Good Modest Mouse songs for a funeral video?

June 30, 2009 12:29 PM

Music Filter - I need some good songs by Modest Mouse and The Bravery for a memorial DVD I'm creating for a funeral service (18 year old male died in a car accident). Hey, Modest Mouse fans, what songs should I use?

I need a few good songs for a memorial service DVD I'm creating for an 18 year old male who just died in a car accident. He's being buried in a Modest Mouse t-shirt and so I need some good Modest Mouse songs that would be tasteful and appropriate for the video. Also, he liked The Bravery, so a song or two by that band will help also.

Thanks!!!

posted by Detuned Radio to media & arts (18 comments total)

Not Modest Mouse but Sun Kil Moon's cover of MM's Ocean Breathes Salty might be nice for this purpose.
posted by heavenstobetsy at 12:34 PM on June 30

"Float On" was used for a memorial slideshow at the funeral of a friend of a friend a few years ago. I think it's a good choice.
posted by telegraph at 12:34 PM on June 30

Float On
People as Places as People
posted by HumuloneRanger at 12:37 PM on June 30 [1 favorite has favorites]

Lives is a great song, but it might be a little too on the nose:

Everyone's afraid of their own life
If you could be anything you want
I bet you'd be disappointed, am I right?
No one really knows the ones they love
If you knew everything they thought
I bet that you'd wish that they'd just shut up
Well, you were the dull sound of sharp math
When you were alive
No ones gonna play the harp when you die
And if I had a nickel for every damn dime
I抎 have half the time, do you mind?
Everyone's afraid of their own lives
If you could be anything you want
I bet you'd be disappointed, am I right?
Am I right? And it's our lives
It's hard to remember, it's hard to remember
We're alive for the first time
It's hard to remember were alive for the last time
It's hard to remember, it's hard to remember
To live before you die
It's hard to remember, it's hard to remember
That our lives are such a short time
It's hard to remember, it's hard to remember
When it takes such a long time
It's hard to remember, it's hard to remember
My mom's God is a woman and my mom she is a witch
I like this
My hell comes from inside, comes from inside myself
Why fight this
Everyone's afraid of their own lives
If you could be anything you want
I bet you'd be disappointed, am I right?
posted by A Terrible Llama at 12:38 PM on June 30

"Gravity Rides Everything" is really surreal and pretty.
posted by zoomorphic at 12:38 PM on June 30

I adore Ocean Breathes Salty by both MM and Sun Kil Moon (and don't want to enter into a song meaning debate) but I think some of the lyrics make it a poor choice: "You wasted life, why wouldn't you waste death?"
posted by juliplease at 12:43 PM on June 30

Just to contradict my own post: I suggest going easy on this. Everybody's going to be near tears at every given moment anyway and just holding on to the edges of their own composure. I was at a funeral for an eighteen year old once where they played Forever Young, which should have been ridiculous, because as I said above about Lives, it was a little on the nose. But it was absolutely heartbreaking and twenty years later I still remember it.

My point is -- just be aware of how fragile people will be.
posted by A Terrible Llama at 12:44 PM on June 30

Sleepwalking (Building Nothing Out of Something)
Bankrupt on Selling (The Lonesome Crowded West)
The Stars Are Projectors (The Moon and Antarcitica)
Custom Concern (This is a Long Drive for Someone With Nothing to Think About)
posted by Lazlo Hollyfeld at 12:45 PM on June 30

For a Modest Mouse song, I actually like The World at Large much more than Float On. It's more downtempo, with a general theme of moving on to new places. Seems appropriate to me.

I posted an embedded player here so you can listen to it.
posted by joshrholloway at 12:55 PM on June 30

Possibly too relevent 'Exit Does Not Exist', preferably the Sun Kil Moon cover.
posted by zemblamatic at 1:04 PM on June 30

Isaac Brock of Modest Mouse had a side-project (long story; see here) called Ugly Casanova that's more down-tempo than a lot of Modest Mouse stuff. There's one album, called Sharpen Your Teeth, and I find it really moving.

You may want to check out the tracks Hotcha Girls and Smoke Like Ribbons; Cat Faces may be a little too graphic in its imagery.
posted by MrVisible at 1:15 PM on June 30 [1 favorite has favorites]

I'm a big Modest Mouse fan, but most of their lyrics are pretty dark or weird so it's hard to pick songs that are appropriate. The one I think is the most uplifting is So Much Beauty In Dirt, which has the chorus "There's so much beauty it could make you cry". Heart Cooks Brain is sadder and more abstract. Neverending Math Equation is another good one, especially the Sun Kil Moon version.
posted by burnmp3s at 1:47 PM on June 30

On listening to the Ugly Casanova album, I realized I forgot to mention a particularly apt track; So Long To The Holidays, at the very end of the album.

And I'm really sorry for your loss. It's unimaginable. I hope some of this helps.
posted by MrVisible at 1:55 PM on June 30

"The Cold Part" off of The Moon and Antarctica.
posted by axiom at 1:57 PM on June 30

All of your guys's suggestions are so great! This is exactly what I needed, and what would have taken me forever to research myself.

My only real familiarity with Modest Mouse is fleeting and mainly because I love Sun Kil Moon and The Smiths (Johnny Marr joining the group intrigued me). It's interesting to hear so many suggestions to use the Sun Kil Moon versions of songs. I know it's probably because Mark Kozelak takes a softer approach to the tunes, but personally I prefer my Modest Mouse listening under the guise of Sun Kil Moon.

I'll favorite all the tunes I end up using, and all the suggestions that really helped (as far as what tone and direction to take). I should just favorite every suggestion - they've all been that helpful.

Thanks!
posted by Detuned Radio at 3:03 PM on June 30

It's my impression that the entire Good News for People Who Love Bad News is about death. Some good mellow ones on that album are One Chance, Blame it on the Tetons, The Good Times are Killing Me, The World at Large.

Also, Make Everyone Happy/Mechanical Birds.
posted by Wayman Tisdale at 4:33 PM on June 30

Lazlo Hollyfeld's suggestion of Bankrupt on Selling is probably the best in the thread, I think. It's slowish and under three minutes. It's from what I think is their last good record, but I'm certainly in the minority.

Most of the other suggestions come from the albums post-UP Records, on which they drastically changed their sound (for the worse, I think). Though obviously I don't know which records your friend loved, the earlier records defined their sound.

My own suggestion is for Styrofoam Boots as it varies quite a bit from slowish acoustic to fast and intense. It also features some nice drumming by Jermiah Green, who I think is the most talented of the members and the most responsible for defining the Modest Mouse sound at the beginning. But it's almost 7 minutes.

Sorry about your friend.
posted by You Should See the Other Guy at 8:25 PM on June 30

Lazlo Hollyfeld's suggestion of Bankrupt on Selling is probably the best in the thread, I think
...
My own suggestion is for Styrofoam Boots

The problem with those two songs in my opinion is that they are both literally about death and fairly dark. For example, Bankrupt has lines like "So all of the businessers in their unlimited hell" and "all of the angels, they'd sell off your soul." Styrofoam Boots is about an atheist who goes to heaven and meets someone who says "You were right, no one's running this whole thing." I like both of those songs, but they might not work well in this setting.
posted by burnmp3s at 5:16 AM on July 1