If It's Too Loud...

Photo by Ben Moon I think what I enjoy the most about Modest Mouse is that their career feels like a natural progression over the past thirty or so years. Sure, a new song like "Third Side of the Moon" may not be as boisterous as the songs on 1996's  This is a Long Drive for Someone with Nothing to Think About , but it sounds like what the band that made that album should sound like in 2026. This new song is more restrained and mellow/mature, but we all (hopefully) are, as well. Plus, "Third Side of the Moon" gets much noisier than most bands of Modest Mouse's stature get these days. The song has that same darkness and venom that made us all love Isaac Brock's songs decades ago.  You can watch the video for "Third Side of the Moon" below. An Eraser and A Maze is due out June 5 on Glacial Pace Recordings/Virgin Music Group, and is available for pre-order here . For more on Modest Mouse, check out the band's website . Upcoming tour dates are ...

Modest Mouse touring with Built to Spill is a tour that would have been a dream come true for me in college, and now over two decades later, it's still a dream line up. Of course, if I had gone to see this tour in the 90's, it would have been in a much smaller venue than MGM Music Hall at Fenway.  I'm not sure if it was advertised as such, but I had no idea that Modest Mouse was performing The Moon & Antartica in full on this tour. It was a pleasant surprise, and explains the setlist. (I can't be the only one considering how many people were yelling out requests for the entire show._ The beginning of that album can't be beat, with the opening song "3rd Planet" being a personal favorite, "Dark Center of the Universe" being a classic at this point, and "Twin Cities Made of Ash" working the crowd into a dancing frenzy. In 2025, Modest Mouse might be the most underrated live band in music today, with frontman Isaac Brock working himself...

Towards the end of Modest Mouse's headlining set on Saturday night, Isaac Brock commented that he can normally ignore about half of the bands during a festival, but In Between Days just kept making him want to watch every band from the very start of the day. I ended up having the same experience. When I looked at the schedule, there were some bands I wasn't that familiar with or hadn't been able to get into previously, so I figured I'd have some downtime to casually eat some food from the food trucks, or play some free classic arcade games at the pop-up arcade, but instead for ten hours (ok, at one point I did stop to shove a quesadilla in my face for five minutes) I was just blown away watching band after band after band! I got there a couple of minutes late, and Quincy's own Gypsy Moths were already rocking the Arbella Insurance stage. Their classic Boston garage rock set the stage for the festival perfectly without sounding anything like any of the other bands on...

This is exactly the type of news we need while I watch snow fall in my New England neighborhood. Last year was the inaugural In Between Days festival. It was a one day festival with a great line up. For the festival's second year, they're expanding to two days and releasing one of the best line ups we've seen in years. The headliners for the festival are Modest Mouse and Lord Huron, with other If It's Too Loud... approved artists including Metric, Trampled By Turtles, Sunny Day Real Estate, Blitzen Trapper, Slothrust, and more! Plus, it includes an absolutely bonkers mix of local artists including Weakened Friends, Paper Tigers, Dutch Tulips, Carissa Johnson, Mint Green, Sweet Petunia, and more! Plus, there will be a vintage vendors market, a retro arcade, a vinyl record pop-up shop, and more. Taking place at Veterans Memorial Stadium in Quincy August 19 and 20, In Between Days is shaping up to be the New England summer festival of 2023. The gauntlet has definitely been...

For what we've seen from some frankly disappointing efforts from established acts this year, it's probably fun to look back at some of the better ones. Modest Mouse's first single in ages, "Lampshades on Fire," fits the bill of being very Modest Mouse while also feeling rather new and fresh. This song came out a few months ago and I'm still really into it, so that should say something right there, and it also makes me think I should maybe take a second look at the album.

As promised, here is the second batch of new releases for this week. It's still a pretty dodgy week on a whole, unfortunately. Seth Avett & Jessica Lea Mayfield - Sing Elliott Smith : Jessica Lea Mayfield is a favorite of mine, and the Avett Brothers are always a good time, so with one of them teaming up with the other for Elliott Smith songs in a more rootsy style? Sign me up. I'm not the biggest Elliott Smith fan, but the covers are distinctive without being different for the songs I did remember and recognize, and that's both interesting and refreshing. Worth a listen on a number of counts, definitely a solid release this week and probably my favorite. Anna & Elizabeth - Anna & Elizabeth : A debut folk album, the best way I can describe this is if you wished First Aid Kit or Lily & Madeleine sounded more like Gillian Welch. This is a high compliment from me, as a fan of all of those acts, but the strong parts of this specific album comes from ho...