Modest Mouse
This Is A Long Drive For Someone With Nothing To Think About
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Modest Mouse
This Is A Long Drive For Someone With Nothing To Think About
Up, 1996
RiYL: Gang Of Four, Pixies, Jane's Addiction, Built To Spill |
The smooth sound of Eric Judy's walking bass mixed with Isaac Brock's melodic whammy-bar guitar tones set the perfect backdrop for some much needed rest. "Traveling, Swallowing Dramamine. Feeling spaced, breathing out listerine," flows from Brock's mouth as smoothly as the swirls bursting out of his guitar. The track's soothing tempo segues into Jeremiah Green's drums, emulating a skipping record that is perfectly caught in a pleasant groove. And right when you are about to plant some drool against the passenger side window, Brock bellows "I got 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6-6-6!!!!"
The "Olli Olli oxen free," intro into the screaming refrain of "Breakthrough," forces you to sit up and pay attention. You scrap the idea of sleep until four minutes later, when the "Custom Concern" starts painting the slow desolate mural that is consistent throughout Modest Mouse songs: big empty city = big empty soul. Lyrics about the incessant building of parking lots, "the beach that used to be by the beach," and the empty desert that is childhood ("Tundra") are perpetual themes on Long Drive.
Long Drive has a wearing pattern of flip-flopping between lethargy and high-energy. Its stern but melancholy grooves, mixed with Brock's endearing lispy whine, will leave you out cold in the passenger seat, but the second you're at ease, the band summons the likes of the Pixies (ala Surfer Rosa) and just spazzes out and starts screaming at you. This album will forever have you squirming in shotgun, trying to find a way to contort your body to the perfect sleeping position (which everyone knows is near impossible).
Despite the raw production, punkish drone and distorted guitars littered on Long Drive, this album is extremely bleak. With lyrics like "Truly lonely, this place is flatter than it seems," ("Ohio") or "Every planned occupation, surefire disappointment up ahead ("Tundra") it is no wonder the songs don't really go anywhere. The band has an extraordinary gift of molding amazing vocal hooks around extremely strong rhythms, but once they are in the groove they seem to lose focus.
The cover of Long Drive, a highway road with a descending focal point, suggests that Modest Mouse know that there is no end in sight, or that it can't be found. They are just recording what they feel, and they make no claims to have any answers. If you listen to This Is A Long Drive For Someone With Nothing To Think About enough, the entropy of the Modest Mouse America begins to make sense. Though you probably will never fall asleep to it, it will become a great traveling companion.
MARK GROESCHNER | Mark Groeschner is the creator of the late, great satirical Web site Public Nigmity. When not soothing the nerves of his pudgy cat Yoda or harassing people from afar on the Internet, he works for the commercial/video production company Brand New School.