IPOD
RADIO
A NEWSPAPER ARTICLE ABOUT ISAAC BROCK WANTING TO BEAT ME UP
NEW CITY CHICAGO - 4/17/07
Modest Melee
Local author Alan Goldsher's bout with Modest Mouse frontman Isaac Brock
Forgive Chicago-based writer Alan Goldsher for not being in the crowd when Modest Mouse plays the Auditorium Theatre on April 22. Isaac Brock, the lead singer of the popular rock band, wants to beat the shit out of him.
Why would the lead singer of a group that's sold over a million records in the last three years want to pummel a poor little scribe? Because Goldsher recently published an unauthorized biography about the band that Brock doesn't like. "Modest Mouse: A Pretty Good Read" hit the shelves last November through Thomas Dunne Books and, according to the author, has sold over 5,000 copies so far. However, the band--or at least its ringleader--isn't buying into it.
Brock has since called Goldsher out on two different instances. In the winter issue of Under The Radar magazine, Brock proclaimed: "I can say this in print, and I'm willing to do the jail time--if I ever see that guy, I'm going to beat his ass into a bloody pulp. I will do everything short of killing him. My ears are burning. I'm going to fuck that guy up."
In the March issue of Rolling Stone, Brock said he hadn't read the book--which Goldsher wrote without having access to the band--and that "I don't know how you'd write a biography about a band without talking to any of the players or their families. I think it's written on speculation, from magazine articles and shit. I think the guy who wrote it is a fucking ass and an asshole."
Ouch.
As we sat at a Starbucks in Lakeview, Goldsher went on the defensive, saying he "reached out in every way I possibly could" to get access to the band in the initial stages of the project. He tried getting ahold of them through their label, Epic, their manager and Sub Pop Records--a label that briefly carried the band. "Without [the band's] endorsement, nobody would really talk."
Goldsher had already signed the contract to do the book before he realized the band wasn't going to cooperate, so he went ahead and did it anyway. An admitted Mouse fan, Goldsher says he has no regrets on writing the book and is proud of it, but "since Isaac has threatened to kill me, I'm a little less psyched about the band and the project."
Without being able to get face time with the group, Goldsher wrote the book almost exclusively based on previously published material from other media outlets. It begins describing the band's "humble" beginnings in the Seattle suburb of Issaquah, Washington, its early years as a raw-but-promising three-piece, how it began to emerge as critical darlings with 1997's "The Lonesome Crowded West" and to its eventual explosion in 2004 with "Good News For People Who Love Bad News" and its ubiquitous single, "Float On." The book is mainly an examination of Brock himself--his supposedly tumultuous upbringing, his hatred for interviews (which likely had something to do with him not having anything to do with the book) and his at-times self-aggrandizing behavior.
Goldsher writes the book in his own informal tone, which gives it more of a personal touch than most run-of-the-mill rock bios (i.e., this book has lots of adjectives you might question the validity of). One drawback, due largely to the fact that he wasn't able to talk to the band, is Goldsher's tendency to verbosely describe the band's albums. It's fine for those not familiar with the band's back catalogue, but for the hardcore fans it can get redundant. When you're wanting to hear more about the date-rape allegations brought against Brock in the late 1990s or what his childhood was really like, you're reading reviews of records you've likely already heard hundreds of times.
As for the show this weekend, Goldsher says it wouldn't be a good idea for him to be there. Asked if he thinks Brock has realized that Goldsher's from Chicago, and that there was a possibility he may be at the show and the lead singer might be ready for him, Goldsher responds, "It says on my Web site and the back of the book that I'm from Chicago. I'm not hiding or anything."
A recent incident made Goldsher even more skeptical of being in the same room as Brock. Pitchforkmedia.com reported that the lead singer cut himself multiple times with a pocketknife on stage during a show in Sioux Falls, South Dakota on March 18, just two days before the band's new album "We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank" was released.
"He's just the kind of guy who is concerned enough with his image to do something like that [start a fight with a writer]," Goldsher says with a wry smile on his face. "I've also heard one of his hobbies lately is bare-knuckle boxing. This is obviously not a guy you want get into a physical altercation with. Why take a chance?"
NEW CITY CHICAGO - 4/17/07
Modest Melee
Local author Alan Goldsher's bout with Modest Mouse frontman Isaac Brock
Forgive Chicago-based writer Alan Goldsher for not being in the crowd when Modest Mouse plays the Auditorium Theatre on April 22. Isaac Brock, the lead singer of the popular rock band, wants to beat the shit out of him.
Why would the lead singer of a group that's sold over a million records in the last three years want to pummel a poor little scribe? Because Goldsher recently published an unauthorized biography about the band that Brock doesn't like. "Modest Mouse: A Pretty Good Read" hit the shelves last November through Thomas Dunne Books and, according to the author, has sold over 5,000 copies so far. However, the band--or at least its ringleader--isn't buying into it.
Brock has since called Goldsher out on two different instances. In the winter issue of Under The Radar magazine, Brock proclaimed: "I can say this in print, and I'm willing to do the jail time--if I ever see that guy, I'm going to beat his ass into a bloody pulp. I will do everything short of killing him. My ears are burning. I'm going to fuck that guy up."
