Hey.

With the impeding release of the new Modest Mouse EP, and its prerequisite single containing "Satellite Skin" and "Guilty Cocker Spaniels", it got me thinking:
What are the best back-to-back Modest Mouse songs?
For my money, "Positive Negative (You Breathe Out, I Breathe In)" and "Other People's Lives" off of Building Nothing Out of Something are, perhaps, the best one-two punch in the Modest Mouse catalog.
The tunes drip with a general malaise of melancholia. Isaac's guitar has never sounded better, and his doubled vocals sound young and fresh.
Granted, these tunes weren't released as singles, and they are the final two songs on the album. However, it's worth noting that nothing Modest Mouse has released before or since has been as stellar and originally heart-breaking as these two songs.
Check them out, let me know what you think ...

A surf. Rock. Band.

Electric guitarist Isaac K. Brock, multi-instrumentalist Tom Peloso, and multi-instrumentalist Eric Judy collaborated with Shins' lead singer James Mercer (probable payback for Mercer's vocal additions on We Were Dead ...) last spring, apparently adding some grooves to a soon-to-be released and striking surf flick "180 Degrees South".
Chances are the Surf Rock Band From The Land of Plenty aren't going to sound much like Jack Johnson. Probably just a shake of Floyd Rose and a dab of accordian and violin.

Here's a relavant excerpt from the Pitchfork (James Mercer) interview (in lieu of link):

However, one collaboration with another famous indie band that he would talk about was a film soundtrack he worked on with Modest Mouse. It's for the film 180 Degrees South, a documentary by surfing filmmakers the Malloy Brothers. Mercer explained, "Early last spring I went to Chile with a production company that was doing a documentary about a guy who travels to Chile and he runs in with these people who are doing some environmental work down there. So I was invited to come down to Chile while they were filming it because they thought that I might be able to write some music for it. I worked with Isaac Brock on it. We just kind of watched footage after I came back and got inspired and we put together some music."

In addition to Brock, Mercer worked on the soundtrack with Modest Mouse members Plummer, Eric Judy, and Tom Peloso. Mercer described the soundtrack as, "Definitely more soundscapes. I did a lot of acoustic guitar work, Isaac did some electric guitar, Eric Judy has like an accordion thing he was doing and of course playing bass, and then violin." You can hear a snippet of the mostly instrumental soundtrack in the film's trailer here.

Oh, yeah. Interview says Joe "The" Plummer is now a member of The Shins. MM Photog Pat Graham says, however, he's still a member of Modest Mouse. As is Johnny Marr. And Isaac K. Brock.
Full interview if you really want it.