That was the last we heard of it.

The project now however, is ready for release. It looks like the project's main originator was Charles Normal, known for his work with Frank Black, Pete Yorn, Jetboy, and his brother, musician Larry Norman.

Charles Normal first heard the Hazlewood album in 2000 while living in Norway, where he picked it up in a secondhand show.

"It really made me start thinking about America, where I hadn't been to in quite some time," Normal said. "I'm a big fan of 'The Andy Griffith Show,' and that small-town Americana we grew up watching on TV and this was like the audio companion to that. It had kind of a sinister vibe, it was a little darker."

The project really got underway when he read in 2007 that Hazlewood had always intended the album to be seen as a set of demos, that would later be recorded by other artists. He recruited friends and collaborators from Portland, to begin work on the album including Isaac Brock, The Pixies' Frank Black, Pete Yorn, and members of Art Brut and the Dandy Warhols.

The project however would be shelved shortly after it Isaac gave that interview in 2008 though, after Charles Normal's brother Larry passed away.

"I just put the whole thing on the back burner," Normal says. "It was really heart-wrenching to try to sing harmonies with him; these were the last tracks that he'd ever recorded."

Eventually, after some long late night talks with Isaac, Charles decided to complete the album. Which will be released under the band name "Thriftstore Masterpiece" and will be available on July 9.

Thriftstore Masterpiece revisit Lee Hazlewood's 1963 lost classic Trouble Is A Lonesome Town and features Pete Yorn, Frank Black (Pixies), Isaac Brock (Modest Mouse), Courtney Taylor-Taylor (The Dandy Warhols), Eddie Argos (Art Brut), the late Larry Norman and more.

The album is available for order, currently in a pressing of 1000 copies on a brown and white starburst LP from Side One Dummy Records. The full track listing is as follows:

1. Long Black Train - featuring Frank Black
2. Ugly Brown - featuring Larry Norman
3. Son Of A Gun - featuring Frank Black
4. We All Make The Flowers Grow - featuring Kristin Blix
5. Run Boy Run - featuring Frank Black
6. Six Feet Of Chain - featuring Pete Yorn
7. The Railroad - featuring Isaac Brock
8. Look At That Woman - featuring Courtey Taylor-Taylor
9. Peculiar Guy - featuring Eddie Argos
10. Trouble Is A Lonesome Town - featuring Larry Norman

Right now, we are not sure exactly what tracks will feature Isaac apart from The Railroad, but we'll keep you posted as we find out. Listen to that track below.

Thanks to jplan74 and Schuno for sending this in.

Marking it's second appearance in concert, was new track Be Brave and thanks to an earlier campaign to get the festival organizers to stream the festival, a higher quality version of the track has been recorded by Twitter user mylasdiralen. Catch the recording over on their website.

Modest Mouse's set tonight will be streamed, just not live. The band's set will be shown on Channel 2 of the Coachella YouTube stream at 9pm Pacific Time tonight.

Thanks to all that helped out.

The titles for these two tracks have now been confirmed as Be Brave and Shit In Your Cut. Rough video of both songs has also made it's way onto YouTube and posted below. Interestingly, no other "new" material from the past two years was performed.

Eric Judy has still not surfaced, and despite not having any conflicting dates with The Shins, Joe Plummer also did not perform. Both positions, to our knowledge are still being filled in by Russell Higbee (formally of Man Man) and Modest Mouse drum tech Davey Brozowsky. Lisa Molinaro from Talkdemonic also played violin on some songs, as she has in the past year.

Tonight the band plays the main stage at Coachella. And while it was originally reported that the set might be streamed, it seems like Modest Mouse's set is one of the few that will not be. Should that change, I'm sure it will be updated here.

Be Brave

Shit In Your Cut

Thanks to TinyLaugh and McWeird007 for the set list updates and the names of the new songs.

