If anyone was paying attention, you will remember that five years ago today, Modest Mouse released their last album We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank.

Without trying to sound like an ungrateful fan stamping his feet and asking where that new album is (which seems to the common occurrence every time Modest Mouse makes a post on Facebook), we would like to point out that this is the longest gap so far between albums. If you don't take No One's First, And You're Next, as it's an EP and featured mostly old material.

With We Were Dead reaching this milestone, we thought we'd take this moment to recap and speculate on some of the recent activities of the band and its members, in the hopes of stirring up some discussion or perhaps someone filling us in on some news we're not aware of:

• The band as a whole: After performing a mammoth 119 known shows in 2007, the performances cut to about a half of that for 2008, 2009 and 2010, before performing only 15 shows last year. This year doesn't seem to be off to anything different, with the only dates having past and set for the future being festivals.
  
  One could be optimistic and see this as them spending more time in the studio working, or maybe they're just taking a break. I'm all for not rushing things. However with so little new material having been debuted live, I would think it's closer to the latter.
  
  While the band has been notoriously shy from giving interviews in the past few years, when they have strangely there has been mention of a new album being practically finished, only to have the same story repeated a year later. A lot has happened since, Johnny Marr did leave the band, and who knows how that may have affected any of the material that he may have contributed to.
  
  Even the sessions with Big Boi occurred almost one year ago, although it seems to have been made out that that was more of an experiment than anything.
  
  So far the only new material floating around are the songs that have been performed live. The two that have had the most oration being Lampshades On Fire and Poison The Well. Another potential song is the untitled track performed at The Warfield, unofficially titled "Mexico". Lastly there is the untitled track that made an appearance at the end of the Don't Move Here episode.
  
  
• Isaac Brock: Recently, apart from playing the few last minute surprise solo shows, the only other project Isaac potentially has on the go is the writing of the Queens Of Country soundtrack. Which was also announced about a year ago, and has since not been mentioned again. The film is finally due out at the end of this month, and while Isaac is still mentioned as the composer on IMDB, the lack of updates around this make me think he's no longer involved. We attempted to contact the producers of the film, but did not receive a reply. Hopefully with the release just around the corner, we should get some closure to this soon.
  
  
• Jeremiah Green: The once side project busy Jeremiah, has also been quiet of late. At least perhaps quiet to news sources. After multiple World Gang releases early last year, this work seems to have slowed down since releasing that live album last June.
  
  
• Eric Judy: Eric hasn't performed with the band live since 2011/07/02. Not that the band has performed that much since then. Rumours are rife that he has left the band. Personally I don't believe it, Eric does have young children, and could be taking a break from touring. We have tried to contact the band and certain members about his status, but haven't heard anything.
  
  
• Jim Fairchild: Jim will be returning to perform some dates with the reunited Grandaddy. A question to maybe ask is, depending on the outcome there, will he perhaps not return should they decide to take things further?
  
  
• Tom Peloso: To our knowledge, nothing news worthy has been happening with Tom lately (sorry Tom).
  
  
• Joe Plummer: A lot of updates lately have been revolving around Joe, now that he is with The Shins. They have a new album out as of today (coincidence?), and he will be touring full time with them. As with Jim, a question to ask, is does this mean Joe is perhaps done with his time in Modest Mouse, or when his work with The Shins calms down, will he be returning?
  
  
• Pat Graham: Lastly, Pat Graham is still awesome, and we miss him and his updates on the band.
  
  

Today's two stories are brought to us courtesy of Pitchfork Media.

The first is a brief posting in their new feature Inbox, where Pitchfork's writers and editors field reader emails.

Nik Kapetanakis writes in under the subject "Desperately Seeking Modest Mouse", asking if it would be possible to do an in-depth interview with Modest Mouse. Pitchfork writes back with a semi cryptic response, that if you like the band, and you liked the documentary Pitchfork.tv did for the Flaming Lips' album The Soft Bulletin, that something related may be appearing in the near future. This leads to the possibility that Pitchfork.tv may be doing a piece focusing on a Modest Mouse album.

It would be super awesome if you guys did an in-depth video interview with Modest Mouse-- I am a huge fan, so pardon my maybe-far-fetched suggestion. --Nik Kapetanakis

We don't want to give too much away just yet, but if you like Modest Mouse and you liked our recent Pitchfork.tv documentary on the Flaming Lips' The Soft Bulletin, you'll probably be into another video piece we've got on the way...

The second article, mentions that Jim Fairchild's former band, Grandaddy, are reuniting for some shows this year. The only one set in stone at the moment is on September 2 at Dorset, England's End of the Road Festival.

While this is more than likely a temporary arrangement, it could potentially overlap with any future Modest Mouse tour dates, if any are planned for later in the year. Not that that would probably affect anything, as Modest Mouse is pretty good with swapping out members temporarily. Jim has also stated in the past, that he doesn't seem to be too involved in the recording process, if the band happens to be recording at the time... who knows, all speculation really.

