It is my firm belief that everything is mathematics. Not governed by math, just is. Is mathematics.

That's how you tell Art - the numbers are right. And that's how you explain coincidences - it's all in the numbers and probabilities. Electron clouds? Girls? Chord progressions? There's no right answer - it's all probabilities - but they're all predictable in an unpredictable way -- hence that feeling, you know the one, when it just feels right, when you hold onto a girl or watch her breath and the sides of her mouth fall and her ribs expand slowly when you play her Leonard Cohen.

Or -- lets go for relevance here -- when you're that girl and the chords and words just feel right, even if they aren't conventional. Even if you haven't been taught to like those sort of chords by your history as a music listener, or by pop-dorks that tell you what's good for your ears.

Probabilities. Coincidences. Numbers that feel right.

Last week I posted some words about an artist called Danger Mouse, and wrote (badly) about hip-hop lyrics and song structure. Coincidence: this week, I'm posting three tracks from Modest Mouse's acclaimed The Moon And Antarctica album. And they are most definitely an indie rock band, but Isaac Brock's vocals make a link in brain with hip-hop in their delivery, and maybe -- and here's where the math talk comes in -- that's the only way that they can fit in, because the numbers are so incredibly right. I know that this is Art.

Modest Mouse - 3rd Planet 3.7mb
Modest Mouse - Tiny Cities Made Of Ashes 3.4mb
Modest Mouse - Alone Down There 2.2mb

Modest Mouse are a band from America's North West. They have a new album, Good News For People That Love Bad News, which comes out April 6th (in the States, at any rate). The Moon And Antarctica, has also recently been re-released with additional content. Their webpage, which is uninformative yet pretty, can be seen here: www.modestmouse.com