Modest Mouse: "Dashboard"

[singingsparrow]

This will be the lead single from their forthcoming album "We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank", which was orginally due this month but got held back to "early next year".

I've heard some early reports of disappointment among die-hard Modest Mouse fans following the debuting of new songs on the road, claiming they have mellowed out too much perhaps by commerical success and continue to tone it down on new songs like "Fire It Up" and "We've Got Everything".

The current track-listing alone (which two-three more songs will be added on its final update) with simpler, apt titles suggests this could indeed be the case:

*

Dashboard
Fire It Up
We’ve Got Everything
Education
Invisible
Missed The Boat
Steaming Genius
Spitting Venom
Florida
Parting of the Sensories

*

However, I'm certainly excited to hear their new material, as their last album was great and despite the poppier lead single was still a very eclectic, non-commerical album.

Sincerely,
Noah Eaton

[damnnnitzzjohn]

Good to hear from them again

[friday]

Hopefully they can prove to me why I shouldn't think they're overrated with this song.

[halo19]

For me, that's not an insult. Their most quiet album is The Moon & Antarctica and is my favorite. Besides, they have Johnny Marr on board. I'll be picking up the new album.

[Love Plastic Love]

I hope this is good

[tortuga]

What happened to "TBA"?

[joker]

Looking forward to this.

[pen]

tortuga said:

What happened to "TBA"?

You win the thread. Congrats.

BTW, off-topic, but just what is that avatar?

And I'm looking forward to new Modest Mouse, "mellow" or not. It sounds like the same argument that diehard fans always get into about a band's career. I see no difference between these misgivings and those of Our Lady Peace, Papa Roach, and Finger Eleven fans.
"

[tortuga]

My avatar is part of a poster from some horror movie, I haven't seen it, but it looks good.

www.upcominghorrormovies.com/movies/darkride.jpg

[Chato]

Right now I'd list MM as one of my top3 favorite bands. No matter how mellow their upcoming album might be, I'm 100% positive I'm going to like it.

[oscillations.]

I've heard some of the new stuff & I think it'll please people who got into them with their last album. My favorite MM song is "Bury Me With It", and I hope the strange desperation of that track's energy carries over to this new album at least a little bit.

[jdmasta289]

I made a rare purchase on their last album and it was just awesome on so many levels. And I never said you can't enjoy overrated bands. I haven't listened to anything before Good News..., other than a few songs in my Music Appreciation class I frankly can't remember offhand.

[American Idiot]

jdmasta289 said:

I made a rare purchase on their last album and it was just awesome on so many levels.  And I never said you can't enjoy overrated bands.  I haven't listened to anything before Good News..., other than a few songs in my Music Appreciation class I frankly can't remember offhand.

You got to listen to Modest Mouse in your music appreciation class? :o Damn, that sure beats the Mozart/Bach stuff I had to hear 3 years ago when I took that class in community college.

[pen]

americanidiot said:

jdmasta289 said:

I made a rare purchase on their last album and it was just awesome on so many levels.  And I never said you can't enjoy overrated bands.  I haven't listened to anything before Good News..., other than a few songs in my Music Appreciation class I frankly can't remember offhand.

You got to listen to Modest Mouse in your music appreciation class?  :o  Damn, that sure beats the Mozart/Bach stuff I had to hear 3 years ago when I took that class in community college.

Mozart and Bach are awesome. What the fuck, man. What the fuck.

[American Idiot]

penance said:

americanidiot said:

You got to listen to Modest Mouse in your music appreciation class?  :o  Damn, that sure beats the Mozart/Bach stuff I had to hear 3 years ago when I took that class in community college.

Mozart and Bach are awesome. What the f**k, man. What the f**k.

Nothing against them since they are a huge contribitor to ALL music in general over the last few centuries, but wouldn't you rather listen to Modest Mouse anyday in a class than them? 

[No Brake$]

No D!

[jdmasta289]

americanidiot said:

jdmasta289 said:

I made a rare purchase on their last album and it was just awesome on so many levels.  And I never said you can't enjoy overrated bands.  I haven't listened to anything before Good News..., other than a few songs in my Music Appreciation class I frankly can't remember offhand.

