The album that changed Isaac Brock’s life
At the start of the 1990s, the alternative revolution was beginning to rev its engines. Although hair metal still reigned supreme across MTV and beyond, 1991 was poised to be the moment when alternative music took over the airwaves, with Nirvana and Pearl Jam becoming two of the biggest bands in the world overnight with their disaffected rock anthems. Then again, the Pixies had already started making classic underground jams that turned Isaac Brock inside out.
Operating out of Boston, Pixies initially sought to blend both the light and the dark sides of rock and roll. Being inspired as much by hardcore punk as they were by Peter, Paul and Mary, most of the group’s material centred around caustic rock with a healthy ear for melody. Although the band’s debut, Surfer Rosa, didn’t light up the charts by any stretch, it began to plant the seeds for what the next generation would create.
Alongside acts like R.E.M., the work of Frank Black and Kim Deal would create perfect pop songs with the potential to get airtime on the radio, like ‘Here Comes Your Man’ and ‘Where Is My Mind’. While not everyone wanted to hear dissonant rock and roll in between artists like Madonna, Isaac Brock saw the way forward when listening to the band’s follow-up, Doolittle.
Taking everything that made their debut endearing and amping it up by ten, the lion’s share of Doolittle comprises both aspects of the band’s sound. While punk fans might be drawn to the screeching vocals of ‘Debaser’, there are also experimental tracks that don’t seem to have any clear inspiration, like ‘Monkey Gone to Heaven’.
When listening to the album for the first time, the Modest Mouse frontman recalled how powerful the music was, explaining, “At the point my life when I found that record, I think it was middle school and eighth grade, it had everything I wanted. It’s hypnotic, it’s fucking weird, and I can read into the lyrics in so many different ways, and there are endless possibilities”.
In between the more tuneful elements of the record, the sense of dynamics across every track became a foundational part of the alternative rock sound. By going from subdued and quiet to extremely loud in the choruses, songs like ‘Gouge Away’ would become pivotal for artists like Kurt Cobain, who admitted to stealing the band’s sense of dynamics for ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’.
While the caustic side of the record may have put off a handful of fans, Brock never saw the songs as anything scary, continuing, “It went from being pretty to being fucking maniacal, but even when Frank Black is screaming, I don’t feel like he’s angry. It’s just crazy, and I like that”.
Once Brock started to write original songs, his work with Modest Mouse was a direct extension of where Pixies had gone. Even though the songs may have been tuneful, Brock’s vocal style is still as crazed as Black’s was on Doolittle, having no regard for traditional singing structures across albums like The Lonesome Crowded West. Brock may have had music in his soul, but if Doolittle hadn’t sparked his inspiration, there’s a good chance Modest Mouse could have looked much different.
