I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: MODEST MOUSE-We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank (2007).

Shouty shouty shouty. Modest Mouse are a fun shouty band, they have some catchy songs, but they seem so noisy most of the time that I am shocked, shocked, I say, that they ever had a hit. And “Float On” from their last album WAS a hit. So much of a hit that “Weird Al” stuck it in a medley of songs of his latest album. Now THAT’s making it big. And, yet, I’m still confused, because their music isn’t pretty. That said, I think it’s great. I first got into them with The Moon and Antarctica (2000), and then they hit huge with Good News for People Who Love Bad News (2004), and then this one came out and it debuted at #2 on Billboard. It seems that the more dire their titles get, the better they sell. So, anyway, Isaac Brock is the main man behind this band, and he likes angular songs with shouty lyrics, and somehow he can wrap it all up in a nice melody. This new album is more of the same, and yet I feel that every song is as catchy as the next (somehow he can make dissonance catchy). There’s two gripes I can make about this record. Near the end, there’s an 8 minute song that tends to drag on a bit and really grinds the record to the halt. The two songs following it are just sort of left dangling.

The other gripe, and its not really a gripe so much as a bit of confusion. There was great cheer and excitement about Johnny Marr joining Modest Mouse. And Johnny is awesome, let’s face it. My gripe is that I can’t really hear Johnny’s contribution to this album. I think Johnny’s a pretty distinctive guitarist, as his work with The Smiths proves, but this album doesn’t sound like Modest Mouse and Marr, it sounds like Modest Mouse. Which is fine, I just wonder if I’m missing anything.

[READ: Summer 2006] Between the Bridge and the River.

Yes, this is late night TV host Craig Ferguson’s book. I only knew of the book from his TV show, which is pretty damned funny, right, my cheeky little monkeys? Ferguson’s novel is very funny; I want to say uproariously funny, but that may be pushing it a little bit. There are laugh-out-loud parts, there are repeat-to-your-spouse parts, and there are so-true-it-hurts parts.

The story focuses on two Scottish kids who grow up and grow apart–radically apart. One becomes a hugely famous TV evangelist…possibly and easy target and yet the jokes are fast and furious not just about TV evangelism but about phony religions in general…the other becomes obsessed with the possibility of his own cancer (which come to think of it is a feature of Spot of Bother as well…is this a focus of my own reading or is cancer just THAT FUNNY?!). The jokes come pretty fast, and the culmination, a riotous climax, is surprisingly touching. All in all a great read, and a totally worthwhile book.