This Is A Long Read For Someone With Nothing to Write About
So, to catch everyone up on TR that's following Modest Mouse with even a passing interest (like 5 people), I thought I'd make this thread bringing everyone up to speed. Modest Mouse hasn't released a full-length album since 2007, We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank. This was followed by and EP called No One's First, And You're Next, comprised mostly of songs left over from the previous album, and one B-Side from Good News for People Who Love Bad News titled "I've Got It All (most)".
The Group that Ate Itself
Since their last full-length album, Johnny Marr has left the group, because he's an british asshole that simply lives too far away. Eric Judy, long-time bass player for the band has taken a break from touring, but supposedly is still writing for them in the studio. Joe Plummer may or may not be in the band, but he is also touring with The Shins. Anyone who's heard Modest Mouse knows though, Isaac Brock essentially is the band, and the talents of the other guys may be missed, but it won't drastically change the sound. The only exception to that being Johnny Marr, who's guitar style is completely different from any other Modest Mouse project, save for the one he was on, so there may be some mixed feelings there.
Building Something out of Nothing?
Since the release of No One's First, And You're Next, things have been fairly quiet. There have been nothing but whispers and rumors surrounding the next album, if there is ever to even be one. Any band that performs onstage with an absent guitar player, bass player, and drummer is sure to cause people to wonder whether or not things are going well in the lonesome crowded west. In April of 2011, Big Boi took to Twitter to the joy of some (and terror of others, no doubt) to let Modest Mouse fans know that he was in the studio with the band. Since then, the only real talk of those songs has been from Big Boi himself, who said in November of 2012 that the songs were going to be used, and added that those indie rockers from a hick town in Washington also taught him how to smoke marijuana out of an apple.
As for confirmation of the album from Isaac Brock himself, things have been less than definite. The last thing he mentioned of the project was back in June of 2010 in an interview with Pitchfork, which was conducted shortly after he did a handful of songs under the name Ugly Cassanova for the soundtrack to 180 South.
Pitchfork: What are you working on with Modest Mouse?
IB: Songs. That's that.
Pitchfork: Are they going in any particular direction?
IB: I can't say that yet. I can't say that they are. It's pretty early in the game for me to have a clear picture of what we're doing, if it's good or anything. They're going to show up again today, and we'll keep banging our heads on it. It's way too early for me to know what direction this thing is really headed. It's just a bunch of random shit at the moment.
Pitchfork: How long have you been working on the random shit?
IB: About six months. We're not killing ourselves doing it, by any means. We just had the "Hey, we should probably buckle down" conversation last week. We just putz around and smoke a bunch of weed. It's more time spent hanging out than playing music.
Pitchfork: That's got to be good for the health of the band.
IB: Yeah, we're plenty healthy. We like each other. Maybe that's our problem; we like hanging out more than writing-- kind of a good times vortex.
Since then, there's been a cameo on the series Portlandia, some jamming out with Broken Social Scene, composing the score for Queens of Country, and a cover of the Buddy Holly song "That'll Be The Day". Still, no album. What news is there?
Good News for People Who Love Less-Than-Bad News
Songs! There have been a handful of songs since 2011 that have no album yet to call home. Could these be tracks that are being road-tested before being cleaned up and put on vinyl? Are they just some sarcastic "Fuck You" to Modest Mouse fans from Baron Von Bullshit himself? Only time will tell, but for now, here's what we have so far.
Keep in mind, Modest Mouse plays songs a little differently on stage than off. The studio record generally sounds a little more epic, with instrumentation that just isn't practical to bring along. Still, you can see that there will be violins--as played by Lisa Molinaro from Talkdemonic, signed to Isaac's aptly-named Glacial Pace Records--so perhaps this album will fall somewhere between GNFPWLBN and WWDBTSES?
Songs:
"Shit In Your Cut" (04/16/13)
"Sugar Boats (Heart of Mine)" (04/16/13)
"Be Brave (audible version from HeresToNowTumblr)" (04/12/13)
"Ansel" (05/19/12)
"Lampshades on Fire" (05/29/11)
"Poison the Well" (05/29/11)
"Don't Move Here Live Performance (Give it Enough?)" (04/22/11)
We Know What's First, but What's Next?
Yeah, fuck you. I was running out of albums to make weak puns off of. So far, things are still in the air. There are some encouraging tour dates coming up though, coupled with the new songs...could we get a new album soon?
- United States
05.19 Palo Alto, CA: Frost Ampitheatre (Stanford University)
06.20 Washington, DC: 9:30 Club
06.21 Washington, DC: 9:30 Club
06.22 Pittsburgh, PA: Stage AE
06.23 Atlantic City, NJ: Orion Music Festival (7-8pm)
06.24 Randall’s Island, NY: Governors Ball Music Festival (8:30-9:40pm)
06.26 Columbus, OH: LC Pavilion
European Tour
06.13 Oslo, Norway: Rockerfeller
06.14 Hultsfred: Hultsfred Festival
06.15 Ådalen: Northside Festival
06.17 Luxembourg: Rockhal
06.18 Cologne, Germany: Stollwerck
06.20 Vienna, Austria: Full Hit of the Summer
06.21 Neuhausen: Southside Festival
06.22 Scheessel: Hurricane Festival
06.23 Hilvarenbeek, NL: Best Kept Secret Festival
06.25 Paris, France: Trabendo
06.26 Rennes, France: L’Ubu
06.28 Vitoria-Gasteiz, ES: Azkena Rock Festival
06.30 St. Gallen Open Air St. Gallen
07.02 Dresden, Germany: Beatpol
07.03 Berlin, Germany: Postbahnhof
07.04 Gdynia, Poland: Open’er Festival
07.06 Werchter, Belgium: Rock Werchter
07.07 Arras, France: Arras Festival
07.08 Brighton, UK: Concorde 2
07.09 Bristol, UK: Bristol Academy
07.11 London, UK: Roundhouse
07.12 Leeds, UK: Leeds University Stylus
07.13 Balado, Kinross-Shire, Scotland: T in the Park
07.14 Gateshead, UK: Sage 2
07.16 Manchester, UK: Academy 2
07.17 Nottingham, UK: Rock City Main Hall
07.18 Birmingham, UK: Library
07.19 Suffolk, UK: Latitude Festival
07.19 - 07.21 Punchestown, Co. Kildare: Longitude Festival
Damn.
Busy Schedule, no doubt. Hopefully, this is an indication that most of the recording work is done. Otherwise, it looks like my fellow Modest Mouse fans will have to wait until at least the end of the summer for any good news. You know, if we get any news at all...
Here's hoping for the best.
