In the past 15 years, who has released a better pair of consecutive, full-length studio albums than Modest Mouse's The Lonesome Crowded West -> The Moon & Antarctica?

For me, the answer may be no one. But chances are you disagree, so let's hear 'em.

I can't imagine that anyone will disagree with that.

Alligator -> Boxer
Hope For Men -> King Of Jeans
Deep Cuts -> Silent Shout

for a start

http://www.disneydreaming.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/Justin-Bieber-Christmas-Album-Under-The-Mistletoe2.jpg

and

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/0/01/Believe-JB-Album.jpg/220px-Believe-JB-Album.jpg

Of indie albums released in 97 and 2000 i would say Sea and Cake- The Fawn and Oui.

DAMN THIS THREAD REALLY GETS MY JUICES FLOWIN *BOOKMARKS*

you didn't have to click

Summerteeth -> Yankee Hotel Foxtrot

if they had gone Being There -> Yankee I would agree, but i can't get with Summerteeth's production

lots of people, because the moon and antarctica sucks

incorrect

The Drift-> Bish Bosch
New Amerykah Pt 1-> New Amerykah Pt 2

are some good ones. I haven't heard the modest mouse albums tho

The last two Sleater-Kinneys

Kill the moonlight - gimme fiction

If I'm being a corny indie fuXxor.

Caribou. The Field. Patrick Wolf. Fuck loads of people.

15 years? LOOOL. Too many to count.

Mass Romantic > Electric Version

i don't like Modest Mouse but there are many other bands from 1997 who released a "pair of consecutive, full-length studio albums"

pretty much anyone

top of my head:

chocolate factory -> happy people/u saved me
now -> blacksummer'snight
end hits -> the argument
press play -> last train to paris
infinity on high -> folie a deux
the world has made me the man of my dreams -> devil's halo
diamond eyes -> koi no yokan
clarity -> bleed american
fearless -> speak now

actually 15 years is a lot longer than i think, that first one should be tp-2.com -> chocolate factory -> happy people/u saved me -> fuck modest mouse

tragically squandered first response hof opp itt

brad nelson otm

Dark Thrones and Black Flags -> Circle the Wagons

I'd say Fantasma and Point by Cornelius fit that same time frame

the 'lol how about like EVERYONE' responders are really bringing something to this thread, so thank you for that.

the jimmy eat world suggestion was particularly entertaining, and that's coming from someone who would rather listen to 'lucky denver mint' than just about anything else much of the time.

best FOUR ALBUM RUN of the 2000s (aka the Stevie Awards)

i actually really like the moon and antarctica and i don't even like modest mouse. my fave thing by them is the one that isn't an actual modest mouse album. had another name. that's a good one.

the jimmy eat world suggestion was particularly entertaining, and that's coming from someone who would rather listen to 'lucky denver mint' than just about anything else much of the time.

then you agree with me that those records are awesome

those sea & cake albums are good too. i actually own them on vinyl. and i own like 4 albums from the 90's.

the first 2 junior boys records

there are like a zillion groups/artists that put out better albums over the last 15 years but if this is about twee bands i will nominate Lost Souls & The Last Broadcast. and the two Lansing-Dreiden albums. and the first two go-kart mozart albums.

my fave thing by them is the one that isn't an actual modest mouse album. had another name. that's a good one

Ugly Casanova? If so, I still have that one! Though I'm not really sure why.

i love those modest mouse records a lot though, definitely at least in my top 10 for this concept if not top 5

boards of canada music has the right & geogaddi

the jimmy eat world suggestion was particularly entertaining, and that's coming from someone who would rather listen to 'lucky denver mint' than just about anything else much of the time.

then you agree with me that those records are awesome

I think 'lucky denver mint' is awesome, that those two records are very good, but that they aren't even in the same league as the Modest Mouse records. but, y'know, opinions, etc.

anyway that thread xhuxk linked to should answer your question

the 'lol how about like EVERYONE' responders are really bringing something to this thread, so thank you for that.

haha if I started a thread titled "I DARE anyone to come up with a tastier meal than chile con carne" I wouldn't get to be all "oh how very predictable" when vegetarians/ppl with different tastes started chiming in

there are like a zillion groups/artists that put out better albums over the last 15 years but if this is about twee bands

― scott seward, Wednesday, February 27, 2013 11:36 AM

this is not about twee bands. Modest Mouse is twee?

any kind of band/music/artist will do. gimme 10 of your zillion.

i love the Lansing-Dreiden album i have ... should pick up more stuff by them i guess.

