Mogwai is:
Dominic Aitchison
Stuart Braithwaite
Martin Bulloch
Barry Burns
John Cummings
"I"m gonna take satisfaction/I"m gonna get rock action" - Iggy Pop: "Rock Action"
"I wanted to see if fire would burn me/You"d think I would know if four walls could hold me" - Mogwai: "O I Sleep"
When is a rock band not a rock band? When that rock band is called Mogwai.
"A lot of people make art-rock but forget to actually rock. We"re a rock "n" roll band that avoids clichés."
Thus spake Mogwai almost four-and-a-half years ago. Much has changed in their world since then, but that basic declaration of principle remains unyielding. This is a group simultaneously focused and unhinged, as rooted in tradition as they are compelled to refute conventional practice. They"re just as likely to stroke your head as mess with it, but they"ll do that too, because they can and because it"s necessary. Mogwai love rock, it"s just that they"re also affronted by so much of what calls itself "rock". All of which begins to explain how Mogwai come to be where they are at this very moment: poised to release a record titled "Rock Action".
History: noun. A record or account of past events and developments. [editor"s note: history is usually written by the winners].
Some Mogwai history. Formed in 1995 by Stuart Braithwaite (guitar) and Dominic Aitchison (bass), soon to be joined by Martin Bulloch (drums) and John Cummings (guitar). First gig at the 13th Note in Glasgow. First single "Tuner"/"Lower" released on band"s own Rock Action label, March 1996.
Three more singles appear during the next 12 months, each for a different label, each heightening the sense that here was a band unafraid of aiming high and then reaching higher, beyond the parochial definitions of what young men playing guitars are supposed to achieve. Emerging into a world suffocating in the creative halitosis of that thing known as Britpop, Mogwai were unapologetic about their ambition, unafraid to believe they could make records as great as those that had enobled their musical salad days - "The Velvet Underground And Nico", "Closer", "Isn"t Anything"... Mogwai served notice that it was still OK to feel, still OK to believe that music wasn"t a matter of life or death - but rather, it was something far more important than that.
1997 sees the release of "Ten Rapid", a user-friendly compilation of the preceding 12 months" singles, priming the public for the giant steps that were to come. First "4 Satin", the band"s debut release for esteemed Glasgow independent label Chemikal Underground, featuring three songs of absolute and intense degree.
Then "Mogwai Young Team", a debut album for which the groundswell of anticipation was actually surpassed by the actuality: ten songs, 65 minutes, of which the final 16 comprised the thermonuclear nirvana "Mogwai Fear Satan". A staggering statement of intent, a record filled with wordless songs of love, hate and devotion, it seemed the only flaw in its immaculate design was: how to do better next time?
But such are the perils of an external perspective. Mogwai themselves dismissed "...Young Team" almost as soon as it was released. The recording sessions had been rushed, they claimed. "We papped it," Martin would later admit. Intimations of a fractious atmosphere in the studio - alluded to on the record itself by the song "Tracy" - were seemingly borne out by the departure in bizarre circumstances of auxiliary noisemaker Brendan O"Hare, who had joined earlier that year in a fit of youthful enthusiasm.
With the benefit of hindsight, 1997 was Mogwai"s year of living dangerously, embracing the rock beast...and surviving. They resolved to never leave anything to chance again.
Mogwai greeted 1998 by playing some increasingly incandescent live shows, showcasing new material which could only be termed rampant. Meanwhile, Kevin Shields remixed "Mogwai Fear Satan", and the summer saw the release of a new EP, the combatively titled "No Education = No Future (Fuck The Curfew)", a hard-but-fair comment on the so-called Labour government"s enlightened attitude towards urban deprivation as imposed upon the teenagers of the band"s native Lanarkshire.
So potent a doomed youth anthem was lead track "Christmas Steps" that it caught the approving eye of the Manic Street Preachers, who invited Mogwai as support on their autumn enormodome jaunt. For the Manics it was a chance to vicariously relive their splenetic past. For Mogwai it was a chance to scare the shit out of several thousand people every night. In Wales, Dominic showed the unappreciative hordes his arse: "It was the biggest cheer we got on the whole tour," he remembered.
In November Mogwai departed Glasgow for the wilds of upstate New York, the better to concentrate on the job of recording their new album with Mercury Rev and Flaming Lips" sonic wand-waver Dave Fridmann. The job was a good "un, not least because there was a new secret weapon in the ranks: Barry Burns, wit, raconteur and all round instrumental utility man. Give Barry a horn and he"ll blow it, hand him a flute and he"ll toot it, and you don"t even want to know how he treats guitars.
With Barry"s generous contributions to the fore, Mogwai"s second album "Come On Die Young" could hardly fail. Released in March 1999, and featuring a cameo appearance from one James Osterberg plus Stuart"s vocal debut, it proved the band justified in their criticisms of its predecessor, and the point was emphasised by a string of legendary live shows, notably headlining the NME Brat Shows, then providing Glastonbury with a suitably stellar climax, during which Stuart Braithwaite urged the masses to "Fuck The Queen". That summer also witnessed Mogwai"s move into the rag trade with their cheeky "Blur: Are Shite" T-shirts. So demonstrably justified was this opinion that a certain Mr Albarn himself was moved to demand a consignment.
All of which goes to prove the essence of what makes Mogwai such a precious band: they mean what they do and do what they mean. They don"t let their art get in the way of having a good time. And they never stop thinking, pushing, kicking against the pricks. So when it"s time for a new Mogwai records, the safest thing to expect is the unexpected.
"Rock Action" is that and much more. After two epic double albums, "Rock Action" is a single set, eight tracks, less than 40 minutes long. Aesthetically, it"s near perfect: it could almost be one song in eight phases. Gruff Rhys from Super Furry Animals sings on the heartbreaking "Dial: Revenge", while Stuart himself sings on "Take Me Somewhere Nice", "O I Sleep" and "Secret Pint" (which is, as you will appreciate, the song-title of the year).
Once again it was recorded at Dave Fridmann"s Tarbox Studios, with additional sessions at Ca Va in Glasgow and Sorcerer Sound in New York City. It will be the band"s first release for their new label Southpaw. It"s like a big warm cuddle and you"re gonna love it.
"It"s very different," says Stuart. "We"ve used a lot of varied instrumentation, like banjos and violins and trumpets. Oh, and trombones! It"s not stark at all. It"s more "Pet Sounds" than "Psychocandy". It"s velvety, with a little "v". We"ve moved away from the sackcloth of old. There"s still noise, though. We"ve spent a lot of money making this album sound hissy. There"s a lot of bands at the moment making the kind of music we"ve already made. We needed to do something different. People are going to be really surprised. The whole album is peppered with spastic magic."
Several years ago that noted modern sage Stephen Malkmus opined that Mogwai were "the band of the 21st Century".
It should be noted that the 21st Century has now arrived.
Source: http://www.rockactionrecords.co.uk/ |
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