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MOGWAI - Classic or Dud?

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Just picked up the new album from Mogwai, ROCK ACTION. Anyone hear it?

My verdict? (like any of you care): ROCK ACTION as a title (despite having the innate coolness of being named after Stooges drummer, Scotty Asheton's nick name) is a woefull misnomer.

Mogwai are one of those bands that I honestly *REALLY WANNA LIKE*, but it just never seems to happen. I love what I read about them, I like their austere aesthetic, they're Scottish, but this is the second album of theirs I've shelled out ambitiously for (the first being COME ON DIE YOUNG) and again I'm left largely cold & clammy.

Track number five, "You Don't Know Jesus," is suitably "rockin'," but don't come to me saying it's all forward-thinking, cutting-edge, "post-rock," because it's nothing those much maligned-shoegazers in Ride weren't doing ten years ago (and they were tagged with the epithet "retro").

Perhaps I need to be more patient and let it grow on me. Or not.

What are your thoughts about them?

― alex in nyc, Monday, 23 April 2001 00:00 (12 years ago) Permalink

No sir, I don't like 'em.

― , Monday, 23 April 2001 00:00 (12 years ago) Permalink

I came late to the Mogwai party, and I quite like them, but probably not in the same way that the fawners do. The new one isn't grabbing me as much as Come on Die Young, but it will probably grow on me like that one did. I can see the Mogwai/Ride connection, but it's a bit tenuous. The point of early Ride was the wall of sound, and Mogwai is more stripped back, to the point of generally not including vocals (the inclusion of so much singing on this one is probably going to keep it down, in my mind, but we'll see). I don't think the point of Mogwai is really about ROCKING, and the title is really tongue-in- cheek, from what I can tell. It's more about atmosphere. I think Come on Die Young and the 1999 EP leading off with "Stanley Kubrick" are my faves so far.

― Sean Carruthers, Monday, 23 April 2001 00:00 (12 years ago) Permalink

I too would really want to like them but from what i have heard, they're pretty formulaic and even more pretentious than there post- rock peers... although i did hear the beginning of a mary-anne hobbs (ugh!) dj session with (and i quote MAH) "THE MIGHHTTTTYYY MOGWAI" and it was so fucking cool... i think they'd have a few more ideas than making every rotten track they do softsoftsoftsoftBLOODYLOUDsoftsoftsoftsoftBLOODYLOUD! it does get boring after a while - i think i'll stick to Godspeed and Sigur Ros before buying anything by them.

― dog latin, Monday, 23 April 2001 00:00 (12 years ago) Permalink

I bought 'Young Team' as an aid to infiltrating a bunch of posho indie kids a few years back, and (once again) tried to like it, but...oh sod it, they're just rubbish, aren't they? Possibly the ultimate "I don't like them." "That's because you don't understaaaaaand..." "But there's nothing to understand!" band.

― DG, Monday, 23 April 2001 00:00 (12 years ago) Permalink

I find Young Team as good as Loveless, which sez lots. I picked up on Mogwai back with the release of Ten Rapid, which is admittedly sort of spotty, but Summer was/is a great track. Also, I find their choice of remixers very tasteful. CODY grew on me, but was always a bit on the morose end, while I find Young Team to be a big head rush. I've been quite looking forward to Rock Action, and must go pick it up. So, uh, classic. I mark them as the best of the "second wave" of post- rock (i.e. the post-Chicago/Louisville scene).

― Sterling Clover, Monday, 23 April 2001 00:00 (12 years ago) Permalink

I like Young Team a lot, that's a really solid record If you like the sound rush, you have to like "Mogwai Fear Satan." Speaking of which, I love both the Kevin Shields and Surgeon remixes on Kicking a Dead Pig. That's definitely the best "rock band remixed" album I've heard, I think (I have the beautiful vinyl which as both the regular remixes and the extra "Fear Satan" remixes.) But CODY just did not grow on me at all, no matter how hard I tried, and I eventually sold it. I just cannot extract any meaning out of that record, it's so slow undynamic, w/ no new sounds, and they're such misers with the melodies. I know a lot of smart people love CODY, but I can't hear it. Which means I have little interest in the new one, though I'm keeping one ear out.