In the March issue of Rolling Stone, Brock said he hadn't read the book--which Goldsher wrote without having access to the band--and that "I don't know how you'd write a biography about a band without talking to any of the players or their families. I think it's written on speculation, from magazine articles and shit. I think the guy who wrote it is a fucking ass and an asshole."
Ouch.
As we sat at a Starbucks in Lakeview, Goldsher went on the defensive, saying he "reached out in every way I possibly could" to get access to the band in the initial stages of the project. He tried getting ahold of them through their label, Epic, their manager and Sub Pop Records--a label that briefly carried the band. "Without [the band's] endorsement, nobody would really talk."
Goldsher had already signed the contract to do the book before he realized the band wasn't going to cooperate, so he went ahead and did it anyway. An admitted Mouse fan, Goldsher says he has no regrets on writing the book and is proud of it, but "since Isaac has threatened to kill me, I'm a little less psyched about the band and the project."
Without being able to get face time with the group, Goldsher wrote the book almost exclusively based on previously published material from other media outlets. It begins describing the band's "humble" beginnings in the Seattle suburb of Issaquah, Washington, its early years as a raw-but-promising three-piece, how it began to emerge as critical darlings with 1997's "The Lonesome Crowded West" and to its eventual explosion in 2004 with "Good News For People Who Love Bad News" and its ubiquitous single, "Float On." The book is mainly an examination of Brock himself--his supposedly tumultuous upbringing, his hatred for interviews (which likely had something to do with him not having anything to do with the book) and his at-times self-aggrandizing behavior.
Goldsher writes the book in his own informal tone, which gives it more of a personal touch than most run-of-the-mill rock bios (i.e., this book has lots of adjectives you might question the validity of). One drawback, due largely to the fact that he wasn't able to talk to the band, is Goldsher's tendency to verbosely describe the band's albums. It's fine for those not familiar with the band's back catalogue, but for the hardcore fans it can get redundant. When you're wanting to hear more about the date-rape allegations brought against Brock in the late 1990s or what his childhood was really like, you're reading reviews of records you've likely already heard hundreds of times.
As for the show this weekend, Goldsher says it wouldn't be a good idea for him to be there. Asked if he thinks Brock has realized that Goldsher's from Chicago, and that there was a possibility he may be at the show and the lead singer might be ready for him, Goldsher responds, "It says on my Web site and the back of the book that I'm from Chicago. I'm not hiding or anything."
A recent incident made Goldsher even more skeptical of being in the same room as Brock. Pitchforkmedia.com reported that the lead singer cut himself multiple times with a pocketknife on stage during a show in Sioux Falls, South Dakota on March 18, just two days before the band's new album "We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank" was released.
"He's just the kind of guy who is concerned enough with his image to do something like that [start a fight with a writer]," Goldsher says with a wry smile on his face. "I've also heard one of his hobbies lately is bare-knuckle boxing. This is obviously not a guy you want get into a physical altercation with. Why take a chance?"
Attn: Chicagoans (or near Chicagoans): Tomorrow, Saturday, February 17, I'll be reading from and signing copies of my book, "Modest Mouse: A Pretty Good Read" at Barnes & Noble on 1441 W. Webster Ave. (a.k.a. Webster Place) at 3:00.
Admission is free, and if you mention you read about it on Suicide Girls, the author will give you either a kiss on the cheek, or a hearty handshake at no extra cost!
For more information or directions, call 773-871-3610. Seeya there.
Admission is free, and if you mention you read about it on Suicide Girls, the author will give you either a kiss on the cheek, or a hearty handshake at no extra cost!
For more information or directions, call 773-871-3610. Seeya there.
Everybody's been asking me about the Under The Radar/Isaac Brock/Alan Goldsher mess, so here's the straight poop:
In the current issue of Under the Radar magazine, Modest Mouse's leader Isaac Brock was quoted as saying about my book "Modest Mouse: A Pretty Good Read," "It seems really weird to me that someone would write a biography of a band without talking to anyone and base it off hearsay and articles that through editing and shit like that where the true gist of something can get watered down pretty quick. I haven't read the book. I did hear that it slandered my mother, which doesn't fucking fly with me. I think if the dude had spent even a second, even tried to get a hold of me, to ask me what the scenarios were, and said, 'Hey, this book is coming out whether you give me the answers or not, I would have given him the fucking right answers. I can say this in print, and I'm willing to do the jail time -- if I ever see that guy, I'm going to beat his ass into a bloody pulp. I will do everything short of killing him. My ears are burning. I'm going to fuck that guy up."
1) Despite Mr. Brock's claim, I attempted numerous times to contact him via his manager, Juan Carrera, and via Mr. Carrera's associates at Thrill Jockey Records, and also via his record label, Epic. In each communique, I noted that I had been contracted by St. Martin's Press to write the book, and in some cases, I even offered up a tentative release date. I received no response from Mr. Carrera. The Epic publicity department said they couldn't put me in touch with the band without approval of the management. All of this is documented in my book. I should also note that in autumn of 2005, I exchanged Myspace emails with Modest Mouse bassist Eric Judy, who, after expressing mild interest in speaking with me, suddenly stopped returning my notes. Also, on January 7, 2007, I received an email from a relative of a Modest Mouse member, who, after telling me how much they enjoyed A Pretty Good Read, noted, "I think [the band] were all sort of told in not so many words not to talk to anyone when the book was being done. But who knows."
