Mogwai - Mr. Beast

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It's out in February, and there's no album I'm looking forward to more in 2006. Here's important part of the press release/"biography"...

"Mr Beast" is the band's fifth studio album and, as the title suggests, sees them returning to their first, true love - Rock with a capital "R" - after using a softer palette with more varied instrumentation for album number three ("Rock Action") and delivering a balanced summary of their work to date with 2003's "Happy Songs For Happy People". Mogwai of course, make their own rules in order to break them, so, alongside huge blocks of thrillingly implacable guitar noise, "Mr Beast" features exquisitely poignant piano passages (most of them played by keyboardist/guitarist/vocalist Barry Burns) and great, limpid spaces.

Guitarist/vocalist Stuart Braithwaite explains the album's impetus thus: "We consciously tried to have some louder music on this album, because we had begun to realise that there was a big difference between our live shows and our records, and there was no real reason for that. We wanted to make a record that we were going to enjoy playing live, because when we're on stage, we like the songs where we're really going for it more than the ones where we're just kind of plinking away.

"The quiet-loud/quiet-loud formula that was our trademark became pretty clichéd," he adds, "and also a lot of other people started doing it, so we consciously tried to stop. Not that we invented it, but it got to the point where people thought that was all we did, plus we were getting tired of it ourselves. We'd taken it to extremes on songs like "Like Herod" [from 1997's Mogwai "Young Team"] and we thought there wasn't much further we could go with it. What we ended up doing then was being really quiet and minimal, but later we realised that we really missed making a lot of noise! Now felt like a good time to get back to that, because in a way, it's what started the band. Although only about 25 per cent of the new album is actually noise, that's the one thing we consciously had in mind when we set out."

Recorded between April and October 2005 in the band's own Castle Of Doom studios in Glasgow, "Mr Beast" was produced by Tony Doogan, who also produced "Happy Songs. . ." and was the engineer on "Rock Action". It opens with "Auto Rock" - whose sweetly melancholic, central piano motif is gradually engulfed by a swell of fulsome guitars and pummelling drum beats - and closes with lurching, psych-rock behemoth "We're No Here" (sic). In between are eight future Mogwai classics, including the heads-down "Glasgow Mega-Snake", where what must surely be a dozen guitars swarm around a molten metal core like crazed killer bees, the drum machine-driven country gospel of "Acid Food," which features pedal-steel guitar, the wintry splendour of "Friend Of The Night" and the impossibly poignant "I Chose Horses," featuring guest vocalist Tetsuya Fukagawa (of Japanese hardcore band Envy) and a keyboard contribution from composer/arranger Craig Armstrong. Whether light and lean or dark and monstrous, however, these songs underline Mogwai's belief that to have meaning, rock needs both mass and monumentality. If "Mr Beast" has one thing, it's presence.

"I like music that has weight," admits Braithwaite, "even if it's not sound weight. If I think of a really 'heavy' record, I think of 'Songs Of Love And Hate' by Leonard Cohen as much as I think of the latest record by Sunn O))). It is a bit weird when people think our music is depressing, because I find bad music depressing and we all think sad music is incredibly uplifting. Even if a piece of music is melancholic, if it makes you think, or has some weight to it, then I find that really uplifting. It's like seeing a beautiful painting - it makes your day a bit better."

Of Mogwai's continued interest in pushing their own parameters, Braithwaite declares, "We didn't want to be a band that made a few good records and then made a series of increasingly shitty ones that were like fading photocopies of the earlier records. I've seen that happen a lot of times. The fact is, none of us can do anything else - it's not like we dropped out of architecture school and can go back to it one day! We knew we were in this for the long haul and we knew we wanted to be making worthwhile, important music until the day our hands stop working, so it serves our purpose to challenge ourselves, on every level."

The beauty expressed by "Mr Beast" is the sound of those challenges being met - fearlessly. As to the noise, it's Mogwai's design for life.

― Simon H. (Simon H.), Monday, 21 November 2005 23:23 (twenty years ago)

hmmm. it actually sounds like they might have made a decent album again! hope i'm not going to regret not having got tickets to see them at the ica...

