#rock action

[musickickztoo]

Scott Asheton *August 16, 1949

[laaaaaarwood]

Review of 'The Bad Fire' by Mogwai

I was slightly worried that Mogwai had hit a point of staying in the same place, this wasn’t a massive bother to me as the way they make music has always appealed to me very deeply, but their last album (2022’s As the Love Continues) left me wondering if they had anywhere further to explore. That’s not to say it was bad at all, in fact i loved it, but it was very similar to the record they had put out a few years earlier (2017’s Every Country’s Sun), which wouldn’t be so bad if it weren’t for Mogwai’s prior discography being so different, album-to-album. Despite having only 2 years separating them, 1999’s Come On Die Young and 2001’s Rock Action showed incredible growth and fearlessness in their approach to making guitar-lead music, not to mention the impressive change from Rock Action to 2006’s Mr Beast, so although i enjoyed it, their last record left me wanting a lot more. The Bad Fire i think is a very good antidote to that. There is so much variation to this album, there is range from one track to the other that I would usually expect to find albums apart, but everything here belongs very snugly.

We start off with the mysterious synth-pop style God Gets You Back, a tense but euphoric track that sets the record off with a nervous atmosphere that gets more and more relaxed as the song goes on, with lyrics written by Barry Burns’ seven year old daughter and sung through a mysterious airy vocoder. It didn’t blow me away but as first singles go and as album opener’s go, this was a good start. It was once track 2 ‘Hi Chaos’ began playing that I was overjoyed, this is a moody and gloomy number, lead by layered clean-tone guitars in the verses and soaring delay heavy tremolo picking in the chorus, it gave me the feeling of floating down a river that’s just rougher than one would like it to be, with a sky that darkens in front of your eyes. I love this track, the drums are steady and firm, these strong driving guitar melodies layered on top of one another undercut by this stunning chorus, and then the final coda of the song getting more and more intense, it’s like the guitar is exploding, and then on top of that these wonderful high synth keys, it’s a work of magic, i immediately knew this would be a favourite.

A song i wasn't so immediately fond of is the third single ‘Fanzine Made of Flesh’, while being very upbeat, the verses feel a bit empty, this isn’t so much a problem with the song itself as much as it is just wishing there was a bit more going on in those patches, this itch is scratched by the manic arpeggiated synth in the chorus, screaming and shouting as it does in a way that shouldn't work, but it’s so outrageous and fast that you can’t help but dance, this song is definitely a grower, it’s a Mogwai song that wouldn’t be out of place at a houseparty, which i suppose for a band like them is impressive in its own right. 

Now we come to my favourite track on the album, ‘Pale Vegan Hip Pain’ is nothing short of tear jerkingly beautiful, a simple 3 chord pattern played on the gloomy low end of a heavily reverb’d Telecaster, and with a steely cold piercing lead guitar on the high end. This song takes you on a lonely walk through a city at midnite, stopping to look upwards at the sky in the chorus to give a feeling of hope if ever possible. This is Mogwai at their most atmospheric and it just serves to show how amazing they are at that, those whispery synth soundscapes complimenting the lead lifts you off the ground, ever so slightly.

 ‘Hammer Room’ is an interesting one, all over the place, stylistically. We’ve got plucked violins, glitchy drum-machine beats, and almost ska pattern from Martin on the real drums, the most chaotic track on the album, like being trapped inside a pinball machine, it’s weird describing a Mogwai song as ‘fun’ but that’s really what this one is.

The album rounds off nicely with the 7 minute dreamscape ’Fact Boy’ which, to me, is Mogwai’s very own The One with the Wurlitzer if that makes any sense. It is a dreamscape, it doesn’t necessarily have a direction, it’s just a lovely chord progression and focuses more on how many textures it can fit into this one chord progression, and when the violin starts, it’s absolute magic. My only complaint is that it doesn’t last longer, this track could have easily been 10 minutes long and nobody would’ve minded. The Bad Fire is Mogwai’s best work in a long time, if nothing else it is a wonderful showcase of how versatile, creative and beautiful they can be when presented with tough times. It’s mellow, loud, melancholic, devastating, uplifting, moody, but warm throughout. A great listen for so many occasions, but best enjoyed with an active imagination and loud loud headphones. I really hope Mogwai make music for ever and ever.

[dougwallen]

Mogwai review for The Weekend Australian

[iamlisteningto]

Mogwai’s Rock Action

[underachievers-please-try-harder]

Track of the day // Mogwai - God Gets You Back

[leiselaute]

Mogwai - Two Rights Make One Wrong from "Rock Action". Released 30 april 2001

[saramencken]

Mogwai performing live in Reykjavik

Via White Rabbit Books

[piasgermany]

[Video] Mogwai teilen neue Single "Fanzine Made Of Flesh"!

Bevor Mogwai am 24. Januar ihr neues und mittlerweile elftes Album "The Bad Fire" zum 30ten Bestehen über Rock Action veröffentlichen, teilt die schottische Band mit "Fanzine Made Of Flesh" einen letzten Vorab-Track.

Das gitarrenlastige Rock-Epos ist dabei mit Vocoder-artigen Synthies versehen. Eine Kreuzung aus ABBA, Swervedriver und Kraftwerk, wie Stuart Braithwaite von der Band passenderweise den Song beschreibt.

Begleitet wird die Single von einem Video, bei dem Agnes Haus Regie geführt hat. Ein Pseudo-Filmtrailer mit einer verworrenen Handlung, die sich nicht so richtig greifen lässt – es jedoch auch gar nicht soll. “I really wanted it to seem like there could be a full-length film version with vague horror tones, emotional entanglement, and nods to weird art films from the 90s, and an autobiographical storyline about growing up non-binary, but not realising it. Perhaps one day I’ll extend it into a full film.”

Live: 06.02.25 Hamburg - Große Freiheit 36 11.02.25 Berlin - Admiralspalast 12.02.25 Leipzig - Täubchenthal Booking: Goodlive

[rastronomicals]

5:00 PM EST November 12, 2024:

Mogwai - "2 Rights Make 1 Wrong" From the album Rock Action (April 4, 2001)

Last song scrobbled from iTunes at Last.fm

File under: Scottish Post-rock

[beif0ngs]

There is no live action adaptations of Avatar: The Last Airbender...

[chloesimaginationthings]

Do you think the Withereds will be in the FNAF 2 movie?

[musickickztoo]

Scott Asheton † March 15, 2014

[stevenvenn]

Cloth - Pigeon (from Secret Measure) Have you checked out the new album from Glasgow’s Cloth? Loving the vibe of this new one out on Mogwai’s Rock Action label. Nice!

[switchscene]

A punk house is a magical place. Like, no really it is. The one I spend time at, it's down in Florida and it's one of the only music venues in the city that's not centered around sex or drinking. It's run by local queer punks, there's a "dorm" where you can sleep if you're having a a bad time at home, there's space for traveling bands to spend the night after a show, there's a community garden and a pop up shop and once it's autumn there's a bonfire most nights. We see so many shows there, and hang out and do art together, and recently we had a big fundraiser to keep it there another year. It was my band's biggest show we've ever played and it was the best time ever <3

Here's us closing our set with To Risk To Live by Days N Daze, follow us (Twig and Leaf) on Instagram and if you're ever in South Georgia or North Florida, hit us up and we can jam together.

[opens-up-4-nobody]

Something something Merlin is Arthur's bane.

[cc-cobalt-1043]

Those "wtf" faces are both adorable and hilarious:

Robotnik traumatised them once again, without even trying this time