Modest Mouse formed in Issaquah, Washington in 1992 around Isaac Brock. The Lonesome Crowded West (1997) and The Moon & Antarctica (2000) are indie rock cornerstones, and Good News for People Who Love Bad News (2004) — with Float On — took them to number one on the Billboard 200. Shop Modest Mouse vinyl, CDs, and reissues at Wax Trax Records.
Modest Mouse formed in Issaquah, Washington in 1992 around Isaac Brock, Jeremiah Green, and Eric Judy. They built their audience across the 1990s through extensive indie label releases (K Records and Up Records) before signing with Epic Records in 1999. Their 2004 album Good News for People Who Love Bad News - featuring the commercial breakthrough single Float On - reached number one on the Billboard 200 and brought them mainstream attention. Former Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr joined the band from 2006 to 2008, contributing to We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank (2007). Eric Judy departed in 2012. Jeremiah Green died of cancer on December 31, 2022 at age 45. Brock launched the Glacial Pace Recordings label for subsequent material. The band has continued releasing material across multiple decades.
Modest Mouse's sound combines indie rock, alternative rock, art rock, indie folk, and post-punk with Brock's distinctive frenetic vocal delivery, intricate dual guitar work, and lyrical content addressing existence, philosophy, nature, and personal experience drawing on wordplay and abstract reference points.
Up Records and Epic Records pressings of the Modest Mouse catalog have been issued in multiple color variant editions and limited deluxe pressings, with collector demand. The 25th anniversary edition of The Lonesome Crowded West has been.
Listeners new to Modest Mouse typically start with Good News for People Who Love Bad News (2004) or The Moon & Antarctica (2000).