Let's start with the band hitting the road in two days with their predominantly Californian dates leading up to and around the Coachella festival this coming weekend. It will be the band's first performance since July last year, and hopefully some insight into what they've been working on in the past year. Hopefully we'll see the return of Eric Judy, and with none of The Shins' tour dates conflicting with Modest Mouse's, maybe Joe Plummer will be back as well.

Secondly, in the past two weeks a lot of the gaps in the European tour have been filled in. Check the tour page for all the details. Club and festival dates have been added in Norway, Luxembourg, France, Germany (more) and the UK (more), bringing the total amount of performances so far to 36. Tickets appear to be on sale still for all of these and the only European show so far listed as sold out is Brighton.

Lastly, three of the shows in the UK have had their venues upgraded to larger venues, that's in Bristol, London and Leeds. Your original ticket is valid, just make sure you take note of the venue changes.

It seems highly promising that in between all the European Festival madness coming our way this Spring, Modest Mouse has managed to close a lot of the gaps with eight non-festival dates scattered around the island. This is on top of the single Scottish Festival that has already been announced last month.

This will be the band's first time back in the United Kingdom in almost three years. Tickets should be on sale shortly.

Thanks to Joseph T and Scott M for bringing this to our attention after the announcement of the London show this morning.

Also check out an updated list of Summer European festival dates that include new performances in Germany and Scotland.

Refer to the band's website for when tickets go on sale.

UPDATE: The Pomona date seems to have been removed from Modest Mouse's site. We'll keep an eye on it to see if it was a mistake. The Pomona date is back up on their website, but the ticket link now seems invalid.

Tickets seem to have already been on sale for a bit, but Modest Mouse was only announced this morning, along with a few other bands. They're going to be playing on the Sunday, the last night of the festival, with headliners Portishead and Sigur Rós.

Hopefully this is an indication that the band is gearing up to perform the Spring festival circuit over the months between these two festivals.

UPDATE: No sooner than we'd posted this information, it was brought to our attention that Modest Mouse's own website has silently also listed a June 28 date for the Azkena Rock Festival in Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain, a few days after the Dutch festival.

Early bird tickets are on sale until tomorrow, after that it seems you'll need to look on the Spanish division of Ticketmaster.

Another interesting side note, is that Johnny Marr will also be performing on the same days, which could see him join the band on stage again. However they were in the same position in England a few years ago, where Marr was performing at the same festival with The Cribs and nothing came of it.

Either way, it's good to have some live dates on the horizon, maybe leading up to a more structured tour, or perhaps the hint that Modest Mouse will be doing the festival circuit this Spring/Summer. The band has not performed together since July last year.

Tickets go on sale this Tuesday. Watch the trailer for the festival below.

UPDATE: It's actually been pointed out that they made their debut at Coachella in 1999. Embarrassing for us! Thanks Kurt for pointing this out.

Pitchfork: What made you want to work with bands like Little Dragon and Phantogram?
BB: I had just finished working with Modest Mouse for their project, and after that I was like, "Man, I need to start doing this for my own shit." Just bringing people in. So we did. We would live day-in and day-out with people, go bowling, go out to eat, and then come back and record, watch a movie, record. It was like funk summer camp.

Pitchfork: What's happening with the stuff you did with Modest Mouse?
BB: It's for their record; it's coming. We actually took a trip back out there to go see them a couple months ago. I did maybe three records with them. Isaac [Brock] is cool, man, like cowboy cool. He showed me how to make a bong out of an apple and shit. For real.

Not much to go on, but it is interesting to hear that he has been in touch with them recently and that it does sound like the material will be put to use and not abandoned.

Also in the interest of keeping some conversation going (in these dry news times), Big Boi does have a new album coming out next month, of which it doesn't sound like the track-listing or collaborating artists has been confirmed. Seeing how he has been working with other bands, it will be interesting to keep an eye on it, and see if any member from Modest Mouse makes an appearance on it. Pure thinking out loud this last part.

