Well it appears that this isn't an AMA at all like I thought, but I feel like sharing a particularly odd Modest Mouse moment with you guys anyways.
Good News had just come out, it was my junior year in high school, and that album had been on repeat for days. I know Isaac was born in Montana, which is where the story takes place, but I don’t know how familiar Isaac is with the towns and roads here. Anyways, after working a shift at a local sandwich shop until about 10 pm, a pair of friends and I decided to drive up to a friend’s family’s cabin just outside of Red Lodge (we were headed from Billings, about an hour’s drive away). The friend whose cabin we were planning on staying the night at wasn’t supposed to have boys over, but nobody expected that her folks would show up to check on her. When they did, my two friends and I had to make a quick exit at like 4 or 5 am or some shit. I was the only one that hadn’t been drinking, so I was the driver on the way back. Instead of doing the smart thing and pulling over in Red Lodge or any number of places on the way home, I decided I could make the drive back just fine. My two pals both passed out, I had nothing but Good News for People Who Love Bad News to keep me company, but even that could not keep me awake. I distinctly remember humming along to the beginning of The World at Large, and then suddenly I’m veering off the road as the song comes to a close. Thankfully I didn’t crash, but I’ll never forget that time that I foolishly put mine and my friends’ lives at risk, as well as potentially another driver’s, for the roughly 4 minutes of that song.
I don’t think I was truly asleep for the entire 4½ minutes or so the song was on, but I was barely functioning and had no business being on the road.
I don’t know why I wanted to share this story, but I just thought you might find it interesting. I am always reminded of this whenever The World at Large plays.
Also, Isaac, do you know the road I’m talking about between Billings and Red Lodge? I’ve been told it’s something like the second most deadly road in Montana in terms of traffic fatalities, though I’m not positive.