Barbara Morgenstern, Nichts Muss -> The Grass Is Always Greener

Sarah Dougher, The Walls Ablaze -> The Bluff

Owen Pallett, He Shits Clouds -> Heartland

I know it's not actually "shits" but I have a pathological hatred of the word "poo" esp. as a verb

Ugly Casanova?

that's the one!

Bill Dixon featuring Tony Oxley, Papyrus, Volume 1 -> Papyrus, Volume 2
M.I.A., Arular -> Kala
Green, Eau de Vie -> The Planets

"gimme 10 of your zillion."

well i gave you three. i'll come up with 7 more in a bit. yeah you know kinda twee. they wear sweaters and stuff probably.

katatonia, discouraged ones -> tonight's decision / viva emptiness -> the great cold distance

there you go. that's 4. discouraged ones and tonight's decision. waaaaaay better than the two modest mouse albums. i haven't actually heard the lonesome crowded west but there is no way that it's as good as discouraged ones.

i'll come up with 6 more in a bit.

10 of my zillion:

Legendary Pink Dots: pick any, but Poppy Variations -> Whispering Wall is esp. strong

The Ex: Dizzy Spells -> Turn

Nurse With Wound: An Awkward Pause -> Man With The Woman Face

Eyvind Kang: Visible Breath -> The Face Of The Earth

The Fall: Imperial Wax Solvent -> Your Future Our Clutter

Fugazi, as mentioned

Sonic Youth: take your pick

Muslimgauze: Azad -> Fakir Sind

United Bible Studies: The Shore That Fears The Sea -> The Jonah

Coil: Musick To Play In The Dark Vols. 1 & 2

do not cosign on those katatonia records

discouraged ones might actually be my favorite album of the last 15 years.

kate bush - aerial --> 50 words for snow

good one!

t.i.: trap muzik --> urban legend

Catacombs > Wit's End

Cinemascope > Momentum

my real answer:

in an expression of the inexpressible --> melody of certain damaged lemons --> melody citronique EP --> misery is a butterfly --> the secret society of butterflies EP --> 23

Michael Hurley: Bellemeade Sessions -> Weatherhole

Electric six - fire & señor smoke

Eagles of death metal - peace love death metal & death by sexy

Tizzy, Scary In Adulthood -> Down With The Furies

Mountain goats - we shall all be healed & the sunset tree

Rocket from the crypt - group sounds & live from camp x-ray

i was gonna put in flagranti in here and realized they have two albums i haven't heard yet. but i bet they give isaac brock a good run for his money so fuck it!

wronger than anyone else --> sounds superb --> brash & vulgar --> worse for wear

Devin the dude - just tryin ta live & to tha extreme

brash & vulgar is seriously a great album and i don't think i've seen anyone on ilm talk about it.

xp

Les savy fav - go forth & let's stay friends

warning - strength to dream & watching from a distance

Straight Outta Lynwood - Alpocalypse

wait people like the moon and antartica

what a country

i liked it when i heard it. kinda like indie prog. though i preferred that one sunny day real estate album as far as indie art rock goes. it doesn't usually go very far.

that's kinda why i liked blueberry boat too. i mean at least they gave it a go. that's all i ask. give it a go.

well give it a go but don't sound like the eels or flaming lips and throw away all your beach boys albums. THEN give it a go.

why not...

Opeth - Ghost Reveries -> Watershed
Nellie McKay - Obligatory Villagers -> Normal as Blueberry Pie
Bob Dylan - Love and Theft -> Modern Times
Ulver - Shadows of the Sun -> Wars of the Roses
Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend -> Contra

weird choice of consecutive ulver records but they work for me too bc of blood inside -> shadows of the sun

Stankonia -> Speakerboxxx/The Love Below

lol

Bennett's 'Street Vs. Science' and the one they did before that

Electric Version -> Twin Cinema

Aquemini -> Stankonia does count though.

