Mogwai: Come On Die Young

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Mogwai,
"Waltz For Aidan"

at a glance...

Hometown: Glasgow, Scotland
Formed: 1995

Members:
Stuart Braithwaite -guitar, keyboards, percussion
Dominic Aitchison -bass, guitar
Martin Bulloch -drums
John Cummings -guitars, piano
Barry Burns -flute, guitar, keyboards

Bands in the family:
Arab Strap, The Delgados, Teenage Fanclub, Mercury Rev, m-Ziq, Alec Empire, David Holmes

Notes:
Stuart, Dominic and Martin formed Mogwai in Glasgow in 1995, and went on to release several Eps of skewed guitar sounds on a variety of British indies, eventually gathered on 1997's Ten Rapid album. Then they hooked up with Scotland's premiere left-field rock label Chemikal Underground, and proceeded to make a splash in the British press with their first purpose-built LP, Mogwai Young Team. An intense, fractious time for the band, the recording of Young Team saw the band members assume cartoon names like Demonic (Dominic) and Captain Meat (John). Shortly after, sometime-member Brendan O'Hare (The Relic, due to his thirtysomething stature) either left or was expelled from the band, and the group became involved in much-acclaimed remix project Kicking a Dead Pig. The vocal endorsement of Pavement's Steve Malkmus was followed by a deal with Matador in America, and the recording of Come On Die Young in upstate New York with Mercury Rev man Dave Fridmann.

Links:
Read Ink Blot's interview with Mogwai's Martin Bulloch.

Mogwai
Come On Die Young
Matador, Released 1999

It would have been easier if we didn't like them so much. God knows Mogwai weren't begging for our affection. Mogwai Young Team was in fact petulant and rude, like a roommate that barks at you in the morning and ignores you at night. But we're all masochists, and we loved it. And now we may have some adjusting to do, because Mogwai's second proper album is downright congenial. Nice even. "Nice" may be a stretch. Stuart and John can still squeeze atonal skulduggery from their guitars, and do so quite splendidly on "year 2000 non-compliant cardia," "Ex-Cowboy," and "Chocky." But most of CODY is mellow in the extreme.

A snippet of Iggy Pop speechifying over the sleepy guitar figure of "Punk Rock:" opens the album, as if to warn us that hey, the knobs aren't on 11 this time, but Iggy's still with us. They follow this with "Cody," a plaintive, country-tinged ballad featuring vocals from Arab Strap's Aidan Moffat. It's very pretty. Yes, I did just describe a Mogwai song as both "pretty" and "country-tinged." Deal with it.

It turns out that those quiet passages, the ones you could barely hear on Mogwai Young Team, may be Mogwai's forte. On "May nothing but happiness come through your door" and the exquisite "Waltz for Aidan" they call to mind Tortoise, albeit with less studied white funkiness and a more easygoing melodic touch. It's a sound that suits them.

If you like Mogwai, check out:
Mogwai Mogwai Young Team
Sonic Youth EVOL
Tortoise Millions Now Living Will Never Die

-- jf

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