Modest Mouse will embark on a 12-date U.S. tour next month, starting with a Feb. 22 show in Oakland, Calif. and wrapping up March 8 at Miami's Langerado Festival. Former Granddaddy guitarist Jim Fairchild will replace Johnny Marr, who has joined U.K. rock band the Cribs, on stage and the Mimicking Birds will open. The Mimicking Birds are the latest band signed to Modest Mouse frontman Isaac Brock's Glacial Pace record label. Modest Mouse will also make stops in Visalia, Calif., Los Angeles, Tempe, Ariz., Albuquerque, N.M., Boulder, Colo., Kansas City, Mo., Oklahoma City, Austin, Texas, Oxford, Miss. and Atlanta.



Although Modest Mouse didn't achieve mainstream success until their single “Float On” hit the radio (hard) in 2004, the band had been steadily churning out albums long before the single and its corresponding album, Good News for People Who Love Bad News, were released. In fact, Good News for People Who Love Bad News was actually Modest Mouse's sixth album. The band hails from the Pacific Northwest, specifically Issaquah, WA, where vocalist/guitarist Isaac Brock, bassist Eric Judy and drummer Jeremiah Green formed Modest Mouse in 1993. The trio holed up in “The Shed”—a makeshift recording space built by Brock on the land beside his mother's trailer—to fine tune their sound and then recorded their debut in Calvin Johnson's Dub Narcotic Studios. The result was an eponymous single released via Johnson's label K Records in 1994. Subsequently, the trio signed to the Up label and issued a duo of LPs, This Is a Long Drive for Someone With Nothing to Think About and Interstate 8, in 1996 before moving back to K for The Fruit That Ate Itself the following year.

Also in 1997, Modest Mouse released what would be their breakthrough record, The Lonesome Crowded West. Although Modest Mouse is often unfairly pegged with the ambiguous (and overused) “indie rock” label, The Lonesome Crowded West showcased their existential lyrics and unpretentious yet infectious sound and a major label bidding war ensued. Sony emerged victorious and the rarities collection Building Nothing out of Something materialized in 2000 before their anxiously awaited major label debut, The Moon & Antarctica. The Everywhere and His Nasty Parlor Tricks EP was followed by Sad Sappy Sucker, a “lost album” originally recorded in 1994, in 2000 and then Modest Mouse took a hiatus, allowing Brock to focus on his Ugly Casanova side project.

In 2004 Modest Mouse reappeared with Good News for People Who Love Bad News, an album woven with Talking Heads and Pixies influences. Good News for People Who Love Bad News was the band's most well-received album, with “Float On” drifting to the top of Billboard's Modern Rock tracks chart. Former Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr came on board for the recording of 2007's We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank and the following year Modest Mouse hit the road with Marr in tow, opening for R.E.M. Check out http://www.stubhub.com/modest-mouse-tickets for Modest Mouse tickets.