― Mark, Monday, 23 April 2001 00:00 (12 years ago) Permalink

Godly and glorious and I don't care what anyone thinks. I wear my _Blur: Are Shite_ shirt with pride. So yah boo. Now I haven't heard the new album yet, but I wait patiently. I unfortunately missed the recent tour, but them's life etc.

Also, I casually wish flaming death on anyone who ever again compares the *TENDENTIOUSLY BORING AND OBVIOUS MOTHERFUCKERS* in Godspeed You Fucking Black Emperor to Mogwai ever again, or at least sentence them to listening to the Swans' "I Was a Prisoner In Your Skull" and realizing where GYBE got their schtik from, right down to the found- sound man-on-street sample. They're at least starting to have two moods instead of one, but still. Sigur Ros I'll let live because they sound like they appreciate the shoegaze.

Back in September 1999, I had the chance to see GYBE and Mogwai at two separate shows the same week. Mogwai had this little thing called 'dynamics,' which among other things meant, say, not playing the same damn song over and over again and again, including the encores. Now guess how quickly I feel asleep at the GYBE show -- standing ten feet from the stage, I should note. Labradford blew them off the stage while playing at one/one-hundreth of the volume level.

As it is, Labradford excepted, the likes of Timbaland create more dramatic and unique work than all of these bands, but I know where my allegiances lie nonetheless...

― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 24 April 2001 00:00 (12 years ago) Permalink

Just bought Tortoise "Standards": very nice if you're on the post- rock tip!

― dog latin, Tuesday, 24 April 2001 00:00 (12 years ago) Permalink

Um, Ned, didn't you say, earlier on when telling this story of yours, that you had been up all night before the show? If so I think it's a bit disengenuous of you to pass over that fact...

― Josh, Tuesday, 24 April 2001 00:00 (12 years ago) Permalink

mogwai have made some very good records (helicon, young team) and have also been superb live (duchess of york, leeds, 1998 springs to mind). but its over. they seemed to want to turn away from what they did best, a laudable plan certainly, but they didn't really seem to know what to do instead. floundering now

― gareth, Wednesday, 25 April 2001 00:00 (12 years ago) Permalink

*thinks* Man, was I? Maybe I was. Gosh, I can't recall. Okay then - - if I was, GYBE accelerated the process. ;-)

― Ned Raggett, Thursday, 26 April 2001 00:00 (12 years ago) Permalink

If they're "floundering" now then I hope I'm doing as well once I'm past my "peak". I am quite pleased by Rock Action. Not as much as by the previous albums, but then I've only had it for a day. So, classic.

I don't understand how people could say that the early singles were their best, as many seem to say.

― Josh, Thursday, 26 April 2001 00:00 (12 years ago) Permalink

Josh, you silly goose, a band's early material is always better! It's, like, an immutable law if you're a cool music person!

In all seriousness, I'm forming theories on this in my own head, and also incorporating my "whichever album you heard first is the one you'll treasure" theory. Consider Mogwai (a good choice considering the thread): I love love love Come on Die Young, but it's obvious to me that most Mogwai fans that have been there from the beginning prefer Young Team as an album. Is Young Team necessarily better? I don't know, and I'm not convince. I much prefer CODY because it was my entry point (although I heard Kicking a Dead Pig first, I discount it because it was not what I was expecting at the time, and it just slid off my mind like an egg off of T-Fal).

I think Mogwai is a victim of their own success with a certain group. Young Team was obviously a great record, and it set up unreasonable expectations for the followup, thus the fact that many people don't really like CODY all that much. And also thus, many people don't think Rock Action measures up. I personally like Rock Action just fine the more that I listen to it, even with the vocals. Over the past two years, there have been a host of albums that I thought were just not up to snuff, because the previous releases set such high expectations: David Sylvian's last one. The last Godspeed (sorry, Ned). The new Nick Cave (and the jury's still out). And now this one.

― Sean Carruthers, Thursday, 26 April 2001 00:00 (12 years ago) Permalink

But you see, even though I have slight inclinations toward saying I prefer Young Team more, really I have a hard time choosing between it and Come On Die Young. They have different characters.

