I bought their newest CD, called Good News for People Who Love Bad News kuz I liked their song "Float On". I really like their music now. Are there any other people that like their music? Also, I'd like to know . . . Do all of Modest Mouse's other CDs sound anything like their newest one? Or did their sound "evolve"?
I saw MM at the Variety Playhouse in Atlanta GA when they opened for Built To Spill. Popular and Indie music has become just as extremist and partisan as politics. It often feels like artists are either plastic-coated corporate whores who wouldn't know art or craft if it jumped up and licked them in the ear, or angst-ridden rebels who are too self-appointedly cool to learn how to play more than four chords. Modest Mouse sucks, but that is just one fish's opinion. Your mileage may vary. :m: Peace.
It's people like you that turned me off of modest mouse. Basically, like so many bands before them, they have sold out. Cliched criticism? yes. But there was some damn fine music and shows before they signed with sony, no matter what goofyfish has to say about them. Definitely check out the early stuff. This is A Long Drive for Someone With Nothing to Think About and The Lonesome Crowded West were both fine albums. Some of the even earlier stuff was amusing, and at times catchy, but flawed. Just don't let me pull up next to you at a stoplight blasting Doin' the Cockroach. I might kill you. Oh, and goofyfish, there is still some damn fine indie rock out there. Built to Spill hasn't lost it for instance. -edit- I should also add, Isaac Brock is still a pretty down to earth guy. I was in San Fransisco for their release day concert without tickets and he hooked my friends up with tickets as he was walking into the fillmore. I didn't want to pester the guy but managed to score some scalped tickets for face value. Same friends saw him recently backstage at a festival and got to chill with him. So even though he sold out, I can't say that much bad about him.
My time is limited, by I'd just like to say that the band (especially Isaac Brock,) harbours a deep resentment to fans like you- guys that jumped on the bandwagon after hearing 'float on'. He has a kid now, and the only reason he whores himself off to people like athelwulf and the general mass is to provide the kid with a decent home. Before signing with sony, and even before GNFBWLBN, he lived in a tiny house and barely got by. Which probably scared him..because he grew up poor and wants more for the boy. (There's a bootleg- rock candy I think- where he complains about his son and you can tell in his voice how much he cares for the kid) After Jeremiah Green left, I've lost the interest which I once I had in MM, but their still one of my favourites. Listen to 'This is a long Drive', 'Everywhere and his nasty parlour tricks' and of course 'The Fruit that ate itself'. There's so much great stuff its a pity you're only familiar with GNFPWLBN. They have an interesting history, too. Type 'ugly cassanova' into google and read..
My first exposure to Modest Mouse caused deep seated resentment and anger. No, that was something else. When I first heard Modest Mouse, I hated them so much. Especially their bubblegum album and bubblegum songs. However, I was a little hasty in passing judgement, and can enjoy them in their own right. Just mentioning The Lonesome Crowded West makes me want to touch myself. "Doin' the Cockroach" and "Trailer Trash" are two very beautiful songs from that album.
I don't think they've sold out. Their song just happened to become a hit. It's not really their fault. I didn't "jump on the bandwagon". I don't care whether or not other people like some band. I only care about whether or not I like some band. When I heard "Float On", I liked it. I didn't care about the fact that I heard it on VH1.
Athel, I think the problem they're addressing is that you don't care that you heard it on VH1. Brock does care.
Unfortunately, it is. If they had never signed with sony, never made music videos, kept to their angry indy rock roots, they would not have been "sell outs." They changed their style to make money. They sold out. Yes, you did. When you hear music on the radio, that is played over and over and over, you are bound to like some songs. Many songs that are played on the radio are actually chosen for their mass appeal. For those songs that you do like, and consider yourself a fan of, you have jumped on the bandwagon. Try this - 1. Turn off your corporate run radio and MTV. 2. Find out what makes good music. 3. Download it. note: the best music is free. If you have to pay for the music, it's probably overproduced crap. At least one to two songs should be available to the general public for free.
Athelwulf, it sounds like people don't like you! What do Modest Mouse sound like? I mean what genre are they? I've never heard them.