2) None of the factual information whatsoever in the book is based on hearsay. Everything was culled from previously published material.
3) Nobody was slandered in the book, most especially Mr. Brock's mother, Ms. Kris Adair. I have nothing but the utmost respect for the entire band, Mr. Brock included. I believe -- as do many of my readers and critics -- that taking everything into consideration, Mr. Brock comes off quite well throughout A Pretty Good Read.
4) I feel if Mr. Brock does in fact read the book, he would at the very least respect the majority of it. On a certain level, it was a labor of love. As noted in the book, I'm not a tabloid journalist -- I simply wanted to tell the story of a band that I have much affection for, and tell it as best I could.
5) I haven't been in a fist fight since second grade. I'm just saying.
In the current issue of Under the Radar magazine, Modest Mouse's leader Isaac Brock was quoted as saying about my book "Modest Mouse: A Pretty Good Read," "It seems really weird to me that someone would write a biography of a band without talking to anyone and base it off hearsay and articles that through editing and shit like that where the true gist of something can get watered down pretty quick. I haven't read the book. I did hear that it slandered my mother, which doesn't fucking fly with me. I think if the dude had spent even a second, even tried to get a hold of me, to ask me what the scenarios were, and said, 'Hey, this book is coming out whether you give me the answers or not, I would have given him the fucking right answers. I can say this in print, and I'm willing to do the jail time -- if I ever see that guy, I'm going to beat his ass into a bloody pulp. I will do everything short of killing him. My ears are burning. I'm going to fuck that guy up."
1) Despite Mr. Brock's claim, I attempted numerous times to contact him via his manager, Juan Carrera, and via Mr. Carrera's associates at Thrill Jockey Records, and also via his record label, Epic. In each communique, I noted that I had been contracted by St. Martin's Press to write the book, and in some cases, I even offered up a tentative release date. I received no response from Mr. Carrera. The Epic publicity department said they couldn't put me in touch with the band without approval of the management. All of this is documented in my book. I should also note that in autumn of 2005, I exchanged Myspace emails with Modest Mouse bassist Eric Judy, who, after expressing mild interest in speaking with me, suddenly stopped returning my notes. Also, on January 7, 2007, I received an email from a relative of a Modest Mouse member, who, after telling me how much they enjoyed A Pretty Good Read, noted, "I think [the band] were all sort of told in not so many words not to talk to anyone when the book was being done. But who knows."
2) None of the factual information whatsoever in the book is based on hearsay. Everything was culled from previously published material.
3) Nobody was slandered in the book, most especially Mr. Brock's mother, Ms. Kris Adair. I have nothing but the utmost respect for the entire band, Mr. Brock included. I believe -- as do many of my readers and critics -- that taking everything into consideration, Mr. Brock comes off quite well throughout A Pretty Good Read.
4) I feel if Mr. Brock does in fact read the book, he would at the very least respect the majority of it. On a certain level, it was a labor of love. As noted in the book, I'm not a tabloid journalist -- I simply wanted to tell the story of a band that I have much affection for, and tell it as best I could.
5) I haven't been in a fist fight since second grade. I'm just saying.
MY NEW BOOK AVAILABLE IN JUNE, 2007
Hot off the press: I signed a three-book deal with Little Black Dress Books
in the U.K., and the first title -- a romantic comedy set in the music world called And Then... The True Naomi Story -- will be published in June. No schedule has been set for two follow-ups.
The book won't be available in the U.S. right away -- the rights are still up for grabs, for all you publishing types -- but you'll be able to order it on Amazon.co.uk. The official release date will be posted as soon as it becomes, um, official.
Now here's what you have to look forward to...
AND THEN...
The True Naomi Story
"These days, I get a little weirded out whenever I wander through one of those big national chain bookstores, not because I have issues with the stores themselves, but because it feels like their shelves are clogged with shoddily-written biographies of yours truly."
Her high school years were defined by boring advanced placement classes and unrequited love, but now singer and self-professed nerdy chick Naomi Braver is a rock 'n' roll goddess. Just ask Rolling Stone , who wrote, "If Liz Phair married Sheryl Crow, and they had a child that was midwifed by Ani DiFranco, and babysat by Tori Amos, it'd probably be Naomi." Not bad for a born and bred Brooklyn girl who used to have trouble getting any boys to kiss her.
Before they became stars, Naomi and her oldest and dearest friend, the sexy, charismatic pianist Jenn Bradford, performed to small but adoring audiences at a tiny Manhattan cafe. But Jenn wanted to take the band to the next level, so she turned their intrepid duo into a well-oiled four-piece machine, welcoming aboard her bass-playing, film-loving brother Travis and drummer extraordinaire Frank Craft. Naomi, Jenn, Travis, and Frank are soon discovered by music biz heavyweight Mitch Busey, and the band, thanks to their smash hit "And Then...," immediately begins a dizzying, life-altering ascension to the top of the charts.
But will international acclaim be enough for Naomi? Will the adoration of the revered and unbelievably attractive producer Simon (no last name, just "Simon") make her happy? Will she survive her makeover at the hands of her record label? Can she stay grounded while kissable boys throw themselves at her Manolo-clad feet?
