Tuesday, March 15, 2005

Modest Mouse

Despite "Float On" being a hit song for months, I'm just now discovering Modest Mouse and the fact that they have been around for ten years under my radar.

I've got a surprisingly large amount on my plate given that I'm not working this week. I'm writing, working on a few other projects, hanging out with Luke who's in town, catching up on my DVR'd Battlestar Galactica episodes, three novels in the reading queue . . . you get the idea.

As long as I'm on the topic of Modest Mouse, here's a few great quotes from the Onion AV Club interview with frontman Isaac Brock.

On being an atheist:
I don't think I'm living wrong in the first place, so when the lights go out on me, and brighter ones come on and I have to talk to some guy with a big, bushy beard, or some big glowing blob, I think I'm going to be fine. I'm 100 percent on the whole Christianity thing being a crock of shit, pretty much, but I don't give a fuck if other people are religious. Believe what you want. Whatever makes the day easier for you.

On political songwriting:
I'm not going to write the "Bush is a fucking lying sack of shit" song—I don't think I need to. I think everyone knows.

On licensing songs for commercials:
Figuring out ways to pay the rent isn't really a tough decision. Around the time we did the beer commercial and the shoe commercial, I thought, "Am I compromising my music by doing this?" And I think not. I like keeping the lights on in my house. People who don't have to make their living playing music can bitch about my principles while they spend their parents' money or wash dishes for some asshole.

,

7 comments:

  1. You seem to like quotes with dirty words and anger. Substitute teaching must be getting to you.

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  2. It's a bit of a stretch to find a connection between my job and random musicians saying wacky things that I enjoy. Dirty words are useful, as is anger.

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  3. yeah Ryan, dirty words are no good. I am a lady, therefore, only clean things come out of my mouth (can't say the same for what goes into it)oh snap! Anyhoozle, I have been listening to "The Lonesome Crowded West" cd obsessively lately. It made me think of you an Rachel the first time I heard it and I could easily tell there stance on religion without any research. Especially "Jesus Christ Was an Only Child." It's fucktastic!!

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  4. I haven't heard a lot of their songs, but I was looking up lyrics and I saw that one.

    P.S. Fuck, fucking, motherfucker, cock, cocksucker, shit, piss, tits, ass, asshole, shiteater, cunt, twat, bitch, bastard, balls, nuts, goddamn, damn, darn, dern, rottin' tootin' teabag. The anger!

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  5. Ahhhh. That's the Ryan that I remember. :)

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  6. Woah! I love that last quote. That's a great point. If an artist sells his or her art to a commercial, there tends to be this heavy emphasis on "are they selling out their principles and what they believe in", when MOST people do this on a daily basis by working in jobs they hate to make a living.

    With that said, I still think that *some* people sell out. I don't ever want to call someone out though.

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  7. Modest Mouse DID sell out. listen to Long Drive, Lonesome Crowded West, Interstate 8, and the Fruit That Ate Itself. Then listen to Good News. Nobody thinks they sold out because their songs were in commercials. We think they sold out because they compromised the quality of their music to make a marketable cd.

    Kate

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