Ugly Casanova

Ugly Casanova

Ugly Casanova is an American indie rock band carried on Sub Pop Records. At present, the band has only released one album: Sharpen Your Teeth. According to the Ugly Casanova website, in 1998 a man named Edgar Graham, a.k.a. "Ugly Casanova", impressed himself upon the band Modest Mouse while backstage at a concert in Denver, Colorado. After some prodding, he shared his work with the band, and began performing it early before shows while some people were milling around. Whenever he completed these performances, he retreated quickly with a look of anger and shame. After a time, a few small recordings were created, after which Edgar vanished.

Isaac Brock has since revealed that Edgar Graham was "a fiction thing that [Brock] started a while back to eliminate [himself] from the band," to escape having to do interviews. One bit of evidence that had previously suggested that story was false: Modest Mouse's 1996 EP The Fruit That Ate Itself was credited to having been under the production company Ugly Casanova, which suggested it was a name Brock made up to retain creative control and publishing rights to his music while under a major label. The band lineup now consists of Isaac Brock (Modest Mouse), Tim Rutili (Califone, Red Red Meat), Pall Jenkins (The Black Heart Procession), John Orth (Holopaw), and Brian Deck.

Two tracks released by Ugly Casanova, "Baby's Clean Conscience" and "Parasites", appear earlier as unreleased demos of Modest Mouse in the Paracite Sessions purportedly recorded in 1993 at Calvin Johnson's Dub Narcotic Studio. In 1997 the single To Roads To Go was released [1] on the apparently now defunct Magic Eye Records, however, this is likely considered an entirely different incarnation of Ugly Casanova by Brock et al.

It seems that another release is unlikely, owing to contract issues between Modest Mouse's label, Epic Records, and the contract Brock signed with Sub Pop Records to produce the record.

Discography

• Diggin Holes b/w Babys Clean Conscience (Sub Pop Records, 2002)
• Sharpen Your Teeth (Sub Pop Records, 2002)

External links

• Ugly Casanova lyrics at Lyricwiki
• Sub Pop Ugly Casanova Page
• An article about Ugly Casanova
• Luckyhorse Industries - Ugly Casanova merch page
• "Who is Edgar Graham?"
• An interview with Isaac Brock
• Another interview with Isaac Brock
• "Things I Don't Remember" music video at youtube