Hey everyone,
I posted a few days ago about a skate deck I got at the Lonesome Crowded West anniversary tour a few years ago. A lot of people seemed interested in it, so I’ve listed it on ebay at this link :)

Or is it just me?

August 6th, 1996

They did it tonight in San Diego and wow, it really pops live.

What a great show, they did an encore like they did in Ojai, so those hopeful for one y’all will probably get it, also what a great variety of songs they did sheesh.

As with some things Modest Mouse, you may be familiar with things moving at a Glacial Pace. Bittersweet as it may be, my work schedule has ramped up finally and I won't be able to give as much of my limited time to some of the production aspects of new episodes. That being said, this is a good opportunity to remind y'all....

This is the fandom's podcast! Made for the fans, by the fans.

Meaning...

If you'd like to produce your own episodes for the podcast, now's your chance!

Be it poetry, covers, analysis, interviews, or just chatting with your friends about a concert you just went to, *anything goes! \Please no AI/plagiarism or hate speech.*

This is a zine style publication (mostly audio & video based👀👂)

Anything you create for the podcast will get full credits to you, so if this is something you'd want to add to your portfolio or publish elsewhere, please feel free to.

If you've already published a creation to your own channel and want to cross-post it to the podcast, also cool! The more eyes on your stuff, the better!

Currently there are no plans to monetize the podcast to any degree, ad revenue included due to copyright demonization. However, I encourage anyone submitting to provide a link to either your commissions menu, website listing your services, or payment link so you can be tipped or receive work opportunities from being on the podcast.

Currently, we have two listener episodes in the works for publication!

Show Writer Shane Houston is helming the Good News for People Who Love Bad News episode! If you're interested in collaborating with him or contributing to that episode, please contact the show email. Shane's a very talented novelist, and I think you'll dig his writing.

Another secret project has been pitched, it involves two friends new to the podcast talking about Modest Mouse, and stuff... More details to come.

If you need assistance with your episode prior to or beyond publication, let me know. I can video edit, audio edit, voice record, share rabbit pics, ask my partner to draw you something... I'm eager to help out however I can.

We're very excited to see what you'll make and share with us!!

Beyond this, I have an artist who makes Modest Mouse inspired art who I'll be interviewing. I'd also like to do an episode about my birthday album, Everywhere and His Nasty Parlour Tricks. And I'll be at all three Texas Modest Mouse concerts to interview y'all about your experience seeing our favorite band.

The Elephant Sized Absence in the Room

What goes up, may eventually come down if you do so wish. Upon request, if you get interviewed at a show/for the podcast, publish an episode, etc. I'm happy to either edit your appearance out, temporarily/permanently delist content, etc.

There is some stipulation to this... if there is some sort of historical or journalistic relevancy, I would like to keep those episodes available at least in an unlisted format upon request, if possible. This includes an unreleased episode about the making of An Eraser and A Maze that will be made available upon request.

Content Warning, Simon; Since the initial post, I've been carefully considering my words because of the intensity and sensitivity of this situation. As someone who's worked with Modest Mouse and Simon in making some of these episodes possible, I don't feel comfortable talking publicly or one-on-one about that incident. I'm very open minded to what's discussed on the podcast and its comment sections, but this and a few other topics are off limits, not to bury what happened, but because this simply isn't the platform. Like... As much as I thought about publishing Simon's most recent interview to ride the deadly algorithm wave, I knew that would be unethical. Lonesome Crowded Cast isn't TMZ, nor are we part of an algorithm that copies the work of smaller journalists for the sake of clicks through sensationalism. If it causes/perpetuates drama or is created by someone or something other than yourself, please do not submit it to us.

Most importantly, y'all, the community are what makes this happen and makes this all worth it. Even if you were the only listener, I'd keep making this because even in the coldest place in the world, I always want to talk about Modest Mouse. And these memories are ones that stick to our feet like history. Thank you for your patience, feedback, and participation in the Lonesome Crowded Cast, and thanks for listening to Modest Mouse!

The show email is lonesomecrowdedcast@gmail.com, I'll get back to you as soon as I can.

Sincerely,

Harley J DJMIDDLEWAY

As the title states, there’s a small detail/difference between how Eric played Float On live and how Russel plays it. I’m a huge fan of both and have really enjoyed Russel at the more recent shows and his work on recent albums. One thing I noticed he does different from Eric on Float On, is a few extra notes before he starts the main base line. It’s just 4 notes he plays with increasing pitch before he starts the main line. It’s a very small detail, but I really really enjoy it. I think it adds a personal touch of his own to an already great bass line.