― toby (tsg20), Monday, 21 November 2005 23:48 (twenty years ago)

wasn't alan mcgee hyping this as "better than loveless" a couple months back?

― that guy who pretended to be Ya Kid K that one time (haitch), Monday, 21 November 2005 23:52 (twenty years ago)

yep those words crossed his lips

― DJ Martian (djmartian), Monday, 21 November 2005 23:58 (twenty years ago)

I do think that Mogwai could top "Loveless" one day. I don't believe they've peaked yet.

― MindInRewind (Barry Bruner), Tuesday, 22 November 2005 00:27 (twenty years ago)

Rock Action is pretty close! (But "softer palette?" That has to be in reference to Bag of Agony!)

― Sonneywolferine (Leee), Tuesday, 22 November 2005 00:30 (twenty years ago)

By the by, Matador sez a March release for the States.

― Sonneywolferine (Leee), Tuesday, 22 November 2005 00:31 (twenty years ago)

considering the turds that poptones is pinching out these days i'd take that more as a kiss of death than anything else

― jim p. irrelevant (electricsound), Tuesday, 22 November 2005 00:38 (twenty years ago)

It must be said: "Mr. Beast" is a shit title.

― MindInRewind (Barry Bruner), Tuesday, 22 November 2005 01:35 (twenty years ago)

It really is. Still, I'm somewhat interested.

― sleep (sleep), Tuesday, 22 November 2005 02:08 (twenty years ago)

Mogwai sure loves those "Evil Christian rock band" song and album titles.

― Cunga (Cunga), Tuesday, 22 November 2005 03:15 (twenty years ago)

this'll be great like all the others

― kyle (akmonday), Tuesday, 22 November 2005 03:47 (twenty years ago)

Is there a POX or POO type thread for Mogwai? And if there isn't can I start one?

― Ned T.Rifle (nedtrifle), Tuesday, 22 November 2005 11:50 (twenty years ago)

Tickets at the ICA? I'm so out of touch with the live scene. I'm guessing you don't have any spares...

― ledge (ledge), Tuesday, 22 November 2005 12:07 (twenty years ago)

I do think that Mogwai could top "Loveless" one day. I don't believe they've peaked yet.

no, they haven't. and the truly great thing is that the band themselves agree: i was speaking drunkenly to john the guitarist, who knows a friend of mine, a few months back, and he said they didn't think they were anywhere near the peak of their powers yet.

i've seen them play three new songs live. two have been astounding eruptions of molten-metal majesty. one was a clanking mess that - in fairness - sounded like it wasn't really finished yet.

mcgee can swivel, though, with his outdated hype nonsense. he's going to do them more damage than good, the silly old bastard. does he actually think anyone takes him seriously any more?

― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Tuesday, 22 November 2005 13:06 (twenty years ago)

does he actually think anyone takes him seriously any more?

British Established media does: Radio 5live, Radio 1, 6 Music, The Guardian, The Independent etc

He often gets to do a rent-a-rant via these media channels

― DJ Martian (djmartian), Tuesday, 22 November 2005 13:12 (twenty years ago)

as part of the british established media, i can quite honestly say that nobody i know takes him seriously at all.

there's a big difference between "i need a rentaquote toss to yabber about pop music ... hey, anyone got mcgee's number?" and "who can we get to write/speak intelligently about pop?"

the guy's a knob who's stuck in a timeslip between 1976 and 1994. he's totally out of touch, and it galls me that mogwai feel the need to ally themselves with him.

― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Tuesday, 22 November 2005 13:19 (twenty years ago)

who da fuck cares about mogwai anyway

they are shit that perform overcooked retard shit that goes for too fucking long

― ESTEBAN BUTTEZ~!!, Tuesday, 22 November 2005 13:21 (twenty years ago)

no way, dude, they fucking ROCK. and then they ROCK SOME MORE. and then, after a bit where they don't rock quite as much, because man cannot live on rock alone, they ABSOLUTELY ROCK LIKE FUCKERS.

― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Tuesday, 22 November 2005 13:27 (twenty years ago)

dude if i want [b]ROCK[/b] i will listen to [b][i]RATT[/b][/i]

― ESTEBAN BUTTEZ~!!, Tuesday, 22 November 2005 13:29 (twenty years ago)

dude if i want

― ESTEBAN BUTTEZ~!!, Tuesday, 22 November 2005 13:29 (twenty years ago)

dude if i want ROCK i will listen to RATT

― ESTEBAN BUTTEZ~!!, Tuesday, 22 November 2005 13:29 (twenty years ago)

ps i think i might be on drugs posting here

― ESTEBAN BUTTEZ~!!, Tuesday, 22 November 2005 13:30 (twenty years ago)

with a bit of luck you'll overdose you moronic CUNT

― hayta, Tuesday, 22 November 2005 13:37 (twenty years ago)

with a bit of luck you'll overdose you moronic CUNT

lol why dont you masturbate yourself over mogwai

especially since you will die a virgin

― ESTEBAN BUTTEZ~!!, Tuesday, 22 November 2005 13:43 (twenty years ago)

I think I'll start that Mogwai post elsewhere...

― Ned T.Rifle (nedtrifle), Tuesday, 22 November 2005 14:24 (twenty years ago)

actually, i think this thread sums up the spirit of mogwai neatly. i mean, this is a band whose members have been known to do their weekly supermarket shop on ketamine.

ROCK etc.

― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Tuesday, 22 November 2005 14:36 (twenty years ago)

But are they rock?

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 22 November 2005 14:58 (twenty years ago)

http://krlphotography.typepad.com/photos/highway_construction/blastblog1.jpg

― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Tuesday, 22 November 2005 15:07 (twenty years ago)

RAWK.

I do like the idea that Mogwai get better as they go, since that's been their general path so far.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 22 November 2005 15:11 (twenty years ago)

New single end of January! Friend of the Night! No idea if it'll reach the new world, however.

― Keep the juices flowing by jangling around gentleee as you move (Leee), Saturday, 3 December 2005 23:17 (twenty years ago)

I'm told that promos are floating around...any news of a leak?!?

― Tomas Ayers, Sunday, 4 December 2005 11:05 (twenty years ago)

Hopefully this leaks soon

― van igloo (van smack), Monday, 5 December 2005 02:49 (twenty years ago)

it's on oink, but "Friend of the Night" is fux0red and the last track - which should be quite important if this is a Young Team kind of scenario - is missing.

"Travel Is Dangerous":
http://s57.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=3Q2FPSDGB1KUS1691UX8O56YXS

― Simon H. (Simon H.), Friday, 9 December 2005 16:28 (twenty years ago)

so far it feels like "Rock Action" v. "Young Team".

― Simon H. (Simon H.), Friday, 9 December 2005 18:08 (twenty years ago)

i'm glad it's not just my "friend of the night" that's fucked. but the last track will have to be amazing if i'm going to like this album at all - for me it's another huge disappointment, 3 bad albums in a row. i don't think they're ever going to make a record i like again, sadly. and what's with the vocorders??

― toby (tsg20), Saturday, 10 December 2005 00:13 (twenty years ago)

the vocoders they've been using for about three years now? er ... same that's with the guitars and the drums and barry burns and that. it's what they do, innit?

much as i want to, i'm not listening to ANY leaks of this. i don't trust leaked versions at all, and i don't want to hear it at shit quality first. if it does turn out to be a stinker - and i don't think it will be, although they did play that dreadful song live that i mention above - then at least i know it's a genuine stinker, rather than thinking: "oo, yes, but is that just a shit recording/missing a track/whatever." [/flagellation]

gaaah, this is gonna be tough.

― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Saturday, 10 December 2005 00:38 (twenty years ago)

yeah, i know thyey've had the vocoders for years now, i just wish they'd stop using them.

but basically i'm stuck in 1997 wrt mogwai, anyway.