Alan Goldsher has delivered an authentic, compelling, hilarious novel peppered with insider insights about the enigmatic entertainment industry. A comedic and romantic roller coaster ride, "And Then..." is the story of a passionate, prodigiously talented young woman and her brave effort to balance newfound success with lifelong friendship and unexpected love.
Enjoy,
Alan
http://www.AlanGoldsher.com
aprettygoodread@hotmail.com
Hot off the press: I signed a three-book deal with Little Black Dress Books
in the U.K., and the first title -- a romantic comedy set in the music world called And Then... The True Naomi Story -- will be published in June. No schedule has been set for two follow-ups.
The book won't be available in the U.S. right away -- the rights are still up for grabs, for all you publishing types -- but you'll be able to order it on Amazon.co.uk. The official release date will be posted as soon as it becomes, um, official.
Now here's what you have to look forward to...
AND THEN...
The True Naomi Story
"These days, I get a little weirded out whenever I wander through one of those big national chain bookstores, not because I have issues with the stores themselves, but because it feels like their shelves are clogged with shoddily-written biographies of yours truly."
Her high school years were defined by boring advanced placement classes and unrequited love, but now singer and self-professed nerdy chick Naomi Braver is a rock 'n' roll goddess. Just ask Rolling Stone , who wrote, "If Liz Phair married Sheryl Crow, and they had a child that was midwifed by Ani DiFranco, and babysat by Tori Amos, it'd probably be Naomi." Not bad for a born and bred Brooklyn girl who used to have trouble getting any boys to kiss her.
Before they became stars, Naomi and her oldest and dearest friend, the sexy, charismatic pianist Jenn Bradford, performed to small but adoring audiences at a tiny Manhattan cafe. But Jenn wanted to take the band to the next level, so she turned their intrepid duo into a well-oiled four-piece machine, welcoming aboard her bass-playing, film-loving brother Travis and drummer extraordinaire Frank Craft. Naomi, Jenn, Travis, and Frank are soon discovered by music biz heavyweight Mitch Busey, and the band, thanks to their smash hit "And Then...," immediately begins a dizzying, life-altering ascension to the top of the charts.
But will international acclaim be enough for Naomi? Will the adoration of the revered and unbelievably attractive producer Simon (no last name, just "Simon") make her happy? Will she survive her makeover at the hands of her record label? Can she stay grounded while kissable boys throw themselves at her Manolo-clad feet?
Alan Goldsher has delivered an authentic, compelling, hilarious novel peppered with insider insights about the enigmatic entertainment industry. A comedic and romantic roller coaster ride, "And Then..." is the story of a passionate, prodigiously talented young woman and her brave effort to balance newfound success with lifelong friendship and unexpected love.
Enjoy,
Alan
http://www.AlanGoldsher.com
aprettygoodread@hotmail.com
THE 2007 "A PRETTY GOOD READ" TOUR
In the spirit of planning ahead, here's the current list of readings/signings that are in store for early 2007:
Saturday, February 17 @ 3:00
Barnes & Noble
1441 W. Webster Ave.
Chicago, IL
773-871-3610
Saturday, February 24 @2:00
Barnes & Noble
1630 Sherman Ave.
Evanston, IL
847-424-0848
Saturday, March 17, time TBD
Borders
2015 Walden Ave.
Buffalo, NY
716-685-2844
Sunday, March 18, time TBD
Chapters
20 Edward St.
Toronto, Ontario
416-977-7009
See y'all there...
In the spirit of planning ahead, here's the current list of readings/signings that are in store for early 2007:
Saturday, February 17 @ 3:00
Barnes & Noble
1441 W. Webster Ave.
Chicago, IL
773-871-3610
Saturday, February 24 @2:00
Barnes & Noble
1630 Sherman Ave.
Evanston, IL
847-424-0848
Saturday, March 17, time TBD
Borders
2015 Walden Ave.
Buffalo, NY
716-685-2844
Sunday, March 18, time TBD
Chapters
20 Edward St.
Toronto, Ontario
416-977-7009
See y'all there...
The fine folks at Pittsburgh City Paper placed my book "Modest Mouse: A Pretty Good Read" on their list of "Highlights from 2006's Musical Literature." Here's what they had to say:
"While Alan Goldsher's not a name musician himself, he's served tours of duty as a bassist in several groups, in addition to being a novelist and contributor to musicians' magazines. Ostensibly an unauthorized biography of Modest Mouse (or, rather, of Isaac Brock), Goldsher's book is most perceptive during interludes on subjects like side projects, and the anti-hero in American music. In his hands, the Modest Mouse story becomes an insightful meditation on the making and breaking of indie cred, the conflicted politics of hipster cool, and how dealing with all that could make anyone an alcoholic."
Woo-hoo!
Happy 2007,
Alan
http://www.AlanGoldsher.com
aprettygoodread@hotmail.com
"While Alan Goldsher's not a name musician himself, he's served tours of duty as a bassist in several groups, in addition to being a novelist and contributor to musicians' magazines. Ostensibly an unauthorized biography of Modest Mouse (or, rather, of Isaac Brock), Goldsher's book is most perceptive during interludes on subjects like side projects, and the anti-hero in American music. In his hands, the Modest Mouse story becomes an insightful meditation on the making and breaking of indie cred, the conflicted politics of hipster cool, and how dealing with all that could make anyone an alcoholic."
