Modest Mouse

[polkablues]

Every time people talk about how great Modest Mouse is, I feel like I'm being Punk'd.

[Myxo]

I blind bought their last album and got a refund the same day. It's terrible.

[modage]

hey, i kinda agree with you two.  i had a friend in philadelphia who listened to them before they blew up and i did not care for it at all.  she always used to play it in the video store she worked in and i was like 'what the hell is this?'  'modest mouse.'  and then their song blew up and i was like 'eh, its okay' and then it stayed blowed up for a few months until the $7.99 price tag and promise of some NEW music was too much for me to resist early last summer.  and then i thought it was like 1/3 really good (the world at large, float on, ocean breathes salty, one chance), 1/3 okay (the view, satin in a coffin, blame it on the tetons, black cadillacs, the good times are killing me), and 1/3 terrible (bury me with it, dance hall, bukowski, the devils workday).  i guess they're just not my thing.  so i dont know why i just ripped Moon and Antarctica from my cousin even though i already had that downloaded from forever ago too and didn't like it except for like 3 or 4 songs.

[RegularKarate]

You can't say you don't like the hype AND base your opinion of them on the newest album because you haven't been listening to the hype if you think that's what the best stuff is.

Bukowski is the best song on Good News... so you're wrong there, but most of the album is sub-par.

[modage]

i don't have a problem with their hype.  i actually appreciate the fact that a band as weird and left of center as MM got as big as they did last summer during that little boom, but i just don't dig the music.

[ono]

Give Lonesome Crowded West (their best by far) or Building Nothing Out Of Something a chance before you totally write them off.  Or if you really like left-of-center, try This is a Long Drive for Someone With Nothing to Think About.

As for Good News, different strokes for different folks.  I find most of that album to be incredibly strong with only a few weak tracks (Dance Hall, This Devil's Workday, One Chance -- but even those are redeemable).  I hated Bury Me With It when I first heard it, but it's now one of my favorites -- it grows on you, it really does.  And The View is just classic.  It seems to me though, from your selections of what's good on Good News, you like the softer stuff, and not the harder alternative rock that Modest Mouse was first known for.  And if that's the case, you won't like too much of Lonesome, and you definitely won't like Long Drive, but then Building Nothing will be a good bet, if you care.  I especially like Other People's Lives, Never Ending Math Equation, and Interstate 8 off of that one.

[Stefen]

Lonesome crowded west is their best effort. It's an album I listened to for a very long time. They used to be good now they just try only hard enough to be relevant. There was a time when they didn't care, but those times are long gone.

Good news is a horrid album. It's got some good tracks but overall it just feels like when they were recording it they were in the mindset of "okay, this is the one thats gonna get us on the cover of entertainment weekly" and they tried to make it as accesible as possible. After that it was all downhill for them imo. Some may argue that it was all uphill for them after that, but thats only cause they saw them on the cover of ew and then bought good news.

[Slick Shoes]

i've had lonesome crowded west for a couple weeks... i don't know, i just can't get into it. i've heard bits and pieces of the moon and antarctica and while it was pleasant, it didn't really do anything for me either. then again, it seems like the sort of album you need to listen to multiple times to fully appreciate. based on what ono said, i might like building nothing.

[ono]

Eh, I don't think Good News is horrid, but to each his own.

Yeah, definitely check out Building Nothing, Slick Shoes.  There's something to appreciate there in each track.  It flows together nicely, which is funny too, because of how the album was constructed (bits and pieces from other places, not really an official album, but not an EP, either -- more like a collection).

I used to think Moon was their best.  I still love it for so many reasons, but Lonesome surpassed it for me because each track except for Jesus Christ Was An Only Child only gets better with each listen (and Polar Opposites has just gotten worse as I've found more to appreciate in other tracks on the album).

All of Modest Mouse's stuff benefits from multiple listens.  It's very atmospheric, especially Moon.  It helps to hear them live, too, which is not easy to do, but checking out Baron Von Bullshit Rides Again would help.

