Today's cover is a real bizarre one, a bluegrass cover of Modest Mouse. The band is Iron Horse who hail from Alabama. As so far they've released cover albums for Modest Mouse, Metallica, Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, Van Halen, and the Shins. It sounds gimmicky at first, and frankly that'd be the best way to describe Metallica being played via a mandolin and banjo, yet the results are really great. I find it especially intersting as bluegrass is a genre of music that I'm almost completely unfamiliar with, so to hear a song I love played with that style is fascinating.
The original Modest Mouse song is amazing and definitely one of the best tracks off of The Lonesome Crowded West. Last night I actually had a disappointment involving that album. I've been trying to track down a vinyl copy for the longest time yet it's so difficult as it's been out of print after 1997's initial run. Many copies go for around $200 on ebay. I saw one up, 30 minutes left for just $40. As I began to bid I then noticed that it was only the second LP up for sale, not the 2xLP full album. Arg. I'd pay up to $75...that's it. Well "Trailer Trash" is an autobiographical narrative about Isaac's poor upbringing and relationship with his mother. Specifically the house he lived in with his mother (after a divorce) was flooded and his mother abandoned him to live in her new husband's trailor. Isaac remained in the flooded house on the second floor (as the water level was too high below) until he was forced out by the police. He then began to stay at various friends' houses until eventually taking residence in a small shed right next to his mother's trailer. It was then in that shed where Modest Mouse in its earliest incarnation (with Eric Judy and Jeremiah Green) was formed. They then hooked up with Beat Happening's Calvin Johnson to release an EP on K Records in 1994 and then the rest is history.
Iron Horse - Trailer Trash
Modest Mouse - Trailer Trash
"Eating snow flakes with plastic forks
And a paper plate of course, you think of everything
Short love with a long divorce
And a couple of kids of course
They don't mean anything
Live in trailers with no class
goddamn I hope I can pass high school means nothing
Taking heartache with hard work
Goddamn I am such a jerk, I can't do anything
And I shout that you're all fakes
And you should have seen the look on your face
And I guess that's what it takes
When comparing your bellyaches
And it's been a long time
Which agrees with this watch of mine
And I guess that I miss you, and I'm sorry
if I dissed you"
Iron Horse Official Website
Modest Mouse - The Lonesome Crowded West @ Amazon.com
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