, skipping the story of their long trek to epic records, skipping everything ever said about lead singer/songwriter Isaac Brock....this album will make you piss your pants. Right off the bat, you're attracted to the quirky, perky poppiness of "3rd Planet". From then on, there's no going back. Just sit and soak it in. Soak in the unique guitar and drum stylings, the unique vocal stylings (hey, it's Isaac we're talkin' about here, did you doubt it?). And don't forget to keep track of Brock's lyrical pedagogy; there will be a quiz later on. A line in one song can easily be transformed into a theme for another. Not only does Brock display inciteful, poetic lyrics in songs such as "lives" and "life like weeds", but even his seemingly random, half-serious songs have deeper meaning, that will only begin to make sense after numerous late-night study sessions. Dig deeper into other albums and find recurring themes throughout every song this drunken genius has ever written. maybe some day Brock's doctrines will make perfect sense to us, but I hope not any time soon; this is just too much fun.

1. 3rd Planet
2. Gravity Rides Everything
3. Dark Center of the Universe
4. Perfect Desguise
5. Tiny Cities Made of Ashes
6. A Different City
7. The Cold Part
8. Alone Down There
9. The Stars Are Projectors
10. Wild Packs of Family Dogs
11. Paper Thin Walls
12. I Came as a Rat
13. Lives
14. Life Like Weeds
15. What People Are Made Of

 

Lonesome Crowded West
Up, 1997
rating: 9.2
reviewer: cowboy dan

Lonesome Crowded West is a perfect example of classic Modest Mouse. It is the album that best defines the band. It represents all that they stand for to the majority of their fans. A year and a half after the release of an impressive debut full-length album, This is a Long Drive for Someone With Nothing to Think About, Isaac Brock reaches a creative peak in his songwriting (which has certainly not diminished to this day) and proves to the music world that he is more than just a clever, quirky, emo rock musician.

Below the surface of every lisped word, every biffed guitar line, every late drum hit, shines the intelligence of Modest Mouse, becoming increasingly more noticeable, and counteracting the initial impression of them as simply trailer trash indie rockers. The lyrics on Lonesome Crowded West coincide with the name of the album. They display a wide variety of anger, shame, playfulness, subservience, isolation, alcoholism, religious confusion, commercialism, corruption, and self-destruction, all thrown onto one paper plate, stirred around with a plastic fork, and molded into one man's abstract history lesson about the downfall of Western Civilization. (Hopefully that sparked an interest for ya.)

Although Modest Mouse albums tend to be longer than most (averaging about 15 and 1/3 songs per album), they contain enough variation for the listener to get through the whole thing without getting bored. But there are a few spots on the album where it tends to drag a bit. Songs like "Convenient Parking" and "Long Distance Drunk" can get slightly repetitive. And during the long outro to "Trucker's Atlas", it's tempting to press that track-forward button, in favor of skipping on to the drunkard's pop theme "Polar Opposites". But don't worry, there's plenty of entertainment and variation to help make this album one of your favorites.

The eerily nice and hauntingly soothing acoustic numbers such as "Bankrupt on Selling", "Jesus Christ Was an Only Child", and "Styrofoam boots" provide the necessary amount of relief from the pounding exhilaration of tracks like "Shit Luck", "Teeth Like God's Shoeshine", and "It's All Nice on Ice".

The rest of the songs fit perfectly in between. At times you are forced to wonder "why did they keep this?", or "why'd they do that?", or my favorite, "what the fuck is he talking about?" But be patient. Just nod your head and tap your feet...your mind will catch up sooner or later.

1. Teeth Like God's Shoeshine
2. Heart Cooks Brain
3. Convenient Parking
4. Lounge (Closing Time)
5. Jesus Christ Was an Only Child
6. Doin' the Cockroach
7. Cowboy Dan
8. Trailer Trash
9. Out of Gas
10. Long Distance Drunk
11. Shit Luck
12. Truckers Atlas
13. Polar Opposites
14. Bankrupt on Selling
15. Styrofoam Boots/It's All Nice on Ice,...