modest mouse
Modest Mouse’s Jeremiah Green Diagnosed With Stage 4 Cancer
Jeremiah Green, drummer for rock band Modest Mouse, has been diagnosed with stage four cancer. The 45-year-old’s mother Carol Namatame took to Facebook on Christmas (Dec. 25) to share the news, without specifying the type of cancer her son has. “Please send healing vibes for my son, Jeremiah Green, who is battling stage 4 cancer. He’s is so strong and so brave and hanging in there!” she wrote alongside photos of the rocker. Radio host Marco Collins also shared a bit more information on Facebook, noting that due to chemotherapy treatments, Green pulled out of the band’s recently wrapped tour celebrating the 25th anniversary of their breakthrough sophomore album, The Lonesome Crowded West. “Despite having a stage 4 diagnosis, his prognosis is good! Also his oncologist is a big MM fan (s...
Bandsplain is Back with Road Trip-Worthy Music and Talk
After almost four months off the air, cult music guide Bandsplain is back with new episodes each Thursday. The show went on hiatus when its parent company, Spotify’s Studio 4, disbanded earlier this year. But host Yasi Salek wasn’t ready to quit just yet, so she revived the program via Ringer Podcast Network last week. The first episode of the reboot: a four-hour, part-one crash course on Smashing Pumpkins. Bandsplain maintains its original mission of acquainting outsiders with subculture-spawning groups like Insane Clown Posse and My Chemical Romance. When it started in February 2021, the show operated under a somewhat traditional structure – it switched off between music and talk, but all episodes were roughly an hour long. They did open with an intro song composed and voiced by Bethany ...
Modest Mouse’s We Were Dead at 15: Isaac Brock, Johnny Marr on Collaborative ‘Brotherhood’ — and Future
For Johnny Marr, one moment crystalizes his brief tenure with Modest Mouse. It was 2006, and the British guitarist, long revered for co-founding the Smiths, now found himself in a situation unsuited for rock royalty: sweating in the hot, crowded Portland attic of Mouse leader Isaac Brock. “There was literally a time [while playing ‘Invisible’], and I thought it was symbolic, where we bumped into each other,” Marr tells SPIN over Zoom, recalling his early rehearsals with the indie-rock band. “And I thought, ‘This is fucking cool.’ It’s two in the morning, and we’re both going for it, and we nearly knocked each other off the track. It was symbolic. When I started making records, particularly with the Smiths, I was able to put guitars together and make them fit. But this was a different ...
The 50 Best Rock Bands Right Now
First, let’s take care of the obvious. Despite the still-persistent narrative that such music is “dead,” there are way more than 50 excellent rock bands out there. And there’s no exact science to scooping the cream of the crop. Our list includes arena-packing veterans but also semi-obscure indie acts who’ve barely escaped their basements. There are no hard rules here. Our methodology was simple: ask our writers and staff which rock bands feel worthy of recognition right now. But we did aim for a wide scope — throughout, you’ll find flavors of psych, post-punk, hardcore, metal, even country. If it feels like rock, it’s on the table. Consider SPIN‘s 2021 roundup — just like last year’s — a thermometer, taking the temperature of modern rock in all its various mutations. Altın Gün Ho...
Modest Mouse’s Aware-anoia and Singing Through the End Times
Isaac Brock is talking about the epiphany he had from the moment he became a musician. “From the inception of this band, there’ve been some pretty wobbly moments,” the Modest Mouse vocalist and guitarist admits. “There were moments where no one considered us fucking good … But I know what I like.” To suggest that the greatest screw-you towards anyone who attempts to push you down is to just live your life with emphatic passion and make the damn art anyway requires guts. The unapologetic kind. The archives of indie rock history are packed with songs lamenting the fate of the artist’s journey – an in-between channel where a quest for stories either frees us to create our own, or tethers us to our past. Brock intimately understands this state of mind while pacing around his warehouse studio a...
Interpol, Modest Mouse, M.I.A., The Shins to Headline Just Like Heaven Fest in 2022
Heaven on earth is a year away, and it’s going to be in Southern California. Goldenvoice presents Just Like Heaven Fest, a one-day, all-ages music festival that will be held at Brookside at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California on Saturday, May 21, 2022 with a lineup that includes Interpol, Modest Mouse, M.I.A., The Shins, Franz Ferdinand, and The Hives. You can register for early access to tickets on the site, but they will be available for presale starting June 24th at 10:00 am PDT. COVID-19 restrictions have not yet been decided, however, Goldenvoice says they “are working closely with state and health officials to develop COVID-19 protocols for the festival,” and “will follow all COVID-19 related mandates applicable to the festival…only [proceeding] with the festival if it is safe to d...
