Mouse floats on to the top

By Ernest Jasmin, for the Northwest Guardian

Modest Mouse has risen from being a popular Northwest band to one of the country’s favorites.

We catch up with bassist Eric Judy. One question springs to mind more than most when it comes to Northwest rock band Modest Mouse: How the heck did that happen?

After all, who could have foreseen the Seattle and Portland-based outfit’s current status as rock’s reigning “it” band a decade ago when it was churning out off-kilter and decidedly noncommercial records for regional indie labels, Up and K Records.

So fans and detractors alike were asking the question in 2004, when the band inexplicably wound up in heavy rotation on MTV with a pop-inflected breakthrough single, “Float On.” How the heck did that happen?

Then again when the band held on with another hit, “Ocean Breathes Salty.” Then again several months later with news that ex-Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr had moved from England to join the band.

And yet again last month when the new album “We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank” debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200.

It all flew in the face of conventional wisdom; that notion that weird bands, like Modest Mouse, would forever remain in the hip ghetto of college radio while the Fergies and Nickelbacks of the world continued to parlay.

So last week, bassist Eric Judy called The News Tribune to talk about this confounding state of affairs.

How did Johnny Marr wind up joining you all?

It was just sort of a far-fetched, long shot idea that (singer) Isaac (Brock) had. … He eventually just ended up talking to Johnny on the phone a bit with the idea we would try writing songs.

I assume you’re all Smiths fans. How surreal was it when he showed up?

It was pretty surreal at first. You know, I first went down to Isaac’s to start working on songs. And there he was. … We all kind of had a lot of fun for a while just hearing some of his Smiths stories.

On the flip side, guitarist Dann Gallucci left the band. Why?

He just got married and had some other stuff he wanted to do, and kind of knew he was gonna have to probably dedicate the next couple of years of his life to the band, you know, were he to be involved in another record. I just don’t think he really wanted to make that dedication.

On a scale of 1 to 10, how surreal is it that you have the No. 1 album in the country? (It dropped to No. 11 in its second week.)

I think it’s really strange, personally. (Chuckles.) I don’t think I ever would have expected that. I didn’t expect our last record to do as well as it did. It’s great and exciting that this all happened.

So you’re not gonna go all Hollywood on us.

No. I don’t feel like any of this stuff has changed any of us that much, you know. I had a money-spending problem for a while.

Really?

I spent a lot of money on tobacco pipes for a little while. That was my most extreme splurge.

Are you talking rare collector stuff?

They’re, like, handcrafted pipes (and) you can’t buy them in stores. There are a few Web sites that are distributors for them. Or you would have to be on the pipe-makers’ mailing list.

Eddie Griffin is crashin’ million-dollar Lamborghinis. And you’ve got your pipes.

Right. (Laughs.)

Have you caught wind of hipsters calling you sellouts because of all the success?

Yeah, I’ve heard about it. My wife read this funny ... album review. I think somebody said, ‘Wow! Sounds like they really rushed this record.’ (Recalls going into the studio with no songs and recording 1997 album ‘The Fruit That Ate Itself’ in two days.) If that’s some of our really good stuff, wow, we must really be musical geniuses. This last record was definitely not rushed.

I don’t feel like we’re sellouts. It doesn’t bug me that people would think that. I feel like we all just work really hard and made a record we all really like a lot.

I’ve heard about some songs that missed the cut.

“King Rat” was actually a song that was finished. But it’s coming out on a seven-inch single. But there were a few songs that were pretty much finished.

Do you have some titles for those songs?

Three I know for sure: “Satellite Skin,” “Tie the Lake Down” – (considers) – one called “The Whale Song.” … “Autumn Beds” was another one.

Those four songs were four things we all really liked that we just (couldn’t finish). That happened with the last record, too.

Kind of my hope is to get those songs and the stuff from this last record and go back and finish ’em and release (an) EP with all that stuff.

What: Modest Mouse in concert, with Love As Laughter

When: 8 p.m. Sunday

Where: Paramount Theatre, 911 Pine St., Seattle

Tickets: $32.50

Info: Ticketmaster, 253-627-8497 in Tacoma