I agree with you review quite completely. only thing is, the mouse isn't really an indie band anymore.

"This is really the essence of independent music if you think about it. The reason that music is independent and on the indie labels is because it pushes boundaries that the radio-listening audiences around the world aren't willing to deal with. The way that indie acts separate themselves from each other is by pushing the envelope while maintaining a laser-like focus on the conventions that came before them like melody and song structure. Modest Mouse seem to have mastered that process with Good News for People Who Love Bad News."

Their on Sony. But I agree with the point you were making, and even though they're no longer indie, they still hold that indie sound. Glad to see an indie band switch to the majors without selling their soul. This is a band who, after ten years of playing, deserves to be in the majors and making a little money. If more bands like this hit the majors, I'd be really into top 40.

I agree with you review quite completely. only thing is, the mouse isn't really an indie band anymore.

"This is really the essence of independent music if you think about it. The reason that music is independent and on the indie labels is because it pushes boundaries that the radio-listening audiences around the world aren't willing to deal with. The way that indie acts separate themselves from each other is by pushing the envelope while maintaining a laser-like focus on the conventions that came before them like melody and song structure. Modest Mouse seem to have mastered that process with Good News for People Who Love Bad News."

They're on Sony. But I agree with the point you were making, and even though they're no longer indie, they still hold that indie sound. Glad to see an indie band switch to the majors without selling their soul. This is a band who, after ten years of playing, deserves to be in the majors and making a little money. If more bands like this hit the majors, I'd be really into top 40.

They're still my absolute favorite band, and yes, that lisp is cool, but definitely not the right selling point...

I love and have loved Modest Mouse since 1995. I'm not trying to be one of those possessive indies that tries to say that I'm cooler cuz I liked them before they were cool among the popular group - that I'm better cuz I'm indie.
All I'm saying is that I love their music because I love it and because it has always been real. The band doesn't play bubble gum music, but delves into life, philosophy, with their sounds and lyrices. Isaac Brock sings about eating ice cream with his lover that is trailer trash like him; how malls will soon be ghost towns; the Dhaoist concept of the beginning of a circle being at no point at all, but in the middle; believing that Jesus could walk on water because he lived as if it were all nice on ice, and ice is the only water one can walk on; that we drive through life, see ugly buildings, much of it is drab, and then, OH LORD, we cherish the convenient parking; that we're all as holy and as deserving of love as the rocks and the rest of the earth; that there's a whole lot more to all of us (Ohio and unheard of indie bands included) than can easily be perceived; that we should turn off the artificial lights to see night and experience true life; how we never necessarily grow, for he's the same as he was when he was six years old, and it's all what we perceive from planes and years above . . . and all these thoughts and theses are accompanied by wailing guitars that ruminate with the same freedom.
I do not have to state the titles of the songs from which I extracted the aforementioned thoughts or meanings, for the same reason that if one really appreciated Jesus' teachings, or Socrates', or Marx's, citations wouldn't be necessary. Quoting it deprives it of its universality by confining it to the book it was written in. Leaving it in the air lets everyone search for it, for, as Bob Dylan sang, "the answer . . . is blowin' in the wind."
Similarly, I'm a little vexed by the increasing corporatization of Modest Mouse. Do they mean the real things they're singing about if they're relying on Sony? Aren't they ceasing to admire the little things in life to submit to the big? Did not Socrates die for his truths, while Modest Mouse are being paid big? Could they really understand their truths anymore with such cushy livings, or, if they continue to play melancholic and pensive music, will they only be copying their old style when they were real?
One could say that we would not know Jesus' teachings if the Roman Empire had not become Christian in 313 A.D. Yet the Roman Empire became Christian when Emperor Constantine fought a war in the name of Jesus Christ, a man (and, according to the religion, an incarnation of God) who only supported peace and love (agape, eros, and philia, the loves of Jesus that would inspire Martin Luther King). So really, we Americans know a Christianity that isn't even Christianity at all - it's a Christianity that has robbed and raped. We Americans who act like the Romans in killing civilians in the name of someone who only championed complete compassion. The conquering nature of any empire (American, Chinese, Roman, Greek, etc.) will conquer, corrupt, and co-opt any compassionate and true system of beliefs.
I fear that Sony will co-opt Modest Mouse in the same way. Modest Mouse will have their soul stolen by the media, by ubiquity, by lack of motivation to actually ponder as opposed to continue to create a successful image. I fear not because I'm that indie kid who wants his real, crude, soulful band forever for himself, but because I want Modest Mouse to have their soul for their own sake. Having and raising kids is a work of art, and I don't want Modest Mouse to sell their kids, their songs, their thoughts, their innocence, their kids to the empire's slaveowners so they can make some more money.
At the same time, they need money to survive happily - there's always gonna be that struggle between the soul and the corpse (that needs money). Who am I to talk when I can only have soul because my dad's a doctor with loads of money. Somehow, though, I want to know that Modest Mouse is still holding on. No one wants to see their good friend climb up the social ladder to be cool, but be cool and for that reason just have the whole social ladder to their disposal. Consequently, MM can always be real if they remember and continue to sing about what they have sung about forever - the fact that no matter how many rungs you climb, it's all an endless circle and the joy and sadness is in smooth rung and the splinter you got.

When I listen to MM I tend to forget about the hype around them, especially recently now that theyre signed to Sony and becoming more popular. Their songs are works of art and it makes me more mad that people will go buy their albums and not at all understand the true beauty of their music. I think its best to forget the other stuff and just listen. Open your ears and listen to Isaac scream into the microphone. Just because they are signed to a major label now doesnt change them to me. They are still the indie band out of a small town in Washington and thats how I still think of them because when I buy an album by any musician I surely don't look at who is selling it, I look at who is making it.