Music Library: Modern Lovers, Modest Mouse, Mojave 3, Moldy Peaches

Modern Lovers - The Original Modern Lovers (1972), Live At The Longbranch And More (1972), Precise Modern Lovers Order (1972), and The Modern Lovers (1976).  HEY MODERN LOVERS!  Jonathan Richman's first band took the greatness of the Velvet Underground and applied Richman's uniquely positive outlook to create some truly kick-ass great songs.  Everything here was recorded in 1972, I think.  The Original MLs bootleg contains the aborted tracks recorded with Kim Fowley before the John Cale sessions that would later be released as The Modern Lovers.  Live At The Longbranch and Precise Modern Lovers Order contain some of the same tracks, and a number of different ones, all taken from two of the same 1972 shows. The Modern Lovers, the one recorded with John Cale and released in 1976, belongs in every music collection.  I have copies on vinyl, cassette, CD, and mp3.  Just in case, you know.

Modest Mouse - This Is A Long Drive For Someone With Nothing To Think About (1996) and Good News For People Who Love Bad News (2004).  Interesting situation here.  I wasn't too taken with Modest Mouse from my previous exposure to them, but I like the song on Rock Band 2.  I mentioned this to a friend, and voila! I have two of their albums.  The former is pretty great, with 90s-style Pixies-fueled indie rock anthems galore.  The latter, though - which is the one with the song I like from Rock Band 2 - is overheated stadium rock, and I hate overheated stadium rock.

Mojave 3 - Ask Me Tomorrow (1996) and Excuses For Travellers (2000).  Dreamy Brit-rock takes on alt-country by some of the members of the shoegaze band Slowdive.  I like these albums pretty well, but they don't really stick with me.

Moldy Peaches - The Moldy Peaches (2001).  Sometimes fun garage-y juvenilia, sometimes just a stupid dirty joke.  Sometimes in the same song.