Modest Mouse are set to release a two song EP for Record Store Day on April 13th. Check out “Poison the Well” above, which they’ve apparently been playing live for a while now. The b-side has not been announced yet.
This EP marks Modest Mouse first new music since 2015’s Strangers to Ourselves, which was received negatively or with a collective “meh” from critics and fans. Prior to that, they released We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank in 2007. That’s an eight year gap between albums!
Upon revisiting Strangers to Ourselves, it is by no means the best Modest Mouse album, but it is not nearly as bad as everyone made it out to be. It’s much more than a “meh.” They are some classic MM tunes on there and delightful zingers from the lead singer, and even the weird tracks that everyone shit on have grown on me.
It’s worth noting that the lead singer, Isaac Brock, stated that the follow up will “be released as quickly as it’s legally allowed to be” and on the LP, it says “Golden Casket Vol. 1” so I would assume there is a V2. Unless, they shelved it due to the generally negative reaction from the media and fans?
So, a couple things here.
- Artists are humans too. Sensitive ones. So maybe, just maybe, instead of tweeting, commenting on the FB posts & Insta posts, etc about how an artists “old stuff” is so much better or how the album sucks or whatever, you just don’t do that. Or wait to judge something that took 8 years to create and took you 57 minutes and 10 seconds to listen to.
- Critics, just fucking relax.
- Specifically for Modest Mouse fans. They’ve put out six albums, and there are two distinct camps (like with most bands): people who like the early stuff, which I’d consider everything prior to and including The Moon & Antarctica. Then there are those who like the newer stuff, everything after and including Good News For People Who Like Bad News. Now hear me out: it is possible to like one or the other, or both eras of MM career, without completely shitting on the band or the fans who have a different preference than you.
In general, everyone just listen to music you enjoy, keep the negativity to yourself, share the positive words, and chill the fuck out.
Really I love all modest mouse. So whatever camp that is that’s the one I mean however i guess I’ll say this the nicest way i can cause they’re sensitive ears……. I guess the nicest way I can see it is I really really hope the rest of the album does hunt sound like that new song. I mean I really tried to take it with a cup of tea or whatever or looking at the glass half full of T …… But I literally had to just turn it off because I didn’t want to taint what I feel for those m************ and their awesomeness……. Really I wanna know who the guy is that told him that that song is really awesome so I can kick his a** for doing a poor job quality control