20 THINGS WE LOVE ABOUT MOGWAI
As Stuart Braithwaite and co gear up for their 20th anniversary gigs, Brian Donaldson picks out a score of titbits about the post-rock legends
80 THE LIST 4 Jun–3 Sep 2015
1. SONG TITLES Here are i ve corkers: ‘A Cheery Wave from Stranded Youngsters’, ‘Oh! How the Dogs Stack Up’, ‘I’m Jim Morrison, I’m Dead’, ‘I Love You, I’m Going to Blow Up Your School’ and ‘How to Be a Werewolf’.
2. BAND BAITING Stuart Braithwaite may have cooled off on tearing strips from other acts these days, but who can ever forget his slating of Blur (‘absolute garbage masquerading as the people’s band’), Coldplay (‘spineless music, shite songs’) and Air (‘a band I hate for any number of stupid reasons’). Yes, but what do you really think of them?
3. THATCHER DEATH PARTY By some curious piece of Nostradamus-like forethought, Mogwai predicted the gathering of a Thatcher death party in George Square. How? Well, by writing a song in 2011 entitled ‘George Square Thatcher Death Party’, two years before she exeunted stage right (well, it wouldn’t be stage left, would it?).
4. COLLABORATIONS How’s this for a line-up of partnerships: Douglas Gordon, Gruff Rhys, Clint Mansell, Faust, Aidan Moffat and the Cowdenbeath Brass Band.
5. SOUNDTRACKS That collaboration with the Turner Prize-winning Scotsman Douglas Gordon was a soundtrack for the suitably existentialist movie about French footballl genius Zinedine Zidane. Carrying on the Gallic theme, they brought a suitably haunting vibe to zombie-ish television drama Les Revenants (The Returned).
6. IGGY POP One of the band’s heroes, his voice can be heard at the start of second album, Come On Die Young, sampled from a tetchy interview on Canadian TV in which he denounces the term ‘punk rock’.
7. BARBRA STREISAND Possibly the only thing Mogwai have in common with the singer-actress is their own personal take on Jewish prayer ‘Avinu Malkeinu’. Compare and contrast her version with their epic instrumental ‘My Father, My King’.