The Best Modest Mouse Album

I have the "M&A" on vinyl, which is a double LP and it goes down easier that way, so I'll vote for that as my favourite.

When they started they were sort of a twee NW indie band, squeaky vocals, K record connection, and that was a style I think they did well. Things started to change when they toured with Califone after Lonesome Crowded West, they started to crave a rougher sound.

They had a tendency at one point to have very simmilar dynamics in every song (up and down, louder and quiet, like they were on a boat going through the ocean) which came right after their super lo-fi period.

When I accidently downloaded the song "Dramamine" (it was listed as Primus) they were my favorite band for a while.

Karma's payment plan is their best song, still.

Ugh, and I just realised it's on K! What the hell's wrong with me?

Anyway, of the 6 named tracks, 3 would be in my list of top 10 MM songs if I cared that much. So that's a pretty good batting average.

Matthew, OTM.

Sometimes I wish the primary form bands released music in was 20-40 minute, 6-10 track CDs.

Well, I think the public are wrong!

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B000003L26.01._SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg

Ah, I think that's why I like it! Although I will agree that it does sag in the middle.

EVERYWHERE & HIS NASTY PARLOUR TRICKS

is their best. Red Red Meat-lite!

1. Lonesome Crowded West
2. Good News for people...
3. Long Drive with nothing...
4. Moon and Antartica

How about favorite Modest Mouse songs?

1. Convenient Parking
2. Heart Cooks Brain
3. Third Planet
4. Ocean Breathes Salty
5. Trailer Trash

It's called "Baron Von Bullshit Rides Again." You can get it on iTunes, and from their website. The performances are just like the albums, for the most part, but there is some spectacular between-song-banter from a cranky Isaac.

As for fave album, another vote for "Lonesome Crowded West." Great for long drives, where it never seems long at all. I was so grabbed by that disc when I first got it (I think in '97, when they played L.A. shows with Strictly Ballroom, the band that splintered into Dntel and Beachwood Sparks!), mainly because of the fact that the band had these themes running through the disc, yet it wasn't any kind of "rock opera" or anything. It all flows together so well.

I like "Good News" a lot too, but I prefer the more spacey indie rock sounds (with all those bent harmonics!) over the Tom Waits-y ones on the newer disc.

I can't believe the level of rockist action here.

No Modest Mouse album poll? Kinda surprising.

They've never had an ILX contingent quite in proportion to their real-life fanbase I think.

The more time goes by, the more Lonesome Crowded West and Building Nothing Out of Something are the only ones I reach for. They never disappoint. I know the latter is a comp but it's a hell of a comp.

Moon and Antarctica was crucial for me at a certain age but I find it a reallllly dreary and dull listen these days, maybe just because I know its ins and outs a little too well. The last two records are inconsistently great; something that cherry-picked the highlights of both would be pretty damned awesome.

I need to give Lonesome a proper listen.....really love the Sun Kil Moon version of Truckers Atlas. Yeah, Moon and Antarctica can be a draining experience. I go back to Good News... quite a bit though.

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

Now that I've mentioned it, I've gotta post it. Such a great cover.

lonesome for its sheer audacity. it does run out of steam towards the end (or even halfway through if you're in a trying mood), but at its peak it's phenomenal. the opening track is far and away the best thing i've ever heard from them.

she was talking with a syllable lisp
and everybody she knew was gonna get the twist
and they all went down and did porcupine
and everybody was feeling ah-ee-ah-ight

Sad sappy sucker

these guys have been dormant for a long time...

They sold out a UK tour that was meant to kick off this month and just cancelled it a couple of weeks ago.

Plus there's this, from an interview with Big Boi from Outkast last year:

You have a lot of collaborations on the new album. It seems like a lot of people are phoning in collabos these days.
It's better to be in the same creative space to get the best results. Me and my partner Chris were working on some songs with Modest Mouse for their new record. We brought them out to the studio for a whole week — Isaac and the boys came down to Stankonia for a week. To live day in day out with somebody, it's so cool. Going to get dinner, going to get breakfast. The conversations and little side stories are the things that really pull the music together.

