Modest Mouse and St. Vincent take “Portlandia”

Besides the usual nonsensical tomfoolery of Portlandia, a recent episode starring St. Vincent’s Annie Clark and Modest Mouse’s Isaac Brock brought up incredibly important questions for any person trying to raise a “musically cultured” child (or whatever that means). Are Mike + The Mechanics the bane of rock history? Is Whitney Houston our generation’s Dante? Is Harry Nilsson the perfect soundtrack to an intense session of Lincoln Logs? Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein would say yes to all of the above, but are they the authorities in musicianship that we should obey? Sure, Brownstein used to be in Sleater-Kinney and now leads Wild Flag, and even Armisen has had some drumming stints alongside Les Savy Fav and Joanna Newsome- but what does that mean. Well… that’s debatable. Needless to say, the sketch guest starring Brock as the musically incompetent good samaritan is a hilarious reminder of the dangers of an over-inflated music ego.

Click here to see Clark model an “arresting” police outfit for the Portlandia police station.

Also check out IFC’s website for a clip of St. Vincent performing a 4AD session of “Cheerleader,” which was posted to the Portlandia website following the episode.

- Gary Kafer, The Gary Kafer Sugar Wafer (Mondays from 2-4pm @ WQHS.org)