Modest Mouse formed in 1993, in Issaquah, Washington, a small city that has since been engulfed by Seattle’s urban sprawl.
Though they gained a cult following, releasing critically acclaimed albums and touring relentlessly, it wasn’t until their 2004 album Good News for People Who Love Bad News - and the Grammy nominated feel-good hit ‘Float On’ that the band came to mainstream attention. Their 2007 album, We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank, which featured Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr, went straight to number one on the billboard charts. And then… nothing.
Well, not really nothing. They toured for three years, Johnny Marr left, and their longtime bass player Eric Judy left, briefly replaced by Nirvana’s Krist Novoselic. They chewed up and spat out four record producers, including OutKast’s Big Boi, and two mix-down engineers. Front-man Issac Brock built a studio and took over the mixing of the new album Strangers To Ourselves - and - by his own admission, he is “terrible at time management”.
Kirsten Johnstone got mushroom hunting, beekeeping, Isaac Brock on the line.
Modest Mouse / Photo by Ben Moon.
Music Details
Artist: Modest Mouse
Songs: Coyotes, Pistol, Lampshades On Fire, Ansel, The Ground Walks with Time In A Box, Pups To Dust
Composer: Brock
Album: Strangers To Ourselves
Label: Epic
