Modest Mouse: A Pretty Good Read, the unauthorized biography of the band Modest Mouse is in bookstores now. The author, journalist and bassist Alan Goldsher, chronicles the chaotic rise of the Washington State rock trio from little-known indie heroes to platinum-selling, Grammy-nominated, international superstars.
Click on these links to hear Goldsher read Chapter 2, Interlude 2, and Interlude 4 from the book.
Goldsher shares great stories about the band, and incorporates interludes of analysis on the music world, especially the indie music scene. Plus, he is very funny. I can’t help but tell one of my favorite, more literary, nuggets from the book: Goldsher points out that the name “Modest Mouse” does not have anything to do with Mighty Mouse, but is actually a reference to Virginia Woolf’s short fiction work “The Mark on the Wall.” Listen to Chapter 2 to hear the whole quote from Ms. Woolf.
Read more about the book here: Modest Mouse: A Pretty Good Read.
From Matt: The scriptwriters made quite a few changes from the book, but they were all for the best - and booklover though I am I have to admit that its better to see magic than to read about it.
From Mina: I adore this film. Monsieur Hulot’s very modern sister and brother-in-law don’t know what to do with Tati’s charmingly untidy and bungling protagonist, who inhabits a world where meaning is still more important than appearances.
From Carey: A must see Hayao Miyazaki’s anime is Laputa: Castle in the Sky, originally released in 1986. A fantasy film that explores the altruistic and compassionate nature of humans, aspects lost through repeated exposure to power, technology, and the complexities brought by the combination of the two. 
Modest Mouse, A Pretty Good Read by Alan Goldsher.
The author wasn't given any access to any of the band so it is whats considered an un-authorized biography of Isaac Brock with some background on Eric Judy and Jeremiah Green. It's filled with stories and anecdotes about the band collected from interviews done in the last 10 years or so and does a good job of piecing together the life of Isaac Brock.
Having just finished reading an un-authorised biography of Louis L'Amour I was struck by how similar the lives of Brock and L'Amour are. Both grew up in remote western towns and left home at an early age due to the poverty of their families. Niether finished high school but rather used the experience of the vagabond life as their class room. Both came to be known by many as the greatest of their prepesctive genre's. (Even the jobs they've done have some similarities. At one point in his life L'Amour worked at a cattle rendering facility, a smelly, nasty job where he was required to dispose of dead cattle. Isaac held a similar job where he was required to clean the rotten blood and guts out of meat trucks.)
Another similarity between the two is the uncertainty about how much of their life story is actually true. Alan Goldsher raises some pretty good questions about just how bad "the Shed" that Isaac was forced to move into when his parents trailer wasn't big enough for him and his family. But even with these questions raised and doubt shed, just like the stories L'Amour told of his life, even if a quarter of them are true (and 75% are verifiable), Isaac Brock has lead a pretty damned interesting life.
There is a lot of music nerd analysis done on the songs from each of the albums that people that understand music theory may enjoy but a lot of it I didn't really understand. Also at one point I believe the author misquotes some lyrics to the song Dog Paddle. Despite these things I'd recomend the book to anyone with more than a casual interest in Modest Mouse but not to someone who has read and memorized every interview Isaac Brock has given.
Posted by: Lloyd | December 28, 2006 at 02:54 PM