The band's first album was the double-disc This Is A Long Drive For Someone With Nothing To Think About (Up, 1996), a sprawling chronicle of everyday life in the 1990s. The best tracks (the melodramatic Dramamine, with a long romantic guitar-based coda, the seven-minute syncopated psycho-boogie Beach Side Property) manage to inject the quirky, dischordant and unstable rock and roll of the Pixies and even the Minutemen into the lo-fi pop format of Guided By Voices, Sebadoh and Pavement. The voice does most of the job. Isaac Brock recites his stories modulating the voice in a dramatic manner that often pushes the music aside. For example, the instruments simply lay down a quiet, steady carpet of low-key jumming in Custom Concern that Brock's neurotic delivery fills with meaning. And the psychodrama She Ionizes And Atomizes is worthy of a Brecht-ian actor. The instruments, on the other hand, tend to continue a song, after Brock has laid down its story, with (intentionally) sloppy jamming that adds to the sense of juvenile alienation. It may sound like they simply don't know how to end the song, but that very clumsiness is the most effective way to end it. Thus the lengthy codas that seem to share little with the original tune, and in some cases (Talkin' Shit About A Pretty Sunset, Make Everyone Happy/Mechanical Birds) basically override it.
Despite spearheading the emo revolution, Modest Mouse displayed enough affinities with the punk generation and the new wave, notably in the defiant punk-folk rants Breakthrough and Dog Paddle, the one-minute emotional burst of Might, the vehement funk-punk of Tundra/ Desert, and Lounge, in the vein of early Talking Heads (with another long coda, this time pivoting around an austere duet of cello and guitar).

Brock's honest, heart-felt lyrics were often more significant than the music, and this turned out to be particularly true for the following EPs. However, the title-track from Interstate 8 (Up, 1996) and The Fruit That Ate Itself from Modest Mouse (K, 1997), as well as Summer from the EP of The Fruit That Ate Itself (1997), succeed in marrying lyrics and music.

The single Birds Vs Worms (Hit Or Miss, 1997) contains the frantic and spastic lullaby Every Penny Fed Car and two bluesy numbers: Worms vs. Birds (imagine a lo-fi version of the Rolling Stones' Brown Sugar) and Four Fingered Fisherman.

Brock's in-depth look at the lumperproletariat and middle-class of the USA grew much sharper and musically assured with The Lonesome Crowded West (Up, 1998). His portraits of drifters, losers and disillusioned fools could now rely on supporting structures made of fiddle-driven folk (Jesus Christ Was An Only Child), country-rock (Trailer Trash), atmospheric pop (Polar Opposites) and even blues (Styrofoam Boots). The band could now rock, albeit in a goofy way (Lounge, reprised from This Is A Long Drive, Shit Luck, halfway between Led Zeppelin and punk-rock, and especially Doin' The Cockroach, their most ferocious song yet). Lyrically, Brock's specialty remained the road-song (Out Of Gas, the eleven-minute Truckers Atlas, and especially Long Distance Drunk, which is also one of the most original creations of the album), a genre to which he was making the most significant additions in decades. But songs such as the emphatic and convoluted Teeth Like God's Shoeshine, Cowboy Dan and Convenient Parking showed that he was capable of destabilizing any genre and style he decided to toy with. Generally speaking, the songs were more cohesive and less anarchic. Gone were the lengthy nonsensical codas. Brock was now firmly in command, and he was angrier and more bitter.

A few outtakes appeared on single, above all Other People's Lives (Up, 1998) and Never Ending Math Equation (Subpop, 1998).

Building Nothing Out Of Something (Up, 2000) collects the singles and other rarities.

Modest Mouse è un trio proveniente da Issaquah, una minuscola città di provincia nello stato di Washington. Il chitarrista e cantante Isaac Brock, aiutato dal bassista Eric Judy e dal batterista Jeremiah Green (anche membro dei Red Stars Theory e Satisfact), li ha formati nel 1994, come documentato su Sad Sappy Sucker (K, 2001), che raccoglie il loro primo album, mai pubblicato, il loro singolo di debutto Blue Cadet-3 (K, 1994) e il singolo Birds Vs Worms (Hit Or Miss, 1997).
Il primo singolo del 1994 conteneva la delicata melodia di It Always Rains on a Picnic e l'anthem urlato di Dukes Up.
Le tracce dell'album mai pubblicato spaziavano dal punk-rock di Classy Plastic Lumber alla ballad anthemica From Point A to Point B, dall'avvinazzata, jazzy e confusa Red Hand Case al rantolo Race Car Grin You Aint No Landmark. Difficilmente un capolavoro.

