On a brand new episode of Rolling Stone Music Now, host Brian Hiatt talks with Modest Mouse leader Isaac Brock, looking back at the chaotic creation of his band's major-label breakthrough and much more in a candid and hilarious interview.
LISTEN NOW: Modest Mouse's Isaac Brock Looks Back: 20 Years of 'Good News For People Who Love Bad News'!
In between discussing Modest Mouse’s most recent album, 2021’s The Golden Casket, as well as his current writing phase for the next one, which he’s “pretty f***ing happy with” and plans to release by next spring. Isaac delved into the band's 20 year-old album, Good News For People Who Love Bad News, released back in 2004.
Depending on the day you ask him, Brock’s opinion of Good News changes, but on the day of their chat, he was very much for the album. Sharing it “did age well for me and I still enjoy aspect of it quite a bit.”
When comparing the 2004 album to their 2000 release, The Moon & Antarctica, Isaac noted that while the latter seems to be generally more favored, Isaac noted that what he likes about Good News is that it “really didn’t f***ing drag on.” But the downside to that is if Modest Mouse were to do an album dedicated tour for it, “there’s this problem, it’s only 45 minutes long.” That being said, he did admit, “it’s the only actual album I can do a tour with with all the living members, all the exact same members.”
A tour plan, he went on to reveal he’s tentatively planning for the fall, featuring the original members of the band who played on the album. Until that day comes, in the meantime Modest Mouse is teaming up with Pixies for a co-headlining summer tour with Cat Power. For more information and to purchase tickets — click HERE.
Isaac continued conversing and sharing, getting into some label drama that went down ahead of the album’s release, as well as the narrative for the album. Opening up about some unfortunate details, and backstory of the writing process, plus a whole lot more. To listen to it all, press play on the episode above.