Modest Mouse Artistfacts

1993-
Isaac BrockVocals, guitar1993-
Jeremiah GreenDrums1993-2022
Eric JudyBass1993-2012
Tom PelosoStrings, horns, bass, keyboards2005-
Joe PlummerDrums2004-2012
Jim FairchildGuitar2009-2021
Dann GallucciGuitar1996 – 2004
Johnny MarrGuitar2006-2010
Russell HigbeeBass2012-
Lisa MolinaroStrings, bass2012-2021
Ben MassarellaPercussion2014-
Simon O'ConnorGuitar2021-
Lead singer Isaac Brock is an atheist. He had this to say on the subject: "I don't think I'm living wrong in the first place, so when the lights go out on me, and brighter ones come on and I have to talk to some guy with a big, bushy beard, or some big glowing blob, I think I'm going to be fine."
Their song "The Good Times Are Killing Me" is about the band's periodic indulgence in drugs like pills, alcohol and marijuana. Isaac Brock has confessed to regretting how much and how often he used to do drugs.
Modest Mouse was mentioned, by name, in the 2005 Supreme Court case of MGM vs. Grokster. Supreme Court Justice, David Souter, wrote that on the Grokster P2P network, "Users seeking Top 40 songs, for example, or the latest release by Modest Mouse, are certain to be far more numerous than those seeking a free Decameron, and Grokster and StreamCast translated that demand into dollars."
During an April 2004 interview with Josh Modell of AVclub.com, Isaac Brock revealed that after a long night of drinking he returned to the apartment he was staying in while recording The Moon & Antarctica. He stepped outside to smoke a cigarette to find a group of 14 kids hanging around on the sidewalk. Being what he called a "friendly drunk guy," he decided to say hello, but before he could get the words out of his mouth, one of the kids punched him in the face, breaking his jaw. The random attack continued with the kids chasing the band's dog and continuing to punch Brock. This forced the band to cut back on Brock's vocals during recording of the 2000 album.
Their longtime guitarist Jim Fairchild was previously in the band Grandaddy. He also started a band called All Smiles that was active during his time in Modest Mouse and beyond.
Modest Mouse founding drummer Jeremiah Green can speak a little bit of Japanese and can be herd speaking that language in the song "Night on the Sun."
During the early days of Modest Mouse, Isaac Brock and bassist, Eric Judy, discussed song ideas via phone messages after Judy moved to northern Washington.
Before joining Modest Mouse, multi-instrumentalist Tom Peloso played in the bluegrass group, The Hakensaw Boys, playing upright bass and fiddle.
Modest Mouse took their name from a passage in The Mark On The Wall, Virginia Woolf's first published story. ("…for those are the very pleasantest thoughts, and very frequent even in the minds of modest, mouse-coloured people…")

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