While the festival has not yet announced their lineup, Logan H has passed on an article to us, that leaks the supposed lineup.

If the lineup turns out to be true, the band will be down in Miami, FL on December 8 and 9. As with all festivals, at this point, we don't know which day they'll be performing on, or if there's the chance they'll be performing on both.

We'll continue to keep on eye on it, but seeing as how the UR1 Music Festival posted on their Facebook page yesterday, claiming the Kanye West part of the lineup is true, there's a good chance the lineup could turn out to be true. The festival's website doesn't make any mention of when they actually plan to announce the lineup.

Once again he was able to speak to Isaac and managed to get a few snippets of info, mainly it sounds that the band is planning on lining up a few more festival dates later this year and some shows in Canada.

Modest Mouse played the third show of it's tour in Pittsburgh to another sold out crowd.

Taking the stage at 9:00 PM, they opened with Gravity Rides everything.

Donning his banjo, Bury Me With It was played, much to the excitement of the crowd.

Lampshades on Fire was played, with some in the crowd actually booing, giving the band the middle finger, and screaming "fuck the new shit." Others were grooving to the song and enjoying the "new shit." Isaac once again added a bit of a jam to the bridge.

Next, The View was played, with an awesome extended jam towards the end that I have yet to hear during this song.

Broke followed, garnering the loudest crowd response. Nearly everyone was singing along with Isaac, swaying as one.

Isaac picked up his banjo again, starting with a banjo riff while singing "I used to be an old time nothing," among other lyrics. The band then opened into Satin In a Coffin, with lots of the crowd starting to mosh and a few members crowd-surfing.

Continuing with the banjo, King Rat was played, once again with a small, but boisterous few expressing their displeasure.

Bassist Russell Higbee started into Dramamine, with the rest of the band following. The extended version was played, with Isaac borrowing lyrics from Life Like Weeds. Isaac eventually started screaming into his pickups, with the crowd going bonkers.

Dashboard followed, with, once again, many in the crowd unhappy.

Ansel followed, with what was the sloppiest version I have heard thus far. It appeared that Russell perhaps skipped a verse on the pump organ, leaving the rest of the band fumbling to catch up. Isaac appeared a little angry, but they eventually sorted it out and continued with the song.

Missed The Boat came next, with most of the crowd singing along again.

Shit Luck was next, with large amounts of head banging and moshing from nearly everyone in the crowd.

Education followed, with a truly awesome jam at the end, which appeared to fall on deaf ears. Isaac took a few power chords and turned them into a dancey, raucous outro.

Next was Custom Concern, followed by Black Cadillacs. The band then took off their instruments, and with not much of a crowd response, explained that "that's it."

After an encore break, they returned with Poison The Well, which had yet to be played this tour. The bridge seemed to be extended, with a heavy guitar riff that sounded like it could be straight off of Lonesome Crowded West.

Fire It Up came next, with a large amount of the crowd singing along.

What followed was hands down, the coolest moment of the three shows I attended. Tiny Cities Made of Ashes was played, with Modest Mouse showcasing what they are all about. The band truly sounded in sync, allowing Isaac to go off on his guitar, leading a brutal onslaught of magnificence. Tom Peloso was on the upright bass, which I am a sucker for. It truly was a culmination of all that the band is: music that makes you want to dance while simultaneously breaking everything in sight. Isaac moved about the stage, literally hitting his guitar with closed fists in a truly awesome rendition. Afterwards, Isaac joked with the crowd, explaining one could make millions of dollars off of a "non-sexual, sexual lubricant" that would eliminate the holes in his hand from playing guitar so violently.

Dance Hall was next, with much of the crowd dancing along and chanting with Isaac.

Ending the night was Bob Dylan's You Ain't Goin' Nowhere, with members of the crowd booing once again.

