Modest Mouse
One album later and they still know how to rock

brian sauer

	Interstate 8 is the new Modest Mouse album.  And I know you donít own it.
But what I am going to do is this:  I will personally come over to your
place with some crackers and cheeze and I will play this album for you.
Youíll be more than happy to see me leave but will try hard to not let the
album go too.
	From the opening slinky twang of the first song, "Interstate 8," you know
youíre in for a good time.  Add lead man Isaac Brockís voice that sounds
like nothing else you have ever heard and youíre on your way out the door
to pick this disc up.  "How have you been?" Brock repeats in the chorus.  I
think he knew I was waiting to hear from him and the rest of Modest Mouse
since the first time I listened to their stellar debut album, This Is a
Long Drive For Someone With Nothing To Think About.  They knew I needed a
new album.
	This Is a Long Drive... was the best rock album I heard come out during
all of this year.  If I heaped any more praise on it, youíd have a hard
time finding it.  Out of all the Pearl Jams, 311s, Stone Temple Pilots, and
Becks, the Mouse stand alone.
	Interstate 8 follows up without disappointment.  Why these guys arenít
poster boys and MTV regulars is beyond my imagination and makes me
violently ill.  Brock is a guitar talent because he is innovative.  He
doesnít churn out recycled sounds from the band next door or the crap on
todayís charts.  His voice is beyond unique.  His lyrics are insightful in
a way you always wished you could be.  
	Eric Judy walks the strings on his bass like a nimble cat burglar takes on
porches and balconies, graceful and elegant but knows exactly where he is
going and why he is going there.  
	Jeremiah Green moonlights as a student, but donít let the pencil behind
his ear fool you.  The kid can smack the skins.  His approach defines
Mouseís sound as much as Brockís voice does: itís different than most.  I
know nothing about drumming, but I like the way Green does it.  
	The second song is great.  The third song? Even better.  The fourth?
Incredible.  Get the point?  Get the album so you can follow along.
	"Sleepwalking" is some mutant form of Hawaiian trance rock swirled up into
a cheezy 8th grade hired-for-the-dance and never-played-again band riff
that just makes me want to cry out, "This is what itís all about!"  I feel
like I am on some heavy sedatives when I listen to this song, and my only
request is that they make it into a longer song someday because it has a
groove that should be in a ten or fifteen minute long track for those late
at night wonder sessions.
	"Tundra/Desert" starts off innocent enough, simple guitar work, slight
backbeat, and Brockís pseudo-whine build up.  Donít be lulled in!  Watch
out!  This song takes off across your forehead with a ferocity that would
put todayís most glamorous rock bands on their knees begging, "How do you
do it?  Where do you get the intensity?"  A siren-like wail loops all over
this track making you think something is wrong, like some kind of cosmic
bee is spinning around your head looking for somewhere to sting you, like
someone is chasing you in a small dark room... but wait, itís just a song,
right?  Itís just a guitar line.  Wrong.  Itís Modest Mouse and they rule.
	"Edit the Sad Parts."  Donít we all wish we could do that.  See?  Just the
title of the song is great.  Itís something we have all wanted to do but
never knew exactly how to say it.  "Sometimes all I really want to feel is
love/ Sometimes Iím angry that I feel so angry/ Sometimes my feelings get
in the way/ Of what I really feel I needed to say..."  If that isnít beauty
in a an opening chorus of a song, then you better come over to my place and
play a song that does it better.
	Better yet, come over and play an album for me that is more innovative and
fresh than either of the two Mouse albums in existence.  Long live the
Mouse.  They stand alone.  At the top of the heap.