A NEWSPAPER ARTICLE ABOUT ISAAC BROCK WANTING TO BEAT ME UP
NEW CITY CHICAGO - 4/17/07
Modest Melee
Local author Alan Goldsher's bout with Modest Mouse frontman Isaac Brock
Forgive Chicago-based writer Alan Goldsher for not being in the crowd when Modest Mouse plays the Auditorium Theatre on April 22. Isaac Brock, the lead singer of the popular rock band, wants to beat the shit out of him.
Why would the lead singer of a group that's sold over a million records in the last three years want to pummel a poor little scribe? Because Goldsher recently published an unauthorized biography about the band that Brock doesn't like. "Modest Mouse: A Pretty Good Read" hit the shelves last November through Thomas Dunne Books and, according to the author, has sold over 5,000 copies so far. However, the band--or at least its ringleader--isn't buying into it.
Brock has since called Goldsher out on two different instances. In the winter issue of Under The Radar magazine, Brock proclaimed: "I can say this in print, and I'm willing to do the jail time--if I ever see that guy, I'm going to beat his ass into a bloody pulp. I will do everything short of killing him. My ears are burning. I'm going to fuck that guy up."
In the March issue of Rolling Stone, Brock said he hadn't read the book--which Goldsher wrote without having access to the band--and that "I don't know how you'd write a biography about a band without talking to any of the players or their families. I think it's written on speculation, from magazine articles and shit. I think the guy who wrote it is a fucking ass and an asshole."
Ouch.
As we sat at a Starbucks in Lakeview, Goldsher went on the defensive, saying he "reached out in every way I possibly could" to get access to the band in the initial stages of the project. He tried getting ahold of them through their label, Epic, their manager and Sub Pop Records--a label that briefly carried the band. "Without [the band's] endorsement, nobody would really talk."
Goldsher had already signed the contract to do the book before he realized the band wasn't going to cooperate, so he went ahead and did it anyway. An admitted Mouse fan, Goldsher says he has no regrets on writing the book and is proud of it, but "since Isaac has threatened to kill me, I'm a little less psyched about the band and the project."
Without being able to get face time with the group, Goldsher wrote the book almost exclusively based on previously published material from other media outlets. It begins describing the band's "humble" beginnings in the Seattle suburb of Issaquah, Washington, its early years as a raw-but-promising three-piece, how it began to emerge as critical darlings with 1997's "The Lonesome Crowded West" and to its eventual explosion in 2004 with "Good News For People Who Love Bad News" and its ubiquitous single, "Float On." The book is mainly an examination of Brock himself--his supposedly tumultuous upbringing, his hatred for interviews (which likely had something to do with him not having anything to do with the book) and his at-times self-aggrandizing behavior.
Goldsher writes the book in his own informal tone, which gives it more of a personal touch than most run-of-the-mill rock bios (i.e., this book has lots of adjectives you might question the validity of). One drawback, due largely to the fact that he wasn't able to talk to the band, is Goldsher's tendency to verbosely describe the band's albums. It's fine for those not familiar with the band's back catalogue, but for the hardcore fans it can get redundant. When you're wanting to hear more about the date-rape allegations brought against Brock in the late 1990s or what his childhood was really like, you're reading reviews of records you've likely already heard hundreds of times.
As for the show this weekend, Goldsher says it wouldn't be a good idea for him to be there. Asked if he thinks Brock has realized that Goldsher's from Chicago, and that there was a possibility he may be at the show and the lead singer might be ready for him, Goldsher responds, "It says on my Web site and the back of the book that I'm from Chicago. I'm not hiding or anything."
A recent incident made Goldsher even more skeptical of being in the same room as Brock. Pitchforkmedia.com reported that the lead singer cut himself multiple times with a pocketknife on stage during a show in Sioux Falls, South Dakota on March 18, just two days before the band's new album "We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank" was released.
"He's just the kind of guy who is concerned enough with his image to do something like that [start a fight with a writer]," Goldsher says with a wry smile on his face. "I've also heard one of his hobbies lately is bare-knuckle boxing. This is obviously not a guy you want get into a physical altercation with. Why take a chance?"