Il primo album ufficiale della band fu un doppio, This Is A Long Drive For Someone With Nothing To Think About (Up, 1996), un abbozzo di cronaca della vita degli anni '90. Le migliori tracce (Dramamine, Custom Concern) riescono ad iniettare l'angolato e discordante rock and roll di Pixies e Minutemen nel lo-fi pop di Guided By Voices Sebadoh e Pavement. Le oneste ed accorate vignette di Brock valgono ben piu della musica, e gli EP che seguiranno lo confermeranno. Comunque, la title-track di Interstate 8 (Up, 1996) e The Fruit That Ate Itself da Modest Mouse (K, 1997) riusciranno a far sposare musica e testi, ma tutte storie malinconiche catturano l'attenzione di chi ascolta.

Il singolo Birds Vs Worms (Hit Or Miss, 1997) contiene la ninnananna frenetica Every Penny Fed Car e due numeri blues: Worms vs. Birds (immagina una versiona lo-fi di Brown Sugar degli Stones) e Four Fingered Fisherman. Il lo-fi di Brock è sempre un po' troppo "lo-fi" giusto per il gusto d'esserlo.

L'interesse di Brockverso il lumperproletariat e le classi medie americane diventa sempre più mordente e diventa musica su The Lonesome Crowded West (Up, 1998). I suoi ritratti di derelitti, perdenti e sciocchi disillusi può ora contare sulle strutture proprie del pop orecchiabile (Polar Opposites), del folk pastorale (Jesus Christ Was An Only Child), del country-rock (Cowboy Dan) e addirittura del blues (Styrofoam Boots). Il gruppo fa anche rock, sebbene in modo goffo (Lounge, Doin' The Cockroach). La specialità di Brock rimane la canzone da strada (Out Of Gas, Long Distance Drunk, Truckers Atlas), un genere al quale potrebbe fare i più significativi aggiornamenti dal 1950.

Qualche outtakes appare su singolo, tra tutte Other People's Lives (Up, 1998) e Never Ending Math Equation (Subpop, 1998).

Building Nothing Out Of Something (Up, 2000) è una raccolta di singoli ed altre rarità.

While not one of their best albums, Moon & Antarctica (Epic, 2000) is a good introduction to Modest Mouse. 3rd Planet works as a generic ouverture to the band's musical psychodrama, replete with meek-neurotic interplay and suicidal lyrics. But Modest Mouse's skills at disorienting the listener are better summarized by the humbler Gravity Rides Everything, that braids an acoustic folk ballad and a raga-like strumming into a progressively noisier texture. A Different City and Paper Thin Walls are catchy and lively enough for general consumption, while the moody, desolate, noir music of Cold Part (hypnotic pace, romantic violin, Jim Morrison-ian scansion, guitar-bass doodling), the brief Syd Barrett-ian vignette of Wild Packs Of Family Dogs (childish refrain, cajun accordion) the metaphysical, Faust-ian country ballad I Came As A Rat are good specimens of their conceptual art.
Songs like Tiny Cities Made Of Ashes (disco beat, industrial dissonances, theatrical recitation, distorted rap, highway boogie), Life Like Weeds (permeated by Indian and classical influences) and the 9-minute The Stars Are Projectors (that spans generations of folksingers from Billy Joel to Neil Young and accelerates into a demonic bolero and a baroque fugue) are musical and poetic journeys. Modest Mouse are capable of changing direction within a song in a subtle way, a technique that they borrowed from progressive-rock (Genesis, Yes, Rush, Roxy Music) and adapted to roots-rock. Brock takes advantage of that technique to enhance the dramatic aspects of his stories.
The emotions, that have been brooding in dark, desperate songs like Dark Center Of The Universe (that builds up tension through an orchestral backdrop, a martial drumming and finally a mad shout against a hard-rock riff) and Alone Down There (a funereal flamenco shaken by sudden spasms) charge right at the end: Brock packs so much wrath and bitterness in What People Are Made Of that it sounds more like and indictment than a song.
The music, ever restless, is traversed by electronic noises (with a preference for A Day In The Life's vortex) that further acquaint the listener with the psychological depth of the songs.

