American rock group Modest Mouse was established in 1993 in Issaquah, Washington, and is now located in Portland, Oregon. Isaac Brock, the band’s lead singer and guitarist, Jeremiah Green, and Eric Judy, the drummer, were the original members. They practiced, rearranged, and recorded demos for nearly two years, heavily influenced by Pavement, Pixies, XTC, and Talking Heads, before finally signing with small-town independent label K Records and releasing multiple singles. The band’s fourth album, Good News for Those Who Love Bad News (2004), and the songs “Float On” and “Ocean Breathes Salty” from it were commercial successes.
The band’s lineup mostly consisted of Brock and Green, with many changes, starting with their 1996 debut album This Is a Long Journey for Someone with Nothing to Think About. Brock is the only original band member left as of 2023. Up to his departure in 2012, Judy contributed to every Modest Mouse album. After percussionist Joe Plummer (previously of the Black Heart Procession) and multi-instrumentalist Tom Peloso, guitarist Johnny Marr (formerly of the Smiths) joined the group in 2006 to work on the album We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank (2007). James Fairchild, a guitarist, joined the group in 2009. The band’s sixth album Strangers to Ourselves (subtitled “The Golden Casket Vol. 1”) was published in 2015 and their seventh, The Golden Casket, in 2021.