Modest Mouse Share New Single ‘The Sun Hasn’t Left’
Modest Mouse’s new album is out next week. So far we’ve heard “We Are Between” and “Leave a Light On” from The Golden Casket and today, they unveiled what should be the last song before the album’s released with “The Sun Hasn’t Left.” “The Sun Hasn’t Left” makes creative use of new wave beats, similarly to the other two singles. It sounds as if this tune even utilizes a xylophone. The bouncy instrument is fitting to the hopeful message this single offers with lyrics like: “You’re not wrong, things are a mess but there’s still something left.” Listen to “The Sun Hasn’t Left” below. [embedded content] In conjunction with Modest Mouse’s last single announcement, they released dates for a pretty lengthy US tour, joined by special guests Future Islands for a handful of...
Stevie Nicks, The Strokes and Run The Jewels to Headline Atlanta’s Shaky Knees Festival
Fleetwood Mac chanteuse Stevie Nicks, The Strokes and Run The Jewels will headline the Shaky Knees Music Festival on Oct. 22-24, 2021 at Central Park in downtown Atlanta. The festival’s eighth incarnation features more than 60 bands on four stages, including Alice Cooper, St. Vincent, Modest Mouse, Portugal. The Man, Phoebe Bridgers, Mac Demarco, Dermot Kennedy, Dominic Fike, Royal Blood, The Hives and many more. “We are really happy to be able to deliver Shaky Knees this October with a lineup that truly has something for everyone,” said founder Tim Sweetwood in a statement. “We look forward to getting back into Central Park with our amazing Shaky family of fans and hear some incredible live music together.” On the Shaky Knees site, it’s posted that “vaccinations are not currently mandated...
Modest Mouse Share ‘Leave A Light On’ off Upcoming The Golden Casket LP
“Leave A Light On,” from Modest Mouse’s upcoming album, The Golden Casket, has landed. It is the second single from Modest Mouse’s anticipated seventh studio album. It follows a new wave tune “We Are Between,” which came out earlier this month. “The song finds [singer Issac] Brock navigating the existential threat of losing our humanity — and the interconnectedness that come with it – amidst a constant societal barrage of physical and digital materialism.” Additionally, you can see the song live, as the band has plotted an extensive 2021 U.S. summer tour, joined by special guests Future Islands for a handful of dates. Using similar synth sounds and psychedelic beats as “We Are Between” paired with an earworm of a hook, “Leave A Light On” sets high expectations for the rest o...
Modest Mouse Share ‘We Are Between’ Single After Six-Year Hiatus Between LPs
Following a six-year hiatus, Modest Mouse is back with “We Are Between,” the first cut from the upcoming LP The Golden Casket, due out June 25 via Epic Records. The Golden Casket, Modest Mouse’s first album since 2015’s Strangers to Ourselves, was produced by Dave Sardy and Jacknife Lee and recorded in Los Angeles and at the band’s Portland, Oregon, studio. The songs see singer Isaac Brock exploring themes ranging from “the degradation of our psychic landscapes and invisible technology, to fatherhood,” according to the press materials, which also call the dozen songs as “amorphous organisms, undergoing dramatic mutations and mood swings that speak to the chronic tug-of-war between hope and despair that plays out in Brock’s head.” Check out the tune below. [embedded content] In 20...
The 35 Best Albums of the Last 35 Years
Let’s face it: With most “Best Albums” lists, you know the broad strokes of the ranking before you even click. Part of that predictability is understandable: Most iconic records earn their reputation. But these rankings shouldn’t be fossilized, and a shit-ton of amazing LPs have been shoved aside in the pursuit of maintaining the status quo. We didn’t ignore the unimpeachable on our list — you’ll see plenty of the staples you’ve come to expect. But we also hope we’ll spark your curiosity and encourage you to hunt for a title you may have missed over the last 35 years. 35. Bruce Springsteen – Tunnel of Love (1987) CREDIT: Columbia Records How does one follow up a rock album that recalibrates stadium sound systems and offers a stark look at hard times in America? With love songs, of course. ...
The 50 Best Songs of the Year 2000
The year 2000 looms large in pop culture history: the Y2k non-scare, the Seinfeld “Newmannium” episode, the “In the Year 2000″ sketch from Conan O’Brien’s original late-night show, the Hulu series PEN15. And just like, say, the grunge-defined 1991, the year immediately conjures specific sounds: gleaming teen-pop, earnest radio rock, the Neptunes and Timbaland. There’s never a bad time to revisit this music. But in the middle of a pandemic, with America on the verge of collapse, it feels extra comforting — a blast of nostalgia for a time when you could safely exit your home, visit your local mall’s Sam Goody and buy Mystikal’s “Shake Ya Ass” CD single. For this list, our only criteria was that the songs appear on albums or soundtracks released in 2000. Here we go. 50. Papa Roach, “Last Reso...
