Modest Mouse Share “Third Side Of The Moon” Ahead of First Indie Album Since 1997

Modest Mouse have released “Third Side Of The Moon,” another glimpse of An Eraser And A Maze, the band’s first album on an independent label since The Lonesome Crowded West in 1997. The new song arrives after the group already put out “Look How Far…” and “Picking Dragons’ Pockets,” and it’s been part of their live set for the last few years.

There’s a particular kind of curiosity that follows Modest Mouse around these days, especially if you’ve been paying attention to the kind of world the band now occupies: aging, weird, beloved, and still stubbornly their own thing. If you want a sharper read on that, Chris DeVille’s report from the band’s Ice Cream Floats concert cruise is worth your time. It digs into all kinds of useful questions, from what it means to be an idiosyncratic legacy act with a deep fan base to the slow way indie rock has slid into lifestyle territory, plus the reason the cruise couldn’t head to Alaska the way Isaac Brock originally wanted.

In a few days, I’m making my own trip to catch Modest Mouse live at Salt Lake City’s Kilby Block Party festival. I’m not there to turn it into a sprawling feature, but I will be there, and I’ll be writing something. For now, though, the bigger news is the new music, and “Third Side Of The Moon” fits neatly into the band’s recent run of songs that feel both familiar and slightly off-center.

The track itself is a queasy, contemplative churn that sounds like it’s been living in the setlist for a while, which it has. Modest Mouse always seem to find something compelling when they’re staring up at the moon, even if “third side” isn’t exactly a place anyone can point to on a map. Maybe that’s the point: the band keeps finding odd new coordinates anyway.

An Eraser And A Maze is out 6/5 on Isaac Brock’s Glacial Pace label.