Miranda Lambert: Crazy Ex-Girlfriend and Revolution.

Perfect From Now On -> Keep It Like a Secret

What Burns Never Returns -> American Don

Talker -> Acre Thrills

Reveille -> Apple O'

Journey to the End of the Night -> OOOH! (Out of Our Heads)
Sometimes I Wish We Were an Eagle -> Apocalypse
Things We Lost in the Fire -> Trust
My Father Will Guide Me Up The Rope To The Sky -> The Seer
The Coroner's Gambit -> All Hail West Texas

("A" for "The" in the Swans title)

Super æ -> Vision Creation Newsun

Mclusky

Mclusky do Dallas -> the difference between you and me is that I'm not on fire

This is not an arguable point fyi

i actually really like The Moon & Antarctica, but I'm not that into The Lonesome Crowded West. Granted, I didn't hear the latter until years later.

For me:

Dots & Loops -> Cobra & Phases Group
Sonic Nurse -> Rather Ripped
Last Exit -> So This Is Goodbye
He Poos Clouds -> Heartland
Vocal Studies + Uprock Narratives -> One-Word Extinguisher

Kim Zolciak's "Don't Be Tardy For The Party" -> "Google Me" is a worthy contender for the OP.

In my case

Bjork: Vespertine ==> Medulla
Joe Henry: Tiny Voices ==> Civillians
Deerhoof: Deerhoof Vs Evil ==> Breakup Song
Ben Allison: Riding the Nuclear Tiger ==> Peace Pipe
Amir ElSaffar: Two Rivers ==> Inana
Cunninlynguists: A Piece of Strange ==> Dirty Acres
UA: Golden Green ==> ATTA

Also this:

Vocal Studies + Uprock Narratives -> One-Word Extinguisher

Yankee Hotel Foxtrot - A Ghost Is Born

Brad Nelson otm

My unpopular opinion would be Is This It -> Room On Fire

jjj otm

Each One Teach One > Secret Wars

The Art of Self Defense > Surrounded by Thieves

Polar Bear
Held On The Tips Of Fingers - Polar Bear

Any two in a row of LCD Soundsystem's albums

Caribou
Andorra - Swim

Electrelane
The Power Out - Axes

Grizzly Bear
Veckatimest - Shields

Lamchop
Nixon - Is A Woman

Wild Beasts
Two Dancers - Smother

Four Tet
Ringer - There Is Love In You
Pause - Rounds

The Beta Band
Hot Shots II - Heroes to Zeroes

Plus cosign on many of the other pairs suggested.

The Necks
Drive By - Chemist

Cotton Jones
Paranoid Cocoon - Tall Hours in the Glowstream

Beach House
Teen Dream - Bloom

Jesse Sykes and the Sweet Hereafter
Like Love Lust and the Open Halls of the Soul - Marble Son

Fleet Foxes
Fleet Foxes - Helplessness Blues

Neko Case
Fox Confessor Brings The Flood - Middle Cyclone

The first time I became aware of the existence of a band called 'Modest Mouse' was probably the first time the inherent gentrified pointlessness of a lot of American indie really hit me. And STILL I'm not sure that most of the suggestions on this thread are actually right.

Mass Romantic > Electric Version

― ARE YOU HIRING A NANNY OR A SHAMAN (Phil D.), Wednesday, February 27, 2013 1:32 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Electric Version -> Twin Cinema

― Pope Rusty I (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, February 27, 2013 8:58 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Actually Mass Romantic > Electric Version > Twin Cinema > Challengers is a pretty un-fuck-withable four album run. For some bands, that's a whole career right there. Even Together has its heights.

The first time I became aware of the existence of a band called 'Modest Mouse' was probably the first time the inherent gentrified pointlessness of a lot of American indie really hit me. And STILL I'm not sure that most of the suggestions on this thread are actually right.

― Matt DC, Thursday, February 28, 2013 3:16 AM (12 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I would agree about gentrified pointlessness for a lot of american indie going on now, but I fail to see how it would apply to an album like TLCW. Care to explain?

ugh sorry, forgot the put the italics on.