― Josh, Thursday, 26 April 2001 00:00 (12 years ago) Permalink

Oh - and I think the vocals help make Rock Action as good as it is. The Gruff Rhys track is fantastic.

― Josh, Thursday, 26 April 2001 00:00 (12 years ago) Permalink

3 years pass...
I hadn't listened to Young Team in probably a year and a half before this morning, but this album remains an utter masterpiece of mood and tension, a collection of muted, fucked-up, drifting-to-sleep emotions. There's an unbelievable implied depth (sonic? emotional?) to the songs, something that's really hard to get at from merely describing the sound or the methodology of the record. I like to think that there's a certain place in the world -- maybe some pocket of air a few hundred feet in the air over the ocean -- where the theme from "Tracy" plays endlessly. Is anyone else still listening to Young Team?

― Clarke B. (Clarke B.), Sunday, 9 May 2004 14:44 (9 years ago) Permalink

Not too recently...but not for lack of love (I still like my weird conflation of the two Slint albums as Tweezerland).

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Sunday, 9 May 2004 14:49 (9 years ago) Permalink

Utter toss. I don't want my pop stars to look like that troll-like little wretch. I remember he wrote did a piece for NME and signed of "Stuart Braithwaite, HND". HAHAHAHAHA! HNfuckingD. What was the point of putting that after your name you knobass? I have sooo much dislike for them. And as for, "I've studied music so I can prove Blur are shite", well whoopeefuckingdoo Mr HND, I've studied English and the correct spelling would be Blur: Is Shite.

Fucking knob. No wonder you don't chart.

― CRW (CRW), Sunday, 9 May 2004 14:59 (9 years ago) Permalink

Even though I am a big Slint fan, I loved (and still love) that entry, Ned. And somehow I knew that the first follow-up post would be from you!

x-post -- Calum, "Blur: Are Shite" implies that not only the band but the individual members of the band are shite, which is far more effective than your proposed alternative. And since when have Mogwai given a fuck about being pop stars? It's a non-issue.

― Clarke B. (Clarke B.), Sunday, 9 May 2004 15:02 (9 years ago) Permalink

do they feed you dumb food in calum-land as well as half-arsed, badly concieved britpop? calum:shite.

― doomie x, Sunday, 9 May 2004 15:17 (9 years ago) Permalink

'Hunted By A Freak' is as poppy as it gets ;)

― stevem (blueski), Sunday, 9 May 2004 15:26 (9 years ago) Permalink

Weird old ILM thread.

― Mark (MarkR), Sunday, 9 May 2004 15:43 (9 years ago) Permalink

You got that right, Mark. I like Alex's tentativeness, his polite way of carefully hedging his disdain ("Perhaps I should be more patient...") -- so quaint!

― Clarke B. (Clarke B.), Sunday, 9 May 2004 15:50 (9 years ago) Permalink

Keep in mind I think that was only five, six days after he first joined the board!

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Sunday, 9 May 2004 15:57 (9 years ago) Permalink

I like 'em.

― latebloomer (latebloomer), Sunday, 9 May 2004 23:44 (9 years ago) Permalink

Re the original question - Rock Action is their finest moment I reckon.

― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Monday, 10 May 2004 00:40 (9 years ago) Permalink

I like Alex's tentativeness, his polite way of carefully hedging his disdain ("Perhaps I should be more patient...") -- so quaint!

I still post like that!

― @d@ml (nordicskilla), Monday, 10 May 2004 00:45 (9 years ago) Permalink

Heh, so do I, Skillz, but it's certainly a far cry from nu-Alex in NYC!

Tim, what does it for you with Rock Action? I think it's a fantastic record, but it doesn't give me the glazed eyes quite like Young Team or parts of Ten Rapid. It's more consistent, maybe, but less intense. The slower, prettier tracks on Rock Action have a deliberateness, a literalness about them, whereas early "ballads" like "Tracy" or "Helicon 2" are gauzier, dreamier, more enveloping. That's just me.

