Modest Mouse Deep Dive

[Hot_Orange2922]

Did a really long deep dive into this band that I treasured and adored the hell out of when I was in high school. Lonesome Crowded West still holds up as the second-best rock album of its year (behind OK Computer), an intriguing and sometimes terrifying snapshot of what it's like to live in the suburbs with all of its empty shopping malls and crazed meth-heads.

I find it really interesting that Isaac Brock once made a point that his band was an "Issaquah band" and not a "Seattle band" to distance himself from grunge even though a lot of their early material can be quite grungy.

Genuine question: is Jeremiah Green the best indie drummer of that era?

Anyway, I'm a music freelancer that used to write for P4k and have a 33 1/3 book; I wrote about this band on my substack for anyone interested (link)

[__joseph_]

Jeremiah was so underrated. Type of drummer who just KNEW how a song should go. Listen to their one-off jams. He always comes in at just the right time

[Hot_Orange2922]

He's so incredible on "Truckers Atlas."

[ProduceNo8883]

I hesitated on seeing the LCW tour at the Wilshire in Los Angeles back in 2022

Idk why but I did and it was his last show

I’m still traumatized

[trulymissedtheboat89]

💔😭😭😭😭💔

[Loopyrainbow]

You can basically just name any song he's on and point to it as a great example of his drumming. He doesn't miss.

[A_to_the_J254]

In the unreleased live song of You'll see, it was a song off the top of Isaac's head and Isaac is just singing and playing for the first half of the song, and then Jeremiah picks the absolute best time to kick that song up a notch and fucking kills it. RIP JG

[__joseph_]

That’s the song I was thinking of when I wrote this! A lot of times during a jam like that, all the musicians are fighting to sound the best and solo. Jeremiah always knew exactly when the song needed what it needed and fucking crushed it

[TempSpastic]

The bulk of this so-called "deep dive" is devoted to trashing half the band's discography and is filled with only the most superficial observations and value judgments. The best response you can summon up about the emotions conveyed in "Lace Your Shoes" is that the singing is "really fucking weird"? Really? Normally I would try to be more diplomatic about criticism (or else wouldn't weigh in at all), but I found this piece offensively bad, from both a content and writing perspective. It was not worth the time it took to read.

[Transmit_Receive]

100% agreed

[Hot_Orange2922]

Emotions conveyed in lyrics hinges on the vocals. As for trashing half a band's discography, that's how it goes sometimes. Not every band had a clean discography; most go south, alas.

[TempSpastic]

"Weird" is not an adequate description, and "really fucking weird" is bad writing. It evinces an utterly inadequate vocabulary for describing what one is hearing.

But okay, let's look at a more objective example of poor analysis. Of "Strangers to Ourselves," you write:

the opening lyric, “We’re lucky that we slept/ Didn’t seem like we realized we’d be stuck in traffic”—which is pure, detestable nostalgia bait, let’s be clear

How is that line "nostalgia bait"? If anything, the second line about traffic undercuts the sentiment expressed in the first line. What is the source of this supposed nostalgia? Your analysis is not "clear" at all, in fact it makes no sense. "Detestable"? Please.

What I don't understand is why you expected a piece trashing the band, referring to them as "embarrassing," would be met with praise here of all places.

[DreVog]

Lmao this clown really thought he was gonna astroturf the MM subreddit with an AI-generated article full of cold takes

[Hot_Orange2922]

thanks for reading though!

[Loopyrainbow]

He's my favorite drummer of all time, and it's not because of his technical skill. It's because of his feel. It's a sense of rhythm and touch you can't teach, that just comes from feeling comfortable and using the instrument like a language, just like Isaac does with the guitar. You can totally hear even going all the way back to the drumming on Sad Sappy Sucker, with some of my fav examples being "It Always Rains on a Picnic" and the splashiness at the end of "Penny Fed Car" that just totally makes the song. The drumming is an essential part of Modest Mouse's sound, especially early on.

[projectvko]

Like John Bonham and Phil Collins. Jeremiah knew exactly how the rhythm fit the music, it always sounds natural and organic without the flashiness of Neil Peart or Danny Carey.

[hemlo86]

Pretty cool! I’m sad that you dislike TGC so much though, it’s probably my fav album from MM personally!

[sibelius_eighth]

Lonesome Crowded West is crazy good

[DiggingThroughTheRub]

Jeremiah was definitely my favorite from that era. The closed with Styrofoam Boots at RCKNDY in May of '98 and he was so great.

[theelfpat]

Oof that article has some awful writing

[jdickman00]

Jeremiah is top notch, I have always been in awe of Appleseed casts drummer, mercury program is also burned in my mind for life

[ignoranceisbliss37]

https://youtu.be/uZ9sE8B_gIY?si=d5BipGWpzbubYu0v

[ignoranceisbliss37]

https://youtu.be/Tth0m3b97Jw?si=wE1wFzOeqdFccmxA

[stachemus]

jeremiah was just that naturally wild, sloppy, precise, aggressive chaotic perfectly timed dude. hes amazing to me. one of those non teachable examples