Modest Mouse - The Golden Casket (June 25, 2021) • Page 21

"Remember Yourself" is beautiful

Lol, yeah, fat chance but very cool!

 

I enjoyed them playing Surfin’ Your Couch more during the VIP set than I did listening to the recorded version.

Yeah I can’t imagine it will be that soon, but it would be a nice surprise! Some random little tidbits from my Q+A:

Someone asked Issac about James Mercer from The Shins and he said that James had recently come in to record some vocals for a new song.

I asked Issac about their setlists and how they come up with them because I’ve seen them live 7-8 times and the setlist has always been so varied each time and I was curious about their process for picking it. Issac showed me (from a distance) a piece of paper with about 30-40 songs they rehearse for tour and said that usually a band member will come up with the sets each day and Issac will go through and make changes if he doesn’t feel like playing a certain song. They also add and remove songs throughout tours to the rehearsal list.

 

That is interesting! Man, what a cool experience. Was the Q&A enjoyable? Did the band seem to enjoy talking with folks?

 

Oh absolutely worth it 100%. Issac seemed to be in very good spirits and was very open to chatting with us about anything, and the VIP goodies that came with this tour were fun. It came with the 7 inch flexi single of “Surfin’ Your Couch”, a little airbrushed stencil that says “bury me with it” that you can put on a shirt, and a double sided fold out poster with one side having the sheet music to “The World At Large”. I can upload pics if you want me to.

 

Surfin' Your Couch sounds like an AI took the most popular Modest Mouse stuff and mixed it with earlier era Gorillaz

 

We Were Dead vibes. If you catch some of the lyrics about JG, they're heartbreaking.

"I wish I paid attention to every word you ever said, but you always spoke in whispers and I'm not so good at listening."

 

Shit got me tearing up at work smdh. What a song

 

I'm really back on that The Whale Song shit, what an absolute tune

 

Probably their best tbh

 

Listening to Interstate 8 this morning, such a great record

 

Broke is top tier

 

Building Nothing Out of Something today, another killer record with interstate 8 on it again

 

Long Drives on today, I have a flight to catch later but Im still going to listen because its a great album.

 

One of my favorite debuts of all time

 

My favorite MM record

 

Mine is and forever will be the moon and antarctica. Legit a perfect album from front to back.

 

the run of long drive > lonesome > building nothing is unopposed. probably a good time to revisit this doc.

 

A band so good that I could legitimately see an argument for my least favorite of theirs being someone else's favorite. I will never argue about this band. Just feel lucky to have them

 

Spitting Venom is my top dog

 

I would say the run from Long Drive up to (and including) Good News is spotless. We Were Dead is also great but just a slight notch below imo, and I haven’t really cared too much for anything since. Moon and Lonesome are pretty much a case of “whichever one I am listening to in the moment is my favorite”, both records are masterworks that showcase different sides of the band’s sound equally well.

my partner and I got an original pressing of Long Drive recently and spun it just a few days ago and it was an extraordinary listen. the copy is a little on the noisy side, but even listening through the crackle it was probably my favorite listen of the album to date. it just felt so dynamic and it was so wide open it really filled the room and enhanced the atmosphere of the record. it took a while for me to really appreciate just how great that album is, but I adore it now and I still feel like it grows on me with each new listen.

 

I do like the later stuff to varying degrees but the "three people in a room" sound of the first couple albums distinguish them as extra special to me - the later albums with their guest musicians and elaborate production have their pleasures but they're more commonplace. You could make a case for Jeremiah's drumming being the most important/distinctive element of LCW especially.

 

I've listened to Good News so much that I tend to reach for We Were Dead or The Golden Casket now whenever I'm in the mood for latter-day Mouse

 

I think I prefer This is a Long Drive to Lonesome Crowded West.

 

We Were Dead cracks me up a bit only because the Johnny Marr parts stick out for their Marr-ness just as they do on the Cribs album he joined in on.

I'll take "Dashboard" over "Float On" any day as far as MM pop singles go, though.