― Clarke B. (Clarke B.), Monday, 10 May 2004 00:57 (9 years ago) Permalink

No, old-Alex in NYC was like that too, I think he was just trying to be respectful to Mogwai because they weren't in the pabulum category.

I'll answer your question a bit later Clarke when I've thought about it more.

― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Monday, 10 May 2004 03:09 (9 years ago) Permalink

I'll be interested in Tim's answer, but to chime in roughly (I would listen to the album right now but I'm hearing a pretty good Labradford set here so anyway): I see Clarke's distinction readily, that sense of tripping out in the earlier stuff in terms of envelopment. But I think I'd also rank Rock Action at their best, in that there's some near undefinable sense of...I'm looking for the word, I hesitate to say 'epic melancholy,' though I'm willing to bet there's a good German word for it. I think the album's focus is its strength, I recall the band almost joking a bit about how Rock Action would be their radically different 'short song' album, but in respects by arranging it that way everything became more tightly wound, amplified, brought into sharper focus. It's also a sense where all the individual elements *work* so effectively, how everything adds to the mix and seems to emerge and cut out right when needed.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 10 May 2004 04:24 (9 years ago) Permalink

i think all of the Mogwai LPs are faulty, i really think they hit their strides in the EP format. nearly every one of their EPs is much more aimed for repeat listenings then the inferior full-lengths.

― gygax! (gygax!), Monday, 10 May 2004 04:50 (9 years ago) Permalink

Young Team, for the sake of example, is filled with a bunch of crap that's just fast-forward fodder strung between "Tracy", "Mogwai Fear Satan", "A Cheery Wave From Stranded Youngsters" etc.

― gygax! (gygax!), Monday, 10 May 2004 04:52 (9 years ago) Permalink

you don't mean weltschmerz, do you, ned? it would be too strong a word to apply to mogwai.

― alex in mainhattan (alex63), Monday, 10 May 2004 04:58 (9 years ago) Permalink

I don't get what's interesting about this band. I don't like this band. That is all.

― Debito (Debito), Monday, 10 May 2004 05:02 (9 years ago) Permalink

yeah, i know chiming in to say psshhh on a thread is k-lame, but, psshhh.*

*i know full well, tho, that druggy blissout longeur stuff is not my thing, and mogwai have been something i've meant to try to convince myself of, when i get around to it, on the strength of so much adulation from ppl i respect. see also: beta band (zzzz)

― g--ff (gcannon), Monday, 10 May 2004 05:06 (9 years ago) Permalink

Aside from the EP vs. LP camp, am I right in assuming that fans are generally divided into Young Team-or-bust and CODY+Rock Action? i.e. are there people who like all three (I'm unwilling to accept that it was Mogwai who recorded Happy Songs) of their albums?

― Leeefuse 73 (Leee), Monday, 10 May 2004 05:18 (9 years ago) Permalink

Good to know that I'm not the only one who likes Rock Action best.

― jaymc (jaymc), Monday, 10 May 2004 05:21 (9 years ago) Permalink

Also gygax! otm about how the albums all have flaws (except Rock Action!(which, if it actually has problems, at least their brevity masks 'em)).

― Leeefuse 73 (Leee), Monday, 10 May 2004 05:22 (9 years ago) Permalink

Young Team is maybe five really really good tracks and a bunch of totally ignorable filler. The next album was totally ignorable filler and immediately after that I stopped caring.

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Monday, 10 May 2004 05:24 (9 years ago) Permalink

If "weltschmerz" means what I think it does (literally = world pain, but more poetically = world weary, with a hint of pathos) then I think the term is appropriate for "Rock Action".

Gygax's comments re: Young Team are completely otm. I've never understood the fawning over that record. Yes, there are intense moments on YT that can't be found on any of their other albums, but there's a load of filler too. Once I discovered live Mogwai bootlegs I discovered I didn't need YT to get my Mogwai Fear Satan fix anymore.

― Barry Bruner (Barry Bruner), Monday, 10 May 2004 05:32 (9 years ago) Permalink

Happy Songs is my favourite, which fucks your theory, Leeefuse! I thought Rock Action could have been magnificent when I first got it, but its appeal didn't hold for me. I'd have to go back and listen to everything again to see why.