Isaac Brock's side-project Ugly Casanova (featuring Black Heart Procession's Pall Jenkins, Califone's Brian Deck and Tim Rutili, Holopaw's John Orth) released Sharpen Your Teeth (Sub Pop, 2002), which is probably his most experimental album. Diamons On The Face Of Evil is a labyrinth of electronica, blues and folk (clarinet and mandolin engage in a derelict duet, "home-made" percussions are beaten feebly and a guitar weaves a casual middle-eastern motiv), whereas Pacifico (a gothic, emphatic dirge a` la Nick Cave, with monks' voices in the background) and Spilled Milk Factory (swampy blues shuffle, hysterical gospel call-and-response harmonizing, Beck fronting Captain Beefheart's band jamming with the Pink Floyd) are ballads for the future primitive.
The range of creative solutions is well represented by songs in perennial evolution such as Ice On The Sheets (a six-minute blues and funk work-out, enhanced by psychotic ranting and by a touch of Pere Ubu's modern-dance folly, that slowly slides into tribal dementia) and Smoke Like Ribbons (country affectations of slide and mandolin, electronic ghosts, and the Beach Boys' Good Vibration that surfaces from the mix). Not to mention the grand psychedelic finale of So Long To The Holidays, six minutes of intense mantra and sunny guitar licks and cosmic radiations.
Barnacles revolves around psychedelic whispers and sighs over a martial, Neil Young-ian pace, and is littered with post-industrial distortions and noises. Parasites unleashes a childish lullaby worthy of Brian Eno's Taking Tiger Mountain against the backdrop of an epic horn fanfare and dischordanti guitar jamming, whereas Things I Don't Remember recalls Syd Barrett's surreal singalongs, with banjo and fiddle used as percussions. The tender serenade Hotcha Girls stands as an exercise in profane arrangements, pitting classical strings against John Cale-ish dissonance and vocal distortion a` la early Grateful Dead.
Best to appreciate the album's swooning vocal harmonies is Cat Faces, where voices meet like winds in the prairie and the instruments (slide, organ) sound like samples from another song.
Brock's least linear and least personal album could turn out to be his lasting masterpiece.

Nonostante non sia uno dei loro migliori albums, Moon & Antarctica (Epic, 2000) e' un' efficace introduzione ai Modest Mouse. "3rd Planet" funge da ouverture generale a quello che e' lo psicodramma musicale del gruppo, con passaggi moderato-nevrotici in abbondanza e testi suicidi. Ma l'abilita' dei Modest Mouse nel confondere le idee all'ascoltatore emerge con piu' evidenza nella remissiva "Gravity Rides Everything", che fonde una ballata folk acustica ed uno strimpellante accenno di raga (formula melodica nella musica indiana, n.d.t.), verso un contesto sempre piu' rumoroso. "A Different City" e " Paper Thin Walls" sono sufficientemente orecchiabili e vivaci da adattarsi ai gusti di un pubblico piu' vasto, mentre la melodia lunatica, tetra ed oscura di "Cold Part" (contraddistinta da andatura ipnotica, violino romantico, scansione morrisoniana e linee di basso e chitarra quasi scarabocchiate), la breve "Wild Packs Of Family Dogs", interpretata in stile-Syd Barrett (refrain puerile, fisarmonica cajun) e l'atmosfera soprannaturale, faustiana della ballata country "I Came As A Rat", sono validi esempi dell'arte concettuale di questo gruppo.
Canzoni come "Tiny Cities Made Of Ashes" (caratterizzatata da disco beat, discordanze industrial, recitazione teatrale dei testi, rap distorto e highway boogie), "Life Like Weeds" (permeata da influenze classiche ed indiane) e l'interminabile (9 minuti) "The Stars Are Projectors" (che abbraccia generazioni di interpreti folk da Billy Joel a Neil Young ed accelera culminando in un bolero indemoniato ed una fuga barocca), possono considerarsi veri e propri viaggi musicali e poetici. I Modest Mouse sono capaci di cambiare direzione nel corso di una canzone in modo sottile, tecnica questa presa in prestito dal rock progressivo (Genesis, Yes, Rush, Roxy Music) ed adattata al rock classico. Brock approfitta di tale tecnica per intensificare gli aspetti piu' drammatici delle sue storie.
Le emozioni nascoste dietro pezzi oscuri e disperati come "Dark Center Of The Universe" (che crea tensione servendosi di uno sottofondo orchestrale, un drumming bellicoso ed infine un grido folle sullo sfondo di un riff hard rock) e "Alone Down There" (un lugubre flamenco scosso da spasmi improvvisi), esplodono alla fine: Brock carica talmente tanta collera ed amarezza in "What People Are Made Of" da farle dare l'impressione di un'accusa, piu' che di una canzone.
La musica, costantemente inquieta, e' attraversata da una serie di rumori elettronici (cio' vale in particolare per la vorticosa "A Day In The Life"), che forniscono all'ascoltatore un ulteriore saggio della profondita' di queste canzoni.