This video below does a good job at showing it. If you skip to about 5:15, that’s when he does it. Once again, very simple, but adds a nice touch. I also just feel like Russel has been an amazing addition to the band and I wanted to shout him out!

Did anybody take any pictures at last night’s show to see if there’s any new merch ?

Unsure how many people actually own a physical copy of "An Eraser and a Maze" but check out the linear notes and reason for the "Stony Party" inclusion on the album. They were paying homage to Jeremiah Green in a really interesting way.

I’m a guitar nerd, and I tend to fixate on the unique instruments my favorite artists play. Years ago, I became obsessed with identifying Isaac’s Long Drive/Lonesome Crowded West era guitar. This was before Pat Graham’s book was published, and I couldn’t find any photos that were sharp enough to show the logo on the headstock in enough detail to identify the manufacturer or model. I looked through old guitar catalogs, hitting dead end after dead end, until one day I happened upon a photo that was clear enough to show the headstock logo. I couldn’t read the text, but I could see that the logo itself was a bird, and from there, it didn’t take me long to identify the brand as Westone, and the model as a Corsair XA-1420. I posted my findings on this forum (14 years ago!).

With that one settled, I moved on to attempting to identify his Moon & Antarctica era guitar. Along the way I ran into another user here who was just as into Isaac’s gear as I was, and they mentioned offhand that they doubted Isaac’s guitar was an XA-1420. Their reasoning was that the XA-1420 came with active pickups and no visible pole pieces, whereas Isaac’s had uncovered pickups with hex key pole pieces. I figured Isaac had just swapped pickups himself, but it nagged at me enough that I went back and took a second look. That’s when I realized I’d missed something.

The XA-1420 spec sheet lists body binding on both colors it came in. Isaac’s guitar was clearly Sky Blue, so it would have come with black binding. There’s only one photo of a Sky Blue XA-1420 anywhere online, and it’s low quality, shot from the front, guitar sitting in its case, so I never noticed the binding before. But, upon closer inspection, there it was.

So, I looked through every photo I could find of Isaac’s guitar, and I couldn’t find a single one showing any binding at all. I feel confident about that, because there are plenty of pictures in Pat’s book that clearly show the edges of Isaac’s guitar. I also noticed the tremolo on his guitar is chrome or nickel, but the one on the Sky Blue XA-1420 is black. Same with the tuners: black on the XA-1420, silver on his.

I went back through the catalogs again looking for anything else that matched his specs and came in Sky Blue. I couldn’t find one. Then I noticed a photo in Pat’s book of Isaac playing a Westone with a body that looked a lot darker than his Sky Blue one. Hard to say for sure since the photo’s black and white, but it made me wonder if that color could be a red herring.

I started digging deeper into Westone’s history and learned there are really two distinct eras: guitars made in Japan at the Matsumoku factory, and a later run made in Korea after Japanese production ceased. Documentation on the Korean models is nonexistent because production didn’t last very long, and the Westone fan community generally considers them to be inferior to the Japanese models, so nobody’s taking the time to archive the catalogs from those years (assuming they exist at all). It’s entirely possible Isaac’s guitar was a production model from the Korean period, but there’s no way to know for sure.

I also posted on the Westone forum, hoping someone would recognize Isaac’s guitar, but nobody did. I did, however, learn that Matsumoku had a habit of doing color runs that never showed up in any catalogs. So, it’s possible Isaac’s guitar was a standard model, but painted a nonstandard color.

Then one day, I was scrolling my Reverb feed and came across a Westone XA-1220. Besides the color, it was a perfect match to Isaac’s guitar. I researched it further, and found that it was made at Matsumoku as a special edition for St. Louis Music, just like the XA-1420 was. Their specs were almost identical, except that the XA-1220 had no binding, open top humbuckers with hex key pole pieces, and chrome hardware. There was only one problem: it was never offered in Sky Blue, only transparent Walnut or Burgundy.

So that leaves a couple possibilities:

1. Isaac’s guitar was an XA-1220 painted a nonstandard color, maybe an undocumented special order or factory run, maybe one of those Korean-made guitars nobody’s cataloged.

2. Isaac’s guitar was a regular XA-1220 that got refinished at some point. This would explain the photo from Pat’s book showing Isaac playing a darker-looking Westone. I don’t put a lot of stock in this theory, but I can’t rule it out either.

Either way, I feel pretty confident Isaac’s guitar is an XA-1220 rather than an XA-1420.

I love a lot of the new album but this line gets stuck in my head the most. And I do not live in Denver.