― Sick Nouthall (Nick Southall), Monday, 10 May 2004 05:55 (9 years ago) Permalink

one of the most boring bands i have ever seen live.

― jack cole (jackcole), Monday, 10 May 2004 05:59 (9 years ago) Permalink

Rock Action is the best purely for the six odd minutes of 2 Rights = 1 Wrong, especially for the comedown bit with the three-note banjo line and glitchy noises in the last couple of minutes.

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Monday, 10 May 2004 08:25 (9 years ago) Permalink

Ned actually nailed my answer - I guess "epic melancholy" just does it for me more than the trippy stuff. But I do have a longer answer in the works.

I never listen to CODY, incidentally. Love the EP in between CODY and Rock ActioN though.

― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Monday, 10 May 2004 11:13 (9 years ago) Permalink

i.e. are there people who like all three (I'm unwilling to accept that it was Mogwai who recorded Happy Songs) of their albums

That would be me! And the new one too, though I don't listen to it anywhere as much.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 10 May 2004 11:59 (9 years ago) Permalink

I can't remember the last time i was more underwhelmed by an album than I was by Rock Action. It was like listening to an unfinished sketch of an idea of an album. Like rehearsal tapes that were recorded really well. So, it is a memorable album in that sense. But I haven't listened to it since I bought it years ago. I'll listen again and see if I've changed my mind any. Stranger things have happened!

― scott seward (scott seward), Monday, 10 May 2004 12:16 (9 years ago) Permalink

And I generally have nothing against that kinda stuff of course. Even stuff with a lack of ideas/creativity. Cool guitar noise on its own is usually enough for me. I still listen to listless Bowery Electric and Magnog albums.

― scott seward (scott seward), Monday, 10 May 2004 12:22 (9 years ago) Permalink

Now see, I was in fact listening to Magnog last week...

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 10 May 2004 13:06 (9 years ago) Permalink

I think fuck the curfew is their strongest release, but after that, I'd take Happy Songs and Rock Action over the other two albums easily. The songs on each are more distinct.

― kyle (akmonday), Monday, 10 May 2004 13:23 (9 years ago) Permalink

Skipping 178 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

Quite.

― brain thoughts (Scik Mouthy), Thursday, 21 January 2010 10:51 (3 years ago) Permalink

a trifle up 'emselves, aren't they

― your favorite toy dinosaur ruined my asshole (acoleuthic), Thursday, 21 January 2010 10:54 (3 years ago) Permalink

they're allowed to be.

― m the g, Thursday, 21 January 2010 11:18 (3 years ago) Permalink

I had a little spat with Braithwaite on Twitter the other day

Did you? I don't follow him so I missed this ... go on ...

Premiere of the film at the GFT on Feb 28, by the way. I fully intend to be there for it.

― Error: No Error (grimly fiendish), Thursday, 21 January 2010 16:43 (3 years ago) Permalink

This isn't exactly the first live album, is it? I mean, "Government Commissions" was a Peel Sessions disc, which was pretty live. And yes that tracklist looks solid and could be improved only by "My Father, My King".

― kate moss and heavy machinery in a dessert (Stevie D), Thursday, 21 January 2010 16:55 (3 years ago) Permalink

Which I once had the opportunity to see them play live and WOW

― kate moss and heavy machinery in a dessert (Stevie D), Thursday, 21 January 2010 16:55 (3 years ago) Permalink

Stuart Braithwaite playing a short 6-song solo set at the opening party for an exhibition of Spacemen 3-related artworks by Natty Brooker at Mono, Glasgow on Sunday 17th January 2009...

― krakow, Thursday, 21 January 2010 21:43 (3 years ago) Permalink

get a smaller guitar man, y'look like verne troyer

― take me to your lemur (ledge), Thursday, 21 January 2010 22:51 (3 years ago) Permalink

3 months pass...

Preorder http://www.mogwaispecialmoves.com/order

― StanM, Thursday, 20 May 2010 16:33 (3 years ago) Permalink

i was on the train wi barry burns, or his doppleganger, on Monday.

