MOGWAI - Classic or Dud?

I haven't heard the remaster and bonus disc material yet, but the vinyl box set looks amazing, it's big classy black minimalism. Me want very much.

new track, "the sun smells too loud", up on the matador site here.

not what i expected AT ALL. but fucking great. that is a grimly-tastic bassline.

melodically it's reminding me of wire or something ... this is such a surprise. i'm massively taken with it, i have to say.

love it! (and that batcat one too, but that's not online officially)

i've not heard that one, or seen any links to it. this is one of those albums i don't want to spoil by hearing in too many dribs and drabs beforehand, mind you :)

fantastic!

this somehow reminds me of M83

yes, i thought exactly the same. it's texturally quite different, but there's something in there, isn't there? i think it's maybe a lot to do with the melody and structure, but ... i don't really know what i'm talking about, so i'll shut up.

I like it a lot but I thought it was gonna breakout into Baba O'Reilly at the end ;)

Fuck Buttons rip-off merchants

I like it a lot but I thought it was gonna breakout into Baba O'Reilly at the end ;)

oh, that would be awesome!

This is fantastic but it's clearly on the Happy Songs... trajectory, it's not gonna win over the Fear Satan lovers/Happy Songs haters.

But..... but Happy Songs is their best album!

(Song is pretty good btw.)

bizarrely, i had a pint with john from mogwai after the MBV gig last night -- he's a friend of a friend. didn't actually talk about this song, mind: felt it would be odd. what a top guy, though.

That's quite nice, quite understated and groovy. I quite like.

Oh, I like this a LOT. Excited now.

i'm listening to it again now. it's quite soothing on my sore ears :)

i love it. it's one of the best individual songs they've done (by which i mean i tend to listen to mogwai as an albums band, and find that individual tracks out of context don't necessarily work so well).

despite my comments above, i've also now heard that other new one stan mentioned :)

it's pretty tremendous, if a lot more like what you'd expect.

Old, but funny:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QdBKoiPE78Y

Barry starts playing way too soon (0:04), see Stuart's reaction

"but I thought it was gonna breakout into Baba O'Reilly at the end "

the problems with this song is that it's too monotonic, and the guitar line is annoying after the 100 times it is played.

BEST VIDEO EVER AWARD

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=yUaCxx5npko

(just in case: this is just a fan made thing)

:D awesome

oh god that video

Tracklist:

01 I'm Jim Morrison, I'm Dead
02 Batcat
03 Daphne and the Brain
04 Local Authority
05 The Sun Smells Too Loud
06 Kings Meadow
07 I Love You, I'm Going to Blow Up Your School
08 Scotland's Shame
09 Thank You Space Expert
10 The Precipice

haha Scotland's Shame, awesome.

Very much dud.

^ very much wrong.

three-word posts.

don't say much.

Sorry, it's just difficult to explain what's so dud about them since I find it so hard to see what could possibly not be dud about them. I've given them several tries, everytime thinking maybe there's more to it than lame arpeggios on poor sounding guitars but there really isn't. And the thought of how many bands who find this a cool and easy (because it is) schtick to rip off, playing with their eyes closed, makes it even more unforgivable

three-word posts.

don't say much.

loooool

While I wouldn't declare them a dud, I don't really see what the big deal is. Friends whose opinions I respect like them a good deal, but I just don't see what's so special. I guess I think of them as the Spoon of post-rock: competent, but kind of uncompelling. Tell me why I'm wrong.

I actually think Ganger is better.

I should probably listen to Young Team again.

oh, aye: they're fundamentally very easy to rip off (badly) -- i did a lot of that myself a few years ago :)

but i dunno ... i'm always surprised and saddened by the opprobrium they seem to attract round here. purely out of interest, which albums have you listened to, sonderangerbot? (not that i'm trying to convince you, or anything: i appreciate your elucidation.)

i mean, i don't even think -- say -- "young team" and "happy songs" are easy to compare; they are, if you like, at opposite poles of the mogwai sound. (and i do think "young team" -- much as i love it -- is overly praised as an album. indeed, there's a case for saying that they've never made a truly great album yet: there's always a flaw somewhere. the last one, probably, is the closest they've come: i have very high hopes for the next one.)

i guess, for me, it's an emotional connection -- which might be to do with the first time i heard "new paths to helicon" and how it just sounded like everything i was looking for, with the wide-eyed yearning that seemed to be missing from so much contemporary post-rock. but i still feel that, at their best -- whether it's the "shit, this is easy!" simplicity of "mogwai fear satan" or the restraint of "the sun smells too loud" -- they're transcendent.

there's a case for saying that they've never made a truly great album yet: there's always a flaw somewhere.

I agree with this, but unlike you I think their albums are becoming more flawed since "Rock Action". But if nothing else, the new one has GREAT song titles!

Surely the second track on the forthcoming Batcat EP is the winner in terms of genius song titles:

"stupid prick gets chased by the polis and loses his slut girlfriend"

I really do like Mogwai but their musical opinions are often dangerously close to bigoted if not outright suppressive.

Also, "The Sun Smells Too Loud" is cool for a minute or two but then I found myself thinking "please change, please do something a bit different". But nay! We are the Mogwai and we must make the same point incessantly for seven gruelling minutes! Their old stuff was never this one-dimensional. Still, I'm holding out some hope for the LP.

I ought to revisit them and reassess.

the new album's pretty durn good, actually. in some ways it could be argued that it revisits the mr beast template, but does so with considerably more passion and power.

that's not to say it's a noisier record than its predecessor, but for the most part it feels more focused and potent.

I likes it, anyway.

The cover is a bit meh.

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51yaeNUXjfL._SL500_AA240_.jpg

No tear, for a start.

Nivvur furget

Saw them last night at the Hammersmith Apollo, and they were really good. Kind of wish they hadn't bothered with the encore though- the last track (don't know what it's called) was good enough in its own right.

Batcat. ( http://www.youngteam.co.uk/brightlight/eng/gig241008.php )

(the encore: Helicon 1 and Two Rights Make One Wrong - both are pretty great though)

Nice one. To be fair, Helicon 1 was very good.

I saw them in Edinburgh on Tuesday and really enjoyed it again, though the sound wasn't as good as sometimes.

The old epics were the highlights for me: Xmas Step, Helicon 1 and Like Herod... awesome.

DUD!

ooh, challops!

hearing that in the "oooh, Danone" voice

To be fair, Helicon 1 was very good

didn't they do 2 rights as the final encore in london? i have heard that song be less than devotionally sublime, but it's rare.

krakow: bugger, i was there too. would have been good to say hello. it certainly wasn't the best i've seen them, although batcat totally fucking slayed, and like herod was about as awesome as it gets. i was, to be honest, a bit distracted by the appalling visuals -- showing the batcat animation was a great idea, but the rest were absolutely plums.

errors were blindingly good, i thought. and fuck buttons everything i hoped for (though NOT LOUD ENOUGH).

I loved Fuck Buttons, but got the sense that a lot of the audience weren't digging it. Pity the fools. You must be a volume masochist though, there was some intense volume going on. My sister & her friend got scared and ran away to the bar.

Fuck Buttons were good in London too, really something to hear them on a big sound system with organ-shuddering base!