MOGWAI - Classic or Dud?

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I have that version of "BMX" on a weird early mispressing of one of the EPs...

The BBC version of "New Paths To Helicon" is like a hot wet fuck.... yes it is. Sorry.

gygax! (gygax!), Sunday, 16 January 2005 11:58 (nineteen years ago) link

ie. good but hardly distinguished from any other decent record?

Andrew Blood Thames (Andrew Thames), Sunday, 16 January 2005 14:31 (nineteen years ago) link

Certainly dud.
Never liked 'em

zeus, Sunday, 16 January 2005 20:36 (nineteen years ago) link

Ranked:

1. Happy Songs For Happy People
2. Young Team
3. Ten Rapid
4. Rock Action
5. Come On Die Young (I don't dig CODY)

Nic de Teardrop (Nicholas), Sunday, 16 January 2005 22:58 (nineteen years ago) link

That's almost the exact reverse of how I'd rank them but with Rock Action ahead of CODY.

Leeeter van den Hoogenband (Leee), Monday, 17 January 2005 01:41 (nineteen years ago) link

one month passes...
mogwai: are fuckin amazing and young team is one of the best albums of the 90's. anyone who listens to their shit (pre-CODY especially, though i quite like rock action and happy songs is a fine album) and can honestly say they are bored or undewhelmed is the goddamn antichrist in my opinion. don't talk to me. don't even LOOK at me. i'll clap you bitch, right in the middle of the dancefloor. truth.

rockaction (rockaction), Friday, 18 February 2005 05:01 (nineteen years ago) link

How is Happy Songs not boring?

wondering aloud, Friday, 18 February 2005 05:04 (nineteen years ago) link

i'm ready to be clapped. i don't have all day, you know.

jack cole (jackcole), Friday, 18 February 2005 05:07 (nineteen years ago) link

does that mean you're going to give me the clap?

poortheatre (poortheatre), Friday, 18 February 2005 05:12 (nineteen years ago) link

Young Team is one of my all-time faves. The others that I've heard (Rock Action, Happy Songs) are also good.

sleep (sleep), Friday, 18 February 2005 06:02 (nineteen years ago) link

Step on up and clap me, choirboy, because that shit is boring and underwhelming.

Alex in NYC (vassifer), Friday, 18 February 2005 06:10 (nineteen years ago) link

It's all about 'Summer' people. As loud as possible. Even the quiet bits.

Mogwai: Are mostly classic but with more than a smattering of dud.

Onimo (GerryNemo), Friday, 18 February 2005 09:04 (nineteen years ago) link

mogwai: rock.

grimly fiendish (grimlord), Friday, 18 February 2005 10:59 (nineteen years ago) link

Onimo OTM.

I haven't been completely convinced by an album since Young Team, and the single version of Summer marks a high spot they've never reached again (so it's a shame it came so early). In fact, sometimes I think Summer is the best quiet/loud song evaarrr.

aldo_cowpat (aldo_cowpat), Friday, 18 February 2005 11:05 (nineteen years ago) link

see them live, then judge again

Rizz (Rizz), Friday, 18 February 2005 11:27 (nineteen years ago) link

The best album is the collection of the 7"s (Summer, Ithica, Tuner, Helicon etc.)

Chewshabadoo (Chewshabadoo), Friday, 18 February 2005 11:35 (nineteen years ago) link

no, you're all misunderstanding this. mogwai rock and they get better with everything they do. "happy songs" is a work of godlike genius. it's as simple as that. they are great. anyone who doesn't get this is plain WRONG. etc etc.

grimly fiendish (grimlord), Friday, 18 February 2005 11:57 (nineteen years ago) link

two months pass...
On relistening to Rock Action today I think increasingly that this is more and more a 'core' album of mine, something that I can never get tired of no matter how often I listen (see the Cure's Faith as another example). It feels like an elegy.

Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 3 May 2005 14:08 (eighteen years ago) link

They made me realize.

Gravel Puzzleworth (Gregory Henry), Tuesday, 3 May 2005 14:41 (eighteen years ago) link

Hehehe

Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 3 May 2005 14:41 (eighteen years ago) link

Stuart Braithwaite HND

Hahahahahaha

Czammer, Tuesday, 3 May 2005 15:12 (eighteen years ago) link

three months pass...
so ... is anyone else going to the glasgow ABC show tomorrow night? this will be something silly, like the tenth time i've seen them. and somehow i've persuaded mrs fiendish to come too. oy.

anyway. i am very excited about this. errors (rah) and trout (oh jesus) supporting. roll up, roll up. pints at the bar. etc.

grimly fiendish (grimlord), Wednesday, 17 August 2005 21:02 (eighteen years ago) link

four weeks pass...
Do you understand what I'm saying, sir?

Leeeeeeeee (Leee), Wednesday, 14 September 2005 19:09 (eighteen years ago) link

So THAT'S where it's from. Cool.

Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 14 September 2005 19:25 (eighteen years ago) link

Class.

