Modest Mouse Is Newly Indie On ‘Eraser’ LP

Modest Mouse will be back this summer with its first new album in five years — and, notably, its return to an indie ecosystem after spending more than 25 years on Epic. An Eraser and a Maze, is due June 5 via Glacial Pace Recordings, the long-running imprint overseen by frontman Isaac Brock with distribution from Virgin Music Group.

The band has shared the album’s opening track, “Picking Dragon’s Pockets,” a bombastic, hook-heavy entry point that leans into the group’s knack for turning existential unease into something strangely anthemic. It follows previously released lead single “Look How Far” with former Sleater-Kinney member Janet Weiss on drums; click here to pre-order the set in various formats.

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Produced by Brock, An Eraser and a Maze also features contributions from Jackknife Lee (U2, The Killers), Suzy Shinn (Weezer) and Justin Raisen (Charli xcx, Kim Gordon). The album has reportedly been in the works since the release of 2021’s The Golden Casket, with an initial batch of songs nearly spun off into Brock’s side project Ugly Casanova before evolving into a full-length Modest Mouse release.

Drawing on a physics theory that suggests past, present, and future all exist simultaneously, An Eraser and a Maze is said to be a convergence of Modest Mouse’s scrappy Pacific Northwest indie beginnings on Up Records, its own idiosyncratic take on major-label polish and its late-career experimentation. “Thoughts, emotions, feelings, all that stuff … you’re like the soup, and it’s not always easy to pick out the ingredients,” Brock reflects. “I don’t dwell on things much. I don’t grieve much. I’m not sure I’m a person. I feel like I should have more feelings than I do. But then, you know, I’ll sing stuff. And I’m like, Oh, there it is. Oh — it’s in there.”

Modest Mouse has greatly expanded its 2026 touring plans, which begin May 12 in Spokane, Wa., and will now wrap Oct. 23 in Sacramento, Ca. Among the itinerary highlights are appearances at such festivals at Outside Lands in San Francisco on Aug. 7 and Shaky Knees in Atlanta on Sept. 20 and an Aug. 17 opening set for My Chemical Romance at Washington, D.C.’s Nationals Park.

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