Modest Mouse August 22, 2007

With its angular song structure and spacey vocals, Modest Mouse's thoughtful songs stay away from any predictable formula. Isaac Brock, Eric Judy and Jeremiah Green steer each song toward wherever they seem to want to go. Former Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr joined the band in late 2006. Achieving musical transcendence is a tricky feat, almost definitively. If it happens at all, it happens naturally and perhaps nobody knows that better than Seattle, Washington's Band of Horses. Guitarist/vocalist Ben Bridwell and guitarist Mat Brooke formed Band of Horses in 2004, after the dissolution of their nearly ten-year run in northwest melancholic darlings Carissas Wierd. Band of Horses rises from the ashes of that well-loved band. After playing music with each other for over a decade, Bridwell and Brooke picked up together again when Bridwell began fleshing out his compositions post-Carissas. Buoyed by Bridwells warm, reverb-heavy vocals (which strangely channel a dichotomous blend of Wayne Coyne, Brian Wilson and Doug Martsch,) Band of Horses woodsy, dreamy songs ooze with amorphous tension, longing and hope.