I'm not trying to come down on you dude. I admire the fact that you're trying to seperate yourself from the VH1 crowd, but I despise the fact that after seeing the light, you still subjegate your poor soul to VH1. Theres tonnes of amazing music out there that will never make into your earlobes. Yes, float on is a decent song. Nowhere near the calibre of Breakthrough, Beach Side Property, The Fruit that Ate Itself..and 90% of their other material. Its amazing that their crappiest album grossed the most money. For clarification, this why Isaac Brock hates the float on crowd; he knows full well that his best music will go unnoticed by you, and you will continue to watch VH1 oblivious to everything else, no matter how worthy. Musicians are very sensitive to their fanbase
Since I live in Athens, GA, I get to meet a lot of people who are into the indie music scene. One thing they love to complain about it how their favorite band "sold out" and how the fact that if I listen to them now, i'm somehow a traitor. This is directed at all of those in this thread who've expressed that sentiment. GET OVER IT! I don't care if anyone in the band is pissed off because they've got net fans on VH1. Give me a break, you act as if it was beyond their control to walk into a studio, record a song, shoot a video, promote it and then get big. Of course he did it for money. Here's a newflash to EVERYONE, 99% of people who record music, make music to MAKE MONEY. It's this need for us to have money to buy things and survive that causes us to get jobs. Making music is a job for these people, so why can't you respect them because they're good at what they do? Of course you'll respond that you do respect them, becuase what they do is good. Since it's good, why be offended if the band's good music becomes popular? Let me give you a similar situation. In Athens i'd listen to John Mayer play live when there'd be him, his guitar, and about 20 of us listening. Now he's added a band and he's a superstar. Do I care? Well of course I think he sounds better when he plays acoustic, but I don't begrudge a man because he wants to better himself, that's selfish. Do I begrudge all of the people who saw his videos on MTV and like him now? No, i'm glad they found somebody they like and they're going to shell out the money so he can keep doing what he does. It's childish to think otherwise. -Will
I liked 'moon and antarctica', but haven't bothered to listen to all of good news, blah, blah, blah, because 'float on' annoys me. The singer is not someone who should be listened to with such "in your face" production (when the production is too big and loud for someone with an annoying voice, that is). They sounded better when they didn't sound as good. The trend of glossing up good music (liz phair anyone?) is bumming me out, but it is to be expected.
I am assuming that the 'SCI' in your forums name stands for String Cheese Incident... I found your travesty of a forum in a google search for Ugly Cassanova guitar tab, a song called 'things I don't remember...' It's good, much better than the crap you people obviously subject yourselves to day in and day out, hoola-hooping about as if the world is comprised of nothing but posi-vibes, theady-nuggets, and glowsticks of the brightest and most long-lasting sort... I couldn't help myself from registering when, out of curiosity, I wanted to see what a bunch of fairy-winged goof-balls had to say about one of the most intriguing songwriters I have come across since that fateful night John Bell tore my lyrical perceptionsinto itty-bitty shreds of pure-pulp, 100 percent, non recyled notebook paper... Indeed, much of what I suspected... You degenerate schlubs have no idea what you speak of in regards to music, at least the one's of your sickening ilk that dare suggest, 'Modest Mouse' is to cool to learn more than three chords, or four, or whatever that complete blunder of a human being suggested.... Perhaps you fail to see what many others see, even your little fag boys up on stage in tutu's and the sort... they see it... even the chinaman...(by the way, are Chang's mandolin's made by languedoc? I cornered him one time at a christmas jam and asked him, but he denied such, stating that languedoc didn't even make mandolins... I call bullshit... seriously) yes, the chinaman sees it..(they just can't pull it off)... Music goes way beyond chords, into this thing called the soul... and ultimately, no amount of musical knowledge will ever outweight the effect of baring of one's soul in music... THat's the bottom line... THen again, I think String CHeese blows tremendously, though I recognize their raw talent... So you can have your circus freaks who are running a three ring extravaganza of the the coatails of those who came before them... I'll stick to checking out new, original, and refreshing artists who have more to sing about than flowers, jamborees, wheels, and the like... Good day...
Dude, have atleast 100 posts before you act like a bastard. Oh, and am I the only one who read this douche's dribble only to find he was trying way too hard to insult us? Go ahead, try again spanky. I'll give you an incentive: Modest Mouse sucks, their drummer especially sucks....they are better off buying a cheap drum machine to keep time.
Whoa, guys... I think we got on the wrong foot here.... I'm starting to think you folks are pretty decent... except for you sgtlard... I hope you didn't type that with a straight face..... jerimiah green jumpstarts your '89 honda civic... check out 'red star theory,' if you don't think so.... Roman, your humor is most compelling. SOrry that I have not yet headed your advice in regards to punctuation... Levitate me... So, y'all are into science, huh? This isn't a string cheese incident message board? Damn google, and damn my preconcieved notions of abbreviations...
String Cheese Incident is actually pretty decent. What specifically don't you like about them other than their 'tutu wearing lack of soul'?
Their propensity to make cliche'/abrupt changes from minor chord jams to floaty, and rather, uhhhmmm, without trying to sound to king of the hill, gay major chord jamborees... Then there are the lyrics, which in my opinion, suffer from a serious void in the area's of, depth, cleverness, raw emotion, and a multitude of other things I look towards in a song.... I just think that they are nothing special... that what they are doing has been done before, and done better.... I don't see that with Modest Mouse, and my original post was mainly directed at those who might suggest that Modest Mouse has in some way. 'sold out.' Or that they think they are too cool for this or that. People who speak that way obviously have no comprehension of what it is like to cut balls and take a chance at doing what you love... To paraphrase a qoute from Isaac Brock himself, it's usually those whom have neither tried to make a living in art, or whom have yet to break free from the fiscal support of their parents, who make such bold accusations as to an artist, 'selling out.' Makes a lot of sense, if you really think about it. What do any of us know about 'selling out,' unless of course you've actually sold something out.... Indeed, the little teeny boppers moshing their heads off to 'Bankrupt on Sellin' is quite the travesty, but to deny their extensive catalouge on the account that they have recently achieved success, and achieved such by breaking out of their previous mold... well, boy, that's just dumb, and a totally conformist way of looking at something like music, whichin its very essence, is the poste child for non-cofrmity... sorry about the ellipsis(sp?), and the spelling...