Overall, this was a solid show. It appeared that the band was more in sync, which led to some awesome improvisation. The crowd was pretty young, and there were some truly annoying people that got in the way of the music. The fact that people were booing new songs is just ridiculous: don't come to a show if you don't want to hear new music, especially from a band that is in the process of creating a new album. A fight broke out about five feet from me because some drunk guy apparently groped some buzz-cut dick-head's girlfriend, leading to a solid 10 minute altercation that was completely unnecessary. When I was leaving the show, some guy was complaining to me how they played Shit Luck with a "bunch of 22 year olds that don't deserve to play with Isaac." I explained that Tom Peloso and Jeremiah Green were both present, who have been playing with the band for quite some time. It was also a bit disappointing to hear songs that had been played the previous two nights, with only Poison the Well being an unplayed song.

Prior to the show, I was able to talk to Isaac for a few minutes, who agreed to answer a few questions for me. I asked him how it was working with Big Boi, and he explained "it was fun, we basically smoked a lotta weed with him in the studio. He wasn't too involved, we were just testing the waters." I asked if other than Firefly, there were any other shows he could share and he mentioned "something in Toronto, or maybe Montreal." He was with Davey Brozowsky, the drummer filling in, who said "I thought we weren't doing that anymore though." At this point Isaac was moving into the gated off area, so I asked when we could be expecting a new album. He explained "when we finish it," then grinned. "Nah, we are working on it though." He moved into the gated area, wishing me a good day. So, it would appear the time spent with Big Boi was more of a time used getting inspired, and no news of a album release date.

This marks the end of my travels with the band, but shows at Orion Fest in Atlantic City, Governors Ball in New York City, and a final date in Columbus Ohio are still yet to be played, along with Firefly Festival in Delaware, later this summer.

Thanks to Luke for taking the time to write up these posts and for doing his best to speak to members of the band to get some new info.

Modest Mouse finished it's two night stand at The 930 Club in Washington DC tonight for another sold out crowd.

The band took the stage at 9:50, with frontman Isaac Brock wearing extremely short purple shorts with rainbow sidings. Short shorts in full effect, 5'6 Isaac tore into The Whale Song resembling a playground bully; thrashing and stomping as he struck blows with his guitar.

Moving into I Came As a Rat, Brock continued his assault, playing 3rd Planet with nearly the entire crowd singing along, specifically "I got this thing that I consider my only of heart of FUCKING PEOPLE OVER!"

Dashboard was played next, sounding a bit light on Tom's horn.

Isaac grabbed his Banjo, literally beating the living shit out of us with King Rat. His shouts of "WELL!" were echoed throughout the crowd, with Tom's horn finally coming through, meshing perfectly with Isaac's mumbling.

Rarely played Heart Cooks Brain followed, with Isaac using a music stand to read the lyrics. He joked with the crowd about how he'd learnt the song in a manner that ensured he would forget it every time he tried to play it.

Although a bit mellower (is that even possible?) than the night before, Tiny Cities Made of Ashes brought about shuffling from most and full on dancing from others, including myself.

A tighter, more in sync Ansel was played, with most fans bobbing along and seemingly enjoying it.

Just when I was getting my bearings straight from the ass kicking delivered by King Rat, Isaac shouted "I got one, two, three, four, five, six six six," throwing himself into an extremely jammed out version of Breakthrough. Screaming into his pickups, Isaac made it known: He will beat you up and take your wallet, then make you cry in front of your girlfriend.

Taking a turn for the slower, Bob Dylan's You Ain't Goin' Nowhere was covered again, with a bit of jamming towards the end.

Not wanting to stay slow for too long, Parting of the Sensory built to a deafening crescendo, with a violent mosh pit erupting as Isaac chanted about our eventual return to mere carbon.

Good News For People Who Love Bad News was showcased next, with Black Cadillacs, World at Large, and The View being played, respectively. The View was hands down my favorite performance of the night, with Isaac's lyrical excellence in full view: As life gets longer, awful feels softer/ Well it feels pretty soft to me/ And if it takes shit to make bliss, then I feel pretty blissfully.

