Modest Mouse Goods on JamBase

Modest Mouse

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Building Nothing Out Of Something: Building Nothing Out of Something catches singles, compilation tunes, and more--none of which were ever intended to be sequenced as an album. As a narrative whole, the singles take on a visionary quality, discerning worldly, bent revelations in the everyday world. The swervy vocals that Isaac Brock has made his trademark sound as languidly distressed as ever, stricken by marvel and ghastly awakenings in equal measures. The music serves Brock well, sounding wobbly and sturdy at once, as if it barely teeters on chaos's brink at a variety of mostly midtempo paces. "Never Ending Math Equation," "A Life of Arctic Sounds," and "Other People's Lives" play the most stoutly, with the tonally clean guitars breaking across all the angular phrasings and rhythms Modest Mouse thrive on while Brock's voice goes from warpy drollery to exasperated wail in the face of his task as a singer and writer. --Andrew Bartlett; Available at: Amazon

We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank: Available at: Amazon

Baron Von Bull**** Rides Again: Baron Von Bullshit Rides Again is the first live CD that Modest Mouse has ever unofficially issued. Recorded live at The Social in Orlando, FL on February 14 & 15, 2004 Track listing: 1. 3rd Planet 2. Never Ending Math Equation 3. Wild Packs Of Family Dogs 4. Broke 5. Paper Thin Walls 6. I Came As A Rat 7. Doin' The Cockroach 8. Bankrupt On Selling 9. Interstate 8 10. The Good Times Are Killing Me; Available at: Amazon

Good News For People Who Love Bad News: On Good News for People Who Love Bad News, the frontman Isaac Brock sounds like he's finally touching the earth, and the band--minus founding member and drummer Jeremiah Green--follows suit. A relaxed mood prevails, not so much in volume but in attitude. On the follow-up to the group's 2000 major label debut, The Moon & Antarctica, big sloppy melodies battle it out with brass on punky epics like "Float On" and "The Ocean Breathes Salty." The lyrics are simpler, the arrangements tamer, but the vitality remains. The prevailing mood is that Modest Mouse has pulled off something extraordinary here: a well-rounded, lovable record that doesn't sound anything like David Gray. --Aidin Vaziri; Available at: Amazon

he Moon & Antarctica: With their interstellar (really!) lyrics and angular song structures, Modest Mouse tend to defy their self-deprecating band name. In truth, the trio's got some lofty ambitions, and The Moon and Antarctica indulges their grand dreams with pristine production and a vivid sonic backdrop. It also dives deeply into their geographical obsessions--always with the same subjective twists that made The Lonesome Crowded West and This Is a Long Drive for Someone with Nothing to Think About such inspired wonders. Isaac Brock opens Moon with meditations on the universe's shape--all twisted into such a solipsistic tangle that they illuminate immediately how much these songs are about the mind as about the world. Rarely giving off the cage-jarring thickness of guitar rock, Moon's 15 tunes are shaped around vignettes of a disheveled head figuring out the rambling disconnections of postmodern society.; Available at: Amazon

Everywhere and His Nasty Parlour Tricks [EP]: Everywhere and His Nasty Parlour Tricks, an eight-song EP from Modest Mouse, is a mellow affair. The release combines old tracks from Night on the Sun (an out-of-print vinyl-only EP), remixes, and outtakes from the The Moon and Antarctica sessions along with a couple new songs. "Willful Suspension of Disbelief" is a sedated intro that didn't make it onto Moon, but it sets the perfect tranquil mood to introduce this disc. Although the new track "You're the Good Things" builds intensity with quickening drumbeats and front man Isaac Brock's tension-filled vocals, most of the songs on this album float in a dreamier state. --Jennifer Maerz; Available at: Amazon

Sad Sappy Sucker: K Records proudly unveils an important document detailing the early days of Modest Mouse. Recorded in 1994, 'Sad Sappy Sucker' is the lost Modest Mouse album, originally intended oto be the band's debut full length. 'Sad Sappy Sucker' has 24 tracks and are the earliset recordings from Modern Mouse. 2001 release. 23 tracks!; Available at: Amazon

Lonesome Crowded West: The opening track, "Teeth Like God's Shoeshine," explodes out of your speakers with sharp, see-sawing guitars and shouted vocals, an irresistible melange of angular rhythms and mighty, powerful dynamics. The rest of the songs are similarly pulled along by some unseen force, driven by an energy found in classic post-punk bands like Thinking Fellers Union Local 282 or Drunken Boat. Some reviewers have referenced the Pixies, and while that's not off the mark, this is more like the Pixies undergoing dental work--without anesthesia. --Lorry Fleming; Available at: Amazon

The Fruit That Ate Itself [EP]: Available at: Amazon

This Is a Long Drive for Someone with Nothing to Think About: Frontman Isaac Brock's claim that he's being stalked by his own alter ego was not the first bit of evidence that Modest Mouse isn't your usual pop band. Witness the entirety of this 1996 indie debut from the Washington trio that inspired a major-label bidding war. This Is a Long Drive for Someone with Nothing to Think About finds Brock cruising with cohorts Eric Judy and Jeremiah Green (plus an occasional cellist) through a landscape of intoxicatingly original lo-fi tunes. Sure, Brock's early vocals make Nikki Sudden sound like one smooth crooner, but their strained quality offset the primitive elegance of his guitar work, giving a passionate vulnerability to "Breakthrough," "Custom Concern," and other treatises on life in the lost lane. --Bill Forman; Available at: Amazon

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