Modest Mouse

August 22 - 29, 1 9 9 6 [Off the Record]

*** Modest Mouse

INTERSTATE 8

(Up)
On the first track of Interstate 8, there's a nervous, high-strung edge to singer/guitarist Isaac Brock's voice that conjures the terse art-school pop of early Talking Heads. "I'm on a road shaped like a figure eight/I'm going nowhere but I'm guaranteed to be late," Brock worries over the kind of laid-back, road-weary groove Pavement cruised to on "Range Life." Still, you get the feeling he doesn't really mind long drives that lead nowhere as long as there are plenty of interesting stops and starts along the way.
On "All Night Diner" he pulls off the highway to rap Beck-style about root beer and oxygen against a rickety beat and a rusty slide guitar. "Sleepwalking (couples only dance prom night)" time-travels back to a '50s sock hop for a slow dance à la "Blue Velvet" with sleepy boy/girl vocals and lo-fi production. By "Edit the Sad Parts," the last of the disc's listed tracks, Modest Mouse have begun to explore the noisy pleasure of chaotic and melodic indie rock, replete with detuned guitars, warbling vocals, bursts of dissonance, and stream-of-consciousness lyrics. But instead of heading straight home, the band take another detour and offer another half-hour of long pauses and slanted and enchanting guitar bashing in the form of five bonus tracks recorded live (on what sounds like a boom box) in Montana.
-- Matt Ashare
(Modest Mouse join Runaway Brain, Forgetful Jones, and Hallucinating Arkansas at the Middle East this Tuesday, August 27.)