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Post by JesusLooksLikeMe on Jan 21, 2006 5:04:38 GMT -5
Just curious.
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Post by Rit on Jan 21, 2006 9:11:55 GMT -5
i was nearly going to go with Lonesome, but i have lots of strong memories with Long Drive. It's a more ramshackle collection of songs than Lonesome, but its an attractive album still. I like playing it in the car.
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Post by luke on Jan 21, 2006 10:05:51 GMT -5
I voted Lonesome. It's also the album that nobody seems to own.
Years ago, when I was way cooler than everybody else and indie rock was still a pretty low-key deal, I'd wear my Modest Mouse shirt to the bar about once a week. I'd get all these confused "Who the fuck is Modest Mouse?" looks, and then I'd go on this spiel and end up burning people a Modest Mouse mix. Or getting them to go out and buy something. Everybody loved it.
Then years later Modest Mouse got all big and everyone would always come up to me and go, "I thought about you the other day when..."
I have no idea where I'm going with this story, or what it had to do with Lonesome Crowded West. Sorry.
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Post by JesusLooksLikeMe on Jan 21, 2006 10:49:03 GMT -5
I voted LCW too. The whole run from tracks 6 to 14 is about as good as it gets anywhere, and the bookends of the album aren't too shabby either. Lots of sprawling, rolling jams and memorable hooks. "Cowboy Dan", "Polar Opposites", "Bankrupt on Selling", "Trailer Trash" and the mighty "Trucker's Atlas" are up there with anything Tool and Radiohead can offer. It's also the first thing of theirs I heard, so there's an emotional factor.
But all their stuff is fantastic.
If I look at things objectively then Moon and Antarctica would be hard to beat - every song is so well crafted; each little note and harmonic and pick scrape has earned its place; there's really not a wasted second or overly indulgent moment. Plus the songs fit together as a whole, cohesive album.
If I look at Long Drive I can maybe pick out a weak(er) cut or two. At least "Dog Paddle". Same with "Long Distance Drunk" on LCW. There's no weaknesses on Moon & Antarctica.
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Post by JesusLooksLikeMe on Jan 21, 2006 10:52:50 GMT -5
In fact, I'm preferring MM to any other band these days, including TOOL and Radiohead. I'll grudgingly admit I should have trusted that bastard ekul all along...
Now here's hoping Brock doesn't concentrate exclusively on Ugly Casanova from now on.
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Post by luke on Jan 21, 2006 11:04:15 GMT -5
For awhile there, Modest Mouse was the be-all, end-all for me. Good News was kinda a kick in the teeth, though. A great album, but not up to par with what I was expecting, and I hated that their "break-out album" had to be full of some of their wussiest songs.
I think it's allmusic who says that Bossanova gets so much shit because it's only a B+ album and not the full-on A everyone was expecting from the Pixies. I think that may describe Good News, too.
Still, though...I'd aniticipate a MM release more fervently than any band out today. Hopefully the break-up rumors just mean that Brock is depressed enough to deliver their best album yet.
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Post by Rit on Jan 21, 2006 16:04:23 GMT -5
Modest Mouse has special place iwth me too. they were one of the earliest indie bands i took an obsession to. before then, it was Zeppelin and classic rock.
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Post by wayved on Jan 22, 2006 0:03:09 GMT -5
Moon and Antartica got my vote--it was the first complete Modest Mouse album I had heard (the year it actually came out--my copy is from the UK and is on MATADOR records--i have not heard the rereleased version on epic)--I bought Its a Long Drive...first but never really listened to it....(cos I found it in the BARGAIN BIN for 5 bucks!)
Moon and Antartica is fucking spacey and depressing. It really is. Like all of the Modest Mouse catalogue save the first couple CDs--(sad Sappy Sucker et al that I quickly ordered having absorbed The Moon and A) It feels displaced alone and sick but with a vegeance--some kind of strange hope! The sound of loneliness and confusion distilled. "A Different City" "The Stars are Projectors" and how about "Large Pack of Family Dogs" that will fill any dance floor right?-- Its all very well played too as JLLM has noted. Moon and Antartica gets my vote. I want to compare it to Forever Changes by Love--but I wont do it.
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Post by wayved on Jan 22, 2006 0:18:24 GMT -5
Luke-Believe me, I bought Bossanova the day it came out and it was a letdown! Pitchfork sucks, but man.....But it could have been the order I bought the Pixies albums in. All their stuff is weak compared to Surfer Rosa! I shall listen to Bossanova again tomorrow (have not touched it since the year it was released!) Trompe Le Monde showed up and I was happy again.
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Post by rockysigman on Jan 22, 2006 0:42:20 GMT -5
Luke-Believe me, I bought Bossanova the day it came out and it was a letdown! Pitchfork sucks, but man.....But it could have been the order I bought the Pixies albums in. All their stuff is weak compared to Surfer Rosa! I shall listen to Bossanova again tomorrow (have not touched it since the year it was released!) Trompe Le Monde showed up and I was happy again. is great, but obviously Doolittle was their peak. Seriously, it's obvious.  |
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Post by rockysigman on Jan 22, 2006 0:43:19 GMT -5
Seriously though, the Pixies didn't have a bad release. Trompe Le Monde didn't really feel like the Pixies, but it's still great, and everything before it was awesome too.
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Post by JesusLooksLikeMe on Jan 22, 2006 6:38:35 GMT -5
Luke-Believe me, I bought Bossanova the day it came out and it was a letdown! Pitchfork sucks, but man.....But it could have been the order I bought the Pixies albums in. All their stuff is weak compared to Surfer Rosa! I shall listen to Bossanova again tomorrow (have not touched it since the year it was released!) Trompe Le Monde showed up and I was happy again. is great, but obviously Doolittle was their peak. Seriously, it's obvious. I dunno mate. Especially now Surfer Rosa and Come On Pilgrim are the same single CD package, Doolittle is second best. Now how about voting on the MM question Rocky? I know you're a fan. |
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Post by riley on Jan 22, 2006 7:46:36 GMT -5
I own all of those, and I voted for LCW, but just this week I was giving consideration to the idea that Building Nothing Out Of Something is a close second. For an odds and sods disc it flows perfectly like it was recorded as a session and composed with a specific feel in mind.
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Post by rockysigman on Jan 22, 2006 12:30:38 GMT -5
Now how about voting on the MM question Rocky? I know you're a fan. I've never heard a full Modest Mouse album. |
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Post by luke on Jan 22, 2006 12:44:56 GMT -5
I still take Doolittle over Surfer Rosa. And I LOVE Bossanova all the same. I wasn't there back in the day or anything, but Bossanova kicks my ass whenever I hear it. "The Happening", "Stormy Weather", "Velouria", "Is She Weird", "All Over the World"...if that's your band's big failure, then your band is really fuckin' something.
Moon and Antarctica was beating out LCW with me for awhile, but it was one of those deals where I put LCW back in one day and was overwhelmed. I love the scope of Moon and Antarctica, and like it nearly as much as any album I've ever heard, but LCM just trances me out.
Saw them live after they'd gotten "big", though, and what a disappointment. Compared to the earlier, smaller shows where they'd just knock everybody on their ass, they focussed WAY too much on Good News..., and a few songs off MaA. When they broke out into "Doin' the Cockroach", everyone was just like, "huh?" and it totally killed the moment.
That was at a festival, though, and those guys CERTAINLY aren't a festival band. Small venues only.
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