(Translation by/ Tradotto da Paolo Latini)

Isaac Brock si ritaglia il progetto parallelo Ugly Casanova (con Pall Jenkins dei Black Heart Procession, Brian Deck e Tim Rutili dei Califone, John Orth degli Holopaw) che realizzano Sharpen Your Teeth (Sub Pop, 2002), probabilmente il suo lavoro più sperimentale. Diamons On The Face Of Evil è un labirinto di elettronica, blues e folk (clarinetto e mandolino si sfidano in un derelitto duetto, percussioni "casalinghe" battono flebili mentre una chitarra cesella un casuale motivo mediorientale), e Pacifico (una messa gotica ed empatica à la Nick Cave, con voci scimmiesche in sottofondo) e Spilled Milk Factory (arruffato blues paludoso, gospel isterico di armonie call-and-response, Beck che fronteggia Captain Beefheart mentre improvvisano con i Pink Floyd) sono ballate per il prossimo futuro.
La gamma di soluzioni creative è ben rappresentata da canzoni in perenne evoluzione come Ice On The Sheets (un blues di sei minuti con tinte funk, impreziosito da rantoli psicotici e da un pizzico delle follie modern-dance dei Pere Ubu, che lentamente scivola in una demenza tribale) e Smoke Like Ribbons (affettazioni country di slide e mandolino, fantasmi elettronci, e Good Vibration dei Beach Boys che fa capolino). Per no dire del Gran Finale tutto psichedelico  di So Long To The Holidays, sei minuti di mantra intensi, colpetti di chitarre solari e radiazioni cosmiche.
Barnacles si libra a soffi psichedelici e sospira su un'andatura marziale Neil Young-iana, ed è puntellatada da distorsioni e rumori post-industriali. Parasites disvela una ninnananna infantile degna del Brian Eno di Taking Tiger Mountain contro il sottofondo di un'epica fanfara di trombe e di un jamming di chitarre discordanti, e Things I Don't Remember richiama alla mente i singalong surreali di Syd Barrett, con un banjo ed un violino usati come percussioni. La tenera serenata Hotcha Girls è un esercizio di arrangiamenti profani, incavando archi classici dentro dissonanze John Cale-iane e distorsioni vocali à la primi Grateful Dead.

Modest Mouse's Good News for People Who Love Bad News (Epic, 2004), four years after the last Modest Mouse album, already sounded like the work of an aging musician. The introduction, The World at Large, immediately shows how much Brock has mellowed down, and, later on, Blame It on The Tetons (with piano and violin) shows how plain he can be. Float On (the most radio-friendly song of his career) has plenty of verve (reminiscent of early Talking Heads) but, ultimately, reveals that he has found some peace of mind. Pop hooks abound (The Ocean Breathes Salty too) and so do dance beats (The View); and, for the first time, the band displays a candid sense of humor (the vaudeville-ish Bukowski, the Tom Waits-ian rhythm'n'blues The Devil's Work Day).
The blistering cantankerous neurosis of the early days is still discernible in the syncopated and seismic Bury Me With It (the most emotional song), in the grotesquely pounding ballet Dance Hall, worthy of a horror soundtrack, in the evil martial recitation of Satin In A Coffin, the vocal zenith of the album, and in the aggressive Black Cadillac.
Generally speaking, however, the man and his band have grown up, and have other priorities. One of them might be the mainstream audience, although in a more or less latent form (the guitars very slowly but steadily being supplanted by the electronic keyboards).
Like Moon & Antarctica, this album boasts some serious winners but still suffers from some unnecessary filler. Cleansed of the lame tracks and combined into just one, these two albums would have made a milestone recording. As they are, neither is memorable. They are mere containers for some of the songs that will eventually feature on Modest Mouse's greatest-hits album.

Nonetheless, the album became Brock's first bestseller.

Propelled by the commercial success of Good News, Brock hired former Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr for We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank (Sony, 2007), which, despite the polished production and despite the catchy Dashboard (with funky guitar propulsion, electronic strings and rhythm'n'blues horns), actually sounded like a deliberate attempt at backing away from the sound of Good News for People Who Love Bad News.
A whole group of stances seemed to harken back to the 1980s: the apocalyptic tone of March Into The Sea, the anthemic ska-punk accents of We've Got Everything and Invisible, and the vibrating rage of Florida and Education. Others seemed to reach for the sound of the early days (the thin Parting Of The Sensory, the neurotic vocals and deranged guitar Fly Trapped In A Jar, although soaring with a disco beat).
The novelty of the album is the eight-minute Spitting Venom, strummed on acoustic guitar before turning into a chaotic Captain Beefheart-esque blues and eventually decaying into shoegazing territory.
Alas, the album has several doses of fluff and songs that do not quite make sense. Either Brock tried (and failed) to prove that he is more artistically talented than Float On showed, or he simply packed this album with too many inferior songs that had been left in the drawer.

No One's First And You're Next (2009) collects leftovers from We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank and Good News for People Who Love Bad News.

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