Photo by James Joiner
Modest Mouse
Modest Mouse
In 2004, Modest Mouse released Good News for People Who Like Bad News, the album that propelled the alt rock band from the indie underground into the mainstream. They will perform in Milwaukee, Wednesday, Nov. 13 at the Riverside Theatre.
That, however, doesn’t mean that Good News is the band’s best record. So says Isaac Brock, Modest Mouse’s founder, lead singer, guitarist and primary songwriter.
“In my personal opinion, no, it was not our best record,” he said. “It’s hard to say. Sometime this year I decided to quit ranking anything, favorite, food, favorite, records, favorite anything because I just haven't found out that life really works that way.
“As far as writing one, I think you feel a lot better about harder things that you accomplish,” Brock added. “Let’s say that wasn’t the hardest record I made or wrote. But it’s great.”
That said, the frontman readily concedes that Good News “had, and still has, the part of this reach of anything we've done” he said – even if he can’t put a finger on why the album and its single “Float On” became a hit a decade into the band’s career.
Lonesome Crowded West
Formed in Issaquah, Washington and Portland Ore. in 1993, Modest Mouse got critical acclaim for 1997’s The Lonesome Crowded West and 2000’s The Moon & Antarctica, becoming a fixture on the underground indie scene.
But thanks to “Float On,” Good News was a different beast. “At the time of writing and recording it, it felt fun to do,” Brock said of the hit song. “It was almost an afterthought. It was not completely finished until the very end of that record, because I was uncomfortable with how poppy the chorus was. I just couldn't really come to terms with what the song was until it was just like, it is what it is. Put it on there. I like it. It doesn't hurt to have a pop song.”
Grammy Nominations
Good News For People Who Love Bad News by Modest Mouse
‘Good News For People Who Love Bad News’ by Modest Mouse
“Float On” topped the alt rock charts and pushed Modest Mouse into the mainstream, powering Good News to sales of more than 1 million copies, landing the band on “Saturday Night Live” and receiving Grammy nominations for best alternative music album and best rock song.
So it makes sense for Modest Mouse to celebrate the album as it’s reached its 20th anniversary, first with an expanded reissue in the spring and now a fall tour that carries the record’s title.
Will the band play the whole album in order? “Yeah, the only thing that makes sense is to do that,” Brock said. “Otherwise, it's just a show. So yeah, we're playing the whole thing start to finish. Because it was actually, except for EPs, the shortest record we’ve ever made—only 45 minutes does not a show make—so we’re doing a record that was kind of a companion piece to it, called No One’s First and You’re Next.”
The encore songs, which are likely to change on each night of the tour, will provide the opportunities for Brock to dig into the band’s expansive catalog, which now includes seven studio albums – the most recent 2021’s The Golden Casket and a half dozen EPs.
Brock, who’s the only original member still in Modest Mouse, has written songs for a new album that will probably be released next year. But none of those are likely to make appearances at any of the shows. Instead, fans will get Modest Mouse’s biggest record, played as they heard it two decades ago, played by a band that’s rehearsed the album and EP this summer to brush up on the songs that they’ve been playing for years.
“We’ve played everything (on Good News) except for one song,” Brock said. “Some of them we don't play very often. Okay, the next to last song on the record, which is actually a pretty damn good song, ‘One Chance,” we've never, to the best of my knowledge, ever played live. That should be cool.”
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