Rockers Modest Mouse bring 'Golden Casket' tour to Providence on June 9
Going from underground indie darlings to being one of the most popular rock bands on the planet is a good way to describe the journey of Modest Mouse since the mid-1990s.
A majority of their fan base hails their early material, including their second and third albums, 1997’s "The Lonesome Crowded West" and 2000’s "The Moon & Antarctica," as magnum opuses. The act then reached new heights with the release of their hit single “Float On” off their landmark fourth LP "Good News for People Who Love Bad News," which came out in 2004.
Fast forward to now, with Modest Mouse on tour to promote their seventh album, "The Golden Casket," released last summer, their first full-length album in six years. They'll perform June 9 at Providence's Strand Ballroom & Theatre, with British rockers The Cribs opening up the show.
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Vocalist and guitarist Isaac Brock said "The Golden Casket" came together during the pandemic, when the band was unable to tour or work on other projects.
“I set up to start recording it one week before everything shut down," Brock says. "Dave Sardy, who co-produced the album, went home for a weekend after we had set up, and he was supposed to come back, but then everyone nailed their windows shut. Two months or so later, I was optimistically thinking that it was just a blip and everyone was overly worried, so I figured I’d go down to California to work on it rather than work out of my own space."
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Brock says the pandemic shutdown gave him guilt-free time to focus on the album, but it didn't necessarily speed the process along.
“I guess it was quicker in the sense that we had no distractions during the time we were working on it, but the same amount of time would have been spent working on it regardless,” he adds. “It would have just been stretched out over a longer period.”
This year marks the 15th anniversary of the release of Modest Mouse’s fifth album, "We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank," the only record in the band’s discography that includes guitarist Johnny Marr, formerly of The Smiths, as an official member. Brock recently mentioned that he and Marr have been writing songs together, but collaboration is difficult due to the distance separating them. (Marr lives in England and Brock is in Oregon.)
“What we did is, I had a song written and I sent him the track,” Brock says. “He was like ‘This is great, I’m gonna write something,’ and we put it on top of the track. It’s not necessarily writing, but we’ll get back to writing. Currently, we’re just exchanging ideas as friends."
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“... We’ll be writing some new stuff together,” he adds. “How do we do that? I’d rather do it in a room. The pen pal thing is OK, but he has, as you can imagine, a lot on his plate. I’m gonna say the same about myself, but we’ll be doing some work together, and what that looks like I don’t know.”
Right now, Brock and the band are working on new music, along with touring, and he has some other projects he’s working on, including a collaboration with some amphibians.
“I’ve been working on some recordings I did with frogs, just a bunch of frogs," he says, "and I’m going to be turning them into a song."
If you go: Modest Mouse ...
What: Modest Mouse, with The Cribs
When: June 9, 8 p.m. (all ages)
Where: The Strand Ballroom & Theatre, 79 Washington St., Providence
Tickets: $42.50 advance, $45 at the door
Info: thestrandri.com, (401) 618-8900
This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Modest Mouse 'Golden Casket' tour Providence with The Cribs
