Isaac Brock is holed up in his Portland studio, Ice Cream Party, which is essentially a multi-level playground for musicians. Surrounded by a collection of guitars, an array of colorful pedals and a treasure trove of Modest Mouse ephemera, Brock cracks a Guinness, a beer he says he only drinks during interviews. Before he finishes the first sip, he’s interrogated about when the next Modest Mouse album will be released: “Well, it’s gonna be about an hour behind because of this interview, but it’s coming along well.”
His quick wit, typically sprinkled with a tinge of irreverence, is what makes Brock’s lyrics so clever. Even the album titles—The Lonesome Crowded West, Strangers to Ourselves, We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank and Good News For People Who Love Bad News—are soaked in sagacity.
The next Modest Mouse album, the follow-up to 2021’s The Golden Casket, is nearly done; Brock explains he’s tasked with shaving the final project down by 10 songs to make the “best record” out of what he has in his arsenal, although he won’t be taking any psychedelic mushrooms to complete the process.
“That would not be helpful,” he says. “I need to be hearing it as it would be heard… by maybe sober people.”
For the past several years, Modest Mouse has leaned heavily into its mushroom-friendly aesthetic. The band’s new collaboration with Souldier, Brock’s preferred guitar strap company, is adorned with images of poisonous fly agaric ’shrooms and eyeballs with multi-colored rays coming out of them—not exactly subtle.
Brock, a mushroom connoisseur, admittedly took a handful of them on Thanksgiving, “laughed a little harder than usual” and then went to bed. He had some vivid dreams, but it was somewhat underwhelming as far as trips go. It paled in comparison to his first trip at 18, when he wound up with a permanent reminder of that day.
“My first time was the best one of the best times,” he recalls. “It was acid, and apparently it was really, really good acid. I had no idea what to expect, because that’s how that goes. The entire world felt hyper clean, like everything looked really clean to me and metallic.”
And that included a downtown Seattle McDonald’s bathroom.
“I was amazed at the fucking glory, just the beauty and the splendor of it,” he says. “It had stainless steel toilets so people wouldn’t break them or some shit. I felt so futuristic and they were just so shiny.”
He and his girlfriend at the time then decided to get tattoos, another first for Brock.
“She got her tattoo no problem and I was getting mine—a tattoo my friend drew for me of a halo and a pitchfork—and I did not know whether to puke, piss, shit or pass out. I was like, ‘Can I use the bathroom?’ I turned green as can be. It was a lot. I went in there and I didn’t know what to do. I pulled down my pants and tried throwing up.”
Years later, while on a trip to Chicago, he learned from a group of Latino dudes who were admiring his ink that the tattoo had a more sinister meaning. They told Brock in their neighborhood it meant “death to our enemies,” but if he walked four blocks in another direction, “that’s the other people’s zone and you’re in deep shit, so I wore long cowboy shirts the rest of the summer.”
The fact he remembers those details is also surprising. Memories often evade him. As he explains, “I think similar to that of an animal. I don’t actually hold on to memories very well, except for exceptionally shitty things. The details from good times are really muted, and I don’t like that. It bothers me, but it’s something I’ve been thinking about a bit lately.”
“I don’t remember much about most of my trips, and I’ve had a lot of them. I do remember having gotten like a ton of gel acid. I bought a bunch of it and ate it every day for most of a year, even though you can’t really get that high for consecutive days on acid. You can take more, but the problem is this shit had a ton of strychnine in it” (a claim often repeated in that era, though never conclusively proven). “The trips would be all right, but then eventually I’d just find myself freezing to death in the shower on full hot with like a shriveled little dick and things. It’s like, ‘This is awful.’”
More than 30 years later, Brock has lost count of the number of times he’s taken psychedelics, but he confesses he’s worried about his tolerance to mushrooms.
“I didn’t know that there could be a tolerance, but I eat a fair amount of them from time to time,” he says. “I’m the last to get there and I’m barely there.”
There’s a sense he’s disappointed, but at the same time mushrooms are far from the only interesting thing Brock dabbles in, though he wants to make it clear he’s “pro-mushroom.”
“It’s not entirely what I’m about,” he says. “I’m not showing up to festivals with a fucking satchel full of fucking shit, like the magic mushroom man. Take it when it’s right or don’t take them, whatever, I don’t give a shit.”
The conversation veers toward the best movies to watch on psychedelics. He recommends the 1994 Chris Elliott comedy Cabin Boy. I suggest Nightmare Before Christmas or The Muppets, but encourage him to avoid Pulp Fiction (the gimp scene alone is enough to give anyone a different kind of nightmare).
It’s no secret Brock has wrestled with addiction in the past. He sings about it on the 2004 single “The Good Times Are Killing Me” from Good News For People Who Love Bad News.
“Fed up with all that LSD / Need more sleep than coke or methamphetamines / Late nights with warm, warm whiskey / I guess the good times they were all just killing me…”
And they very well could have. But Brock, who turned 50 in July, is still thriving. Though most drugs are off the list, there’s a method to the madness.
“Here’s the thing about mushrooms, and this is not the same for acid: bad trips are good trips,” he says. “You’re getting something. The reason I take mushrooms a lot more than I do anything else is to just keep rewiring myself. Even if I like the wiring as it is, I just keep rewiring to keep ahead of the curve and always change up the script on your brain just a little bit.”
Modest Mouse is gearing up for the band’s inaugural cruise, the aptly named Ice Cream Floats, which travels from Miami to the Dominican Republic. The ship sails February 5–9 and features sets by Modest Mouse, Built to Spill, Portugal. The Man, Kurt Vile and the Violators, David Cross, Mannequin Pussy, Tropical Fuck Storm, Brock’s side project Ugly Casanova and The Black Heart Procession. Though he never imagined he’d be a “cruise guy,” he warmed up to the concept after linking up with the right production team.
“Now that I’m engaged in it,” he says, “I’m pretty excited.” More information about the cruise is available here.
Editor’s Note: This article discusses personal experiences with psychedelics in a journalistic context. Psychedelic substances remain illegal in many jurisdictions, and effects can vary widely based on substance, dosage, environment and individual health factors. High Times does not encourage illegal activity. Readers interested in harm reduction are encouraged to seek credible, science-based resources and to understand the laws applicable in their location.
