Modest Mouse is quite possibly the last guinea pig in the great, now largely abandoned, major-label alt-rock experiment. Throughout the '90s, the Big Five threw a lot of money at the kind of regular Joes who stand onstage wearing guitars and the T-shirts they woke up in, playing irregular and often transcendental rock music - with mixed commercial results.
And no, we're not talking about Creed or matchbox twenty or Third Eye Blind, or any of the other modern-rockers disingenuously waving the flag of alternative. We're talking about bands that released records on independent labels, perfected their club tans on the road, and ripened on the vine of college radio before being cherry-picked by the majors.
