MOGWAI - Classic or Dud?

bored of Mogwai, bored of life.

saw them last night at triptych in glasgow. massive set, mostly dominated by new stuff. all awesome, one track in particular absolutely transcendent. sounds to me like they've really gone back to the "young team" dynamic but are re-tooling it with the benefit of 10 years' experience.

fuckin' godlike, basically.

With Alex's original thoughts on this - Why? On paper I should love this band

They have just never managed to have that little bit of magic that sets them apart.

I've seen them live a couple of times and they work better.

At the time , I loved them for the BLUR TShirt but with the benefit of hindsight, the better band (aside from one or two real cringing clunkers) wasn't Mogwai.

Really do want to like this band - off the top of my head, I love Helicon, Christmas Steps and 'Travel Is Dangerous' from ther last.

I will give this a whirl

I feel similar to Alex - I make occasional attempts to get into them because I like where they are conceptually, and always end up recalling that I find them quite boring to actually listen too. Still wouldn't mind checking them out live though, they strike me as a band that one needs volume and flashing lights to truly appreciate.

I totally agree grimly fiendish. I was at the Triptych gig last night too, and for me it was a transcendent return to form. An amazing show.

I've seen em live maybe 5-6 times between '01 and '07, and they have been uniformly excellent live, very consistent.

I've seen them about 8-10 times and the last couple of times I saw them I was sadly disappointed as it just felt lack-lustre and tired. But Saturday night was astounding. Once again I left the gig grinning like an idiot and convinced that they must surely be the best band in the world (in a hyperbolic post-gig-haze kind of way), which is how it was for the 5-6 times previous to that too.

The new tracks were much more inspiring too than when they were premiering Mr Beast material prior to that album. I agree that they seemed to hark back to the dynamics of the earlier Young Team-era stuff and bode well for when the new album appears (this year, surely, but any ideas as to when?).

hey krakow...tis your beardy scribe here. we meet on ilx at last. lost you after the gig on saturday. glad to hear it left you beaming.

I too had my faith in mogwai somewhat restored on saturday wouldn't quite go so far as transcendent, but it was a massive improvement from their supersonic 2007 drear. at their best, they were untouchably beautiful. the new stuff sounded highly promising too, on the whole.

they occupy an interesting and unique position in british music though. how many other instrumental rock bands can you name that have had such a long and successful career and been so consistently feted and beloved - at least as a live act, despite the arguably ongoing drop-off in album quality...

Young Team remaster sounds great!

that was already a nice sounding album so the remaster must be massive

It brings out the bouzouki playing more clearly. And the crumhorn.

??????

bit too compressed for you then

haha

I've not heard it! I quite like the levels on the original release, though. I'm just wondering whether Ned's joking about a crumhorn?!

http://www.busymolemusic.co.uk/images/crumhorn2.gif

the crumhorn doubles up nicely as a cane for midgets

Could that mean there is someone over on the Third Ear Band website forum joking about how the glitchy laptop effects are much clearer on the the Macbeth remaster?

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!