― toby (tsg20), Saturday, 10 December 2005 09:44 (twenty years ago)

Anyone confirm this is the cover art?
http://img218.imageshack.us/img218/141/mrbeastsleevemid4lp.jpg

― Ned T.Rifle (nedtrifle), Saturday, 10 December 2005 12:35 (twenty years ago)

It leaked, but its not complete. (9 songs)

how many tracks does the album have? (hopefully the FULL leak will be later this weekend)

― shushu, Saturday, 10 December 2005 15:31 (twenty years ago)

Man, that "Travel Is Dangerous" song is totally dull.

― Mr. Snrub (Mr. Snrub), Saturday, 10 December 2005 16:35 (twenty years ago)

So far, Auto Rock and Travel is Dangerous are very good songs... Hoping to listen to the entire album soon to get a better idea!

― Luis Fernandes, Saturday, 10 December 2005 18:16 (twenty years ago)

A complete rip of Mr. Beast has leaked.

― van igloo (van smack), Sunday, 11 December 2005 17:27 (twenty years ago)

acording to this site, that's the promo sleeve art.
http://brightlight.youngteam.co.uk/eng/news.php
(scroll down)

― Christopher Costello (CGC), Sunday, 11 December 2005 18:27 (twenty years ago)

A complete rip of Mr. Beast has leaked.

Hey, Van Igloo, can't find it on SLSK. Care to supply a YSI link? ;-)

― JP Almeida (JP Almeida), Sunday, 11 December 2005 22:35 (twenty years ago)

YES YSI pretty fucking please with sugar on top

― John Cocktolstoy (John Cocktolstoy), Sunday, 11 December 2005 23:54 (twenty years ago)

If anyone has a version of "Friend of the Night" that isn't chopped up beyond recognition, please gmail it to me

― sweet earth flying, Monday, 12 December 2005 01:19 (twenty years ago)

That's a really artful bukkake

― Mickey (modestmickey), Monday, 12 December 2005 03:17 (twenty years ago)

What is that picture? It looks like tiles.

― Ned T.Rifle (nedtrifle), Monday, 12 December 2005 08:10 (twenty years ago)

It seems to be made to look like tiles... The promo copy is protected so I can't rip it here at work... I'm sure somebody will help you before I get back.

― Ben (crispyben), Monday, 12 December 2005 13:20 (twenty years ago)

Skipping 57 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

Damn good album....finally the get back to the roots....and hopefully they should be performing in Reading hopefully. Excellent album! And yes it should be rewarding enough for the listeners...Best Album so far for 2006!!!!!

― Jaco, Friday, 30 December 2005 12:58 (twenty years ago)

the first N.E.R.D. album, whose name escapes me right now, had a promo version sent out to the media which was an entirely different album from the store version

Not entirely true. The album was actually in the shops with the trademark Neptunes 'demo' sound, but was pulled and then re-recorded with live instruments (for 'crossover' appeal I believe.)

― Chewshabadoo (Chewshabadoo), Friday, 30 December 2005 13:27 (twenty years ago)

Let's see if the N.E.R.D. biography-slash-offical site can't put this baby to bed, "Originally, In Search Of... was painted through the familiar digital colors that marked Neptunes-produced songs for other artists. Closer inspection indicated that if N.E.R.D was supposed to be different from the Neptunes, it must sound different, too. So the group abandon[ed] those tracks (they were later released ["as-is"] in the UK only) and recruited the band Spymob, from the Neptunes' own Star Trak Records, to articulate their new [i.e. live instrumentation] sound."

― Zimmer026 (Zimmer026), Friday, 30 December 2005 19:57 (twenty years ago)

just listened to a new Mogwai track on the radio, it sounds like early Ride

― DJ Martian (djmartian), Thursday, 12 January 2006 23:44 (twenty years ago)

IMO it sounds like pre-Happy Songs Mogwai, which is a good thing.
as for it's rivaling Loveless, i'd have to give it a Finese Mitchell HELL NO!

― J. Lamphere (WatchMeJumpStart), Friday, 13 January 2006 00:09 (twenty years ago)

These guys are great.

Now if someone would just throw them a new hook, they might even be worth talking about again....

