Dashboard (song)

"Dashboard" is a song by American indie rock band Modest Mouse and is the second track on their 2007 album We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank. The song was released as the first single from that album and peaked at number 5 on Billboard's Modern Rock Tracks chart. It debuted and peaked at #61 in the Billboard Hot 100 in early February 2007.[1] In late May 2007, the song was released as a single in the United Kingdom with "King Rat" as the B-side. This single coincided with the band's UK tour.[2] This song was #87 on Rolling Stone's list of the 100 Best Songs of 2007.[3]

"Dashboard"
Single by Modest Mouse
from the album We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank
B-side"King Rat"
ReleasedJanuary 16, 2007 (2007-01-16)
GenreIndie rock
Length4:06
LabelEpic
Songwriter(s)Isaac Brock, Jeremiah Green, Eric Judy, Joe Plummer, Johnny Marr, Tom Peloso
Producer(s)Dennis Herring
Modest Mouse singles chronology
"Ocean Breathes Salty"
(2004)		 "Dashboard"
(2007)		 "King Rat"
(2007)
Alternative cover
iTunes digital release
Audio sample
  • file
  • help
Music video
"Dashboard" on YouTube

Members of Modest Mouse's e-mail list were sent a link of the finished track on January 3, 2007 and the song was released to American radio stations on January 16.[4] The lyric, "The dashboard melted but we still have the radio" references Planes, Trains and Automobiles when Del (John Candy) is telling the police officer about the car after it is burned.

Composition

This song was written the first day Modest Mouse began collaborating with Johnny Marr. The guitarist later recalled to Uncut magazine: "On the first night we (Marr and Isaac Brock) just set up two amps opposite each other and just got louder and louder and improvised. I just started playing 'Dashboard,' which I'd been playing a few weeks before and forgotten about. And he instantly started improvising the lyrics, which knocked me out. To see someone produce those lyrics just off the top of his head is amazing: I've never seen it done in such a way."[5]

Music video

The music video to the song starts with several old sea captains having drinks in a pub, and one of the sea captains telling the others a story about a giant fish. Overhearing the conversation, another captain (played by Brock) sits at the table and begins to tell the story of how he lost his hand to a giant fish while sailing in the Sargasso Sea. The video flashes back to Brock as a young captain, who hooks an enormous fish in the middle of a storm. The fish tugs Brock to a surreal island made of musical and electronic equipment, biting off his hand in the process. The tribal inhabitants capture Brock and tend to his wounds, replacing his hand with a microphone. The video then returns to the pub, where Brock finishes his story among jests and jokes of disbelief from his audience. The pub's bartender (Seasick Steve Wold) angrily approaches the table, verifying Brock's story by pulling up his own pant leg to reveal a guitar's neck.

The island and its natives pay homage to and take numerous stylistic cues from similar lost-at-sea stories by science fiction/fantasy author H.P. Lovecraft. The bizarre and cluttered appearance of the island may have been inspired by the science-fiction motif of the Super-Sargasso Sea.

Charts
Chart (2007) Peak
position
Canada (Canadian Hot 100)[6] 38
UK Singles (Official Charts Company)[7] 111
US Billboard Hot 100[8] 61
US Alternative Airplay (Billboard)[9] 5
US Pop 100 (Billboard)[10] 56

Release history
Region Date
United States January 16, 2007
United Kingdom May 28, 2007

References
  1. Hasty, Katie (2007-02-08). "Beyonce Makes It Ten Weeks At No. 1 With 'Irreplaceable'". Billboard.
  2. "Interstate 8 News 2007/05/14". Interstate-8. 2007-05-28. Retrieved 2007-05-02.
  3. No byline (December 11, 2007). "The 100 Best Songs of 2007" Rolling Stone. Retrieved 2007-12-21
  4. "Pitchfork: News - January 3, 2007". Pitchfork. Archived from the original on January 9, 2007. Retrieved January 16, 2007.
  5. "Dashboard". Songfacts.com. Retrieved 2009-12-30.
  6. "Modest Mouse Chart History (Canadian Hot 100)". Billboard. Retrieved April 3, 2019.
  7. "Chart Log UK (1994–2010): M – My Vitriol". zobbel.de. Retrieved April 3, 2019.
  8. "Modest Mouse Chart History (Hot 100)". Billboard. Retrieved April 3, 2019.
  9. "Modest Mouse Chart History (Alternative Airplay)". Billboard. Retrieved April 3, 2019.
  10. "Modest Mouse – Awards". AllMusic. Archived from the original on July 31, 2012. Retrieved April 3, 2019.
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