Alt-rock band Modest Mouse have two rules for album art: No pics of people's faces (even the band's), and ''everything has to tie together into a theme, even if it's not obvious,'' says frontman Isaac Brock. On the occasion of their new CD, We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank, Brock explains some of their artwork.
1. WE WERE DEAD BEFORE THE SHIP EVEN SANK (2007)
''The picture on the cover is a hot-air balloon with an anchor instead of
a basket. It's an idea I came up with because it represents stasis — the
balloon will never go up or down. It's just a general feeling I have
about everything: Every time we seem to cure or solve something, another
problem pops up.''
2. GOOD NEWS FOR PEOPLE WHO LOVE BAD NEWS (2004)
''We showed up at our practice space one day and this artist friend put
this on the wall — white arrows bleeding pink blood. We ended up
re-creating it for the cover, because for us it kind of represented the
mix of weird, good, and bad s--- that was going on at that time.''
3. THE MOON & ANTARCTICA (2000)
''We hired Simon Larbalestier, who did a lot of the Pixies' [covers]. He
shot these two guys in white suits shaking hands. The idea was that the
hands would represent the meeting of these two sterile things: the moon
and Antarctica.''
4. THE LONESOME CROWDED WEST (1997)
''This cover makes a very direct connection to the title, because you
have these giant apartment towers, but there's no actual human beings in
them. It's crowded but lonesome.''
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