― jsoulja (jsoulja), Friday, 13 January 2006 00:20 (twenty years ago)

still dissapointed by this. as opposed to a band called evpatoria report from france, mogwai rip offs but they succeed magically in what mogwai try to do

― rizzx, Friday, 13 January 2006 10:02 (twenty years ago)

hmmmm. listened to a promo of the album this morning for the first time - admittedly without paying desperately close attention.

immediate highlights are the first track, "friend of the night" (which i've heard a lot) and "we're no here" (which i recognise from their recent live shows). the one with envy dude on it sounds like a quiet envy song; the one with their own vocals on it sounds like a throwback.

i'd be lying if i said it had blown me away, but i have a feeling it might be a slow-burner. i want to give it another go tonight, and pay more attention to it. i think it's the kind of album that might not "work" if you let it wash over you, rather than engaging with it. it took me a while to get into "rock action", i remember - although, that said, i do also recall "2 rights" making me weep tears of joy on the very first listen.

― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Wednesday, 25 January 2006 13:24 (twenty years ago)

Is anyone slsking this at the moment?

― tissp! (the impossible shortest specia), Wednesday, 25 January 2006 14:00 (twenty years ago)

it's tons better than rock action, i still can't get into that one. it's their worst imo. mr. beast is veru diverse, they even rock a pedal steel

― rizzx (rizzx), Wednesday, 25 January 2006 14:38 (twenty years ago)

it's a grower.

oh, it's a grower.

― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Thursday, 26 January 2006 01:08 (twenty years ago)

but is it a shower?

― latebloomer (latebloomer), Thursday, 26 January 2006 01:10 (twenty years ago)

http://media.gojo.com/product_category_photo/shower.jpg
5/5

― a Side-walkin' Street Wheeler (aaron ef.), Thursday, 26 January 2006 02:14 (twenty years ago)

one month passes...

"mr.beast" was supposed to give the sound atmosphere of mogwai's live shows - of course it doesnt - the record is lame and boring - if it would have got the sound of the show - (i'm writing this down right after seeing them live today in nyc)
i guess they would have been dropped from "matador", so probably no one is willing to take the risk :"matador" nor mogwai.welcome to the world of commercial success...

― did you ask arthur, Tuesday, 7 March 2006 04:59 (twenty years ago)

I just reviewed it and I like it a lot. I think it's the most accessible record the band has ever, and that is a good thing.

― Brian O'Neill (NYCNative), Tuesday, 7 March 2006 05:46 (twenty years ago)

WHY ARE THEY NOT TOURING CANADA THIS SPRING?

― NoTimeBeforeTime (Barry Bruner), Tuesday, 7 March 2006 05:53 (twenty years ago)

im going to see them with my friend on thursday, are they any good live?

― latebloomer: keeping his reputation for an intense on-set presence (latebloomer), Tuesday, 7 March 2006 05:55 (twenty years ago)

This record has grown on me over the months but I'm still not feeling the loud, "live"-sounding tracks as much as ... the tracks that sound like everything on their last record.

― NoTimeBeforeTime (Barry Bruner), Tuesday, 7 March 2006 06:00 (twenty years ago)

They're excellent live but be prepared to have your head blown off, decibel-wise (so bring earplugs if that's what you would normally do for loud shows).

― NoTimeBeforeTime (Barry Bruner), Tuesday, 7 March 2006 06:05 (twenty years ago)

"im going to see them with my friend on thursday, are they any good live? "

the sound is "we bring the volume to the 11 phase" spianl tap's style - so,yeah,earplugs is a good idea, cause you can become deaf.

the guitarist asked the soundman to bring the volume up even more, though the wall of guitars sounds was strong enough to break the concrete walls of the club.
but, and thats a big but, the material is the biggest problem of the show - no wonder the highlights were songs from "young team"...and there were only 2 of them (1st and last track of the album).
some of the songs just reapeat the same ideas.or maybe its not mogwai's problem, but post-rock's as a dying art...

― did u ask artuhr, Tuesday, 7 March 2006 17:16 (twenty years ago)

i guess they would have been dropped from "matador", so probably no one is willing to take the risk :"matador" nor mogwai.welcome to the world of commercial success...

"we" here at "matador" have no "idea" what the "fuck" "you're" talking "about."