Lonesome Crowded West still kicks after all these years, I just checked

if you can't count:

Silent Shout -> Fever Ray

then my answer is :

Satanic Panic in the Attic -> The Sunlandic Twins -> Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer?

I don't know Modest Mouse, but...

Ys -> Have One on Me

thread would be harder to argue with if it remembered/counted building nothing out of something

generic cutesy twee indie accusations not rly the right ones for this band i think; they're scuzzy and restless and bleak especially in the 90s, also pretty bluecollar iirc (songs mostly about working and drinking and cars breaking down). never listen to them anymore but if i put on LCW right now i know i wouldn't regret it

anyway brand new eyes --> paramore

Modest Mouse is just an awful band name.

generic cutesy twee indie accusations not rly the right ones for this band i think; they're scuzzy and restless and bleak especially in the 90s, also pretty bluecollar iirc (songs mostly about working and drinking and cars breaking down). never listen to them anymore but if i put on LCW right now i know i wouldn't regret it

anyway brand new eyes --> paramore

― i want to say one word to you, just one word:buzzfeed (difficult listening hour), Thursday, November 21, 2013 1:28 AM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yah totally otm they are like real indie dead-end type vibe (or at least were)...i remember isaac showing up to some in-store in mpls and pissing off the store ppl cuz he was wasted and drinking beer in the store in the middle of their set and being an asshole

overall i dunno it's weird i feel like between brits and their weird-ass definition of "indie" and all this nu-indie ipod commercial casio & glockenspiel kiddie shit the idea of what indie rock really was has gotten really twisted on ilm and elsehwere, not actually like i dunno a bunch of drunk shambly dudes rocking out to polvo and grifters and shit

yea but there was always twee glockenspiel indie shit, right? i feel like there's a thread somewhere talking about this whole other indie universe that was not SST, black flag, butthole surfers, big black, etc but still was part of the underground. some alternate indie universe to azerrad's book. i might be thinking of something nitsuh abebe wrote, either on that thread or some column. at some point though "indie" become twee npr fleet foxes bon iver etc etc.

also i am kind of amazed this thread didn't get ripped apart and turn into some photo-bombing chaos in 5 posts? how did that not happen?

It seems like US twee indie had an undercurrent of creepy psychosexual edge that UK twee indie didn't but I'm prob just talking out of my ass.

OTM people are using "indie" as synonymous with lame/meek/wishy-washy/twee. I feel like maybe indie used to signify a wide variety of "outside the mainstream" acts, with varying levels of aggression in their sound (Pavement, Jesus Lizard, Belle and Sebastian all as indie). Now I think it signifies the spectrum between B&S and Death Cab For Cutie.

I may be way off here, though, it's possible people always referred to Jesus Lizard as post-hardcore and not as an indie rock band.

Azzerad does kind of allude to this underground in the Beat Happening chapter, iirc.

xxxxpost on the last one

also i am kind of amazed this thread didn't get ripped apart and turn into some photo-bombing chaos in 5 posts? how did that not happen?

― marcos, Friday, November 22, 2013 9:12 AM (11 minutes ago)

haha welcome to nu-ILX

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6RN09zYiQAc

I don't know really, just an idea, but is it possible that in recent years, as "indie" as a term has been increasingly muddled, coopted etc, the concept of (at least American) "post-punk" has been expanded to include at least the more noisy side of what would have been deemed "indie" 15 years ago? I.e. the stuff Azerrad covers, pigfuck, Amphetamine Reptile, even Pavement, Silkworm et. al?

I might be a bit too broad here, but still..

also i am kind of amazed this thread didn't get ripped apart and turn into some photo-bombing chaos in 5 posts? how did that not happen?

― marcos, Friday, November 22, 2013 9:12 AM (11 minutes ago)

haha welcome to nu-ILX

― sleeve, Friday, November 22, 2013 9:24 AM (27 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

pretty nu since this thread was started this february...

well, it also seems like a lot of that "post-punk" stuff doesn't exist anymore? Or maybe I'm just unaware of it?

Where is the "Waiting Room" where is the "Kerosene," where is the "Mouth Breather" of today?