― Thaksin Albert Shinawatra (jim in glasgow), Thursday, 20 May 2010 17:31 (3 years ago) Permalink

2 months pass...

Dear Call All Destroyer, here is how to make Mogwai's first two studio LPs as good as or even better than Rock Action and HSFHP:

1. Yes! I Am A Long Way From Home
2. Like Herod
3. Tracy
-
4. R U Still In 2 It
5. Mogwai Fear Satan

----

1. Punk Rock
2. CODY
3. Helps Both Ways
4. Y2K Non-Compliant Cardia
5. May Nothing But Happiness Come Through Your Door
-
6. Oh! How The Dogs Stack Up
7. Ex-Cowboy
8. Chocky
9. the last 3 minutes of Christmas Steps w/ Luke Sutherland on violin and Iggy Pop's speech overlaid backwards

^^^awesome albumz

― Anti-Suggest Ban Order (acoleuthic), Sunday, 25 July 2010 22:50 (2 years ago) Permalink

btw I don't think it would be hard to get a segue from the noise-out at the end of Chocky into the guitar figure that concludes CS (as soon as the drums cut out, is when I would pick it up)

― Anti-Suggest Ban Order (acoleuthic), Sunday, 25 July 2010 22:52 (2 years ago) Permalink

New studio album in Feb. 2011 -> http://www.nme.com/news/mogwai/52392

― StanM, Saturday, 7 August 2010 16:32 (2 years ago) Permalink

2 weeks pass...

Mogwai play Stereo next Sunday 29th August!

Tickets onsale tomorrow morning 11am in person from Monorail or online from Ticketmaster (link is currently non-working).

Mogwai say:

Glasgow - Stereo 29th August

We are playing a show next Sunday August 29th at Stereo in Glasgow. Moon Unit are playing too. Doors are at 8pm. Tickets will be available online tomorrow morning at 11am here . They will also be available in person from Monorail records at 11am tomorrow. Tickets are £10 and proceeds will be going to Lanarkshire Cancer Trust and aid to the victims of the floods in Pakistan.

I could pretty much explode with excitement at the prospect of seeing them at such a tiny venue!

― krakow, Sunday, 22 August 2010 19:42 (2 years ago) Permalink

BTW, Re: Special Moves live album: tomorrow.

Physical items will ship on 8/23.
Digital downloads will be available on 8/23.

― StanM, Sunday, 22 August 2010 19:51 (2 years ago) Permalink

who got this today?:

CD/LP Track listing

1. "I'm Jim Morrison, I'm Dead"
2. "Friend of the Night"
3. "Hunted By A Freak"
4. "Mogwai Fear Satan"
5. "Cody"
6. "You Don't Know Jesus"
7. "I Know You Are But What Am I"
8. "I Love You, I'm Going To Blow Up Your School"
9. " 2 Rights Make 1 Wrong"
10. "Like Herod"
11. "Glasgow Megasnake"
additional tracks on LP version and available through download
12. "Yes! I Am A Long Way From Home"
13. "Scotland's Shame"
14. "New Paths to Helicon, Pt. 1"
15. "Batcat"
16. "Thank You Space Expert"
17. "The Precipice"

Burning live DVD track listing:

1. "The Precipice"
2. "I'm Jim Morrison, I'm Dead"
3. "Hunted By A Freak"
4. "Like Herod"
5. "New Paths to Helicon, Pt. 1"
6. "Mogwai Fear Satan"
7. "Scotland's Shame"
8. "Batcat"

― Bee OK, Wednesday, 25 August 2010 04:32 (2 years ago) Permalink

I did on Monday.

― krakow, Wednesday, 25 August 2010 20:57 (2 years ago) Permalink

Me too. It's very good.

― StanM, Wednesday, 25 August 2010 21:00 (2 years ago) Permalink

3 months pass...

Forgot how much I still loved "Christmas Steps" -- good to have the reminder.

― Ned Raggett, Thursday, 2 December 2010 06:48 (2 years ago) Permalink

1 month passes...

My personal Mogwai gigography, thus far...