Can you share any of those side stories?
Yeah, I learned how to make an apple into a bong from one of the guys in the band. Smoke outta apples, definitely.

Oh, I meant to say they cancelled the tour and sent out a note to ticket holders apologizing and saying they wanted to finish their new album, which would be soon.

the first half of this thread is completely bizarre. Good News over LCW and M&A? c'mon.

1. impossible to decide between LCW / M&A
2. Building Nothing
3. Long Drive + Interstate 8 + Fruit, etc.
4. everything else is clunky, barking-Isaac garbage with a few good songs here and there

I still think Good News and We Were Dead get close to 1/2 good songs with a handful of classics, but yeah, they really did lose something tho I played both of those a LOT when they came out. Finally sold the latter last year, never thought I'd give up any of my Mouse but there you go. I basically agree with your ranking, but I'd swap Building Nothing in for M&A.

1. Everywhere & His Nasty Parlour Tricks
3. Moon & Antarctica
3. Lonesome Crowded West
4. Building Nothing Out of Something
5. Good News
6. We Were Dead
7. Fruit That Ate Itself
8. Sad Sappy Sucker
9. Interstate 8
10. This is a Long Drive

moon & antarctica is the best but it's too long. i would cut alone down there, the cold part, stars are projectors, and what people are made of in a heartbeat. close with night on the sun and it'd be a stronger classic

yeah I'm not really sure if I could answer this either. I think "Stars are Projectors" is wonderful and the middle section of M&A does drag. It's always struck me as their most accomplished album though I probably play LCW more. And Building Nothing out of Something has most of the one-offs that I really like. I'm surprised how little I really ahve the urge to listen to these guys anymore. Their latest work hasn't been bad but it's really put me off them for whatever reason.

OTM about M&A being too long but can't imagine cutting ''What People Are Made Of,'' and ''Alone Down There'' and ''The Cold Part'' ar esoooo essential to the mood/flow/whatever.

on Lonesome i'd cut... shit. none of em. but it's still too long!!!

and i only recently realized isaac brock was a speed freak when that record was made, which makes perfect sense. Lonesome Crowded West might be the quintessential amphetamine album

long drive was the best & most functional. m&a is kind of horrible, bombastic & exhausting, i can't imagine ever listening to it again.

it is difficult, as one ages, to resist tripling the size of one's touring band and paying remarkably thorough homage to tom waits

some manage it better than others

brock has said that the artist he aped most circa Lonesome was Dylan

(more) props to dylan then

Lonesome crowded west has great nervous energy, the uppers thing makes sense, but i prefer the moon and antarctica. The dorm room philosophizing/cosmic wonder work well, i think, it's moving.

frogbs otm here:

(M&A has) always struck me as their most accomplished album though I probably play LCW more.

I don't disagree that LCW is a bit too long and could be stronger if it were shorter, but at the same time, I don't know what I'd cut beyond "Bankrupt On Selling." And that only trims three minutes.

Also: I'm not a "drums" guy, so take it with a grain of salt, but the drums on "Trucker's Atlas" are like my fave drums ever.

and i only recently realized isaac brock was a speed freak when that record was made

Where did you read or hear that?

I think This Is A Long Drive..., The Lonesome Crowded West, The Moon & Antarctica, Good News..., and the Building Nothing... collection are all great.

I'll bet I like at least 50 songs from those five.

Their best tunes..

hard to pick anything else at #1 imo

yeah #1 is OTM

ugly casanova's "hotcha girls" is also one of my all-time Brock songs

never really liked Trailer Trash. slips into treacly territory, but they walk a thin line. off the top of my head:

paper thin walls
3rd planet
you're the good things
night on the sun
a different city

my spontaneous 5 atm would be

Styrofoam Boots/It's All Nice on Ice, Alright
Lives
Blame it on the Tetons
Trailer Trash
3rd Planet

happy to see shit luck on alfred's list. love that song.

ugly casanova's "hotcha girls" is also one of my all-time Brock songs

+1

think they're a good example of a band that said it all on the first song of their debut album

a fun list! you like their post-M&A career more than i do though i certainly wouldn't argue with "ocean breathes salty" and "float on" and i can see the case for "dashboard." i guess if pushed i'd include some other tracks from that era in a double-disc best-of: "one chance," "blame it on the tetons," "missed the boat."