Well, not sure if I agree. I mean in the last few years you've had bands such as Pissed Jeans, Metz, Cloud Nothings, Parquet Courts, just to name a few. IMO, all these bands would have been "indie" in a late 80s/early 90s context.

You'll never hear "People Person" in an Apple commercial, that's for fucking sure.

Pissed Jeans are def carrying the Jesus Lizard torch

see "Rolling non-indie underground" threads

Ha, well, most of those bands just sound like re-treads of 90s stuff to me (even if I like some of them), so I guess the problem is that I am lol old.

But a few years back you wouldn't have to call this "non-indie", right? "Indie" was what it was. Today this music is no longer considered "indie", which is pretty much what intheblanks says a few posts up, and I wonder if even the noiser indie-rock of the 80s and 90s have been retroctively labeled post-punk, or something else. Not saying this is a big problem, though, the indie-term has always been relatively impenetrable. However, that "indie" seems to be reserved exclusively for all this twee shit (not all shit, I guess) is somewhat annoying.

I assume this has been debated to death in a hundred threads, though.

Yeah, though the term "indie" was kind of ridiculously voluminous in the 90s, so maybe it's a good thing that it's gotten narrowed down some.

Yeah, I guess. Though the term still sort of signifies some "alternative" or "underground" element, which seems increasingly ridiculous considering the type of band presently being its figureheads..

overall i dunno it's weird i feel like between brits and their weird-ass definition of "indie" and all this nu-indie ipod commercial casio & glockenspiel kiddie shit the idea of what indie rock really was has gotten really twisted on ilm and elsehwere, not actually like i dunno a bunch of drunk shambly dudes rocking out to polvo and grifters and shit

― lorde willin' (upper mississippi sh@kedown)

yeah when i got into indie, i was listening to the grifters/those bastard souls, loads of grim lo-fi K records stuff, GVSB, palace bros, etc. make up, nation of ulysses, feelies, early rem, w/e. my wife was more of an indie head than me, she was into a lot of the sarah records stuff and UK twee.

a lot of indie scene now has become this sort of neither here nor there day-glo coachella party music like metric or latter day flaming lips or arcade fire, if it's not that glockenspiel pomplamoose ipod crap. i think the original "awkwardness" and amateurishness of the indie scene has become an affected put-on (and maybe it was partially in the first place but i don't think it was done so in this particular way.) which is kind of a bummer.

thread would be harder to argue with if it remembered/counted building nothing out of something

― i want to say one word to you, just one word:buzzfeed (difficult listening hour), Wednesday, November 20, 2013 11:16 PM

I remember it and love it. Doesn't count though. It's a comp.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OjecIllOEio

the guitar outro

Oneida about four times over

yeah the thread title was obviously just someone itching for a fight. nevertheless, the lonesome crowded west is incredible

Limp Biscuit

here's the treeship with teeth like god's shoeshine

i felt this way back in high school

I probably would have voted Blacklisted -> Fox Confessor, for the time period at issue.

(there was plenty of other stuff I loved, but it’s more idiosyncratic, and I wouldn’t go to the mat for it “objectively” like I would those two Neko albums.)

...Or is that pair disqualified, because she released a (similarly excellent) live album in between? I’m not totally clear on the rules here.

diamond eyes -> koi no yokan

i'll go with this suggestion from bradnelson

i am just now getting into deftones and right now they are the best rock n roll band in history after the stones

hell yeah

otm

Good Kid M.A.A.D City -> To Pimp a Butterfly
To Pimp a Butterfly -> DAMN
MBDTF -> Yeezus
Exai -> Elseq 1-5

Not too much else comes close for me for the last 15 years

The time period in question here was 1998-2013 (if we were doing the past 15 years from today, I’d have a different answer!)

now that i think about it, lonesome crowded west was more than 15 years old when this thread was made. mods???

tbf, the post title doesn’t require it being less than 15

ah fair enough. in that case,

Didn't It Rain -> Magnolia Electric Co
Strange Geometry -> God Save the Clientele
Last Exit -> So This is Goodbye

oh hah i already posted that last one back in the day

Every Broadcast long-player was released in the 15 years up to Feb '13. So, yes, several times times IMHO. #PVMIC