1998.09.16 - Northgate Arena, Chester (supporting Manic Street Preachers)
2001.11.03 - Wulfrun Hall, Wolverhampton
2003.10.19 - Barrowlands, Glasgow
2005.08.18 - ABC, Glasgow
2005.11.29 - Arches, Glasgow
2006.04.27 - Usher Hall, Edinburgh
2006.09.23 - Barrowlands, Glasgow
2007.07.14 - Custard Factory, Birmingham (Supersonic Festival)
2008.04.26 - Tramway, Glasgow (Triptych Festival)
2008.10.21 - Corn Exchange, Edinburgh
2010.08.29 - Stereo, Glasgow

I have the Mogwai Season Ticket for the 5 Scottish shows at the end of this month as well.

― krakow, Tuesday, 4 January 2011 18:13 (2 years ago) Permalink

Shamefully, having a) grown up in Scotland and b) been into Mogwai since around 1999/2000, the Perth show at the end of the month will be my first time ever seeing them live. At least it's in my hometown, right? The 16 year old me would have exploded. May have a ticket for the Feb Edinburgh show too, which would help work on the total.

― MichaelJLambert, Tuesday, 4 January 2011 22:13 (2 years ago) Permalink

I dig their name, I dig their song titles, I dig their album covers and titles. But there's nothing *very* captivating about the band where I feel I have to amass multiple albums. It's unfortuante that in the sort of post-rock realm that if something touches upon being visual, it's given the OK to be recorded. I try looking for a hook but then realize there isn't supposed to be one, and really that's sort of where the subgenre fails: I usually have a hard time differentiating album to album, song to song.

― heh (kelpolaris), Tuesday, 4 January 2011 23:30 (2 years ago) Permalink

i think mogwai's albums have been kinda stale since c. 2003 or so, but i'll still see 'em live when i can

show i caught Mr. Beast-era was immense

― ilxor this could be a standout thread for you imo (ilxor), Saturday, 8 January 2011 20:35 (2 years ago) Permalink

I've repeatedly tried to like them, but never gotten anywhere. (I don't like most things, come to think of it.)

― _Rudipherous_, Saturday, 8 January 2011 21:44 (2 years ago) Permalink

8 months pass...

The new Remember Remember album (on Mogwai's Rock Action imprint) is very lovely.

― djh, Thursday, 6 October 2011 20:06 (1 year ago) Permalink

Was listening to that this morning! Good stuff.

― Ned Raggett, Thursday, 6 October 2011 20:06 (1 year ago) Permalink

I remember seeing him years ago playing a bar on a Sunday night where nobody was interested. He started getting heckled so he'd record the heckles and loop them into the songs.

― Rory's new misogynist car (Gukbe), Thursday, 6 October 2011 20:11 (1 year ago) Permalink

they're playing at a planetarium here on saturday. but i can't go because i have a co-worker's wedding reception. fml!

― you've got male (jim in glasgow), Thursday, 6 October 2011 20:11 (1 year ago) Permalink

10 months pass...

Following a Facebook post I made about "not getting Mogwai", I can conclude that there are two types of people in the world - people who lurve them and people who think they're really boring and artless.

― Quickly, take hold of my hand, asshole! (dog latin), Wednesday, 8 August 2012 09:35 (10 months ago) Permalink

3: People who think the have their moments, but are basically U2 minus Bono, plus loud/quiet.

― Chewshabadoo, Wednesday, 8 August 2012 10:59 (10 months ago) Permalink

Listened to a recent live set last night and found it pretty beautiful in places. Don't think I've listened to them in a while otherwise.

― Stevolende, Wednesday, 8 August 2012 11:05 (10 months ago) Permalink

Postrock fans in general are fucking awful.

― Sick Mouthy (Scik Mouthy), Wednesday, 8 August 2012 12:13 (10 months ago) Permalink

That is correct, esp. Scotch ones

― Supper's Burnt (PaulTMA), Wednesday, 8 August 2012 12:56 (10 months ago) Permalink

3: People who think the have their moments, but are basically U2 minus Bono, plus loud/quiet.

You don't get it, do you? Mogwai are Bono. They are not Larry.

― kmfdotm (ledge), Wednesday, 8 August 2012 13:41 (10 months ago) Permalink

Line-up for the forthcoming remix album is great...

