Mexico City, 26th June

photos from mogwai's show in mexico city last thursday:
http://www.tono.tv/wordpress/?p=508

soundcheck video:
http://www.tono.tv/wordpress/?p=510

press conference photos:
http://www.tono.tv/wordpress/?p=509

a number of reviews (in spanish) linked from last.fm:
http://www.last.fm/event/636342

more photos:
http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=mogwai+mexico&d=posted-20080626-&ct=0

but as yet no setlist. please get in touch if you can help with that one.

update:
thanks to toni for the setlist.

read barry's tour diary:
http://www.lifeboxset.com/?p=830

Attic Lights remix on vinyl

we reported a few weeks back that mogwai had completed one of the remixes for attic lights 'bring you down' single. the single is released in july, but a very limited 10" compiling the remixes from across the various formats has surfaced this week. this will be the only way to get the mogwai remix on vinyl, should that be your thing.

buy the 10" from normans:
http://www.normanrecords.com/records/100578
other links welcome.

The Rock Project

following our story last week about stuart's school band, further info about the tape has emerged.

stuart appears twice, firstly in a band called 'stratospheric love hippies' performing 'psychedelic paradise', and then in 'psychocat' performing 'freedom'. the personnel appears to be the same for both bands - stuart braithwaite, craig wallace, david blacoe and william hamilton.

the recording, production and mixing was done by strac recordings, a record company set up by strathaven academy secondary school in south lanarkshire, scotland. victoria, stuart's older sister , is amongst the recording engineers.

thanks mark.

St Deluxe

from http://www.myspace.com/stdeluxe

We've started recording our follow up album!! and we got the most excellent Stuart Braithwaite of Mogwai down to Riverside Recording Studios to produce the first track called 'After the Fire' it was really great to work with him and we'd like to thank him a lot for all his help!We'll be keeping this track under wraps for a wee while tho, but I'd say it's one of our best!!

MYT widget

us-only txttunes widget. apparently this doesn't work in the uk or europe. i'm not really sure what it does, but i can now officially 'embed a widget'. get me.
thanks stewart.

pitchfork's 9.2 review of the 'mogwai young team' reissue:
http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/record_review/51156-young-team-2008-edition

Remember Neale?

photographer neale smith, whose work has graced a number of mogwai record sleeves, has just launched a new website. it's taken me 20 minutes to write this post as i kept getting distracted by his photos. some pretty amazing landscapes amongst the music photos and his other work. take a look!
there's a load more on flickr too:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nealesmithphotography

completely unrelated (as far as i know, anyway):
a live video of new track 'the swimming' by recent rock action signings remember remember can be found here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/scotland/music/introducing_live/events/030608/index.shtml?media=rememberremember

afterthepostrock

well-used home to fans of bands with unwieldy names, afterthepostrock.com has thrown up couple of interesting threads this week.

firstly this, from 'babyloncher':

A little pointless story to share with you all. I was at my parents house yesterday sorting through some old cds/records/cassettes, when i found a cassette tucked away which contained Stuart Braithwaite's (main man from Mogwai) first recorded output. Both my sisters (my eldest sister babysat him a couple of times!) and I went to school with Stuart you see, and the cassette was a school project containing 9 or 10 songs performed by various high school bands. It was called 'The Strathaven Academy Rock Project'. Lo and behold, one of the bands was Mr Braithwaite's. It was cool to suddenly find a giant of post-rock's first release, he would have been about 14 or 15 at the time!

and stuart's been answering questions. key points - manchester academy is a crap place to hang out, promoters offering 20 quid and a pizza will probably not get a booking, further touring plans exist beyond those already announced (european shows in the autumn being very likely), a couple of glasgow restaurant recommendations, an expanded 'come on die young' may be in the works. and - surprise! - some stuff about pedals.

I really like the Bon Iver album, the Neon Neon album, the new (leaked) Deerhunter album and The Goslings. The Goslings are mind blowing. SB

> which mogwai album's sessions stand out as the most satisfying as far as capturing the music/feel/mood most accurately to the way you wanted them to sound?

CODY and Happy Songs were both very close to how i imagined them sounding. There was a lot of playing live in those sessions which i feel is important. The My Father My King session had a great atmosphere which translated onto the recording too.

> do you feel that your newest album is your "best" album?

I don't know. its too new. I do like it a lot. SB

> which song do you like performing live the most?

I like playing songs that are very simple (Helicon 1, Mogwai Fear Satan, We're No Here etc) because i don't have to think about what to do next and i can just listen to what is going on and get immersed in the noise.

Don't fancy yours much

the picture says it all. thanks to
exclaim.ca

Tour update

mogwai have been confirmed for the off festival in mysłowice, poland (8th-10th august). date tbc.

a second toronto show is rumoured to be taking place at kool haus on 24th sept, following mogwai's appearance at the phoenix concert theatre on 30th june.

the venue for the guadalajara show (24th june) has been changed to teatro estudio cavaret.

fuck buttons support at the uk shows in october.

