Modest Mouse Recruit Nirvana's Krist Novoselic for New Album
First Johnny Marr, former guitar whiz for the Smiths, and now Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic: Modest Mouse certainly have a knack for recruiting rock legends to play on their albums.
In a recent interview with Spotify to promote the 20th anniversary reissue of Nirvana's In Utero, Novoselic said he joined the fellow Seattle-bred band for one track on their next LP.
"I did a song with Modest Mouse earlier this year for their new record," the bassist said. "It's pretty edgy. I've got my big Gibson bass and a Rat distortion pedal busting out this bass riff."
Novoselic is certainly no stranger to collabos; he's worked with Foo Fighters, Paul McCartney, R.E.M. guitarist Peter Buck, Sleater-Kinney/Wild Flag frontwoman Corin Tucker, go-to industrial rocker Bill Rieflin, and The Young Fresh Fellows/The Minus 5 rocker Scott McCaughey in recent years.
And Novoselic isn't the only guest on Modest Mouse's upcoming release, the much-anticipated follow up to 2007's proper studio effort We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank and 2009's singles comp No One's First and You're Next. The band, which canned their European tour this past summer to continue laboring on the effort, teamed with Big Boi and his partner Chris Carmouche, the man behind OutKast's masterwork Speakerboxxx/The Love Below.
While recording in Boi's Stankonia Studio in Atlanta, the indie vets even taught the fellow marijuana-lover the fine art of smoking with fruit.
"I learned how to make an apple into a bong from one of the guys in [Modest Mouse]," Boi told SPIN. "Me and my partner Chris were working on some songs with Modest Mouse for their new record. We brought them out to the studio for a whole week — Isaac and the boys came down to Stankonia for a week. To live day in day out with somebody, it's so cool. Going to get dinner, going to get breakfast. The conversations and little side stories are the things that really pull the music together."
"Sweet Cheebah," Boi added. "I love it."
Apparently MM's upcoming LP will be stoner-friendly, and the tracks the band debuted during a short pre-Coachella tour suggest as much. Check out footage of frontman Isaac Brock and Co. performing newbies "Be Brave," "Sh-t in Your Cut," and "Sugar Boats" live below.
Oh, and ICYMI, Brock revived his Ugly Casanova solo project to record a few tracks for 180 South, a documentary about Patagonia (it's really good, so watch on NetFlix ASAP). Check out Brock's acoustic performance of "Here's to Now" at the Portland, OR, premiere of the film.
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