― hstencil (hstencil), Tuesday, 7 March 2006 17:19 (twenty years ago)

People keep on saying Mogwai are loud, I've never thought they were as loud as their reputation contends.

― aldo_cowpat (aldo_cowpat), Tuesday, 7 March 2006 17:23 (twenty years ago)

They were loud in their early days, last few times they've played Glasgow it's been pretty average rock band volume really.

― jimnaseum (jimnaseum), Tuesday, 7 March 2006 17:30 (twenty years ago)

I saw Mogwai in Glasgow on the Rock Action tour and they were very loud, lots of people holding their ears and stuff. But that was NOTHING compared to Sunn o))) last month. The place shook the whole time. It was like an earthquake.
Funnily enough Stuart Braithwaite was there.

― Last Of The Famous International Pfunkboys (Kerr), Tuesday, 7 March 2006 17:47 (twenty years ago)

Maybe I am young and play too much loud music myself, but Mogwai did not seem to be all that loud to me. Certainly loud, but not, like, notably so.

Loudest experience I've had at a live show was probably standing in front of Luke's amp at a Rapture show. Trebliest. Thing. Ever.

― Eppy (Eppy), Tuesday, 7 March 2006 17:51 (twenty years ago)

Volume wise they are more dynamic than sunn 0))) and I think that helps people feel like they are louder. To Mogwai's credit they are the only band that made my girlfriend turn to me a show and scream into my ear "this is making my pussy vibrate."

― harshaw (jube), Tuesday, 7 March 2006 18:12 (twenty years ago)

i've seen mogwai something like 12 times now and they've never been loud enough for me. a friend of mine saw them play some tiny club in england about 10 years ago and said they were so loud dominic's ears started bleeding; i guess i'm still waiting for them to live up to that.

― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Tuesday, 7 March 2006 19:24 (twenty years ago)

but then i am exactly the kind of knob who's going to go deaf when he's 40 and say, fuck, what brought that on?

― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Tuesday, 7 March 2006 19:25 (twenty years ago)

I saw them in Northampton, MA like three years ago. "My Father My King" closed the set and it was the loudest thing I'd heard until I saw High on Fire.

Bought Mr. Beast yesterday and am finding it pretty impressive. There's something to be said for doing one thing and doing it well. Mogwai writes big dramatic rock songs, and I don't think too many bands do it better. Although I love Rock Action I know that the band does not and I think HSFHP and Mr. Beast are the work of a band focused on making solid music, not creating a masterpiece every time out. This new one seems to be excellently sequenced and plays well as one long piece.

So, good for Mogwai. I can almost forgive them for refusing to play Boston.

― Sean Braudis (Sean Braudis), Monday, 13 March 2006 04:04 (twenty years ago)

i saw them in asheville, nc last thursday. they were great!

― latebloomer (latebloomer), Monday, 13 March 2006 05:44 (twenty years ago)

i'm at most a casual fan of their albums but they truly kick ass live

― latebloomer (latebloomer), Monday, 13 March 2006 05:45 (twenty years ago)

Can someone point me to these interviews where the band disowns "Rock Action"? That used to always claimed that they were unhappy with "Young Team".

My new favourite song is "Friend of the Night". It's nothing but a carbon copy of the best moments from "Happy Songs For Happy People", but I still love it.

― NoTimeBeforeTime (Barry Bruner), Monday, 13 March 2006 19:27 (twenty years ago)

That used to always claimed that they were unhappy with "Young Team".

bleh,

They used to always claim that they were unhappy with "Young Team".

― NoTimeBeforeTime (Barry Bruner), Monday, 13 March 2006 19:27 (twenty years ago)

The fancy-edition Mr. Beast comes with a DVD making-of-the-album documentary. I think it's John Cummings who speaks negatively of Rock Action in one of the clips. I know I've read this fact somewhere else too, sorry I can't remember where.

― Sean Braudis (Sean Braudis), Monday, 13 March 2006 19:30 (twenty years ago)

"They used to always claim that they were unhappy with "Young Team". "

Maybe cause most people think it's their best and they want them to focus also on their other work and not neglecting it?!

