Lonesome Crowded West

Modest Mouse

Product Details

• Audio CD (November 18, 1997)
• Original Release Date: November 18, 1997
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Up.
• ASIN: B000003L26
• Also Available in: Vinyl
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (143 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #7,036 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

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  #30 in	Music > Alternative Rock > Alternative Styles > Rock > Noise
  #32 in	Music > Alternative Rock > Indie & Lo-Fi > Lo-Fi
  #57 in	Music > Alternative Rock > Hardcore & Punk > Emo

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com
The opening track, "Teeth Like God's Shoeshine," explodes out of your speakers with sharp, see-sawing guitars and shouted vocals, an irresistible melange of angular rhythms and mighty, powerful dynamics. The rest of the songs are similarly pulled along by some unseen force, driven by an energy found in classic post-punk bands like Thinking Fellers Union Local 282 or Drunken Boat. Some reviewers have referenced the Pixies, and while that's not off the mark, this is more like the Pixies undergoing dental work--without anesthesia. --Lorry Fleming

Product Description
Issaquah, WA, indie rock trio MODEST MOUSE was formed in 1993 by vocalist/guitarist Isaac Brock, bassist Eric Judy, and drummer Jeremiah Green. This album was released in 1997 and was the band's first for US label MATADOR. And talk about original, the band has something for just about everyone! They can do quiet, brooding acoustics, dark and pounding thrashers, funky jump-around emo, just about anything. The opening track, "Teeth Like God's Shoeshine," explodes out of your speakers with sharp, see-sawing guitars and shouted vocals, an irresistible melange of angular rhythms andmighty, powerful dynamics. The rest of the songs are similarly pulled along by some unseen force, driven by an energy found in classic post-punk bands like Thinking Fellers Union, Local 282 or Drunken Boat. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

57 of 62 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It shouldn't work, but it does....beautifully!, December 5, 2002

By	Louis Tuck (Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews

From a contemporary rock music standpoint this album should not work. Strained, dischordant vocals, erratic changes in tempo, wacky and unconventional lyrics, and to top it all off a violinist?? Isaac Brock is either a mad man or a genius, I would estimate the latter. Brock successfully assembles this melange of eclectic and disparate rock sounds into 15 melodious and head nodding indie rock tunes. With clever guitar hooks accompanied by solid rythmn, Modest Mouse accomplishes what most indie bands can only aspire to: A fresh and coherent low-fi indie rock sound.

I can't tell you how impressed I am by this album. Songs like 'Conveinent Parking' and 'Doin' The Cockroach' highlight Modest Mouse's uncanny ability to deliver tight and often explosive indie-alternative music.

If you've never heard of Modest Mouse, or you've never listened to their music, YOU ARE MISSIONG OUT! I strongly suggest you give 'A Lonesome Crowded West' a try. It's the most cohesive and emblematic of the band's talent and style.

If you're just discovering Indie-alternative music this album will make you an instant fan!

40 of 43 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Monu-Mental, August 31, 2000

By	John Crossett "space lovers' dad" (Virginia) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I really can't believe it. I bought "The Lonesome Crowded West" about a month ago on the strength of "The Moon and Antarctica," to which I was addicted from early June to late July. The discordant, fractured first tens seconds of "Teeth Like God's Shoeshine" left me coughing and sweating in my earphones, but I did not dare remove them. About 70 minutes and 15 tracks later, I stood up slowly, walked across the room to the stereo, hit play, and returned quietly to my chair to do it all over again. I'm still sitting there.

Let me try to place "The Lonesome Crowded West" in its proper historical context. It is, in my humble view, the single best American rock record of the 1990s (with Slint's "Spiderland," Pavement's "Slanted and Enchanted," and Brainiac's "Bonsai Superstar" running close behind, but behind nonetheless). It is a long, monumental, messy, glorious bleat on the order of "Exile on Main Street" or "London Calling." It sounds like a cross between The Pixies and Polvo, with a smidge of Neil Young thrown in for good measure. Not too shabby. Not too shabby at all.

Besides "Teeth Like God's Shoeshine," my highlights are "Convenient Parking," "Cowboy Dan" and "Polar Opposites." Every tune's got the shtank, and that's what matters.

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Modest? Uh, hardly. , February 4, 2006

By	Shotgun Method (NY... No, not *that* NY) - See all my reviews

I am an admitted latecomer to Isaac Brock & Co., having discovered them about 3 years ago with The Moon & Antarctica. That quickly rose to the top of my indie rock pile, with its fascinating lyrics, idiosyncratic and epic songwriting, Brock's demented and quirky "white-trash Black Francis" vocals (that is a compliment people), diverse tunes, and concept of alienation and disaffection in a huge, empty universe. Good. Really, really good.

Since then, I have taken the liberty of digging through their catalog, listening to everything from This Is A Long Drive... to their "sellout" Good News For People Who Love Bad News. All of it is strong, often outstanding. But if you want the ultimate manifesto of Modest Mouse's ability, you need only go to The Lonesome Crowded West.

It's just... perfect. Try naming another 70+ indie rock album that doesn't have a scratch of filler or throwaway song. The band belts out tune after tune with a sense of consistent quality that not Pavement, Sonic Youth, or even The Pixies could match in their heyday. The sound quality is raw compared to the more recent releases, but it's still amazing how HUGE and expansive Modest Mouse sound, even when pared down to the base elements of guitars, bass, drums, and vocal (with an occasional touch of violin). It's Neil Young-meets-Pixies-meets-Tom Waits-meets-Pink Floyd (yes, really!).

The album kicks off with Teeth Like God's Shoeshine. This might be my favorite Modest Mouse song of all time--it's the shortest 7-minute song I've ever listened to. Starting in disjointed and lurching rock, moving to a more tender, quiet breakdown, and then busting out an absolutely GLORIOUS crescendo of guitar squall and thundering beats. And it performs this pattern TWICE before resolving. I could listen to it all day.

Following that is the quieter, downbeat and weird Heart Cooks Brain (love the roughshod turntables); the Pixies-esque Convenient Parking; the goofy, folk-ish Jesus Christ Was An Only Child; the minor-key, quirky indie dance of Doin' The Cockroach; the eerie, desolate Cowboy Dan; the melancholic Out Of Gas; a searing near-punk tune in Sh-t Luck; the drunk sentiment of Polar Opposites; the beautiful, acoustic Bankrupt On Selling; and finally a two-part semi-acoustic jam (driven by Jeremiah Green's deft drumming) to conclude the whole deal.

The lyrics are consistently amazing throughout. Always engaging, never pretentious, they focus on themes of existential loneliness and anger, bitterness, and rough living without being the slightest bit whiny. Brock's unique voice just seals the deal with his unusual, but very listenable (at least to my deformed ears) and genuine inflection. His is a voice that sounds wholly in touch with the subject matter, whether it be an angry cowboy pointing his gun skyward at God, wandering the backroads of the American Midwest, lost deep within consumerist Hell, or comparing his brain to a hamburger. Most bands would kill to write a song as good as Bankrupt On Selling, and Modest Mouse don't even think enough of that one to print the lyrics for it in the booklet.

Anyway, this is definitely one of the finest indie rock albums of the '90s (along Slint's Spiderland, Pavement's Slanted & Enchanted, and Dismemberment Plan's Emergency & I). I can't think of an album I've listened to more lately than this one. More addicting than crack.