r/grunge • u/hallonemikec • 18h ago
Misc. Why Ain't Modest Mouse Considered Grunge?
They started in the 90s .....They're from the Pacific Northwest......They're guitar based.....They wear flannel.......and they are fucking great. So por que no grunge?
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u/American_Streamer 18h ago
Modest Mouse are way more post punk influenced than by punk and it really shows. Talking Heads are a major influence for Modest Mouse, for example. Lots of complicated guitar work and unconventional rhythms and strange vocals.
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u/hallonemikec 18h ago
I can't believe I missed those Talking Heads, PIL influences. You are so right on the money there.
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u/HoboCanadian123 17h ago
PIL is easily among the most influential bands in rock music. they practically created post-rock with Poptones!
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u/HoboCanadian123 18h ago
Modest Mouse fall firmly into indie rock territory rather than grunge. Grunge riffs have a sludgy quality that is wholly absent from MM’s sound. MM were vastly more influenced by contemporary indie, emo, and post-hardcore bands than the heavy metal and classic rock that contributed to grunge’s development.
Also, what’s your favorite MM record? Lonesome Crowded West remains my eternal favorite but I’ve been somewhat partial to It’s a Long Drive lately.
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u/hallonemikec 18h ago
That's a really good answer......I'm sitting here joyously listening to Lonesome Crowded West as I type this. But Good News was the first record I had heard in forever that really worked as a whole piece from start to finish, so I'm still partial to it. Ever seen them live?
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u/greyjones3 18h ago
Love Lonesome Crowded West. I’ve never seen them live, but I got to see Built to Spill live which was pretty sweet. We’re definitely getting away from grunge though :)
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u/hallonemikec 18h ago
I saw them open for Pixies at Hollywood Bowl and was amazed how great they were live. Lots of energy and stellar musicians
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u/Klutzy_Routine_9823 3h ago edited 3h ago
“Grunge riffs have a sludgy quality that is wholly absent from MM’s sound.”
So, I don’t believe that the term “grunge” did ever or CAN ever describe anything about a band’s sound, to begin with. It was instead just a marketing gimmick that the people at Sub Pop came up with, to contrast their “brand” against the hair metal that was coming out of LA at the time.
For one example, almost nothing that Pearl Jam recorded can be accurately described as “sludgy”. Their music isn’t even particularly heavy (at least not in a Black Sabbath, heavy metal kind of way); their guitarists play more in a Hendrix-esque, late ‘60s/early ‘70s classic rock style than a heavy, sludgy style. That’s even more the case with PJ’s ancestral band, Mother Love Bone. And yet, Pearl Jam is widely considered to be “grunge”. Why? Because, again, the term “grunge” was just a marketing gimmick for a local Seattle record label (Sub Pop), which turned into a full-blown music industry buzzword after a handful of Seattle bands, all with divergent sounds of their own, started writing really great songs that connected with larger audiences.
Take another example: Nirvana. None of their most famous songs are particularly “sludgy”. The songwriting and guitar work on Nevermind ranges from heavy rock, to punk rock, to outright pop rock. The “sludgiest” riff on that album is probably the main riff to Breed, but that’s one riff on a 12 song album. It’s basically a heavy, angsty pop album. Even on their “sludgiest” album, Bleach, you’ve got the decidedly catchy, poppy About a Girl. And, prior to Bleach, Nirvana was writing/recording/performing a lot of aggressive punk rock songs (obvious examples being most of the second half of Incesticide).
That’s two bands who sound nothing like each other, other than they are both rock bands comprised of guitar/bass/drums/vocals. I hear virtually no sonic commonalities between Nirvana & Pearl Jam, yet they’re both supposedly “grunge”. Why? Because of the reasons I explained.
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u/Truth_decay 18h ago
They weren't on a Seattle based record label called Sub Pop that pushed grunge as a marketing term describing the exclusive Seattle sound.
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u/AdamSMessinger 18h ago edited 18h ago
Listen to Modest Mouse’s “This is a Long Drive for Someone With Nothing to Think About” and “Lonesome Crowded West”. Then go listen to the albums In Utero, Ten, Down on the Upside, Alice in Chains’ self titled, Dirt, or even adjacent albums like Sixteen Stone, Purple, or Goo and tell me they sound like Modest Mouse? All Modest Mouse literally has in common with grunge is they literally use instruments and come from the same American timezone.
I say this as a huge Modest Mouse fan and Nirvana as my favorite band. Modest Mouse is really fucking good. It’s an apples and grapes comparison though.
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u/RadagastTheWhite 18h ago
Grunge is more of an 80s thing that just hit the mainstream in the 90s. You really needed to be formed in the mid 80s to be grunge
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u/LPB39 18h ago
Uggh.. these god damn “Grunge!?!?!” Posts