Woo-hoo!
Happy 2007,
Alan
http://www.AlanGoldsher.com
aprettygoodread@hotmail.com
For those of you who aren't into that whole reading thing, here are a few sound clips of me verbalizing excerpts from my Modest Mouse bio. Enjoy...
Chapter Two
Interlude #2
Interlude #4
Chapter Two
Interlude #2
Interlude #4
In case you missed my book release party last night, here're a couple action shots of me reading:
Here's an excerpt from "Modest Mouse: A Pretty Good Read." Hope you dig it.
CHAPTER ONE
THERE'S THIS CITY, this tiny city, this unabashedly American city, a city that wholeheartedly feels it is a special place where people care. How do we know that's how this place views itself? Because it says so word-for-word on their website: "A special place where people care."
Populated by approximately 15,000 people and a handful of malls, this Special Place Where People Care offers a boatload of engaging activities for those seeking engagement: You can join the Braves & Square Dance Club, or the Alps Trails Club or the city Chorale (where you'll, "share the power of chorale music." And we all know how powerful chorale music can be.). You can pick up a case of homebrewed 2001 Red Mountain Reserve - a superb Cabernet, dense with aromas of ripe blackberry, cassis, and a hint of plum, which are all perfectly balanced by aromas of vanilla, cola, licorice, spice and cocoa, with just a hint of earthiness - at the Hedges Cellars Winery for $50.00 a bottle, well worth the price. And for those ecologically-minded, sea-loving types, you can visit F.I.S.H (boldface type courtesy of Friends of the Issaquah Salmon Hatchery). And you don't want to mess around with F.I.S.H., believe you me - they used their weight with the city to ratify a Chinook salmon conservation plan, a plan that protects this almost-endangered species. Tread lightly around them, especially if you're a lox lover.
So where, you might ask, is this place, this utopian place, this magical place, this special place where people care? It's in the Great Northwest, in the great state of Washington, in the great county of King.
Welcome to Issaquah.
HISTORIANS KNOW that the word "Issaquah" is Indian in origin, but they have no idea of the definition: Some have theorized that it's a bird, or a snake, or a river, or a microchip, or a blender. White families began settling in the region at some point in the 1860's. James and Martha Bush - possibly related to the 40th and 43rd United States Presidents, possibly not - are considered the founding father and mother of Issaquah.
In 1861, President Abraham Lincoln appointed William Pickering the fifth territorial governor of Washington; Pickering settled in Issaquah four years later and purchased three-hundred-and-twenty acres of land, land that is now covered by I-90 and a shopping center. After World War II, Issaquah evolved into a community; the town's population hovered around 1,000 until the late 1940s when the first bridge was built over Lake Washington. That passage brought Seattle within easy driving distance - making the drive from Issaquah to, say, the Showbox Theater a breeze.
When Seattle become SEATTLE - java heaven, alterna-rock central, home of Major League Baseball's Mariners - local workers began to search for an alternative area to live, a place where the rents weren't obscene, where traffic wasn't a mess each and every day, where people care.
Welcome, once again, to Issaquah.
HERE'S ANOTHER LINE of text you'll find over at www.ci.issaquah.wa.us: "Issaquah is committed to quality living through preservation and enhancement of the community's unique human and natural resources."
The irony about this statement is that the man who is arguably Issaquah's best known human resource - probably Issaquah's biggest celebrity; definitely Issaquah's best-known rock star - spent a lot of time and energy not caring about this special place. At times, he seemingly didn't care much about anything at all. Except making music. And getting wasted.
OH, HERE'S A FINAL interesting Issaquah factoid: In the mid- and late-1800's, Issaquah's dominant crop was hops, which was picked by Asian and Indian laborers and used to make beer in the breweries of nearby Seattle.
Ah. That explains a lot about our man, Issaquah's own, Isaac Brock.
BROCK HAS A LOVE/HATE - or, more accurately, tolerates/annoyed by - relationship with his hometown. Back in the day, there was much for him to love, despite Issaquah's relative quaintness. "It was a nice small town with close proximity to Seattle," he says. "It was still beautiful nature and [it had] the small town thing going on. [But] when you're alone in the middle of a nowhere hick town, you drink a lot." That being the case, it's a good thing that Issaquah's dominant crop was indeed hops.
But as an adult, Isaac became less than enamored with the area. "The Internet boom and all that shit turned [Issaquah] into a California mall," he complains. "It's not the place I liked when I was a kid. It's kind of a bummer now. It's lost all of its charm. It now has five grocery stores, all within a few blocks of each other. What do you need that for? I guess competition keeps prices down. The Targets and all that shit, I mean, that shit's everywhere and it's killing America, really. I like living in cities."
Thanks to Issaquah's distinctly Northwestern climate (read: crappy) Brock also has an interesting relationship with weather in general. "Overcast, rain clouds, that's how we do up here," he says. "I get paranoid without the clouds. Seriously, I don't need to be reminded that the sun's there. I'll visit it in tropical places or whatever, but shit, [the sun] will be there. It'll be there long, long, long after me, and you know what? [The sun and I] don't need to get too familiar."
