Modest Mouse Prep EP, Heath Ledger-Directed Video

Modest Mouse will release a music video directed by late actor Heath Ledger later this year.

Modest Mouse will release a music video directed by late actor Heath Ledger later this year.

The video is for the song “King Rat,” a bonus track from the band’s 2007 album, We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank.

Ledger shot the video, and director Terry Gilliam contributes animation. Besides being a Modest Mouse fan, Ledger was a huge music buff; he also shot a documentary on Nick Drake and a music video for Ben Harper.

“Heath and I have a mutual friend and when we were in Australia,” frontman Isaac Brock told VH1 in 2007. “My fiancé and some of us in the band went out on a boat with him and his family and friends and talked about the idea,” Brock said of the video’s origin. “The idea sort of dropped, but then he just sent me an email saying that he wanted to do it.”

Modest Mouse have a new EP in the works dubbed No One’s First And You’re Next. One track, “Satellite Skin,” which the band performed this week on Letterman (sans sometimes-member Johnny Marr), will also be released as a 7-inch, backed with “Cocker Spaniels,” on April 18th, Record Store Day. No One’s First And You’re Next is set for an August release.

Here’s the track list:

“Autumn Beds”
“Guilty Cocker Spaniels”
“History”
“I’ve Got It All (Most)”
“King Rat”
“Satellite Skin”
“Tie the Lake Down”
“The Whale Song”