Bankrupt On Selling

Modest Mouse is an old band. Most of you reading this blog will already know about the differences between newer and older Modest Mouse, but for those of you that don't we're going to take a trip back to their masterpiece The Lonesome Crowded West, with "Bankrupt On Selling"

"Bankrupt On Selling" by Modest Mouse from The Lonesome Crowded West



 I remember first hearing Modest Mouse circa '99 or 2000, at the end of or just after my stay in high school, which was already pretty far along in the band's career. It was a surprise to me a few years later, in 2004, when "Float On" became a huge hit. Truthfully, the band had fallen completely off my radar. I remember specifically in my experience as a private music instructor when a student came in to learn a song by this "great new band Modest Mouse." Ha, new!

This truly heralded in a new era for Modest Mouse. They had traversed the gap between independent band and indie band. At the same time, there was a fundamental change in the mood of their music. Modest Mouse is certainly known for being a dark band. After deciding that I wanted to cover a Modest Mouse tune, it took me quite a while to settle on this one due to the vast amount of depressing material. I don't think I have to go farther than the album titles to illustrate this. Titles like The Lonesome Crowded West, This Is A Long Drive For Someone With Nothing To Think About, and Building Nothing Out Of Something delve deeply into the helplessness of life the music conveys. From Good News For People That Love Bad News (the album that featured "Float On") on, Modest Mouse changed their view on life. From this point on the music is hopeful instead of hopeless. One needs but look to the first lyric of "Float On," to see the change: "I backed my car into a cop car the other day, well he just drove off, sometimes life's ok."

"Bankrupt On Selling" feels just about as far away from "Float On" as can be. It is a texturally sparse recording with two guitars and a vocal. The recording itself sounds distant, or like it's in the background of a coffeehouse in a movie from the late nineties. The chord progression remains the same throughout the song with a circular feel that builds on it's lingering remains.

The vocals open with "Well all the apostles are sittin' in swings sayin' 'I'd sell off my savior for a set of new rings and some sandals with the style of straps that cling best to the era.'" Immediately we are faced with an absurd situation. How could an angel sell of their savior? And for what? Rings and sandals? Isn't this a human trait? Certainly a man must sell his soul to the devil for the ability to write amazingly beautiful yet utterly depressing, but an angel is not allowed to sell his savior. An angel isn't allowed to want material things. This paints all too human a light on angels; all too dark.

"So all of the businessers in their unlimited hell where they buy and they sell and they sell all their trash to each other, but they're sick of it all and they're bankrupt on selling." Businessers, businessmen, businesswomen, are all human. What creates this hell? Is it the situation of buying and selling? Wait, what is being bought and sold? Don't we all do this? Don't we all buy and sell trash to each other? Is it not hell? Do we not create this hell ourselves?

The subtlety of the comparison of man and angel, and heaven and hell is sly and couth. We return now to heaven: "And all of the angels, they'd sell off your soul for a new set of wings and anything gold." Wait, my soul? MY soul? Don't I have control over my soul? I mean I know that trading it for a doughnut is a bad idea, but it's my choice to do so, isn't it? And an angel could and would trade my intangible soul for wings and gold? It hurts to be traded like commodity. "They remember the people they loved, their old friends. And I've seen through them all, seen through them all, and seen through most everything." Their friends are just like they are. Fake and phony, and just like they are, but we've finally got to meet our protagonist, who has seen through them all.

He who has seen through them all is telling us a story, he is expounding on his belief. He continues "All the people you knew were the actors." Oh. He's not talking about angels, he's talking about the illusion of good people. He's not talking about heaven, he's talking about the ideal. He's not talking about hell, he's talking about cold hard reality. "All the people you knew were the actors." He's talking about man. He's talking about you and me.

"Well I'll go to college and I'll learn some big words and I'll talk real loud. Goddamn right I'll be heard. You'll remember the guy who said all those big words he must have learned in college." Our protagonist is an idealist. We are all idealists. We all want to make a change, we all want to be important. We all want to be remembered. He will fight to not be the kind of person he has described before.

We continue, "and it took a long time until I came clean with myself. I'd grown clean out of love with my lover. I still love her, loved her more when she used to be sober and I was kinder." Our protagonist did not reach his goals. Our protagonist is a hypocrite. Our protagonist is not always rational and is driven by desire. Our protagonist is us, and we are all the same.

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