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the great deceiver
Sep 23, 2003

why the feds worried bout me clockin on this corner/
when there's politicians out here gettin popped in arizona

Ratios and Tendency posted:

Does anyone else really like Little Motel?

No I hate that one almost as much as I hate Coyotes. That was the weakest song on We Were Dead. Basically I just really want Isaac to start doing meth and heroin again and doing 10 minute long distortion feedback guitar solos while he screams a bunch of complete loving nonsense. I haven't really cared for Modest Mouse's "softer" songs post-Moon and Antarctica. That said I'm still going to get the new album the day it comes out and listen to the poo poo out of it and buy tour tix if they come to the West Coast.

Best songs off We Were Dead are Spitting Venom, Parting of the Sensory and Fly Trapped in a Jar.

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FactsAreUseless
Feb 16, 2011

Seriously? Flu Trapped in a Jar?

Also I'm not fond of Little Motel, but Blame it on the Tetons is amazing.

Oxxidation
Jul 22, 2007
Little Motel was great at the time because it was such a huge tonal departure from their usual sound and still came off as uniquely theirs - you've got the usual spacey guitar-work over lyrics that consist mainly of vague, bitter ranting against an unseen "you," but this time Brock's bitterness sounds rooted in actual grief instead of just anger (that one point just before the bridge where the guitars start to snarl and it sounds like they're heading for another thrashy breakdown, then immediately back off when Brock mutters "...I'm very sorry" was an incredible moment). I've got a limit as to how much I can enjoy those feedback-choked guitar solos in their older stuff - some of the songs in Long Drive seriously hurt my ears, like the breakdown in "Mechanical Birds/Make Everybody Happy" - but I've had a thing for their quieter songs since "Hotcha Girls" off Ugly Casanova, so obviously it'd appeal to me.

Also the music video was loving heartbreaking even if it was an exercise in abject saccharine.

Oxxidation fucked around with this message at 19:38 on Mar 4, 2015

FactsAreUseless
Feb 16, 2011

Holy poo poo it's possible to not like Mechanical Birds?

Oxxidation
Jul 22, 2007

FactsAreUseless posted:

Holy poo poo it's possible to not like Mechanical Birds?

I love the opening two minutes! It's when the guitars start to sound like they're exploding that my head aches.

FactsAreUseless
Feb 16, 2011

Oxxidation posted:

I love the opening two minutes! It's when the guitars start to sound like they're exploding that my head aches.
What you have to do is listen to Tundra/Desert until that feeling goes away. Until you don't feel and that feels fine, you don't feel and that feels fine.

Rageaholic
May 31, 2005

Old Town Road to EGOT

Oxxidation posted:

I love the opening two minutes! It's when the guitars start to sound like they're exploding that my head aches.
That's the best part though :negative:

Oxxidation
Jul 22, 2007

Rageaholic Monkey posted:

That's the best part though :negative:

I like clean notes. Drowning everything in feedback, fuzz, or reverb doesn't grab me as much, and if things get really screechy it goes through my head like a loving spike.

That's no knock against the songs themselves, I know that their earlier stuff was a lot more lo-fi, but I can't do much to get into music that physically hurts.

FactsAreUseless
Feb 16, 2011

It's okay to not like certain kinds of music but my 60-year-old mother has seen Modest Mouse live twice without being damaged by their dangerous and powerful guitar sounds so you are literally sadder and weaker than an actual old lady.

Oxxidation
Jul 22, 2007
Incipient deafness can be a wonderful asset in concerts.

edit: I only saw them once live, last year, and went through the next two days with everything sounding like I was underwater

Neat experience but definitely not a risk I'd want to take twice, I had pretty serious tinnitus for like three years for unrelated reasons and it suuuuucked

disheveled posted:

They stopped playing everything weirder than Doin' the Cockroach by the time Good News came out.

I dunno, they played Pistol off the new album and that one is pretty darn odd.

Oxxidation fucked around with this message at 21:18 on Mar 4, 2015

BRAKE FOR MOOSE
Jun 6, 2001

FactsAreUseless posted:

It's okay to not like certain kinds of music but my 60-year-old mother has seen Modest Mouse live twice without being damaged by their dangerous and powerful guitar sounds so you are literally sadder and weaker than an actual old lady.

They stopped playing everything weirder than Doin' the Cockroach by the time Good News came out.

FactsAreUseless
Feb 16, 2011

disheveled posted:

They stopped playing everything weirder than Doin' the Cockroach by the time Good News came out.
This is fair. But their live shows are way noisier than the album versions.

Ratios and Tendency
Apr 23, 2010

:swoon: MURALI :swoon:


Little Motel doesn't have any bitter ranting. It's a bittersweet existential love song.

the great deceiver
Sep 23, 2003

why the feds worried bout me clockin on this corner/
when there's politicians out here gettin popped in arizona

FactsAreUseless posted:

Seriously? Flu Trapped in a Jar?

Also I'm not fond of Little Motel, but Blame it on the Tetons is amazing.