Source: Grandaddy Reunite for Shows | News | Pitchfork

The Governors Ball Music Festival is taking place on June 23 and 24 at Randall's Island in New York, NY. This is the same weekend that Modest Mouse is confirmed to be performing at Metallica's Orion Music + More festival in nearby Atlantic City.

The Governors Ball will be announcing its full lineup on February 21. Until then, they have started dropping hints on their Facebook page. Including one today of a cartoon mouse being modest, making it look very likely that Modest Mouse will be performing at that festival as well.

Tickets have yet to go on sale, and remember that if they do before the 21st, this is not confirmed. Keep an eye on The Governors Ball Music Festival's website for more info.

If this turns out to be true, it definitely looks like Modest Mouse will only be performing on one day at the Orion Music + More festival. So be careful when buying tickets there, if you weren't planning on going for the whole weekend.

Thanks go to Miike S for bringing this to our attention.

Source: The Governors Ball Music Festival

While we don't condone this, this past weekend a Portland resident/fan, knocked on Isaac Brock's front door and managed to have a short conversation with him as well as "other member's of the band".

Not much seems have been learnt about a new album, but Isaac did apprently mention that he is working on a Buddy Holly cover, and that it is almost finished. No idea what that could be for, but hopefully it will go further than the Lee Hazlewood covers that Isaac was working on with Frank Black back in 2008, which to our knowledge, were never released.

An article in the latest Rolling Stone magazine reveals lots of details regarding the planning of Heath Ledger's King Rat video. Isaac talks about his meetings with Ledger and the additional work that Terry Gilliam provided. He also talks about his last encounter with Ledger during a brake from shooting The Dark Knight.

Towards the end of the article, Isaac also talks about his work with the Shins' James Mercer on the 180 Degrees South documentary. It then goes on to mention that:

And the follow-up to 2007's We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank should be finished in the next six months, with the band road-testing some of the material on its current tour. "It'll take some effort," Brock says. "But that will make it more fun."

Now Modest Mouse has never been one to stick to any kind of release timeline, their albums have always been delayed, but as of today no new material has been performed on the current tour so far. Hopefully things will change before the tour is over and then this quote will make more sense.

Some people over at ModMouse.com have been able to talk to band members after some of the shows and have learned things that seem to support this. In Montreal Eric stated that the they are planning on working on a new album once this tour is over, that they are planning an east coast tour and that he doesn't think Johnny Marr will be returning.

In Anaheim Jeremiah said that they are beginning work on a new album, that he thinks Jim Fairchild will stay on as a guitarist and that he is hoping Brian Deck (The Moon & Antarctica, Everywhere And His Nasty Parlour Tricks & Sharpen Your Teeth) will produce it.

Thanks to Jedidude77 for the tip on the Rolling Stone article.

Some new lyrics and an article for you.

Source: http://www.grouprecipes.com/18358/leek-soup.html

So the rumoured title "History" has been floating around a lot, which was recently revealed to be only the partial title of History Sticks To Your Feet. This track is now believed to be the b-side to the Perpetual Motion Machine 7". Thanks to Melissa for the link.

Source: http://www.imusic.dk/item/0886975331277/modest-mouse-2009-perpetual-motion-machine-7-

allmusic.com has added an entry for Autumn Beds, stating that this new single will be coming out on June 23. No word on what it's b-side will be.

Hopefully this will turn out to be true. After the month delay of the Satellite Skin single, and the lack of updates that came with it, fans seem to be concerned that the new EP will be pushed back from it's tentative August 4 release date.

Thanks to mm_2108 for the link.

Source: http://allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:gnftxzr0ld0e

A vinyl rep for Record Store Day in Nashville has stated that the Satellite Skin 7" was delayed, because the vinyl wasn't the specific shade of Orange that Isaac had in mind (This made Isaac mad. Very mad! You've seen Isaac mad right? He gets his grump on). The rep said the 7" will now be "available" on May 19. Thanks to Rocky for this rumour.

Remember back in April 2007 Isaac mentioned in an interview that Heath Ledger wanted to make a music video for King Rat with the help of Terry Gilliam?

Well a lot of things have happened since then. Primarily the sad passing of Heath Ledger in January 2008 and secondly, no word from the band if it was even happening.

Last week Pitchfork ran an article recapping the story and stating that "The status of the "King Rat" video is currently unknown."

Spin ran a similar article the following day however, stating that "No specific date has been set for the release, which is expected to happen soon."

I didn't put much stock into this at first, figuring that the one was merely misquoting the other. But as of this morning www.modestmousemusic.com is now linking to the Spin article... does this mean there's a chance that the video will surface?

In other news, the early August release date for the new EP now appears to be August 4.

Source: http://guttersnipemedia.wordpress.com/2009/03/13/cmw-update-new-modest-mouse/

Isaac mentioned after last night's show in Atlanta, GA that Intertstate 8 and The Fruit that Ate Itself are to be re-released on Vinyl.

Not only did MC manage to get his hands on the name of the new song from last night's show, but he also managed to track down Isaac in a park next to the venue before the show started. Isaac described the tour as "it's just something to do." And on the subject of the EP... "a couple weeks from now, two songs will be released."