Modest Mouse on The Late Show
Everyone has that band that just stopped clicking for them – they play good songs, have some sort of lasting power, but you just don’t care to ever hear them again. For the longest time Modest Mouse was that band for me for no other reason than they got too big. Mind you, I hadn’t been a fan before their turn towards indie stardom but…when your friends’ little brothers start attempting to define themselves as indie rock fans for no other reason than that they have downloaded the album – I started getting tired of the group.
But when the words started coming from fans, the running joke was that We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank was dead before the album even leaked. In that case, I paid it no mind – after all I wasn’t a fan, what did I have to lose. Well, thanks to the group’s recent performance on The Late Show I had the opportunity to hear the band and in all fairness the new music doesn’t sound that bad. Hell – it’s good. I’m not about to run out and buy the album, but I don’t think I can honestly say that I hate the band anymore.
Modest Mouse “Dashboard (Letterman)”
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“For the longest time Modest Mouse was that band for me for no other reason than they got too big. Mind you, I hadn’t been a fan before their turn towards indie stardom but…when your friends’ little brothers…”
I’m sorry but this is pretty lame. It’s a band — you should like or dislike them based on their music alone. Who cares what your friends’ little brothers are listening to?
I agree with above comment. Not liking them because other people do is the same thing as the little brother liking them. It then goes back to not being about the music and being about coolness or culture or hipsterness or whatever.
CM – Agreed, once you step into that circle of thought it’s hard to remember that you’re listening to music because it sounds good or makes a statement.
BD – It’s not that I simply disliked them because of a crowd that happened to follow them – it’s that Modest Mouse became “indie.” Then Kidz Bop was indie…and now American Idol is indie…and what platform is used as that measure? – Modest Mouse.
I digress…the song is good.
I think it’s totally valid to say that your reaction to a band changes with the circumstances under which you can experience their work (ie obscurity vs. stardom). Having a hype machine churning away to produce brand recognition for a band, having thousands upon thousands of kids use their fan status as a way to symbolize some kind of vague, pre-packaged cultural or political stance, these things change, or at least have the potential to change the way you relate to their work.
I get annoyed by these declarations that a true music fan is supposed to reach some kind of transcendent cultural plane where you and the music relate to one another in the absence of any larger cultural context. It’s romantic, but it seems kind of narrow-minded.
Phil, I am not a writer because I am not….well…talented. You’ve essentially summed up my thoughts however, thank you for that.
yeah. screw listening to music for it’s musical merit. It’s all about how many people listen to them. That’s what really matters. Even with that sarcasm, this performance is pretty bad. The album is solid good fun though.
Though this sort of disagreement tends to go nowhere fast…
Obviously nobody is saying that the number of fans a band has is the principle reason to listen to a band. But seriously, “musical merit”? Is that really a transparent value that you can throw out there as if it has some kind of coherent meaning? Maybe in a conservatory (and even there it would be nonsense), but certainly not here.
If you like a particular band, but you play their CD too much and get bored of them, how does that affect their musical merit? Or, if you like a particular band’s music, but they have a really offensive political message, are you not allowed to let that affect your feelings about the band because it’s outside the scope of the musical merit?
Doesn’t the notion of “merit” really boil down to taste? This is a discussion about how people figure out what they like. Part of that, at least for Chris and for me, involves the cultural connotations that come along with listening to that band.
Other commenters certainly seem to be insinuating that letting a band’s popularity (or more to the point, the trappings that come with it) amounts to pretension. But it seems to me like throwing down regulations about what is and is not a valid reason for developing a like or dislike for certain music is much more pretentious.
Ah, internet.
The last paragraph above should of course read “letting a band’s popularity…affect your opinion of them amounts to pretension.”
Phil and Chris I somewhat agree with you. I agree that a lot goes into “one’s liking” of a band. I have honestly done the same thing (run from popular bands). I guess I just find it hard to “jump ship” (no pun intended) on a band like Modest Mouse when they are still putting out great albums. Its not like they have changed their music to love ballads.
I just think that a band like Modest Mouse deserves to be popular with how phenomenal they are, and die hards should not shy away from them because they are making money and growing in the amount of fan base.
I am not trying to make this a commercialization argument but I think it directly relates. I believe it was Kevin Barnes with Of Montreal who asked why should we live paycheck to paycheck when we can “sell out” per se and commercialize our music which will enable us to us quit our day jobs as bartenders etc. This “commercialization” ties in with the popularity.
Anyway, enough rambling, my point is the new Modest Mouse kicks ass and while it may be no Moon and Antarctica it is still amazing. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, and I do agree and respectfully disagree all the same. I am glad there are people out there like us who will debate music politics.
Thanks for the continued discussion, I can’t speak for Phil but I’ve enjoyed it.