There is something about Seattle. Maybe it's the water, the air, the rain or the amplifiers, but just as Austin or L.A. threatens to overtake it as the capital of alternative rock, Seattle's mosh pits belch out yet another batch of lank-haired, sullen-faced guitar heroes.
Modest Mouse is the latest group to take on the mantle worn by Green River, Mudhoney, Pearl Jam and, of course, Nirvana. But if grunge rock, the music that put Seattle on the map, was all about the rediscovery of punk fundamentals, Modest Mouse (like Built to Spill -- another recent Pacific Northwest icon) is a different thing entirely. With its meandering, textured and textural songs, the Mouse is almost avant-garde.
Anthemic guitars and punky hooks of the type usually associated with the Seattle sound are almost nonexistent on Modest Mouse's latest release, "The Moon and Antarctica." Instead they rely on dynamics: angry, impassioned crescendos and whispery atmospheric breaks nailed down by Jeremiah Green's syncopated, almost jazzlike drumming and Eric Judy's bass. Around them whips Isaac Brock's haunting, quivering guitar.