There is something about Seattle. Maybe it's the water, the air, the rain or the amplifiers, but just as Austin or L.A. threatens to overtake it as the capital of alternative rock, Seattle's mosh pits belch out yet another batch of lank-haired, sullen-faced guitar heroes.

Modest Mouse: Eric Judy (left), Isaac Brock and Jeremiah Green

Modest Mouse is the latest group to take on the mantle worn by Green River, Mudhoney, Pearl Jam and, of course, Nirvana. But if grunge rock, the music that put Seattle on the map, was all about the rediscovery of punk fundamentals, Modest Mouse (like Built to Spill -- another recent Pacific Northwest icon) is a different thing entirely. With its meandering, textured and textural songs, the Mouse is almost avant-garde.

Anthemic guitars and punky hooks of the type usually associated with the Seattle sound are almost nonexistent on Modest Mouse's latest release, "The Moon and Antarctica." Instead they rely on dynamics: angry, impassioned crescendos and whispery atmospheric breaks nailed down by Jeremiah Green's syncopated, almost jazzlike drumming and Eric Judy's bass. Around them whips Isaac Brock's haunting, quivering guitar.

Not since Johnny Marr's guitar graced the Smith's "How Soon Is Now," has distortion sounded this poignant and lovely.

What the Mouse does share with its Seattle brethren is an emotional intensity. Brock, also the group's lyricist and vocalist, is nothing if not cynical and a little pissed off. The group's unlikely name comes from a sociological text about the working class, and the lyrics are full of the class ambivalence and alienation of a personality existing on the fringes -- of society and, occasionally, of mental health.

Brock's catalog of broken spirits and white-trash dreams is far too personal to be called punk. He is more a negative Woody Guthrie, a troubadour of America's less-than-perfect dream. A touch of Jack Kerouac is also there. Modest Mouse has seen a lot of the road, and lonely yet freeing landscapes often grace its album covers.

The band's touring experience means it is capable of putting on the most mind-blowing of shows -- even on top of too much alcohol or not enough sleep. It might be a whirlwind tour through the group's extensive repertoire, Brock channeling all of his short life's crap into 45 minutes of powerful bluster. Or it could be an extended, transcendental jam, Brock's guitar warbling through his stoic rhythm section.

On its last trip to Japan, Modest Mouse saw more corners of the country than most local groups. It was a warmup of sorts before recording "The Moon and Antarctica," its major-label debut. In an interview at the time, Brock was characteristically enigmatic when discussing this album. "Blood," he said. "There is going to be a lot of stuff about blood and the way it's an ocean," an almost verbatim quotation of the lyrics on the album's opening cut, "3rd Planet."

As the newest cover boys of indie rock, it was no surprise that the Mouse was courted by many major labels. The surprise was, after several successful releases on sterling indies labels such as Up Records and K, it decided to make the big leap to Epic/Sony.

But if Brock was obscure about his music, he was very clear about his motivation to sign with a major label. The Mouse's albums on Up had been successful and the group was being talked up as rock's next big thing, but the band itself had little to show for it. Brock was still virtually homeless, living out of a van when in Seattle and working at a friend's interstate stop on the Indiana turnpike when not touring.

Any concern that the Mouse has sold out is soon dispelled by "The Moon and Antarctica." Though the sound is slightly fuller than previous efforts, Modest Mouse has always had a taste for overdubs, drenching its records in wave after wave of Brock's guitar. The improvement this time is more the result of better studios and more time than a deliberate attempt to make a more commercial record. Though Brock's lyrics have been reduced from boil to simmer, they are still those of a perpetual outsider. He can afford to live in a house by now, but he still seems a long way from home.