Modest Mouse is an American indie rock band formed in 1992 in Issaquah, Washington, by singer/lyricist/guitarist Isaac Brock, drummer Jeremiah Green and bassist Eric Judy. The band’s lineup has dramatically changed over the years, and the only original member still in the band to date is Isaac Brock. For a lineup timeline, see here. One of the most famous additions came in 2006, with legendary guitarist Johnny Marr.

Modest Mouse released their debut album This Is a Long Drive for Someone with Nothing to Think About in April 1996 and have released six studio albums to date. They gained mainstream recognition with their April 2004 effort Good News for People Who Love Bad News and it is their commercially best-selling album, being certified Platinum by the RIAA.

Modest Mouse’s name is derived from a passage from the Virginia Woolf story “The Mark on the Wall” which reads:

I wish I could hit upon a pleasant track of thought, a track indirectly reflecting credit upon myself, for those are the pleasantest thoughts, and very frequent even in the minds of modest, mouse-coloured people, who believe genuinely that they dislike to hear their own praises.