Modest Mouse’s This Is a Long Drive for Someone with Nothing to Think About (1996) Album Review as Peanuts Fan-Fiction
YDoAD: Hey Gang! For today’s lesson we will be discussing one of the Old89ers favorite all-time albums, This Is a Long Drive for Someone with Nothing to Think About by Modest Mouse. Why don’t we each pick our favorite song from the record and tell the rest of the class why it’s our favorite. I’ll start us off.
My favorite song is Talking S-word about a Pretty Sunset...
Class: [muffled giggles, especially Snoopy, lol]
YDoAD: OK class, calm down. I like that song the best because it reminds me of a sloppy band playing a gig at some small-town school senior prom dance. But although they are sloppy, on this particular night, they are playing in such a zone as a group that everything holds together just right – it’s their best live show ever. I imagine that amongst the prom-goers, this band on this night becomes legendary.
I also like that this song illustrates a kind of a cold-weather, autumnal feel that pervades the rest of the album as well.
OK, Linus, why don’t you go next…
Linus: Well, I got pretty worried in Custom Concern when he says, “Gotta go to Work, Gotta go to work, Gotta have a job…” Do you think when I get a job that I’ll be able to bring my blanket?
Lucy: You and that stupid blanket, Linus…
YDoAD: Calm down Lucy. I’m sure they’ll let you bring your blanket, Linus.
Peppermint Patty, why don’t you go next.
Peppermint Patty: I like Breakthrough cuz it makes we want to dance around my bedroom, “Let it Breakthrough Oh Let it Breakthrough…” and I like Tundra/Desert cuz it sounds like he doesn’t want to take no more guff from no one and I like that it gets fast in the middle and I can dance around at that part too.
YDoAD: Great job, Patty. What about you, Pigpen?
Pigpen: I like how in Ionizes and Atomizes the voice and guitar sound like the sunlight coming through the blinds in our kitchen in the morning when my mom is making me breakfast in the morning.
YDoAD: Would you call that an angular sound…?
Pigpen: Um… I don’t know. And it also smells like bacon in our kitchen in the morning too.
YDoAD: Good job…. Charile Brown, you’re next.
Charlie Brown: I can’t really decide. I like the way Dramamine kind of hypnotizes me and kind of makes me feel sleepy, but I also like the mouth-spitting-teeth questioning of his own sanity in the refrain of Exit Does not Exist. Allow me to recite a few lines, “Standing looking at a photograph that you do not remember being taken/You look out of breath, and me like I am faking/As a matter of fact, I don't recall this photo being taken/You don't even actually exist so I just started shaking…”
Peppermint Patty: (smiling and looking at Charlie Brown) I also like those songs, Chuck!
Lucy: (huffing sarcastically) Leave it to good ol’ Charlie Brown to bring down a room!
Charlie Brown: (head in hands) Good Grief!
Snoopy: (being distracting and walking around the back of the classroom, howling) “O-Hi-EEEEE-o, o-high-I-I-Oh-oh…”
YDoAD: Well Lucy, how about you then. What’s your favorite?
Lucy: I guess I just like the one the dog is singing…
Snoopy: (continuing to howl) “O-Hi-EEEEE-o, O-high-I-I-Oh-oh…”
[curtain closes] [fade to silvery-blue]
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