Modest Mouse
 

They are probably my favorite big rock band in business today, and probably #3 on my list of bands I most want to see in concert (too bad they didn't really come anywhere near this summer tour). So what do you guys think? Seen 'em live? Favorite album? Favorite songs?

I'd have to say The Lonesome Crowded West is probably my favorite album of that entire decade. I'm listening to it now, "Lounge (Closing Time)" is probably my favorite MM song, along with "The Stars Are Projectors" off TM&A.

The Moon and Antarctica is their only truly great album. Their latest one was terrible.

Building Nothing out of Something had "Neverending Math Equation" and that is a killer song.

Yeah, I'm not really familiar with BNooS and I wasn't sure if it counted as an album or not since technically it's a compilation, isn't it? Anyway, I like "All Nite Diner" off that one alright, but like I said I haven't really listened to the songs on it.

We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank. That was probably the one album this year that I listened to from start to finish...over and over and over again. It's amazing.

I voted for The Lonesome Crowded West, but it's pretty much a tie between that and The Moon & Antarctica.

Everyone I know loves Modest Mouse...I gotta get into them..I will check out the CD that "wins" the poll.

i know its cooler to hate the Good News CD but i dont like the other ones at all and i think Good News is perfect.

My opinion is that you should start with Good News... because it is their most accessible and poppish album. Then go back to TLCW for their best, but also their rawest-sounding album. Modest Mouse is an interesting-sounding band that teeters very carefully on the edge of quality music and pure dissonant noise, and a few of their songs are just flat-out bad.

Anyway, I'm surprised We Were Dead... is doing so well on the poll. I didn't like that album a whole lot. Its standouts, I thought, were Dashboard, Parting of the Sensory, Little Motel, and Spitting Venom. But other than that, I thought it sounded mediocre.

I was just about to say the same thing.

How the hell does that garbage last album has more votes than The Moon and Antarctica?

I personally like "We Were Dead" because it <i>is</i> more accessible than all the others. I will happily admit that I am more straight-forward than most and "We Were Dead" happens to fit that sensibility the best.

Personally, as a more "straight-forward" bloke, "We Were Dead" is poppier and significantly more accessible than even "Good News", which I also quite like. I have no idea if that's J. Marr's presence or just the simple fact that Brock's songwriting has grown more commercial; either way, I happen to just prefer the more easily accessible melodies of songs like "Dashboard". To each his/her own?

-ringding-

The two main problems that TM&A suffers from, IMO, are that it only has one *really good* song (TSAP) and it has an exceedingly week backside (of the 6 songs after TSAP, the only good one is "Lives").

But MM albums usually start strong and end weak...

:up:

That's a pretty incomplete list. Including LPs and EPs they've released 11 albums

The Moon & Antarctica

I love all their work except This Is a Long Drive for Someone with Nothing to Think About, it's a horrible album.

Yeah, I'd probably hate that album too...except "Dramamine" is probably one of their best tracks overall. :up:

Nice to see the love for Moon and Antartica, I think it's a classic from top to bottom personally I think the mellower second half fits in perfectly with the album's themes of isolation and the "cold part of the world".

In places Isaac Brock sounds like a three year old having tantrum on We Were Dead. . ., I sold that one back pretty quickly.