― sam tooler, Monday, 13 March 2006 19:46 (twenty years ago)

There are two kinds of Mogwai fans: people who believe that "Young Team" is the best thing they've ever done, and the sane people.

I honestly can't understand some of the praise for that album. And the band's attitude toward has nothing to do with wanting people to focus on their other work -- they were slagging it in interview long before "CODY" was released.

― NoTimeBeforeTime (Barry Bruner), Monday, 13 March 2006 20:40 (twenty years ago)

I hope to get this this weekend. Meantime, an amusing bit of praise when you consider the context.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 15 March 2006 20:23 (twenty years ago)

As if they needed another jump the shark moment.

― jimnaseum (jimnaseum), Wednesday, 15 March 2006 20:48 (twenty years ago)

one month passes...

As if they needed another jump the shark moment.

-- jimnaseum

Ouch, that sounded a lot meaner than it should. I'm actually wearing a Mr. Beast t-shirt today, the back print got some strange looks from co-workers.

― jimnaseum (jimnaseum), Thursday, 20 April 2006 18:16 (nineteen years ago)

I can almost forgive them for refusing to play Boston.

Mogwai
Sunday, May 14, 2006 at 7:00 PM
Avalon, Boston, MA

They've made it up to you, yet I dunno if I can forgive them for playing Avalon (the Paradise is thee rock club, after all).

― Zimmer026 (Zimmer026), Thursday, 20 April 2006 19:22 (nineteen years ago)

And I am hoping against hope that Mogwai's as good as advertised live because I still find myself skipping past more than a few Mr. Beast tracks.

― Zimmer026 (Zimmer026), Thursday, 20 April 2006 19:31 (nineteen years ago)

I like this album, and I've never given more than two shits about them beforehand. I guess I should revisit the earlier stuff.

― Zwan (miccio), Thursday, 20 April 2006 19:33 (nineteen years ago)

I guess that's where my indifference about this album comes in, because I love, love, love their earlier stuff (esp. Rock Action, select EPs, CODY, and Young Team [in that order]).

― Zimmer026 (Zimmer026), Thursday, 20 April 2006 19:38 (nineteen years ago)

Thanks for the heads up, Zimmer. Don't know how I missed that. Hilariously, that is the day I am graduating from college. I don't know if following up commencement with Mogwai is in any way appropriate to my family, though they probably don't care.

― Sean Braudis (Sean Braudis), Saturday, 22 April 2006 15:37 (nineteen years ago)

one month passes...

i listened to this again last night. i'd been listening to "loveless" and thought, what the fuck can follow that? and for some reason i decided that a mogwai album i still wasn't 100% sure about would be ideal.

and suddenly it made perfect sense. it revealed itself in all its majesty. it is quite, quite godlike. sitting sober on a train, surrounded by drunken lunatics, listening to "glasgow mega-snake" at full blast rocked.

er, that is all.

― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Saturday, 27 May 2006 11:03 (nineteen years ago)

I have been SLACK in getting this. Maybe on Monday...

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Saturday, 27 May 2006 12:20 (nineteen years ago)

do it. DO IT.

― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Saturday, 27 May 2006 12:23 (nineteen years ago)

Well, yes.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Saturday, 27 May 2006 12:27 (nineteen years ago)

I'm not 100% sure what I think of the album as a whole but fuck if "Glasgow Mega-Snake" doesn't knock Satan off his rocker.

― Sundar (sundar), Saturday, 27 May 2006 13:44 (nineteen years ago)

WHY ARE THEY NOT TOURING CANADA THIS SPRING?

Well, they did end up announcing a show here -- excellent as always, although they didn't play as loud as they usually do (I've found that my fave Mogwai shows are the loudest ones).

"Friend of the Night" is godlike, but the more "rock" numbers have grown on me. "Glasgow Mega-Snake" closed the show and was sensational. I still wish more of the album had sounded like "We're No Here", with more of a sludgy, almost industrial crunch rather than straight-up metal (e.g. "Travel Is Dangerous".

― NoTimeBeforeTime (Barry Bruner), Saturday, 27 May 2006 17:27 (nineteen years ago)

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