01-04-2015, 14:14
enters the Billboard chart this week at #3
Spotify online listen
3.0 of 5.0 from allmusic
6th album
a little disappointed here
but then my sights were set rather high
a good album but not near as good as their last few
that's what an eight year layoff does
artist website - http://modestmouse.com/
Bio - from allmusic
![[Image: MI0001334961.jpg?partner=allrovi.com]](http://cps-static.rovicorp.com/3/JPG_400/MI0001/334/MI0001334961.jpg?partner=allrovi.com)
Modest Mouse were one of the most surprising commercial success stories of the new millennium -- while their music was by turns taut and elliptical, and the lyrics
sometimes cryptic and introspective, the band broke through to the mainstream audience with the platinum-selling Good News for People Who Love Bad News, and
they became genuine rock stars at a time when their musical peers remained cult figures. Modest Mouse were founded in 1993 by guitarist and vocalist Isaac Brock,
bassist Eric Judy, and drummer Jeremiah Green. Brock, who had a nomadic childhood, was only 18 and living in a shed next to his mother's trailer home when
Modest Mouse began working together, with the shed becoming the new band's rehearsal space and base of operations. In 1994, Modest Mouse booked time at
Calvin Johnson's Dub Narcotic Studio in Olympia, Washington to cut their first record, and Johnson released their debut 7", "Blue Cadet-3, Do You Connect?," on his
K Records label. Modest Mouse soon began work on an album, but the project was abandoned and the material went unreleased until 2001, when it appeared on a
collection called Sad Sappy Sucker.
After releasing a handful of singles, Modest Mouse went into the studio with Johnson as producer to record an EP, The Fruit That Ate Itself, but by the time it was
released, the group had already moved on to another Northwest-based indie label, Up Records. Released in 1996, This Is a Long Drive for Someone with Nothing to
Think About, produced in collaboration with Steve Wold (who would find fame a few years later as grizzled blues hobo Seasick Steve), was Modest Mouse's first
proper album, and received enthusiastic reviews in the independent music press. In 1997, Modest Mouse returned with The Lonesome Crowded West, which earned
more positive press and was a considerable sales success by indie label standards, supported by extensive touring. As Modest Mouse's following grew, they were
courted by major-label scouts, and they eventually signed with Epic Records, who released The Moon & Antarctica in 2000. A collection of demos and session
outtakes, Everywhere and His Nasty Parlour Tricks, was issued in 2001, and Brock released an album with his side project Ugly Casanova in 2002. In 2003, it was
announced that drummer Green had left Modest Mouse; Benjamin Weikel of the Helio Sequence became the group's new percussionist (he also doubled on
keyboards), and Dann Gallucci, who had been a guest guitarist on the sessions for Sad Sappy Sucker and The Lonesome Crowded West, became an official
member of the band.
The new lineup recorded 2004's Good News for People Who Love Bad News, which proved to be Modest Mouse's commercial breakthrough, rising to the top of the
album charts, spawning the hit singles "Float On" and "Ocean Breathes Salty," and selling over a million copies as the band began headlining arenas. By the end of
2004, Green returned to Modest Mouse, and in 2006, after Gallucci left the group, the band recruited Johnny Marr, legendary guitarist with the Smiths, to take his place
for the recording of their next album. Marr not only appeared on 2007's We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank, he became a full member of Modest Mouse and
toured with the group in support of the album, which debuted at number one on the Billboard album charts. In 2005, Brock had launched his own record label, Glacial
Pace Records, saying the name reflected his own slow working habits; while Modest Mouse continued to play live shows, work on their next album progressed very
gradually, and in 2009 they issued a collection of outtakes and non-LP single sides, No One's First, And You're Next, as a stopgap. A tour was launched in support, but
as Marr had joined the Cribs, Jim Fairchild (who had worked with Grandaddy and All Smiles) became the group's new guitarist, and when Modest Mouse played a
round of shows in 2012, the group debuted a new lineup with the addition of second percussionist Joe Plummer. While Eric Judy was still an official member of the
band, for some 2012 dates he was replaced by multi-instrumentalist Tom Peloso, who had been touring with the group as a sideman since 2004. In 2014 Modest
Mouse issued the single "Lampshades on Fire" in anticipation of the release of their sixth studio album, Strangers To Ourselves, in March 2015.
