Modest Mouse, the 90’s alternative rock band, is coming back on tour for their 20th year album anniversary of “Good News For People Who Love Bad News”. The band reunites to tour America with an expanded version of the album beginning May 12.
Running from rough post-punk sounds to softer folk inspired music, Modest Mouse shares a variety of sounds appealing across audiences.
Modest Mouse holds a memorable stage presence live. According to ModestMouse.org, the band sets the mood with neon lights, collage projections, and wacky guitar pedals to make concerts more of an experience rather than just an event.
Their music is a ragged blend of soft country melodies with hardcore punk choruses. Modest Mouse is no stranger to experimentation. Marcy Donelson, writer for ALLMusic, said the early influences on Modest Mouse were classic rock bands, like Pixies and Pavement.
“Good News For People Who Love Bad News” is Modest Mouse’s most notorious album. Their unique expression in the album was refreshing for 2004, when alternative music became mainstream.
American Songwriter explains the origins of the band’s name as a derivative of a passage written by Virginia Woolf titled “The Mark on the Wall”. The passage goes as follows: “I wish I could hit upon a pleasant track of thought, a track indirectly reflecting credit upon myself, for those are the pleasantest thoughts, and very frequent even in the minds of modest, mouse-colored people, who believe genuinely that they dislike to hear their own praises.”
Modest Mouse found this name fitting, representing their introspective lyricism similar to the style of Woolf’s writing.
In the early 2000s, rock music became more mainstream with the rise of emo and indie scenes starting online and in turn, rock became more tailored to the masses and more polished.
This made Modest Mouse stand out with their incorporation of blues tunes, scratchy vocals, and explosive yet catchy choruses. The band’s lack of conformity towards the mainstream shed a spotlight on them, earning the group a Grammy and a double platinum status.
To honor the legacy of “Good News For People Who Love Bad News”, Modest Mouse is releasing an expanded version of it. The expanded version includes remixes from poolslide and MGMT’s Andrew VanWyngarden. With new releases, this tour serves as a soft launch to the band’s reunion.
Vera Johnson, Westerville South Senior and first-time listener, said, “I liked the overall vibe of the band. Their upbeat and the drumming had a fun groove to it. While I might hold onto a couple of songs, I didn’t really follow the lyricism.”
Johnson continued, “They remind me of The Front Bottoms, mainly because of their chaotic but fitting pitches in the background instrumentals. I liked the rough around the edges feel, it was a nice switch up from the music I typically listen to.”
In celebration of Modest Mouse’s 20th “Good News For People Who Love Bad News” anniversary, check out tickets at ModestMouse.com .