An encore break was taken, with Isaac returning to take a seat at the drum set, with the stage hands on guitar. The rest of the band eventually returning to play Custom Concern.

Recently debuted Lampshades on Fire was next, with a few members of the crowd singing along. The bridge, heard 1 minute into the Sasquatch recording, seemed to have been extended with Isaac jamming a bit.

Just to ensure we wouldn't be getting up anytime soon, Shit Luck exploded into a barrage of beat downs, once again leaving the crowd moshing and flailing.

Missed the Boat followed with most of the crowd once again backing Brock on vocals.

Closing out the night was Trailer Trash, with an awesome ending jam. Tom Peloso took the bass on this one, handling what I consider one of the greatest bass lines ever conceived, impeccably. Isaac added some lyrics from Perpetual Motion Machine throughout the jam, ending the show on a high note.

Overall, this was an awesome show. Isaac and company sounded a bit tighter and cohesive tonight, eliminating the little mistakes of last night. Tomorrow brings round three with the band... onto Pittsburgh.

UPDATE: Here's Heart Cooks Brain, finally caught on camera courtesy of Tiki, from that show.

For the next few days we will be posting his blogs, photos and anything else he may stumble upon.

Here's his first review, from last night's performance at the 9:30 Club in Washington, DC. He was also able to speak to Isaac, Tom and their new touring bassist after the show, and get a little bit of vague insight into where Eric may be.

On a side note, Fuze.tv will be live streaming Modest Mouse's set from this Saturday's performance at the Orion Music + More Festival.

Modest Mouse opened its summer tour with the first of a two night, sold out run at The 930 Club in Washington DC.

Glacial Pace label mates Talkdemonic opened with a twelve song, 40 minute set.

Nearly an hour after Talkdemonic finished, Modest Mouse took the stage. The band lineup was the same as at Frost Revival; still no Eric. Isaac apologized to the crowd for his "bad habit of coming out so late." The band opened with Dramamine, performing the extended version, borrowing lyrics from Life Like Weeds.

They then moved into Paper Thin Walls. Belting "laugh hard it's a long way to the bank," the crowd launched into a dancing frenzy, with some members moshing.

Next, the recently debuted Heart of Mine was played. Nothing much was changed from the original heard from Frost Revival, however, Isaac did tame the "bye bye bye" part down a bit, extending it a few lines as well.

Broke followed, with what I considered one of the best performances of the night. Isaac's guitar sounded perfect; fluid and airy, with the bass churning in the back.

Fan favorite Float On followed, with nearly everyone in the club chanting along.

Next: Tiny Cities Made of Ashes. Tom Peloso played the keys, which added a genuine feeling of doom to the already apocalyptic track. The bassist held down the bassline impeccably, with Isaac adding pointed jabs on the guitar. Isaac's added "hey hey hey's" hit like punches to the gut, his words leading an assault on the crowd.

A condensed Custom Concern was played, along with Education, with Peloso again adding his flair to the keys.

Cowboy Dan, another standout of the night, was played with Talkdemonic's Lisa Molinaro joining on viola. With each chanting of "can't do it, not even if sober!" the front row was doused in Isaac's spit, flying further back as he screamed louder.

"Here's half a Bob Dylan cover I know," Isaac said, starting Bob Dylan's You Ain't Goin' Nowhere.

Isaac was then handed his banjo, tearing into Bukowski, once again spraying the crowd.

Continuing with the banjo, Dance Hall was played, literally turning the crowd into a sweaty, dancing mass, screaming along with Brock.

Ending the pre-encore half was Gravity Rides Everything. Isaac played through, elongating the song by playing the feedback of his acoustic guitar. Towards the end of the song, Isaac seemed to become angry when a loud piercing noise shot through his mic. The band left the stage, returning about ten minutes later after the guitars had been re-tuned.