NEW CITY CHICAGO - 4/17/07
Modest Melee
Local author Alan Goldsher's bout with Modest Mouse frontman Isaac Brock
Forgive Chicago-based writer Alan Goldsher for not being in the crowd when Modest Mouse plays the Auditorium Theatre on April 22. Isaac Brock, the lead singer of the popular rock band, wants to beat the shit out of him.
Why would the lead singer of a group that's sold over a million records in the last three years want to pummel a poor little scribe? Because Goldsher recently published an unauthorized biography about the band that Brock doesn't like. "Modest Mouse: A Pretty Good Read" hit the shelves last November through Thomas Dunne Books and, according to the author, has sold over 5,000 copies so far. However, the band--or at least its ringleader--isn't buying into it.
Brock has since called Goldsher out on two different instances. In the winter issue of Under The Radar magazine, Brock proclaimed: "I can say this in print, and I'm willing to do the jail time--if I ever see that guy, I'm going to beat his ass into a bloody pulp. I will do everything short of killing him. My ears are burning. I'm going to fuck that guy up."
In the March issue of Rolling Stone, Brock said he hadn't read the book--which Goldsher wrote without having access to the band--and that "I don't know how you'd write a biography about a band without talking to any of the players or their families. I think it's written on speculation, from magazine articles and shit. I think the guy who wrote it is a fucking ass and an asshole."
Ouch.
As we sat at a Starbucks in Lakeview, Goldsher went on the defensive, saying he "reached out in every way I possibly could" to get access to the band in the initial stages of the project. He tried getting ahold of them through their label, Epic, their manager and Sub Pop Records--a label that briefly carried the band. "Without [the band's] endorsement, nobody would really talk."
Goldsher had already signed the contract to do the book before he realized the band wasn't going to cooperate, so he went ahead and did it anyway. An admitted Mouse fan, Goldsher says he has no regrets on writing the book and is proud of it, but "since Isaac has threatened to kill me, I'm a little less psyched about the band and the project."
Without being able to get face time with the group, Goldsher wrote the book almost exclusively based on previously published material from other media outlets. It begins describing the band's "humble" beginnings in the Seattle suburb of Issaquah, Washington, its early years as a raw-but-promising three-piece, how it began to emerge as critical darlings with 1997's "The Lonesome Crowded West" and to its eventual explosion in 2004 with "Good News For People Who Love Bad News" and its ubiquitous single, "Float On." The book is mainly an examination of Brock himself--his supposedly tumultuous upbringing, his hatred for interviews (which likely had something to do with him not having anything to do with the book) and his at-times self-aggrandizing behavior.
Goldsher writes the book in his own informal tone, which gives it more of a personal touch than most run-of-the-mill rock bios (i.e., this book has lots of adjectives you might question the validity of). One drawback, due largely to the fact that he wasn't able to talk to the band, is Goldsher's tendency to verbosely describe the band's albums. It's fine for those not familiar with the band's back catalogue, but for the hardcore fans it can get redundant. When you're wanting to hear more about the date-rape allegations brought against Brock in the late 1990s or what his childhood was really like, you're reading reviews of records you've likely already heard hundreds of times.
As for the show this weekend, Goldsher says it wouldn't be a good idea for him to be there. Asked if he thinks Brock has realized that Goldsher's from Chicago, and that there was a possibility he may be at the show and the lead singer might be ready for him, Goldsher responds, "It says on my Web site and the back of the book that I'm from Chicago. I'm not hiding or anything."
A recent incident made Goldsher even more skeptical of being in the same room as Brock. Pitchforkmedia.com reported that the lead singer cut himself multiple times with a pocketknife on stage during a show in Sioux Falls, South Dakota on March 18, just two days before the band's new album "We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank" was released.
"He's just the kind of guy who is concerned enough with his image to do something like that [start a fight with a writer]," Goldsher says with a wry smile on his face. "I've also heard one of his hobbies lately is bare-knuckle boxing. This is obviously not a guy you want get into a physical altercation with. Why take a chance?"
cahrizz:
uh oh you better watch out bro. lmao. you should send him a basket and a thank you for the free press eh? you must have said a number of the right things to piss him off.