Ya Fly Trapped in a Jar is one of my favorites on that album but saying one of the best might be a stretch.

You are right about Blame it on the Tetons, that is a really good post-MaA softer MM song. I forgot about that one.

They still play some older, weirder stuff occasionally. I saw em a few years back open for REM for some reason and they busted out parts of Truckers Atlas. Completely lost like 99% of the audience but I was digging it. Left right after that cuz gently caress REM and their stupid fans that started yelling at MM to get off the stage.

FactsAreUseless
Feb 16, 2011

the great deceiver posted:

Ya Fly Trapped in a Jar is one of my favorites on that album but saying one of the best might be a stretch.

You are right about Blame it on the Tetons, that is a really good post-MaA softer MM song. I forgot about that one.

They still play some older, weirder stuff occasionally. I saw em a few years back open for REM for some reason and they busted out parts of Truckers Atlas. Completely lost like 99% of the audience but I was digging it. Left right after that cuz gently caress REM and their stupid fans that started yelling at MM to get off the stage.
I agree with you on Parting of the Sensory and Spitting Venom, but if it was up to me I would cut Fly, Education, Steam Engenius, and Little Motel, and slot King Rat into the middle of the album, and that would join the top three with Sensory and Venom.

FactsAreUseless
Feb 16, 2011

Every Modest Mouse album except Moon and Antarctica has too many tracks.

Rageaholic
May 31, 2005

Old Town Road to EGOT

FactsAreUseless posted:

Every Modest Mouse album except Moon and Antarctica has too many tracks.
Building Nothing Out Of Something doesn't :colbert:

FactsAreUseless
Feb 16, 2011

Rageaholic Monkey posted:

Building Nothing Out Of Something doesn't :colbert:
That's not a full album, but I would probably cut Working On Leaving The Living and just end it on Positive/Negative. I might also cut All Night Diner, but I have a soft spot for that goofy bullshit song.

Edit: Except that's not the closing track of Building Nothing Out Of Something! I would cut Other People's Lives, not Working on Leaving the Living. Or I might replace Working with Other People's Lives, I can't decide which I like more, but there shouldn't be anything after Positive/Negative.

FactsAreUseless fucked around with this message at 02:29 on Mar 5, 2015

Rageaholic
May 31, 2005

Old Town Road to EGOT

Other People's Lives loving rules. If I had to cut one of the two, I'd cut Working On Leaving The Living, but I'd rather not have to cut either because I love both of those songs.

FactsAreUseless
Feb 16, 2011

Still, one arguably inessential track is pretty good. Building Nothing Out of Something is great. I just wish their other albums were shorter. Lonesome Crowded West is really hurt by this, since it lags a ton in the middle with Out of Gas/Long Distance Drunk/poo poo Luck. And I love poo poo Luck, I just don't think it needs to be on the disc. Get rid of those tracks and suddenly the album has this insane uninterrupted run of some of their best songs: Doing the Cockroach, Cowboy Dan, Trailer Trash, Trucker's Atlas, Polar Opposites, Bankrupt on Selling, It's All Nice on Ice.

Rageaholic
May 31, 2005

Old Town Road to EGOT

I agree that Out Of Gas could be cut and you wouldn't miss anything, but I think Long Distance Drunk and poo poo Luck are essential to the album. The flow does kind of get broken up, though. Maybe the album could've benefitted from a different track order. Keep Teeth Like God's Shoeshine at the beginning and It's All Nice at the end, though. That's essential.

FactsAreUseless
Feb 16, 2011

How are those two tracks essential? They're good songs, but when you think "Lonesome Crowded West" those do not first come to mind. They don't fit thematically with the rest of the album, there's no reason to break up Trailer Trash and Trucker's Atlas, and the album already has some straightforward short songs (Convenient Parking, Jesus Christ) so they're not needed for variety. Not every good track needs to be on an album.

Rageaholic
May 31, 2005

Old Town Road to EGOT

LCW would definitely feel like it was missing something without poo poo Luck. Long Distance Drunk isn't as easy to make a strong case for, but poo poo Luck feels like a short but sweet mission statement for Modest Mouse in the best way, much like What People Are Made of on Moon & Antarctica. Yeah it's different in structure from other songs on that album, but I very strongly think it's one of the best few songs on an album filled with great songs.

Ratios and Tendency
Apr 23, 2010

:swoon: MURALI :swoon:


The sprawling too long/too many tracks thing was thematically perfect for the first two albums.

the great deceiver
Sep 23, 2003

why the feds worried bout me clockin on this corner/
when there's politicians out here gettin popped in arizona
All I know is that White Lies Yellow Teeth should have been on LCW or somewhere because it's probably one of the best songs they ever recorded. And yeah gently caress Long Distance Drunk, that's the low point of an otherwise perfect album for me.