The Hawk Is Howling tracklist

from mogwai.co.uk:

Our new album The Hawk Is Howling is released by PIAS/Wall Of Sound on September 22nd and Matador in America on September 23rd. It is just over 63 minutes long. It was recorded by Andy Miller at Chem 19 in February apart from one song which was recorded by Tony Doogan at Castle Of Doom last summer. It was mixed by Gareth Jones at Castle Of Doom in March and mastered at Abbey Road by Sean Magee in April. The songs on it are:

1 I'm Jim Morrison, I'm dead
2 Batcat
3 Danphe and The Brain
4 Local Authority
5 The Sun Smells Too Loud
6 Kings Meadow
7 I Love you, I'm Going To Blow Up Your School
8 Scotland’s Shame
9 Thank You Space Expert
10 The Precipice

the track recorded in 2007 is 'the sun smells too loud'. thanks stuart.

Aloha Hawaii

from chemikal underground:

Aloha Hawaii - Coming Soon...

Who the hell are Aloha Hawaii? Aidan Moffat and Stuart Braithwaite, that's who, and they've got a new project which we're delighted to be working with them on. As if they're not busy enough, Stuart and Aidan have conceived of Aloha Hawaii and will be releasing a sporadic series of strictly limited edition 7" vinyl singles which will eventually find their way on to an album at some point in the future.

The first 7" will be 33rpm and will feature the following tracks:

A: Towns On The Moon
B: I've Been Bad For Years And Years

Now, here's the thing: these singles will be available on Vinyl only and when we say vinyl only, we mean vinyl only. There will be no digital files available of these tracks or certainly any digital versions of these tracks you can get your hands on will not be sanctioned by Chemikal Underground. Stuart and Aidan wanted to release something that was purely for you vinyl junkies out there and we saw absolutely no earthly reason to stand in their way. The first Aloha Hawaii single will be available in late July/early August - final date to be confirmed (you can never tell until we get the test pressing approved etc.). Keep an eye out for future updates and of course, on our online shop where it will be on sale first...

update:

Of the 2 songs recorded so far as Aloha Hawaii one has loads of african sounding drums, mellotron and thumb piano and the other is in 5/4 and has noisy jazz saxophone played by James who plays in Remember Remember. I bought a toy amp for £1 at a car boot sale which i played electric guitar and bass through on both songs. SB

Single and album sleeves

matador's blog post about mogwai's us tour dates also includes the sleeve images for the 'batcat' ep and the 'hawk is howling' album.

North American tour dates

The September run of US and Canadian shows has been announced, 20 shows in all:

http://www.mogwai.co.uk/option,com_gigcal/Itemid,3/

Portland

mogwai play musicfest nw in portland, oregon. the festival runs from 3rd-6th september. the date of mogwai's appearance is tbc.

Guadalajara?

ground control touring has mogwai's june 24th show taking place at carpa agora, guadalajara, mexico, rather than the previously-listed escenica, monterrey, mexico.

NYC and Seattle

further to our report yesterday, ticketmaster has on-sale details for mogwai shows in seattle and new york in september.

4th september - showbox sodo, seattle
http://www.showboxonline.com/
pre-sale begins weds 4th june, 10am

18th september - terminal 5, new york
http://www.terminal5nyc.com/
on sale friday 6th june, midday

so the tour extends to at least three weeks of shows. if anyone can fill the gaps, get in touch.

an aside: a considerable number of our readers have already noticed that the forum has been offline over the weekend, apparently due to a fire at the data center (thankfully no-one was hurt). we've been assured that everything should be back to normal within 48 hours.

Soundlabs

a further addition to mogwai's summer touring schedule:

26th july
soundlabs festival
roseto degli abruzzi
italy

http://www.soundlabs.it

tickets:
http://www.ticketone.it/newsComplete.jsp?idCat=544&cdNews=192816

Errors album - 2nd June

errors "it's not something but it is like whatever" cd/lp
monday 2nd june
rockact36

http://www.myspace.com/weareerrors
rock action records
http://www.resonancestore.com/rockaction/

also due soon on rock action:

september 2008:
rockact38cd - DESALVO - MOOD POISONER

release date tbc:
rockact39 - ENVY - TRANSFOVISTA (dvd)
JAMES ORR COMPLEX - COM FAVO album

Dallas, 13th Sept

rumours have been rife of a mogwai us tour around their atp ny appearance (21st sept), and firmer details of a likely schedule are starting to appear.

an unconfirmed los angeles show (wiltern, sept 9th) is followed by:

13th sept - granada theater, dallas tx (with fuck buttons)
http://tickets.granadatheater.com/default.asp?SearchMonth=9/28/2008&MV=9/13/2008&sel=x

and an unconfirmed new york show (terminal 5, 18th sept), which ties in with the atp festival that weekend.

please get in touch with any further listings.