Album Review - from allmusic
![[Image: MI0003830238.jpg?partner=allrovi.com]](http://cps-static.rovicorp.com/3/JPG_400/MI0003/830/MI0003830238.jpg?partner=allrovi.com)
Perhaps the success of "Float On" discombobulated Isaac Brock even more than we suspected. Surely, there were signs of aimlessness on We Were Dead Before
the Ship Even Sank, the 2007 sequel to the surprise 2004 smash Good News for People Who Love Bad News, a record where hired gun Johnny Marr was brought
aboard to give the band a jolt. This booster shot wore off quickly and Brock receded from the spotlight, sitting out the better part of a decade before re-emerging with
Strangers to Ourselves in the spring of 2015. In the interim, he shed longterm collaborator Eric Judy -- he left sometime around 2012, replaced by Russell Higbee --
added guitarist Jim Fairchild and auxiliary player Lisa Molinaro, attempted to record an album with Big Boi, toyed with bringing Krist Novoselic aboard, then finally
decided to get back to where he once belonged. Brock's return to roots is naturally a roundabout of detours, a record that bounces between stylized eccentricity and
streamlined strangeness, stopping occasionally to soak in a scenic, dreamy view. Strangers to Ourselves starts at this hazy point, swooning with a narcotic sway that
recalls peak Mercury Rev, but it's not long before Modest Mouse begins bouncing at a syncopation that recalls "Float On," just one of many deliberate references to
the ghosts of alt-rock past haunting Strangers to Ourselves. "Pistol" skeeves out like a disco-fied outtake from Ween's Pure Guava, the carnivalesque "Sugar Boats"
lurches forward on a circus piano reminiscent of Blur, "The Best Room" circles around a guitar riff that echoes Space Ghost Coast to Coast, each a signal that Brock
is comfortable keeping the dream of the '90s. The trick is, he now has the skill of a consummate craftsman, so the raggedness here comes across as deliberate,
probably because the moments that are less consciously quirky -- i.e., the bulk of the album -- are so skillfully constructed. So, Strangers to Ourselves is an album
where the trees matter more than the forest: song for song, it demonstrates the exacting nature of Brock but put it all together, it sprawls.
best track for me:
[video=youtube;he16ctlqAgU]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=he16ctlqAgU[/video]
Track Listing
1. Strangers To Ourselves
2. Lampshades On Fire
3. Shit In Your Cut
4. Pistol (A. Cunanan, Miami, FL. 1996)
5. Ansel
6. The Ground Walks, With Time in a Box
7. Coyotes
8. Pups To Dust
9. Sugar Boats
10. Wicked Campaign
11. Be Brave
12. God is an Indian and You're an Asshole
13. The Tortoise and the Tourist
14. The Best Room
15. Of Course We Know
Spotify online listen
3.0 of 5.0 from allmusic
6th album
a little disappointed here
but then my sights were set rather high
a good album but not near as good as their last few
that's what an eight year layoff does
artist website - http://modestmouse.com/
Bio - from allmusic
Modest Mouse were one of the most surprising commercial success stories of the new millennium -- while their music was by turns taut and elliptical, and the lyrics
sometimes cryptic and introspective, the band broke through to the mainstream audience with the platinum-selling Good News for People Who Love Bad News, and
they became genuine rock stars at a time when their musical peers remained cult figures. Modest Mouse were founded in 1993 by guitarist and vocalist Isaac Brock,
bassist Eric Judy, and drummer Jeremiah Green. Brock, who had a nomadic childhood, was only 18 and living in a shed next to his mother's trailer home when
Modest Mouse began working together, with the shed becoming the new band's rehearsal space and base of operations. In 1994, Modest Mouse booked time at
Calvin Johnson's Dub Narcotic Studio in Olympia, Washington to cut their first record, and Johnson released their debut 7", "Blue Cadet-3, Do You Connect?," on his
K Records label. Modest Mouse soon began work on an album, but the project was abandoned and the material went unreleased until 2001, when it appeared on a
collection called Sad Sappy Sucker.
After releasing a handful of singles, Modest Mouse went into the studio with Johnson as producer to record an EP, The Fruit That Ate Itself, but by the time it was
released, the group had already moved on to another Northwest-based indie label, Up Records. Released in 1996, This Is a Long Drive for Someone with Nothing to
Think About, produced in collaboration with Steve Wold (who would find fame a few years later as grizzled blues hobo Seasick Steve), was Modest Mouse's first
proper album, and received enthusiastic reviews in the independent music press. In 1997, Modest Mouse returned with The Lonesome Crowded West, which earned
more positive press and was a considerable sales success by indie label standards, supported by extensive touring. As Modest Mouse's following grew, they were
courted by major-label scouts, and they eventually signed with Epic Records, who released The Moon & Antarctica in 2000. A collection of demos and session
outtakes, Everywhere and His Nasty Parlour Tricks, was issued in 2001, and Brock released an album with his side project Ugly Casanova in 2002. In 2003, it was
announced that drummer Green had left Modest Mouse; Benjamin Weikel of the Helio Sequence became the group's new percussionist (he also doubled on
keyboards), and Dann Gallucci, who had been a guest guitarist on the sessions for Sad Sappy Sucker and The Lonesome Crowded West, became an official
member of the band.
