The band takes their name from a Virginia Woolf quote. Truth be told this is quite a fitting lineage as, like Woolf herself, fewer artists give quite as convincing a portrayal of someone on the verge of a mental or nervous breakdown as Modest Mouse.
Isaac Brock’s is the man responsible for that. His voice could convincingly stand up with the likes of Tom Waits, Bob Dylan, Morrissey and David Bowie as one of the acquired tastes that you’ll eventually wonder how you ever did without it.
However, it’s when his guttural howl delivers his lyrics that things get truly worrying. The evocative images of everything from the endless dust bowl deserts of the American West, to the sheer expanse of space and the cold, unfeeling ocean posit how we as individual people can possibly mean anything compared to the vast canvas of existence itself. Don’t worry, there’s also some damn catchy choruses in their as well!
Catchy enough to have arguably lead the charge of indie rock into the mainstream after The Strokes and The White Stripes kicked the doors down. They have sold 1.5 million copies of April 2004’s “Good News for People Who Love Bad News”, the album which gave the world their deathless Billboard Hot 100 hit “Float On”. The follow up album 2007’s “We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank”, which featured the aforementioned Johnny Marr as a member of the band for the album’s creation and subsequent tour, was certified Gold as well.
On the surface, it would seem that they are an odd band to have Gold and Platinum albums to their name, but look closer and they always temper their experimental and haunting tendencies with solid gold hooks. If R.E.M are no more, they can be satisfied in the knowledge that there are still alternative rock bands bringing literate, profound and edgy rock and roll to arenas and concert halls the world over.
I remember hearing about Modest Mouse back in the early 2000s, so I was surprised to see them come to my town and play a sold-out show at a local concert hall. Their live sound is a lot more raw and intense than their singles, such as Float On, which I came to love them for. Instead, they have many songs where they sound more like a garage band than a polished indie force - but that's a good thing! I was impressed by the experimentation the guitarists tried in almost every song.
Even though some of it was very noisy, the majority of the songs were all based on a powerful beat and melody so nothing was really lost. I was actually really appreciative of their live skills, especially how they changed up parts of The Good Times Are Killing Me for a live performance.
The crowd was very respectful during their less-intense songs, especially when the entire band was performing together to make a really awesome folk sound.
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