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Rating: "Sad Sappy Sucker" was supposed to be the first document in the later hyper-prolific career of Isaac Brock's Modest Mouse. It came to light only in 2001, after seven years of gestation, for Olympia's K Records, the first farsighted label to set eyes on the monumentally romantic and minimal compositions of the Issaquah, Washington DC combo, by releasing their first 7".
And it is precisely within that noble tradition of American post-Punk that Modest Mouse's first opus finds its place. Halfway between Pavement and Guided By Voices electrics, even before Built To Spill (another band, to be truthful, blessed by the 7"s of Calvin Johnson's label), with whom they share a certain poetic and melancholic vein, even within the most sparse episodes.
"Sad Sappy Sucker" is a naive and almost incomplete concentrate, a sublimation of disharmony among accords, a perfect snapshot of instability and lasciviousness, something between a bedroom collection and a basement session. A collection of short and wonderful melodic vignettes, guitar-driven Rock, where guitar-driven means structured without ever being over the top. On the contrary, it's below these lines, slackerness was once said, where gems like "Slanted & Enchanted" such as "Worms vs. Birds" or off-key Pollardian reminiscences like "Race Car Grin You Ain't No Landmark" are housed. The true merit of Modest Mouse was to know how to maximize the minimum, as if they wanted to paint autumn with just one tone, and manage to raise the register ("Every Penny Fed Cat", guitar outbursts worthy of the best Ira Kaplan of the Nineties) without ever losing their drowsiness. In this sense, projects like "Call To Dial-A-Song" should be understood, an obligatory yet sincere tribute to They Might Be Giants, where a recorder was activated with every phone call received, reproducing Isaac Brock's out, rustic, and homemade compositions, reminiscent here of Daniel Johnston's carefree charm.
From then on, Modest Mouse's career would be a linear crescendo, from minimalist and lo-fi approximations, traversing the decade with increasingly epic and dynamic constructs, reaching the notable collaborations of recent years and a maturation and settling into a third age, still capable of offering moments of intimacy and evocation. What has often been lacking, and instead is entirely dominant here, is the debut's personality and sincere subversiveness, indeed an album to be historically recataloged - also considering the tribulations due to the publication date - among the highest points of early Nineties American independent Rock.
Tracklist and Lyrics
04 Classy Plastic Lumber (02:02)
Buh duh buh buh buh
Bud duh buh buh buh buh buh buh buh
You go right through me
I go right through but I'm about to
Go on reminding you I am about to see you through it
Buh duh buh buh buh
Bud duh buh buh buh buh duh buh buh
Buh duh buh buh buh
Your mouth not mind is open wide
You don't have a clue
I I am a reminder
You've got a voice so talk to yourself
Lift the bad weight off your mullet
And let the thoughts fall off your tongue
Cause I'm callin' callin' callin'
I've never written to anyone
So this is about ugly lovers
And this is about pretty songs
Cause I'm a bastard bastard bastard
In my lipstick I'm so much fun
Connect your wood feet to a motor
And the chrome dance trophy is won
A little classy plastic lumber
I'm embarassed but I ain't that stunned
Looks like the humans' days are numbered
That's a sitcom that was number one
Cause we're a past tense late rate (?)
I must've thouroughly convinced us not to mess this place up
{Shameful shameful shameful}
06 Path of Least Resistance (00:28)
gone fishin'
I'm takin'
the path of least resistance.
07 It Always Rains on a Picnic (03:01)
No, I don't suppose
Downpour, downpour
It always rains on a picnic
Downpour, downpour
Don't let go quite yet
Downpour, downpour
08 Dukes Up (02:24)
So you wonder how
get em' up, put em up
get your dukes up now
got no time no money, that's why
get em up, put em up
get your dukes up now
Soda fountain crowd
button up, shut em' up
gettin' fed up now
got no time, no money, no doubt
get em' up, put em' up
get your dukes up, now
10 Every Penny Fed Car (03:06)
So you spilt every last penny into the car
And it still won't take you where you wanna go
So you spilt every last penny into the car
And it still won't take you very far at all
So you spilt every last penny into the car
And it still won't even barely leave your home
So you spilt every last penny into the car
And it still won't take you where you need to go
So you spilt every last penny into the car
And it still won't even barely leave your home
So you spilt every last penny into the car
And it still won't take you anywhere at all
13 Red Hand Case (02:37)
Blame it on the red hand's weight
Getting hateful, a little fed up, oh no
Sent you a note from my cage:
"I need a carton of cigarettes to stay shut up"
Blame it on the red hand's weight
Getting hateful, a little fed up, oh no
Sent you a note from my cage:
"I need a carton of cigarettes to stay shut up"
I guess that's just the red hand's fate
I wish that I'd have stayed shut up
Oh no!
Oh no!
14 Secret Agent X-9 (01:12)
Got a racecar grin and a calculation
And every gun for a secret agent
Defunct that timebomb at a space station
Hey, Secret Agent X-9 why don't you drop me a line?
And say, would it cost you your job
To say what was in that gold box?
So why did they give you that job?
Why can they give you that job?
You think this guy was on a permanent vacation
But no he's not, he's a secret agent
16 Call to Dial a Song (00:31)
Well I might be a lot of things, but I won't be ignored
When I see you coming, the chariots of the Lord
Well the pale horses are riding, and the judgment day's at hand
And I'm waiting for the good Lord to take me by the hand.
Hey Isaac, this is Spencer.
Um.....I'm calling about, uh, going to Montana.
Um.........so you need to give me a ring here
so we can work out some of those details and stuff,
'cause it could get kind of hairy or whatever.
So, uh, give me a call.
Alright then, bye-bye.
17 5-4-3-2-1 Lipsoff (00:30)
whatcha do whatcha do whathca do with your own life
whatcha see whatcha see whatcha see as an astronaut, okay
whatcha eat whatcha eat whatcha eat as an alien
whatcha want whaddaya want from outer space
18 Woodgrain (00:30)
You've got wood grain, I've got nothing
You've got the water coming out of your head
ahh uhh ahh....
Find something to do and we'll share our issues
Find something to do when we're totally dead
19 BMX Crash (00:28)
Trailer park bike racing
Goddamn
Can we go back?
Trailer park bike racing
Oh no its not worth crash.
[Uh-oh, uh I think I lost the scratch]
20 Sucker Bet (01:19)
My racecar winding down,
There's another sucker bet
My mind minding
So in debt.
So bored and timely that
I'll have to burn another cigarette
We're now finding you
So in debt.
22 SWY (00:29)
you're no one
you're going nowhere
you got a fast car.
a e i o u and sometimes y
a e i o u and sometimes y
23 Austral Opithecus (00:29)
Australopithecus, friend to the end but it's over
Over, over again
You wanted to chase around the cat and the dog
While they're playing like that and I said
What's the matter, friend
Australopithecus, friend to the end but|
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