The new lineup recorded 2004's Good News for People Who Love Bad News, which proved to be Modest Mouse's commercial breakthrough, rising to the top of the
album charts, spawning the hit singles "Float On" and "Ocean Breathes Salty," and selling over a million copies as the band began headlining arenas. By the end of
2004, Green returned to Modest Mouse, and in 2006, after Gallucci left the group, the band recruited Johnny Marr, legendary guitarist with the Smiths, to take his place
for the recording of their next album. Marr not only appeared on 2007's We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank, he became a full member of Modest Mouse and
toured with the group in support of the album, which debuted at number one on the Billboard album charts. In 2005, Brock had launched his own record label, Glacial
Pace Records, saying the name reflected his own slow working habits; while Modest Mouse continued to play live shows, work on their next album progressed very
gradually, and in 2009 they issued a collection of outtakes and non-LP single sides, No One's First, And You're Next, as a stopgap. A tour was launched in support, but
as Marr had joined the Cribs, Jim Fairchild (who had worked with Grandaddy and All Smiles) became the group's new guitarist, and when Modest Mouse played a
round of shows in 2012, the group debuted a new lineup with the addition of second percussionist Joe Plummer. While Eric Judy was still an official member of the
band, for some 2012 dates he was replaced by multi-instrumentalist Tom Peloso, who had been touring with the group as a sideman since 2004. In 2014 Modest
Mouse issued the single "Lampshades on Fire" in anticipation of the release of their sixth studio album, Strangers To Ourselves, in March 2015.
Album Review - from allmusic
Perhaps the success of "Float On" discombobulated Isaac Brock even more than we suspected. Surely, there were signs of aimlessness on We Were Dead Before
the Ship Even Sank, the 2007 sequel to the surprise 2004 smash Good News for People Who Love Bad News, a record where hired gun Johnny Marr was brought
aboard to give the band a jolt. This booster shot wore off quickly and Brock receded from the spotlight, sitting out the better part of a decade before re-emerging with
Strangers to Ourselves in the spring of 2015. In the interim, he shed longterm collaborator Eric Judy -- he left sometime around 2012, replaced by Russell Higbee --
added guitarist Jim Fairchild and auxiliary player Lisa Molinaro, attempted to record an album with Big Boi, toyed with bringing Krist Novoselic aboard, then finally
decided to get back to where he once belonged. Brock's return to roots is naturally a roundabout of detours, a record that bounces between stylized eccentricity and
streamlined strangeness, stopping occasionally to soak in a scenic, dreamy view. Strangers to Ourselves starts at this hazy point, swooning with a narcotic sway that
recalls peak Mercury Rev, but it's not long before Modest Mouse begins bouncing at a syncopation that recalls "Float On," just one of many deliberate references to
the ghosts of alt-rock past haunting Strangers to Ourselves. "Pistol" skeeves out like a disco-fied outtake from Ween's Pure Guava, the carnivalesque "Sugar Boats"
lurches forward on a circus piano reminiscent of Blur, "The Best Room" circles around a guitar riff that echoes Space Ghost Coast to Coast, each a signal that Brock
is comfortable keeping the dream of the '90s. The trick is, he now has the skill of a consummate craftsman, so the raggedness here comes across as deliberate,
probably because the moments that are less consciously quirky -- i.e., the bulk of the album -- are so skillfully constructed. So, Strangers to Ourselves is an album
where the trees matter more than the forest: song for song, it demonstrates the exacting nature of Brock but put it all together, it sprawls.
best track for me:
[video=youtube;he16ctlqAgU]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=he16ctlqAgU[/video]
Track Listing
1. Strangers To Ourselves
2. Lampshades On Fire
3. Shit In Your Cut
4. Pistol (A. Cunanan, Miami, FL. 1996)
5. Ansel
6. The Ground Walks, With Time in a Box
7. Coyotes
8. Pups To Dust
9. Sugar Boats
10. Wicked Campaign
11. Be Brave
12. God is an Indian and You're an Asshole
13. The Tortoise and the Tourist
14. The Best Room
15. Of Course We Know
