www.modestmousemusic.com has been updated with what could possibly be the artwork and colour scheme for the new album, "We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank."

"Dashboard", the first single off Modest Mouse's upcoming album, "We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank," is now available for download from iTunes. The rest of the album, due to be released March 20th, is now also available for pre-order from them as well. The iTunes pre-order also comes with an extra video track entitled "A Fisherman's Tale," which is a behind the scenes look into the making of the group's latest video.

There also seems to now be conflicting album art between iTunes and MySpace, iTunes having a similar cover to the single and MySpace having one similar to what we reported on earlier today.

Source: http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPreorder?id=213723021&s=143455

And so the news you've all been waiting for, the date that has been bounced around and speculated on for the past month has now finally been confirmed. The new album will be out March 20th, with a preorder starting on January 30th from iTunes.

The final track list has been confirmed as follows:

1. March Into The Sea
2. Dashboard
3. Fire It Up
4. Florida*
5. Parting Of The Sensory
6. Missed The Boat*
7. We've Got Everything*
8. Fly Trapped In A Jar
9. Education
10. Little Motel
11. Steam Engenius
12. Spitting Venom
13. People As Places As People
14. Invisible

* Featuring James Mercer of The Shins on backing vocals.

Some tracks also appear to have changed titles since they first appeared on set lists or were mentioned in previous articles. The Spin article also mentions a few West Coast gigs are apparently going to be planned for March. Thanks to Jake for all this fantastic info. [Billboard] [Pitchfork] [Spin]

Modest Mouse seem to be the main attention of this Month's Harp magazine. This one contains an interview with Isaac on the new album (March 20 is mentioned again, but not from his lips), an interview with Johnny Marr and some short descriptions of 7 songs found on the new album. All 3 articles can be found on Harp's website.

Source: http://harpmagazine.com/guides/artists/detail.cfm?id=964

There seem to be so many different dates floating around at the moment, and most seem to be pointing now to a March 20 release date for Modest Mouse's 5th studio album "We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank". Here's an article that claims it got this information "Straight from the label." Well if it's on the internet, it must be true! Thanks to Eric for the link.

Source: http://www.silentuproar.com/news/individual.php?newsid=9993&back=yes

The band are the cover story for January's edition of Under The Radar Magazine, apparently out later this month. If anyone manages to land their hands on a copy and finds out some new information from the article, please let us know. Thanks to Doug for the tip.

Source: http://www.undertheradarmag.com/

A short, 12 second clip of what appears to be behind the scenes footage of the Dashboard video shoot has been posted on YouTube.

Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Qc7v9sdWCY

Modest Mouse will be performing along side Built To Spill, Slint and others sometime between May 31st and June 2nd at the Primavera Sound Festival in Barcelona, Spain. More acts are to be announced as the date draws closer, although as it appears to be in conjunction with ATP, the line up will probably be similar to the English festival.

Source: http://www.primaverasound.com/

Inland Empire Touring, who handled Modest Mouse's touring back in the day (2005 I think...), have updated their tour page with a single entry for March 10th in Mexico City at the Foro Sol stadium. There is nothing yet mentioned on the venue page at www.ticketmaster.com.mx, but that would probably be the best place to start looking for tickets and if the date turns out to be confirmed.

Source: http://www.inlandempiretouring.com/artist.php?ID=17

I'm behind on news, this is mainly due to me moving halfway across the planet since December 30th, so for those of you who don't know yet... "Dashboard" made it's debut on January 1st. A streaming version can be found on www.modestmousemusic.com. The single is due to be released on January 16th to radio stations.

Source: http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003527250

Isaac gave an interview on Australia's Triple J on January 4th. A copy can be downloaded from their site.

Source: http://www.abc.net.au/triplej/zan/blog/s1821529.htm