"I GOT MY RELIGIOUS fix when I was pretty young," says Isaac Brock, who was born on July 9, 1975, and shares a birthday with Courtney Love, O.J. Simpson, and Jack White. Following either God's word, or their own personal whims, Isaac's working-class Christian family was somewhat transitory; the entire family lived on a hippie commune in Oregon, and eventually joined Grace Gospel, a, shall we say, unconventional church in Montana that had ties with the Branch Davidians. The Branch Davidians were a fanatical religious group offshot from the Seventh Day Adventist church, and in 1993, the so-called cult became international news when federal agents sieged their headquarters in Waco, Texas. Branch Davidian leader David Koresh, along with eighty of the church's members were killed in the fire. "There's a main [Grace Gospel] church in Texas," Isaac explains, "but the Branch Davidians were a crazier branch. The one we were part of was crazy - but not psychopathic." Little is known about Grace Gospel, other than their doctrine is apparently one predicated on fear of hell and damnation, and is out of step with mainstream Protestant groups. (Much of Isaac's songwriting is laden with religions imagery - he's especially fixated on the devil - but he can't avoid this, because, for better or worse, God - or at least Grace Gospel's God - is in him.)
An impressionable child, Isaac fell under the church's sway - or at least he pretended to. "I was speaking in tongues and shit when I was a kid and all that jazz," he says. "I remember all their deacons laid their hands on me and started speaking in tongues, that's when the spirit of the Lord is supposed to come into me and I was supposed to find my tongue. I robbed lyrics from goddamn 'Mary Poppins' - Lukididltle lungila lukididtle lungila. And they just all kind of looked away."
Isaac is tightlipped about Grace Gospel's cultish qualities, but he speaks freely about one of the church's more odious preachers - a preacher who allegedly stole boatloads of money from his parishioners - tersely describing him as, "an evil fuck." "We were dirt ass poor," Brock says. "We lived in the preacher's basement [for a while], but he was way too creepy. [Once] my sister came upstairs in her nightgown and the preacher was like, 'Oh, kiddie porn.' I think that is when we moved out of his house." Unfortunately, they weren't able to completely break ties with the evil fuck. "We were getting most of our food donated in boxes, and it quit showing up for quite a while. So one day [after we moved out of the basement], my dad is up in the preacher's office and he sees all of these boxes with 'Brock' written on it. The only thing left in them is string beans, which the preacher didn't like [to eat]." The good news is that should the Grace Gospel's gospel be on target - hell, damnation, all that kind of junk - the preacher is, right at this very moment, bonding with Isaac's beloved devil. "He died a while back. When he died our whole family was so excited - and I am sure we were not the only ones."
Isaac and his family moved to Issaquah in 1986. Soon after they hit town, the house Isaac shared with his mother Kris, his aunt, his siblings, and his stepfather Mike Adair flooded, so the family was forced to find new lodgings. "We used to live in a trailer park," Brock says, "although it wasn't a place that I would say I would have liked to have grown up. There's not much pride in saying that you grew up eating government cheese and food that came in boxes, [delivered] by hillbillies."
This living situation wasn't ideal, but, as is the case with much of his personal history, the truth about his level of destitution was likely somewhat exaggerated. His mother, Kris Adair notes that the family trailer wasn't a stereotypical get-blown-away-in-a-tornado Winnebago, but rather a mobile home resembling a one-story ranch house, homey and tastefully decorated. (Among the trailer's many knick-knacks is what Kris calls a "what'sit," a half-painted clay something-or-other that Isaac made in high school. One might speculate it's an unrecognized bong.) A landscaper by trade, Mike turned the area surrounding the "mome" into a miniature Japanese garden, loaded with flowers, bushes, and various sorts of greenery. All that said, the trailer wasn't equipped to house a full family, so Isaac was forced to live in neighbors' basements, and then eventually in a shed next to the trailer. "One of the reasons I moved around so much is because there was never really room for me at home."
The Adairs both worked at City Lights, a local video store that doubled as a coffee bar, and money was tight, so if Isaac wanted something - like, say, a round of gymnastics classes - he had to figure out how to pay for it himself, an early lesson in the D.I.Y., lo-fi lifestyle that would eventually serve him well. "When he was eleven," Kris says, "he wanted to be a Jedi Knight or some such thing, [so he] spent every Saturday cleaning the Gymnastics East gym in Bellevue to help pay for his classes."
He never made it onto the U.S. Men's Olympic Gymnastic team, and light sabers were tough to come by in Washington State, so Isaac went back to work. "I've had a shitload of [jobs]," he says. "I sold oil changes for Firestone door-to-door, [during which] I had people threaten to shoot me and shit. It was a freaky job. Going door-to-door, you realize how bleak it is, what people are doing. It's like, everyone's watching the same program on the television set. Everyone. No matter what house you go to, [people are] watching TV, doing absolutely nothing. It was, like, depressing, you know? It's the poor people you'd all be having to sell this shit to because the rich people don't give a shit whether they save money or not." Brock seems almost proud that he wasn't the best worker to ever grace the Firestone payroll. "They paid me by the hour, not the sale, which was a dumb move."
