Friday, October 30, 2009

Artzine 2 - 30th November



A reminder:

How fast time flies. This year the unofficial Mogwai forum celebrates its 5th birthday. How to mark the occasion? Thanks to the generosity of Craig at Rock Action, a competition!

Back in 1998, the ever-readable Diskant asked members of the Mogwai fan community to contribute to the Mogwai Artzine, a celebration of the already widely-felt love for the band. The original Artzine is still online: http://www.diskant.net/mogwai/

We felt it was time for a re-run. Submissions can be in the form of visual art, writing, photograhy, audio or video. We're open to other suggestions.

Have a look at the work submitted for the original Artzine. Marceline's introduction sums up what we're after:

"The idea for this project came to me early 1998 when I was reading a lot of fanzines with great writing about Mogwai and people would write telling me what they thought of the album or of seeing them live. I loved reading stuff and thinking, 'that's exactly how I feel', so I asked a few people to write something or do some art about how Mogwai makes them feel.

In this way, this fanzine should strike a chord with anyone who loves any music, not just Mogwai. It's more about how we turn to music, rely on music, express our emotions through music. It just seems more obvious with Mogwai because the only way to describe them is by delving into your heart."

The plan is to create a permanent archive of the work submitted for the Mogwai Artzine 2009 on Brightlight

Submitting work - part of the point of the competition is to encourage contributors to use the forum. So you'll need to join to participate in the competition. When you've done so (or if you're already a member), you'll find full instructions on the forum. http://ithica45.proboards.com

We (the forum moderators) would like to see your work first. We're hoping to get some amazing submissions. We appreciate that someone submitting, say, video may want to share this online because they're dead pleased with their work. We're also aware that there's a chance that the first submission may be so blindingly amazing that it will discourage other participants, and we want as many people to contribute as possible. So please get in touch with us first (via the forum, of course) and we'll discuss the publication of your work further.

Deadline - 30th November. We're hoping to pick a winner and get their prize out to them by Christmas.

Questions - you know the answer to this. Yep, via the forum please.

Oh, the prize? See that photo above? A box containing:

Envy - Transfovista DVD
Errors - Pump 7"
Desalvo 7"
Errors - "It's Not Something..." vinyl LP
Envy - 'Abyssal' 12"
James Orr Complex 'Chori's Bundle' vinyl LP
Kling Klang 'Superposition' 12"
Random Number 'The Fact That I Did' 12"
Part Chimp 'Chart Pimp' vinyl LP
v/a - 'Everything Is Nice' double vinyl on Matador
Todd/Part Chimp/Lords/Hey Colossus split 10"
Mogwai - 'Hawk Is Howling' double vinyl
Mogwai - 'Zidane' double vinyl
Mogwai - Travels In Constants CDep

PLUS a t-shirt and hoodie to be added once we have the winner's size.
AND a pair of the cloth patches produced to promote Mogwai's 'Mr Beast'
album.
AND a pair of Brightlight badges.

Jesus, we spoil you.

Thanks Craig, you rock.

Update: a number of submissions already received.

Further prizes (thanks again to Craig@RA) - second and third prize of a Mogwai - Travels in Constants ep and a pair of Brightlight badges.

'Burning' live in Copenhagen

Vincent Moon's Mogwai live film (working title 'Burning'), recorded in Brooklyn in April, is premiered in Copenhagen on 13th November.

Tickets

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

ATP DVD - buyer's guide



Considering the 'All Tomorrow's Parties' film is supposed to be released on Monday (2nd November), there's a surprising lack of pre-orders around at the moment.

The film's own website http://ourtrueintent.com states 'pre-orders available soon' but has nothing for sale. Bleep.com, the retail arm of Warp Films, has nothing listed either.

Likewise play.com, Norman Records and various other retailers, both digital and physical.

The only two I've found so far:

amazon.co.uk - DVD £13.19 inc free delivery. Release date is listed as 9th November.

hmv.com - DVD £12.99 inc free delivery. Release date is listed as 2nd November.

Worth checking the hmv.com listing for an unexpected bonus - apparently the film stars Robson Green and Jerome Flynn!

Further suggestions welcome.

If anyone from ATP sees this, please can you let me have a decent packshot for the DVD.

Update - from Jamie at ATP:
There have been some delays. Keep an eye on http://ourtrueintent.com as thats where ordering info will be first.

Saturday, October 17, 2009

Hats don't say 'miaow'

Stuart has selected the films for October's Monorail Film Club at the Glasgow Film Theatre.

American Movie (15)
Sunday 25 October
7.00pm

A tribute to a beer-guzzling Mid-western filmmaker and indie spirit this documentary is an ambitious, wildly funny chronicle by Chris Smith that celebrates the do-or-die lifestyle of redneck auteur Mark Borchardt.

The film is preceded by short film Heavy Metal Jr by Chris Waitt (24 minutes)

Selected and introduced by Stuart Braithwaite from Mogwai.

"I chose the films because of the juxtaposition; guys getting into music at a young age with everything in front of them, and a guy making a film that is in a position most people would have walked away from years earlier. Both documentaries are pretty touching and occasionally very funny."
Further info, tickets: gft.org.uk

Saturday, October 10, 2009

Zaragoza radio broadcast?

A Babelfish translation of http://blogs.rtve.es/180grados/2009/10/10/jueves-viernes-y-fiz suggests that at least part of Mogwai's set at FIZ.09 in Zaragoza (9th October) may have been radio-broadcast? If anyone has any further info, please get in touch.

Friday, October 9, 2009

Introspective in Leeds



Back in April, we reported on director Aram Garriga's 'Introspective' documentary [2007].

The film has a very rare UK screening in Leeds on 5th November 2009, as part of the Leeds International Film Festival.
A spellbinding music documentary exploring ‘post-rock’, the term coined by the influential Wire magazine to describe a diverse set of groundbreaking artists who emerged in the 1990s, hitherto defying all categorization. Featuring great live footage of bands like Mogwai, Tortoise, Low and Mouse on Mars and interviews with underground music icons like Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth, Ira Kaplan of Yo la Tengo and Jason Pierce of Spiritualized, Introspective creates a fascinating overview of alternative music in the last 20 years.
Ticket details etc: http://www.leedsfilm.com/films.aspx?id=657

Thursday, October 8, 2009

'2 Rights' on Gigwise

Mogwai's '2 Rights Make 1 Wrong' has been chosen as the 13th Best Song Of The Noughties by gigwise.com
http://www.gigwise.com/photos/52794/13/The-50-Greatest-Songs-of-the-2000s

Mogwai's darker loud/quiet moments like 'Xmas Steps' and 'Like Herod', this nine minute epic is a more sanguine affair yet just as rewarding. The shining highlight of the Scottish post-rock outfit's weakest album, 'Rock Action', the word beautiful truly doesn't do '2 Rights Make 1 Wrong' justice. A myriad of instruments and heavily distorted vocals build to a euphoric crescendo, before the pressure is released and solitary chants and trumpets close. Quite possibly their finest hour.

Eels at no.1? Who'd have guessed that?