They opened the encore with another newly introduced song, Ansel. Again, not much was changed from the Frost Revival performance, however the pump organ almost sounded like steel drums this time around.

Isaac then brought out the banjo again. He started to play the intro to Satin In a Coffin but fumbled for a few minutes, eventually asking the crowd if anyone new how to play the song. Realizing it wasn't properly tuned, he handed the banjo over to a stage hand. As technicians tuned, the band crawled into an instrumental jam, heavy on Tom's upright bass. Eventually, the tuning was figured out and Satin In a Coffin was played, with Isaac utilizing his "static mic."

Dashboard was played, proving once again that studio versions of songs that I do not like can be played live and leave me dancing and singing along.

Rounding out the night, Fly Trapped in a Jar was performed with the crowd in full swing; dancing, moshing, screaming. Isaac thanked the crowd for listening to him talk and "sitting through the bullshit," as he glared at the sound technician.

As I was leaving the venue, a girl next to me was given the set list. I asked if I could take a peak and she allowed. For the encore, they had listed Heart Cooks Brain, with "maybe" in parenthesis.

After the show, I waited out back in the alley way, where I could see Isaac and Tom having a smoke. Eventually, I got Tom to come over and have a cigarette. We chatted about the band, with me expressing my excitement with the new material. I asked him about the status of Eric, and he said he was unsure. He told us he had to get going; his five year old and two month old were waiting in the hotel.

Isaac eventually made his way over to the few of us remaining. A few offered him weed, but he explained that he had "it covered." He signed autographs and took pictures, chatting with us. I was able to ask him about Eric's return and he replied, "uh, I think he retired."

Another fan asked why they weren't playing Philadelphia, to which he replied that he thought they were in a few months, but then corrected himself and explained that they would be added to the bill for Firefly Festival in Dover, Delaware. He explained that they had to wait until a certain date before they could officially announce this news. I asked him about the Heart Cooks Brain encore possibility, and he joked with me that he had just learned the lyrics after writing the song "18 years ago." He even said how he had the lyrics up on stage with him, but they had to skip over it when the banjo trouble started. Eventually, Isaac went back inside, getting the bassist for one of the fans that new him.

I got to talk with the bassist for a bit, asking him how playing with the band was going. He said he was extremely excited to be working with them. I asked if he would be replacing Eric and he said there hadn't been any talk of that, he was just "given the itinerary for the tour and hopped on the bus." When asked if he had been recording with the band, he said "nope, there's been none of that." I thanked him for an awesome show and bid him farewell.

Overall, it was a great show. I loved the opening with Dramamine, it really got the crowd going from the beginning. The crowd seemed to dig the new songs, most were bopping around and dancing.I also witnessed one of the coolest things I've seen at a concert: a mother and father, probably mid 40's, with there child of no more than 6 or 7 with them. The father was absolutely eating up every moment of the show, screaming along, dancing, even picking up his son and dancing with him. The kid had a huge grin on his face the entire show, vibing with his dad. I couldn't help but think to myself that the kid would grow up to have one hell of a music taste, being brought up on Modest Mouse live shows. Tomorrow brings night two in DC, which should follow suit and be another excellent show.

Luke Ilardo

Thanks to Luke for his review. We're all looking forward to your next one.

I'm not sure what to make of these comments on Eric Judy. It still sounds pretty up in the air, and no definite answer yet. Your thoughts?

The 45 minute film, spends a brief time detailing the bands earlier years before the release of their second album, and then spends the rest focusing on some core songs off the album. Along with stories from the band members themselves, there are also tales from Dann Gallucci, Calvin Johnson, Phil Ek and Pat Graham.

Most of the footage is taken from the original "Untitled" documentary, interspersed with a lot of Pat's photography.

It's a nice walk down memory lane, looking back at an album that is now 15 years old. Hearing tales about songs, and their live and recording history.

Watch the full film below.