Night Watch / Tom Scanlon
Modest Mouse frontman is reliably unpredictable

	PIPER FERGUSON Modest Mouse members, from left, Eric Judy (bass), Benjamin Weikel (drums), Isaac Brock (guitar/vocal) and Dann Gallucci (guitar).
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The correct answer: mournful horns — a snatch of a New Orleans funeral? — kick off "The World at Large," the album opener. Later, the Dirty Dozen Brass Band blows up a storm on "This Devil's Workday."

Just goes to show: You can never predict Brock's next move. And he likes to play the fool. Ask him how he's spent the time since his last Modest Mouse album, and he'll say: "I can summarize what I did in the last four years in one word: nothing."

He modestly forgets Ugly Casanova, his side project, which released a CD on Sub Pop last year. And more than 200 Modest Mouse shows in the past couple of years, including a tour with the Flaming Lips.

Modest Mouse played a benefit concert at the Showbox Feb. 26, and returns to launch its new album at the Paramount on Sunday (8 p.m., $20, 206-628-0888 or www.ticketmaster.com). This is Modest Mouse's second major-label release (Epic); the first, "The Moon & Antarctica," has sold some 220,000 copies — not Nirvana/Pearl Jam numbers, but not bad, not bad at all for down-sized, post-grunge Seattle rock.

"Good News for People Who Love Bad News," which features the potential hit single "Float On" ("I backed my car into a cop car the other day/well he just drove off, sometimes life's OK"), might be even more successful, commercially. Speaking of commercials, Modest Mouse songs have now been featured on beer and minivan TV advertisements. And speaking of TV, Modest Mouse is scheduled to play on "The Late Show With Craig Kilborn" on Tuesday, and a band interview should show up on MTV2 next weekend.

In the coming months, Modest Mouse will be touring with Morrissey, Sonic Youth, the Flaming Lips and Polyphonic Spree, as one of the headliners of Lollapalooza.

During a phone interview from a tour stop in San Diego, Brock didn't sound too sure of what TV shows he would be doing, or care too much about it. "I'll know when I get up and get on a plane and get there," he said. "I just go wherever they tell me."

"They" being his label. "Epic's been treating us great," Brock said. "We gave them a record they really, really liked, and all of the sudden they're our best friend."

Don't be thinking that "Good News" is a commercial sell-out; it's a schizophrenic trip, with catchy guitar hooks hiding bizarre lyrics, e.g.: "Time and life shook hands and said 'good-bye' ... you wasted life why wouldn't you waste death?" ("Ocean Breathes Salty"). And just about every catchy musical phrase is followed by a snide twist or dark turn. Brock likes to layer different recordings of his voice in a song, and at times it sounds like he's ripping the top off his head and letting you look in and listen.

Eleven years ago, Brock started Modest Mouse in Issaquah, with Eric Judy playing bass and Jeremiah Green the drummer. On "Good News," Benjamin Weikel, of the excellent Oregon duo the Helio Sequence, replaced Green; although Weikel will be playing at this weekend's show, he will return to Helio Sequence. Green, who left Brock's band to take a shot with side project the Vells, is scheduled to return to his old Modest Mouse job. If you notice another guitar presence on "Good News," that would be Dann Gallucci, who previously had a brief tour of duty in Modest Mouse, before going off to the rowdy rock of the Murder City Devils.
 
Once you track down Brock, who is notoriously flaky, you find he's an easy conversationalist who likes to talk — to a point. Any questions about why or how he makes his music tend to freak him out. "I really don't like to talk about that," he'll say.

For instance, the suggestion that his new album sounds like a cross between Ugly Casanova — his quirky side project — and Modest Mouse sends him into a rapid-fire vagueville.

"It comes from all different directions, all different influences. This one is more interested in instruments that we were into at the time, Ugly Casanova was interested in different instruments. But I really don't like to talk about this.

"I've had too much coffee — what am I trying to say? I wanted to keep (the new album) simpler than any long, concept album."

He does get more specific when talking about working with Gallucci on the recording. "He's really good at straightforward timing. I kind of learned everything about timing with him. ... He's a (real) robot — I'd think I was playing spot-on. And, four hours later, I was."

The album, produced by Dennis Herring (Camper Van Beethoven, Throwing Muses), was recorded in Oxford, Miss. One of the most arresting new songs is "Bukowski," which has a banjo, fiddle and accordion.

"Every night turns out to be a little bit more like Bukowski/and yeah I know he's a pretty good read/but God who'd want to be such a (jerk) ... I want a better place/or just a better place to fall."

Does Brock have a fear of being Bukowski, the hard-drinking writer notorious for his barroom brawls? "Yeah. I did at the time I wrote it."

It sounds like Brock's nomadic life is a bit more settled. After leaving Seattle a few years back, he has lived in Chicago, Florida and Cottage Grove — the latter a small Oregon town. Now, he lives in Portland.

"I'm loving it. I got sick of small towns, not being able to walk around a big city. (Portland is) like the Seattle of yesteryear. ... There's no cool people there. It's not cool enough to have attitude."

In the early days of Modest Mouse, he was living in a van, barely making enough to eat. Now, he's become a solid success in the music business.

Does he imagine himself living a settled life?

"I picture myself settling down — kind of a mixed bag of being settled and being not. Kind of like what's going on now — I've compiled too much stuff, and me and my girlfriend have a dog. It's an anchor.

"But a very comforting anchor."

Tom Scanlon: tscanlon@seattletimes.com.

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company