ISAAC WAS once asked if he had a happy childhood. Yes, he told the interviewer, but added, "I was so neurotic I'd pull all my hair out and wake up every morning in a pool of blood. But I was happy nonetheless."
Click here to purchase a copy of "Modest Mouse: A Pretty Good Read"
CHAPTER ONE
THERE'S THIS CITY, this tiny city, this unabashedly American city, a city that wholeheartedly feels it is a special place where people care. How do we know that's how this place views itself? Because it says so word-for-word on their website: "A special place where people care."
Populated by approximately 15,000 people and a handful of malls, this Special Place Where People Care offers a boatload of engaging activities for those seeking engagement: You can join the Braves & Square Dance Club, or the Alps Trails Club or the city Chorale (where you'll, "share the power of chorale music." And we all know how powerful chorale music can be.). You can pick up a case of homebrewed 2001 Red Mountain Reserve - a superb Cabernet, dense with aromas of ripe blackberry, cassis, and a hint of plum, which are all perfectly balanced by aromas of vanilla, cola, licorice, spice and cocoa, with just a hint of earthiness - at the Hedges Cellars Winery for $50.00 a bottle, well worth the price. And for those ecologically-minded, sea-loving types, you can visit F.I.S.H (boldface type courtesy of Friends of the Issaquah Salmon Hatchery). And you don't want to mess around with F.I.S.H., believe you me - they used their weight with the city to ratify a Chinook salmon conservation plan, a plan that protects this almost-endangered species. Tread lightly around them, especially if you're a lox lover.
So where, you might ask, is this place, this utopian place, this magical place, this special place where people care? It's in the Great Northwest, in the great state of Washington, in the great county of King.
Welcome to Issaquah.
HISTORIANS KNOW that the word "Issaquah" is Indian in origin, but they have no idea of the definition: Some have theorized that it's a bird, or a snake, or a river, or a microchip, or a blender. White families began settling in the region at some point in the 1860's. James and Martha Bush - possibly related to the 40th and 43rd United States Presidents, possibly not - are considered the founding father and mother of Issaquah.
In 1861, President Abraham Lincoln appointed William Pickering the fifth territorial governor of Washington; Pickering settled in Issaquah four years later and purchased three-hundred-and-twenty acres of land, land that is now covered by I-90 and a shopping center. After World War II, Issaquah evolved into a community; the town's population hovered around 1,000 until the late 1940s when the first bridge was built over Lake Washington. That passage brought Seattle within easy driving distance - making the drive from Issaquah to, say, the Showbox Theater a breeze.
When Seattle become SEATTLE - java heaven, alterna-rock central, home of Major League Baseball's Mariners - local workers began to search for an alternative area to live, a place where the rents weren't obscene, where traffic wasn't a mess each and every day, where people care.
Welcome, once again, to Issaquah.
HERE'S ANOTHER LINE of text you'll find over at www.ci.issaquah.wa.us: "Issaquah is committed to quality living through preservation and enhancement of the community's unique human and natural resources."
The irony about this statement is that the man who is arguably Issaquah's best known human resource - probably Issaquah's biggest celebrity; definitely Issaquah's best-known rock star - spent a lot of time and energy not caring about this special place. At times, he seemingly didn't care much about anything at all. Except making music. And getting wasted.
OH, HERE'S A FINAL interesting Issaquah factoid: In the mid- and late-1800's, Issaquah's dominant crop was hops, which was picked by Asian and Indian laborers and used to make beer in the breweries of nearby Seattle.
Ah. That explains a lot about our man, Issaquah's own, Isaac Brock.
BROCK HAS A LOVE/HATE - or, more accurately, tolerates/annoyed by - relationship with his hometown. Back in the day, there was much for him to love, despite Issaquah's relative quaintness. "It was a nice small town with close proximity to Seattle," he says. "It was still beautiful nature and [it had] the small town thing going on. [But] when you're alone in the middle of a nowhere hick town, you drink a lot." That being the case, it's a good thing that Issaquah's dominant crop was indeed hops.
But as an adult, Isaac became less than enamored with the area. "The Internet boom and all that shit turned [Issaquah] into a California mall," he complains. "It's not the place I liked when I was a kid. It's kind of a bummer now. It's lost all of its charm. It now has five grocery stores, all within a few blocks of each other. What do you need that for? I guess competition keeps prices down. The Targets and all that shit, I mean, that shit's everywhere and it's killing America, really. I like living in cities."
Thanks to Issaquah's distinctly Northwestern climate (read: crappy) Brock also has an interesting relationship with weather in general. "Overcast, rain clouds, that's how we do up here," he says. "I get paranoid without the clouds. Seriously, I don't need to be reminded that the sun's there. I'll visit it in tropical places or whatever, but shit, [the sun] will be there. It'll be there long, long, long after me, and you know what? [The sun and I] don't need to get too familiar."