"Tim Hecker, The Soft Moon, RM Hubbert, Robert Hampson, Zombi, Justin Broadrick, Xander Harris, Umberto and Cylob"

― NWOFHM! Overlord (krakow), Thursday, 9 August 2012 07:59 (10 months ago) Permalink

Looks okay, but I don't buy scientology-related products as a rule of thumb.

― Quickly, take hold of my hand, asshole! (dog latin), Thursday, 9 August 2012 08:35 (10 months ago) Permalink

3: People who think the have their moments, but are basically U2 minus Bono, plus loud/quiet.

― Chewshabadoo, Wednesday, 8 August 2012 10:59 (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

4: ppl who loved them back in the day and are happy for them to do their thing now but have little real use for them

― price lo matalan (DJ Mencap), Thursday, 9 August 2012 10:08 (10 months ago) Permalink

4 months pass...

had stopped paying attention to these for about a decade or so, but "music for a forgotten future", as featured in that michael mayer omegamix from earlier this year, really is incredible.

― Heterocyclic ring ring (LocalGarda), Wednesday, 12 December 2012 23:31 (6 months ago) Permalink

god i love 2 rights make 1 wrong

― mookieproof, Saturday, 15 December 2012 05:49 (6 months ago) Permalink

yaay another boring british band who rip off superior American acts and we're all supposed to lap it up and say how interesting...

― Master of Treacle, Saturday, 15 December 2012 06:19 (6 months ago) Permalink

possibly the ultimate "if this lot came from Chicago instead of Glasgow no-one would give a shit about them" band

Just IMO

― Master of Treacle, Saturday, 15 December 2012 06:24 (6 months ago) Permalink

That is correct, esp. Scotch ones

Shouldn't be so hard on Stuart Braithwaite...

He has mellowed or is he still a self-regarding gobshite?

Lest we forget the cringeworthy Kappa outfits.

― Master of Treacle, Saturday, 15 December 2012 06:41 (6 months ago) Permalink

tortoise are super boring and people care about them. they have some pretty clear influences,but they don't really rip anyone off too hard.they've gone downhill since the rock action ep imo,but they're p good all in all.not that great live imo,but precious few bands are.

― tell it to my arse (jim in glasgow), Saturday, 15 December 2012 07:40 (6 months ago) Permalink

Saw Braithwaite in the crowd at ATP last weekend. He's still short and bald.

― comedy is unnatural and abhorrent (Scik Mouthy), Saturday, 15 December 2012 08:31 (6 months ago) Permalink

2 months pass...

Loving the new soundtrack but it probably helps that I already loved the show ("Les Revenants")

― licorice oratorio (baaderonixx), Thursday, 28 February 2013 14:24 (3 months ago) Permalink

Yeah the new record is really lovely. They still keep coming with this wonderful music. I'm hoping the Tv programme will come to the BBC.

Nobody will notice because they aren't good anymore.

― kraudive, Thursday, 7 March 2013 00:51 (3 months ago) Permalink

3 months pass...

was wondering what this soundtrack was as i watched the tv show. i ignored these for a while after rock action as it didn't seem like something i ever wanted to listen to again, but some amazing music in the last few years.

only heard "music for a forgotten future" via michael mayer's kompakt megaset, also an amazing tune.

― Shamrock Shoe (LocalGarda), Wednesday, 12 June 2013 21:10 (1 week ago) Permalink

lol i just noticed i posted about that upthread. ah well. there it is again and i hadn't posted about the returned yet, now on channel 4, uk folks.

― Shamrock Shoe (LocalGarda), Wednesday, 12 June 2013 21:13 (1 week ago) Permalink

MFAFF is the best thing they've done by quite a long way. Second might be the Like Herod Peel session, or the remix of Earth's Teeth of Lions Rule The Divine

― wince (imago), Wednesday, 12 June 2013 21:19 (1 week ago) Permalink

I keep coming back to this remix of "Tracy" from the first record:

― Jersey Al (Albert R. Broccoli), Thursday, 13 June 2013 01:08 (1 week ago) Permalink


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