Best tracks for Lonesome: Teeth Like God's Shoeshine, Convenient Parking, Cowboy Dan, Trailer Trash, Truckers Atlas, Bankrupt on Selling, though it's hard to discount the others because everything on it is so solid.

Best tracks for Moon: 3rd Planet, Dark Center of the Universe, The Stars Are Projectors, Paper Thin Walls, I Came As A Rat, Lives, Life Like Weeds -- same here, I'm tempted to name so many others but the ones I've mentioned are key.

[ᾦɐļᵲʊʂ]

I like Modest Mouse because of their very original sound... it's easy to not like them because of that.  Like Bjork... (not to compare Modest Mouse to Bjork) her voice is very different and when musicians can't live up to the standard most listeners have created based on their favorite bands, these unique bands seem horrible and untalented.

In Modest Mouse I see amazing lyrics and great music.  

Though I can agree Good News was a bit lacking, it still had some great tracks.

[GoneSavage]

I'm a fan but feel they have not produced a defining release.  All their albums have had peaks and valleys.  Good News is no better or worse than anything else they've done, for the most part.  It had one catchy number but god knows how that caught on, many other catchier songs throughout the years failed when that succeeded.  It's sad to see written they they've somehow sold out or compromised or changed their sound to hit it big  but songs like Bury Me With It (I like this song) normally aren't included in albums meant for mainstream marketing.  Float On was a stroke of luck, and good for him.

[RegularKarate]

They used to be good now they just try only hard enough to be relevant. There was a time when they didn't care, but those times are long gone.

I think that's a dumb thing to say.

They had one album that wasn't as good as they had been crankin out lately and all of a sudden they don't care?

And you can't really say that they were trying to make Good News a "hit"... that's ridiculous... it's just not that good... it's not like they had a major radiofriendly overhaul.

[I Love a Magician]

jammin on this new modest mouse son

also:
http://www.mediafire.com/?cmnz4ymai2t
http://www.sendspace.com/file/9l6iqr

pretty sure those work

[squints]

i'm worried about this. its dl'ing now and i'm anxious but i'm not expecting much. I've been a mouse fan for years, seen them several times and the track i heard on myspace is not looking good. here's hoping fingers crossed

[I Love a Magician]

My mini-review from another board, please excuse the retardedness.

daniel's first impressions of the new modest mouse album

1. March Into The Sea - j-j-j-jammin on the 1-2-3-1-2-3-1-2-3-1-2-3

2. Dashboard - catchy as fuck, not as "upbeat" as it's been made out to be, back up vocals are real kewl and i also like the strings i dont give a freak

3. Fire It Up - i dig it a lot

4. Florida - dig the back up VOX on this one too and i like the slow "even as i left florida" a good deal

5. Parting of the Sensory - i don't know what the fuc all this "something's gonna steal your carbon" is all about but the last minute and a half or so of this song is just FuRiOuS

6. Missed The Boat - this song really sets my heart to flutter, dig that delayed guitar and james mercer doin some singin. this song reminds me of the 80s

7. We've Got Everything - dig that james mercer doin some singin X20 awesome

8. Fly Trapped In A Jar - dont think much of this one right yet

9. Education - dont think much of this one either but i like it

10. Little Motel - hot godamn i do like this song, "we treat mishaps like sinking ships, and i know that i dont wanna be out to drift, well i can see it in your eyes like i taste your lips and they both tell that we're better than this" ah son that's my jam


11. Steam Engenius - lol+wtf @ this, do like the whoo-hoo, whoo-hoo, whoo-oooo00o tho

12. Spitting Venom - like this one a lot, dig that ebb and flow

13. People As Places As People - i like the words

14. Invisible - i like it fine but i dont think much of it as a closer even tho "we'll get crushed by the ocean but it will not get us wet" is a good last line

i dig the fuc out of it pretty much, my major quibles being that i think the production makes a few of the songs sound same-y and that sometimes it's so studio sounding that you don't really get a sense of a band playing. but i do like it a lot especially when dude from the shins sings in the back