Wednesday, May 21, 2014

Modoc

Good, straight-up rock and roll revivalism.  Kind of makes me think of Jet, when they launched out a few years ago with some serious Zeppelin-worshiping rock.  This is a little more southern-tilting, you can hear some Nashville influence in there.  They've got one song with 29k listens, but nothing else breaks into 5 digits.  No Use is that "hit," and it is a good one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QhE-iTyGXj0  (I'm starting to believe that videos with a dash or underscore in the path name are the ones I can't imbed.  Highly annoying).

The lack of listens is too bad, because I think they have a good sound.  That one above is live and just doesn't do that song justice.  The studio version is quite a bit better.  Here is a studio version of another, Runnin':


Their web bio says they had another song (Devil on my Shoulder) that has apparently been used on both ABC and CBS shows, but I can't find a good video for it. 

Googl-ing Modoc gets you a lot of potential histories for their name:
  1. They all met in the Missouri Department of Corrections
  2. They are all Modoc Indians, a federally recognized tribe
  3. They all descended from a Welsh gang operating in the anthracite coalfields around Mahanoy City, PA during the 19th Century
  4. They served together on the USCGC Modoc, a Tampa-class Coast Guard cutter
  5. Or they really liked the novel by Ralph Helfer, based on the true story of the longest-lived elephant.
I'm going with number 3.  There has to be a reason for the weird name, and I'm almost certain that's the one.  My guess is that they put on a pretty lively rock and roll show, so I might just stop by and check it out.


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