Chewshabadoo (Chewshabadoo), Wednesday, 14 September 2005 20:59 (eighteen years ago) link

one year passes...

ye gods the loud bits are shit

That one guy that hit it and quit it, Friday, 6 July 2007 15:21 (sixteen years ago) link

Still can't bring myself to enjoy this album.

Alex in NYC, Saturday, 7 July 2007 00:11 (sixteen years ago) link

Barry Burns was Mogwai's Yoko.

jim, Saturday, 7 July 2007 00:13 (sixteen years ago) link

To be honest I'm still a bit bitter that they used "young team". I really wanted to call a band that or something.

jim, Saturday, 7 July 2007 00:16 (sixteen years ago) link

a graphical representation of the quality of mogwai's music over time

http://qi.yarnslave.com/Blocks/Templates/Template4inRightTriangle.gif

electricsound, Saturday, 7 July 2007 00:26 (sixteen years ago) link

True dat.

jim, Saturday, 7 July 2007 00:35 (sixteen years ago) link

so from now here the only way is up?

Zeno, Saturday, 7 July 2007 03:22 (sixteen years ago) link

so so so true. they really were an incredible band in about 1997, and a pretty bad one by 2001 or so.

toby, Saturday, 7 July 2007 05:46 (sixteen years ago) link

eight months pass...

Young Team reissue bonus disc tracklist @ http://brightlight.youngteam.co.uk/eng/news.php :

from chemikal underground:

mogwai young team - remastered and augmented by additional disc of material

we told you that we had given young team a bit of a reworking and we weren't kidding. the original album has been remastered and tweaked and will now (and until the end of time) come to you in a 2cd format with another cd of young team era recordings nestling alongside the album proper. the second cd tracklisting is as follows...

1. 'untitled' [previously unreleased track from the young team sessions - summer of 1997]
2. 'i don't know what to say' [from the young team sessions - originally released on radio 1 sound city cd (nme 1998)]
3. 'i can't remember' [originally released on 'glasgow' compilation 7" by plastic cowboy 1998]
4. 'honey' [originally released on a spacemen 3 tribute by rocketgirl in 1998]
5. 'katrien (live)' [recorded live at lounge ax, chicago 15th october, 1997]
6. 'r u still in 2 it (live)' [recorded live for the mary anne hobbs show, bbc radio 1, 28th october, 1997]
7. 'like herod (live)' [recorded live at t in the park, strathclyde country park, summer 1997]
8. 'summer (priority) (live)' [recorded live at wnyu , new york city, 1998 should be 1997]
9. 'mogwai fear satan (live)' [recorded live at chemikal underground's 5th birthday party: the garage, glasgow, for the john peel show, bbc radio 1, 12th march, 2000]

in more good news for you vinyl enthusiasts out there, we can also confirm that this pretty magnificent package will be available (for a limited period of time) on quadruple vinyl. we say again: quadruple vinyl - extravagant? it's all this album deserves to be honest...

StanM, Tuesday, 11 March 2008 09:52 (sixteen years ago) link

They haven't announced a release date though, not that I can find at the moment.

StanM, Tuesday, 11 March 2008 09:58 (sixteen years ago) link

This looks like it could be a great reissue. I'm really pleased that it sounds like the original album will appear without any annoying bonus tracks on the first disc but then with a genuinely interesting bounty of extra stuff on the second CD. I'm excited all over again.

krakow, Tuesday, 11 March 2008 11:58 (sixteen years ago) link

mogwai bores me to death. not sure why. demographically i should totally love them. more research is necessary.

U-Haul, Tuesday, 11 March 2008 16:05 (sixteen years ago) link

Their new cover of Gouge Away is absolutely terrific.

Cunga, Tuesday, 11 March 2008 16:09 (sixteen years ago) link

I thought it was pretty poor (the Gouge Away cover).

krakow, Tuesday, 11 March 2008 16:44 (sixteen years ago) link

It's a pretty straight cover, I'll admit, but the intensity of the song matches well with the Mogwai sound.

Cunga, Tuesday, 11 March 2008 17:02 (sixteen years ago) link

bored of Mogwai, bored of life.

Tom Wellman, Wednesday, 12 March 2008 16:27 (sixteen years ago) link

one month passes...

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.

grimly fiendish, Sunday, 27 April 2008 13:22 (sixteen years ago) link

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

Fer Ark, Sunday, 27 April 2008 19:01 (sixteen years ago) link

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.

chap, Sunday, 27 April 2008 19:10 (sixteen years ago) link

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.

krakow, Sunday, 27 April 2008 20:19 (sixteen years ago) link

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

stephen, Sunday, 27 April 2008 20:27 (sixteen years ago) link

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?).

krakow, Monday, 28 April 2008 06:46 (sixteen years ago) link

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...

m the g, Monday, 28 April 2008 10:21 (sixteen years ago) link

three weeks pass...

Young Team remaster sounds great!

StanM, Wednesday, 21 May 2008 09:34 (fifteen years ago) link

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

Charlie Howard, Wednesday, 21 May 2008 15:50 (fifteen years ago) link


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