but the desert-island picks for me are the lonesome crowded west and building nothing out of something and the latter wins if i really can only take one single LP with me. just super super consistent in quality with a real sonic range. moon and antarctica has a bunch of awesome tracks but at this point it feels like kind of a slog to put on the whole thing. really brings back a specific moment in time though, it was one of the first 'indie rock' albums i heard circa age 18. i can small the cigarettes and vinyl seats of my cool gal pal's older boyfriend's car i was riding around in when "tiny cities made of ashes" first came out of the speakers and got lodged in my brain. kind of amazed with myself, given how much this band meant to me in my 20s, how little interest i had once strangers to ourselves came out. i even saw it for $10 on vinyl a while back and just kinda went "meh." times had passed i guess.

i wonder what The Kids of today think of them. M&A is now almost as old as i was when i first heard it, so tracked to my lifetime, that's the equivalent of like, chronic town or remain in light or something. do they show up on "must own records of the 2000s" lists? feels like their sound is really far from what's actually popular right now but maybe it's on the verge of a comeback...

MM is evergreen for teenagers in my experience. I first heard them when I 11 & saw the Float On video (thought Isaac’s mustache was real & that they were a novelty band - that very specific cut up/ paper collage animation was v popular for a bit). Then maybe 6 months later the Oceans Breathes Salty, which was like “oh this is a real, amazing band.” Got all the records shortly thereafter.

I loved We Were Dead and still do. Didn’t care about Strangers much but I did listen to it when it came out & thought ‘hm, right, there’s like 3 good songs on here, pass’

the lonesome crowded west is def my favorite overall. Loved M&A at the time but LCW is more loose and freewheeling, which I prefer

yeah it also has more variety, M&A is a solid body of work where the sum is greater than the parts. song like 'the cold part' and 'alone down there' add to the atmosphere and i wouldn't cut them but the album is conjuring very specific images and landscapes. LCW is just as long (or longer?) but the songs stick out from each other more, there's more diversity in instrumentation and delivery and attitude: 'shit luck' vs. 'long distance drunk' vs. 'heart cooks brain' vs. 'trucker's atlas' vs. 'bankrupt on selling.'

yes. actually I would say that images and landscapes are key to their whole thing, and maybe something that fell away a bit later on unfortunately. i've always thought of the lonesome crowded west as living up to its title - mapping out this trucker's atlas of exurban and rural decay, all these gray and kinda ugly and meaningless spaces you encounter living and touring in contemporary america. trailer parks. convenient parking. malls that are also the soon-to-be-ghost-towns. the road to god-don't-know. sometimes there's beauty and love there. sometimes it's rotten and bodes nothing but emptiness up ahead, even for major players in the cowboy scene.

lonesome crowded west I think

partner and i were just rapturously recalling its glories while picnicking the other day. amazing album. i put it on for a solo road trip a few months back and hollered along to every word.

very cool dc

funnily enough we both posted about lcw around the same time last year, gosh :-/

revive was spurred here by meeting someone who mentioned they liked modest mouse and said trailer trash was their favourite song, to which I was like hell yeah

Lonesome Crowded West, though a case could be made for Building Nothing out of Something. That '96-'99 era with the stumbling, drunken shows and flawless 7" run will always mean a lot to me as a Seattle teen and obsessive record store worker. Alas, those 7"s paid my NYC rent for a couple months after Float On.

right on ^

also a really great EP band

polled it once with a typically unsearchable title: Modest Mouse: The POLLsome Crowded West looks like i voted for "heart cooks brain," which is true to my mixtape-making dorm-room self, but today it'd have to be "cowboy dan," "doin' the cockroach," or "truckers atlas."

i've posted this before but god i wish i'd loaded up on surplus modest mouse vinyl in 2000-2002.

Yeah, one of the few prescient (and maybe cynical) purchases I made then was 3 copies of LCW doube lp as it had Baby Blue Sedan. Those all went sealed on Discogs for $280 or so in '06.

Dammmmmn, way to go.

Lounge is the unsung gem on this record