Issaquah, WA · indie rock · alternative rock

Modest Mouse

2 upcoming festivals

Isaac Brock's jittery, seasick guitar songs about the highway and the void — three decades of them, still unmistakable from the first yelp.

Modest Mouse began in Issaquah, Washington, in the early 1990s around singer and guitarist Isaac Brock. Their early records paired long, spidery guitar lines and off-kilter rhythms with Brock's yelping, conversational vocals, and lyrics preoccupied with highways, small towns, geology and mortality. The band built a following through independent releases before moving to a major label, where "Float On" gave them a genuine mainstream hit and a much wider audience.

Brock has remained the constant through numerous line-up changes; The Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr was a member for a period in the mid-2000s. The group's sound has broadened over time, but the nervous energy and unmistakable vocal delivery have stayed.

indie rockalternative rock