Hot New Tunes!!!!!!1 (tm) Vol 3

6 easy steps to your very own modest mouse


And now, the thrilling conclusion of August's BUZZ BANDS YOU HAVE TO HEAR NOW!

Modest Mouse
In 2004 I was really into "modern rock radio" specifically a radio station called Y100 in Philadelphia. I used to drive around in my Mom's Jetta mourning the suburban wasteland of my current hometown/ go to JoAnn Fabrics, listening to "90s at noon": Stone Temple Pilots, Alice In Chains, Pearl Jam. The next year these guys, Weezer et al were dumped for a more "urban" format, but 2004 was the year that Modest Mouse "broke," ie made it to the radio. I heard their single "Float On" on Y100 and it sounded much “edgier” than anything else on that station, so I, like every other 17-29 y.o. who "gave a fuck" bought the album. I really liked it at the time, because this was at a point in my own life when I was becoming committed to "liking quality shit"/being cooler than all of my current friends, so it was better than most of the music I owned. I listened to it nonstop, and assigned valid emotions to the album and the experiences I had while listening to it. My experiences and the album served to legitimize each other.
Modest Mouse appeared in Rolling Stone around the time the album came out and were quoted as saying something quotable like "we beat Britney Spears on the Billboard chart! Holy Shit!"

Anyway, since I'm not 18 anymore, I can't listen to this album, and I've grown to lazily dislike this band and everything they stand for, ie forcing their (Issac Brock's) depression on their entire audience (which is rather large, as in some circles of awkward/boring barristas, Modest Mouse has become one of those bands that you "have to have liked for a long time" in order to be legitimate). Like Sparklehorse, I think they're kind of behind the curve as far as music trends go, probably because they were around before the internet, and they don't know how to read blogs and cater to their target demographic. No one wants to sit alone and listen to sad music anymore. Believe me, I'm doing it right now, and I'd much rather be "getting drunk" and dancing to shit. But it's nine in morning.
I think this band was coming up right when everything was really sucking in the world and only a few people knew about it. Issac Brock was clearly one of the people who "got it." In 2009, everybody knows how bad everything is, and no one wants to think about it/ Obama is president so everything’s fine, so people "get drunk and dance to Passion Pit."
Verdict: I wish Issac Brock would get a journal to write his sad feelings in and maybe make some music that's a little more melodic and accessible. Cat Power got it and look at her now! She's friends with Karl Lagerfield and stuff.

On an unrelated note, during the Good News For People Who Love Bad News era, I also purchased the Raveonette's first full-length album, Chain Gang Of Love. The cover looked the "edgiest" out of all the albums on the rack at my local K-mart (seriously), and I had money to burn (being a kind of still a tween who had a job but could not legally purchase alcohol). Anyway, when I bought it, I was like, huh, that's pretty cool. Then Little Steven (of Bruce's E-Street Band) really hyped them on his Sunday night radio show, "Little Steven's Underground Garage." Probably the only remaining syndicated radio show that's still anywhere near cool, and it's DJed by a 60+ guy wearing a head scarf (quite well). I don't know if it's still on; probably not. (Apparently multiple industry types with some street cred/taste took a liking to the Raveonettes: they were unofficially discovered by David Fricke, editor and columnist of Rolling Stone's "Out There with David Fricke," where he writes the 1/4 page of each issue that that covers music made by people whose publicist has not blown Jann Wenner).

So five years later, I just rediscovered this album and it is fucking awesome. Most of the songs are under two minutes long but they have enough energy and reverb to power a train. I think another reason it took me so long to appreciate Chain Gang is because it's about sex, a topic I was clueless about when I first bought this album. They've come out with three other albums since then, and I haven't heard more than a minimum, mostly because I prefer artists that I think are good to exist as that one perfect album in my mind (like My Morning Jacket's It Still Moves and Cat Power's You Are Free (I know, that sucks)) and also because now I'm poor, and I don't like stealing music from friends and putting it on my itunes to look cool to people who will potentially judge me on my digital music collection. However, I highly recommend checking out this band consistent of two hot people from Denmark who like American music from the 1950's, the Velvet Underground, drugs and sex. Fun fact: Chain Gang was produced by Richard Gottehrer, who also produced albums by Richard Hell and the Voidoids and Blondie! You can't get a much better pedigree than that.


Well, that's it for the August edition of HOT NEW TUNES!!!!!1 (tm)
Feel free to add your own uniformed opinions about any of these bands to those uniformed opinions above and suggest some other bands you'd like covered.

with love, kisses, and sincere expression of the human experience through indpendent music.