By Noah Davis,Special to Encore

PORTLAND -Touring in support of its hit single “Float On,” which was nominated for a Grammy, indie rock group Modest Mouse will perform Saturday, July 23, at the State Theater.

The Washington state-based quartet was formed in 1993 but only recently began to receive significant national attention from mainstream media sources.

It was “Float On,” the single from the group’s last album, “Good News for People Who Love Bad News,” that brought them fully into the national spotlight.

Since the album’s April 2004 release, the band headlined the fourth annual Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival in Manchester, Tenn., along with The Dave Matthews Band. It garnered Grammy nominations for Best Rock Song (“Float On”) and Best Alternative Music Album (“Good News for People Who Love Bad News”), and it was named Band of the Year for 2004 by the influential alternative music magazine Spin.

Additionally, Nissan, Miller Genuine Draft and others have used Modest Mouse’s music in commercials.

An episode of Fox’s hit television show “The O.C.” featured a concert by Modest Mouse, putting them in an elite category of current popular music acts that includes other bands such as The Killers and Death Cab for Cutie.

However, Modest Mouse greets its success with some reluctance. “I don’t really think about it, to be honest. … It’s nice, but I don’t know what it means. I’ve been doing this band for so long that it doesn’t really register,” said lead singer Isaac Brock in an interview with MTV.com.

One reason for the lead singer’s jaded perspective is the band’s longevity. In an era where many bands last only an album or two, Modest Mouse is an exception, with eight studio albums to its name. Among these eight is the group’s 1997 “The Lonesome Crowded West,” which received attention from a number of major labels and prompted a bidding war.

After signing to Sony, Modest Mouse produced “The Moon and Antarctica” in 2000.

Modest Mouse members, besides Brock, are bassist Eric Judy and drummer Benjamin Weikel, who replaced original drummer Jeremiah Green on the 2004 release. The band also recruited guitarist Dann Gallucci to help with “Good News for People Who Love Bad News” which, according to an article on MTV.com, “expands the band’s dynamic with banjos, violins, accordions and Tom Waits-like horns courtesy of the Dirty Dozen Brass Band.”

Triumph of Lethargy, an art rock duo, was handpicked by Modest Mouse to open the Portland show. The two musicians are Corey Brewer and Spencer E. Moody who, along with Gallucci, were members of group The Murder City Devils. The full name of the band is Triumph of Lethargy Skinned Alive to Death. Brewer and Moody each play a variety of instruments but only Brewer plays the violin. This results in a true collaboration and, according to the band’s biography at www.make-breakrecords.com, “often after mixing is finished I [Moody] have no idea who did what.”

Copy the Story Link