In his songs, Brock assumes a position of great duality: geography-obsessed but preciously provincial; drunk-friend glib one minute, grappling with existential crises the next. Even their best albums are stacked with filler. Live, they could be the worst kind of train wreck. Current indie trends — gauzy noise-pop, joyless emo bombast, trap rave, etc. Recorded by Calvin Johnson at Dub Narcotic, the album is as grating and undercooked as indie rock debuts come, full of indulgent studio experiments, half-assed sketches, and tunes that sound like a generic sadcore band's demo cassette in high-speed dub mode.
If there is any question as to the necessity of owning this album, the inclusion of Isaac Brock's contributions to Dial-A-Song, a short-lived experiment in which in-the-know callers could hear exclusive song fragments by calling Brock's answering machine, should tell the casual fan all he or she needs to know. Even given the few highlights -- the jocund, irresistible "Birds Vs. Not only was the band faced with the historically unenviable task of following up a successful mainstream record, but the indie elite, their appetites whet by the announcement that legendary Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr had joined the band, were watching, too.
The addition of Marr would not be the only personnel change for Modest Mouse in -- founding drummer Jeremiah Green returned to the band for the album following a brief absence. As far as albums recorded under pressure go, the nautically themed We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank is nowhere near the disappointment it could have been. On the contrary: Though claustrophobic and overproduced, the album is the sound of Brock exploiting every resource, his reach and his grasp in harmony at last.
If the album is generally considered something of a letdown, nobody told Billboard and CMJ -- the album peaked at No. First single "Dashboard," with its disco tempo, scenery-chewing strings, and ear-candy brass, is more Jeff Lynne than Jeff Mangum, while the party-inciting "Fire It Up" sounds like it was written with the express purpose of helping Mellow Mushroom employees get through their overtime shifts. Best of all is the uncharacteristically sweet "Little Motel," whose sinewy nest of guitar echoes recalls the chilly restraint of Sigur Ros.
A nagging, fussed-over feel persists, and the sound of guitars compressed for radio play sharply increases in shrillness as the album approaches its mostly dull second half. Interstate 8 EP Like many indie bands of the era, Modest Mouse released several singles and EPs that are as crucial to the band's discography as any of their full-length albums.
Technically a five-song EP augmented by six demos, Interstate 8 is a bridge between two of the group's most enduring albums.
The band must have taken the expansion of the abbreviation 'EP' -- that is, extra player -- quite literally, as Interstate 8 clocks in at a not-very-pithy 55 minutes.
Fans of This Is A Long Drive For Someone With Nothing To Think About , released only four months earlier, will want to own Interstate 8 for the chugging title track and the spindly "Broke," both of which sound like continuations of the deep, expansive whimsy perfected on that album. September 6 Details on 35 prospective records that are keeping our hopes up for music in , from hip-hop heavyweights Kanye and Kendrick, to welcomed returns from Sleater-Kinney and the Wrens, along with many intriguing collaborations and debuts.
January 6 Our contributors pick one song per year-- from Tortoise to Black Star to Animal Collective-- and write about how it fit into their lives. August 15 September 1 A compilation of photography from the Pitchfork Music Festival, including artist portraits by Sanchez and Kitahara.
July 20 July 19 From M. October 2 August 21 Lessons learned and observations made about the state of the rock singer from nearly a year spent listening to the Fleet Foxes. September 5 We cap our five-feature celebration of Sub Pop's first 20 years with a look at some records and artifacts from the label's history that, while they didn't make the cut in last week's Sub Pop 20, still mean something to at least one of our staffers. July 14 Cunanan, Miami, FL. Without the pandemic, it might have been another eight years before we heard from Modest Mouse again.
For millennials of a certain age, this record is nearly impossible to evaluate with any objectivity. Just like its title and the grayscale highway on its cover, This Is a Long Drive evokes isolation, anxiety and possibility, capturing that long haul feeling of traversing the middle of nowhere on your way to everywhere … or just anywhere.
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