You got to listen to Modest Mouse in your music appreciation class?  :o  Damn, that sure beats the Mozart/Bach stuff I had to hear 3 years ago when I took that class in community college.

Haha, in all fairness, it was a couple years ago. Back in high school, people individually brought in songs to class. We would then analyze them and write paragraphs on them. It was fun, but, yes, in my college Music History class last year, we listened to nothing beyond classical musicians.

Throughout high school, my music classes and music teacher was awesome. We still learned quite a bit, but spent a significant amount of time discussing recent music and comparing it with music from the '70s and before. It's fueled my fire for many a PMB post.

[pen]

Goes for adds January 22nd.

[Crushcrushchris]

Heard a radio rip of this song...it's alright. Nothing mindblowing, but it's got a nice dancey groove to it.

[interpol977]

I'm awaiting this with hot, bated breath. I want it.

[banet2001]

Modest Mouse
“Dashboard”
[Epic; 2007]

2 1/2 Stars

The first single from the new Johnny Marr-enhanced Modest Mouse is so radio-ready, you can almost hear the future Kidz Bop version echoing in the background, a children's chorus taking the place of the disco strings that swell behind Isaac Brock. "Dashboard"'s slinking string lines provide the song's most surprising touch-- though they echo Brock's melody, their fluidity sounds alien in Modest Mouse's world of clanking guitars and metronomic drumming. Those dead-stringed guitars and backbeats are odd, though-- drummer Jeremiah Green and new guitarist Johnny Marr made their names on complexity and trickiness, not fist-pumping. This could have been better if Brock had contrasted this uncomplicated, upbeat song with darker, troubling lyrics. Instead he sings, "The dashboard melted but we still have the radio," and I think this is a metaphor for, "we'll all float on ALRIGHT."

www.pitchforkmedia.com/page/track_reviews/Modest_Mouse_Dashboard

[Chato]

:'( I hope this is not what the whole album will sound like.
Kidz Bop ?
This is really not what I expected.

[pen]

banet2001 said:

This could have been better if Brock had contrasted this uncomplicated, upbeat song with darker, troubling lyrics.

I hate Pitchfork. They are so pretentious it hurts.

[pen]

www.sonymusic.com/clips/selection/fu/704969/704969_01_01_full_smil.mov

This is fantastic.

[Chato]

This just won't grow on me. Oh well.

[The Human Strobe]

So far I must say I love it.

Wasn't what I was anticipating at all, and its insanely catchy.

[singingsparrow]

penance said:

banet2001 said:

This could have been better if Brock had contrasted this uncomplicated, upbeat song with darker, troubling lyrics.

I hate Pitchfork. They are so pretentious it hurts.

I absolutely agree.

Look, I've always been troubled that in the critical world, there are two polar extremes that too often eclipse judging each new release; there's the E! extreme which doesn't make an effort to look beyond the established Top 40 acts and expand their horizons, and there's the Pitchfork extreme, which treats virtually anything that touches Top 40 like dirt and seems to rank releases to the furthest end of the indie galaxy the highest because they're "cool", and not because they actually enjoy the music, which is evident to me given how bitter and sarcastic the tone of the reviewers sound in almost every review there. I mean, they rank each album from 1 to 10 there, and it's quite rare you see an album score over a 7, suggesting at least 95% of what touches Top 40 scores no higher than a D+.

I wish there could be many more reviewers who look somewhere in the middle of those two extremes; those who aren't tethered to the Top 40 establishment and have a wanderlust in searching for more great music out there, but who also treats Top 40 with some respect.

Sincerely,
Noah Eaton

[American Idiot]

I like it. It has a nice dancy tune to it as well as the ska sounding horns in the background. Meanwhile, according to the last Mediabase weekly update of the Alternative chart, it has been played 104 times and is currently at #71. If enough stations pick it up over the next few days, it could debut officially in the Top 50 I'm assuming.

[galvanize]

I love this song. Just as good as "Float On".

[Pipa]

I'm downloading the studio version!

Albeit at a very slow rate...2.9 kbps...but I'm getting it!