Sharks Eat Bear
Dec 25, 2004

Ratios and Tendency posted:

Does anyone else really like Little Motel?

this and Fire It Up are probably my 2 favorite post-Good News MM songs

can't have a MM thread without mentioning the story that apparently the band 'struggled' to actually record Good News because instead of working on their songs in the studio they'd just get drunk and jam on dance hall. every day

my main gripe with modern MM is that i feel like a lot of brock's lyrics have fallen into a predictable pattern/mold, like "we were doing [some action, maybe trying to accomplish something]" followed by either "like [a somewhat odd metaphor]" or "but [the result of our action was unintended]". just feels like he's trying a little too hard sometime, whereas the beauty of his early lyrics was the way he evoked very specific images and moods with somewhat stream-of-consciousness/nonsensical (ok let's level -- drug addled) language

Sharks Eat Bear
Dec 25, 2004

FactsAreUseless posted:

How are those two tracks essential? They're good songs, but when you think "Lonesome Crowded West" those do not first come to mind. They don't fit thematically with the rest of the album, there's no reason to break up Trailer Trash and Trucker's Atlas, and the album already has some straightforward short songs (Convenient Parking, Jesus Christ) so they're not needed for variety. Not every good track needs to be on an album.

i don't know how you can think out of gas doesn't fit thematically. it brings back the same motif/riff from heart cooks brain, and its lyrics deal with the theme of interstate travel as a vehicle of aimlessness. also, it has the line "opinions were like kittens i was giving them away" :colbert:

imo i disagree that any of MM's "big 3" would benefit from having songs cut. i could maybe see cutting "jesus christ was an only child" from LCW, but otherwise, i think part of the appeal and (for lack of a better word) genius of the albums is their density and length.

the length makes them harder to digest, but i don't agree that making the albums more easily digestible would make them better. the idea of cutting songs off an album called 'this is a long drive for someone with nothing to think about' is just kind of… backwards… to me.

BNOS is different, but it's a collection of b-sides, not an album proper. even so, i would only maybe lose 'workin on leavin the livin' but even then i'd rather just have them refine/shorten the song a bit than cut it altogether. the idea of wanting to cut all nite diner is just insane to me -- song is vintage mouse

fwiw everything up to good news and even some post-good news stuff is just about my favorite music ever, so i'm probably just a radical apologist for their albums' length

FactsAreUseless
Feb 16, 2011

That's legit, I'm mostly just weird about album lengths. Modest Mouse do a way better job justifying long albums than, say, Arcade Fire.

Also I like Long Drive better than LCW so I may just be weird.

Modest Mike
Oct 23, 2008

Upon your feet you have ten toes, they look just like...
po-ta-toes!
After one listen i think it is pretty solid, definitely better than We Were Dead. Sugar Boats is really really good. Honestly they should have cut the first two songs and the last two songs, have the tracklist start with poo poo in Your Cut and end with The Tortoise And The Tourist, would have been a really tight 11 song record.

pepperburg
Dec 6, 2009

Well this is really drat good - a pretty solid modest mouse record. Def rank it higher than good news and we were dead (and I like those albums, not a hater) God is an Indian is pretty loving amazing.

I like the experimentation as well. Tortoise and the tourist is a good surprise

Ass Catchcum
Dec 21, 2008
I REALLY NEED TO SHUT THE FUCK UP FOREVER.
Pistol is inexcusable

Modest Mike
Oct 23, 2008

Upon your feet you have ten toes, they look just like...
po-ta-toes!

rear end Catchcum posted:

Pistol is inexcusable

Counterpoint. I like it. Doesn't have quite the same energy as it did live but it's fun.

BRAKE FOR MOOSE
Jun 6, 2001

Pistol is entertaining. I give them credit for doing things that are different/interesting, at the least.

Easily better than We Were Dead, on par with Good News, with more songs I like than songs I don't like. Definitely overproduced but whatever.

Tortoise and the Tourist is the clear stand-out, by miles.

Ass Catchcum
Dec 21, 2008
I REALLY NEED TO SHUT THE FUCK UP FOREVER.
I think it's pretty ambitious and moody. Reminds me more or moon and Antarctica than any effort since then.

Modest Mike
Oct 23, 2008

Upon your feet you have ten toes, they look just like...
po-ta-toes!
yeah, The Tortoise And The Tourist is really something else. Definitely makes me wish they'd scale back the pop a bit more, but what can ya do?

Ass Catchcum
Dec 21, 2008
I REALLY NEED TO SHUT THE FUCK UP FOREVER.
I think it's less poppy than the album before it. Also the tortoise song is basically a redone whale song

Modest Mike
Oct 23, 2008

Upon your feet you have ten toes, they look just like...
po-ta-toes!
The melody in The Tortoise and the Tourist sounds a lot like this Margot song, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eqfiu1FJMaA. Had to share, as it was bugging me for like the last half an hour.

hughesta
Jun 12, 2012

i know its super duper kooper
cool like up the bitches snitches
Goddamn, Pistol is awesome.

Ass Catchcum
Dec 21, 2008
I REALLY NEED TO SHUT THE FUCK UP FOREVER.
Wow, pistol is pretty dividing between the people who didn't like it and the people that are wrong.

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Oxxidation
Jul 22, 2007
Pups to Dust is gorgeous, holy poo poo

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