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I’m really happy that Modest Mouse asked me to create some limited edition posters for their tour commemorating the 25th anniversary of their 1997 album The Lonesome Crowded West. I first heard Modest Mouse in 1998. I borrowed a friend’s copy of the album The Lonesome Crowded West, which had come out the year before, and it grew on me quickly to become a favorite. The whole album is great, very multi-dimensional ranging from aggressive and dissonant on songs like “Teeth Like God’s Shoeshine” to folky, jangly, and intimate on “Trailer Trash.” My two favorite songs on The Lonesome Crowded West are “Doin’ the Cockroach,” which builds steadily into an exhilarating staccato guitar frenzy, and the song that follows it, “Cowboy Dan,” which is full of tension, struggle, anger, and beauty. Lyrically, the band’s singer and primary songwriter, Isaac Brock, comes across as an empathetic world-weary sage. I rarely call someone a poet, but Isaac wrote with such depth for someone only 23 years old that I think poet is the only title that properly conveys his elevated craft as a lyricist. I got to do Modest Mouse’s 2000 Black Glass tour poster, which was a huge deal for me. I’m happy to collab again 22 years later!
–Shepard
Available for the Modest Mouse Lonesome Crowded West Tour. Check out the tour dates HERE.
