Dashboard (song)

"Dashboard"
Single by Modest Mouse
from the album We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank
B-side	"King Rat"
Released	January 16, 2007 (2007-01-16) (see Release history)
Format	Download, 7", CD
Genre	Indie rock
Length	4:06
Label	Epic Records
Writer(s)	Isaac Brock, Modest Mouse
Producer	Dennis Herring
Modest Mouse singles chronology
"Ocean Breathes Salty" (2004) "Dashboard" (2007) "King Rat" (2007)
Alternative cover iTunes Digital Release

"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 #5 on Billboard's Modern Rock Tracks chart. It debuted at #59 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]

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]

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]

Release history

Region	Date
United States	January 16, 2007 (2007-01-16)
United Kingdom	May 28, 2007 (2007-05-28)

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 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 an island, 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.

In popular culture

• The song is used for the soundtrack of the video game Shaun White Snowboarding.
• The song is featured as a playable song in the video game Guitar Hero On Tour: Modern Hits.
• The song is also used for the video game Major League Baseball 2K8.
• The song is used in the 2010 Spring campaign of the Polish TV station TVN.^[6]

Other versions

• An DJ/Mashup bootlegger known as World Famous Audio Hacker released Dashboard 2.0 which mixes this song along with parts of Falco's Rock Me Amadeus.

References

1. ^ Hasty, Katie (2007-02-08). "Beyonce Makes It Ten Weeks At No. 1 With 'Irreplaceable'". Billboard. http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003543450. 
2. ^ "Interstate 8 News 2007/05/14". Interstate-8. 2007-05-28. http://www.interstate-8.com/. 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 Media. http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/page/news/2007/1/3/Stream_Modest_Mouse_Dashboard#40272. 
5. ^ "Dashboard". Songfacts.com. http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=9050. Retrieved 2009-12-30. 
6. ^ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLEkgwl2G_k

External links

• Modest Mouse at MySpace
• Modest Mouse "Dashboard" video premiere at MTV2
• Music: Video Premiere - Modest Mouse at mtvU