"I GOT MY RELIGIOUS fix when I was pretty young," says Isaac Brock, who was born on July 9, 1975, and shares a birthday with Courtney Love, O.J. Simpson, and Jack White. Following either God's word, or their own personal whims, Isaac's working-class Christian family was somewhat transitory; the entire family lived on a hippie commune in Oregon, and eventually joined Grace Gospel, a, shall we say, unconventional church in Montana that had ties with the Branch Davidians. The Branch Davidians were a fanatical religious group offshot from the Seventh Day Adventist church, and in 1993, the so-called cult became international news when federal agents sieged their headquarters in Waco, Texas. Branch Davidian leader David Koresh, along with eighty of the church's members were killed in the fire. "There's a main [Grace Gospel] church in Texas," Isaac explains, "but the Branch Davidians were a crazier branch. The one we were part of was crazy - but not psychopathic." Little is known about Grace Gospel, other than their doctrine is apparently one predicated on fear of hell and damnation, and is out of step with mainstream Protestant groups. (Much of Isaac's songwriting is laden with religions imagery - he's especially fixated on the devil - but he can't avoid this, because, for better or worse, God - or at least Grace Gospel's God - is in him.)
An impressionable child, Isaac fell under the church's sway - or at least he pretended to. "I was speaking in tongues and shit when I was a kid and all that jazz," he says. "I remember all their deacons laid their hands on me and started speaking in tongues, that's when the spirit of the Lord is supposed to come into me and I was supposed to find my tongue. I robbed lyrics from goddamn 'Mary Poppins' - Lukididltle lungila lukididtle lungila. And they just all kind of looked away."
Isaac is tightlipped about Grace Gospel's cultish qualities, but he speaks freely about one of the church's more odious preachers - a preacher who allegedly stole boatloads of money from his parishioners - tersely describing him as, "an evil fuck." "We were dirt ass poor," Brock says. "We lived in the preacher's basement [for a while], but he was way too creepy. [Once] my sister came upstairs in her nightgown and the preacher was like, 'Oh, kiddie porn.' I think that is when we moved out of his house." Unfortunately, they weren't able to completely break ties with the evil fuck. "We were getting most of our food donated in boxes, and it quit showing up for quite a while. So one day [after we moved out of the basement], my dad is up in the preacher's office and he sees all of these boxes with 'Brock' written on it. The only thing left in them is string beans, which the preacher didn't like [to eat]." The good news is that should the Grace Gospel's gospel be on target - hell, damnation, all that kind of junk - the preacher is, right at this very moment, bonding with Isaac's beloved devil. "He died a while back. When he died our whole family was so excited - and I am sure we were not the only ones."
Isaac and his family moved to Issaquah in 1986. Soon after they hit town, the house Isaac shared with his mother Kris, his aunt, his siblings, and his stepfather Mike Adair flooded, so the family was forced to find new lodgings. "We used to live in a trailer park," Brock says, "although it wasn't a place that I would say I would have liked to have grown up. There's not much pride in saying that you grew up eating government cheese and food that came in boxes, [delivered] by hillbillies."
This living situation wasn't ideal, but, as is the case with much of his personal history, the truth about his level of destitution was likely somewhat exaggerated. His mother, Kris Adair notes that the family trailer wasn't a stereotypical get-blown-away-in-a-tornado Winnebago, but rather a mobile home resembling a one-story ranch house, homey and tastefully decorated. (Among the trailer's many knick-knacks is what Kris calls a "what'sit," a half-painted clay something-or-other that Isaac made in high school. One might speculate it's an unrecognized bong.) A landscaper by trade, Mike turned the area surrounding the "mome" into a miniature Japanese garden, loaded with flowers, bushes, and various sorts of greenery. All that said, the trailer wasn't equipped to house a full family, so Isaac was forced to live in neighbors' basements, and then eventually in a shed next to the trailer. "One of the reasons I moved around so much is because there was never really room for me at home."
The Adairs both worked at City Lights, a local video store that doubled as a coffee bar, and money was tight, so if Isaac wanted something - like, say, a round of gymnastics classes - he had to figure out how to pay for it himself, an early lesson in the D.I.Y., lo-fi lifestyle that would eventually serve him well. "When he was eleven," Kris says, "he wanted to be a Jedi Knight or some such thing, [so he] spent every Saturday cleaning the Gymnastics East gym in Bellevue to help pay for his classes."
He never made it onto the U.S. Men's Olympic Gymnastic team, and light sabers were tough to come by in Washington State, so Isaac went back to work. "I've had a shitload of [jobs]," he says. "I sold oil changes for Firestone door-to-door, [during which] I had people threaten to shoot me and shit. It was a freaky job. Going door-to-door, you realize how bleak it is, what people are doing. It's like, everyone's watching the same program on the television set. Everyone. No matter what house you go to, [people are] watching TV, doing absolutely nothing. It was, like, depressing, you know? It's the poor people you'd all be having to sell this shit to because the rich people don't give a shit whether they save money or not." Brock seems almost proud that he wasn't the best worker to ever grace the Firestone payroll. "They paid me by the hour, not the sale, which was a dumb move."
ISAAC WAS once asked if he had a happy childhood. Yes, he told the interviewer, but added, "I was so neurotic I'd pull all my hair out and wake up every morning in a pool of blood. But I was happy nonetheless."
Click here to purchase a copy of "Modest Mouse: A Pretty Good Read"
JULY 2007
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JUNE 2007
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MAY 2007
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APRIL 2007
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