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Like many other post-rock groups in 2021, Mogwai are in a weird place. The first leg of their illustrious career was full of brand new territory helping define a genre and expand instrumental possibilities with albums like
Young Team (1997),
Rock Action (2001), and even
Mr Beast (2006). But after the mid-2000s, when it seemed the genre had taken a step back, the group made a shift to possibly expand their horizons, delving into movie scores and electronica with records like
Atomic (2016) and
Rave Tapes (2014). With all these new experiences and experiments, one would assume that their music would only improve over time, yet the group keeps coming back to familiar territory in less-effective ways, and
Craig Finn has been insanely busy through Trump and pandemic years, alternating between introspective solo albums and strident anthemic works with his band, The Hold Steady. So it’s not surprising
Here We Go Forever: Mogwai Interviewed Pushing COVID barriers to produce an exemplary new album.
Mogwai are a force of nature.
The Glasgow rooted band have pushed past countless barriers in their time, a 25 year span that has found them move from the out-skirts of British music to claiming bona fide Top 10 success.
New album As The Love Continues is simply remarkable, even by their own lofty standards. Following hot on the heels of their ZeroZeroZero soundtrack work, it displays a warmth, a generosity of spirit that feels much-needed in these endless lockdown times.
Sadly, we won t get to experience the full ferocity of the Mogwai live show for some time yet - a Tramway live-stream notwithstanding, even Mogwai can t push back against the impositions of COVID.
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A Mogwai melody always sounds like a eulogy for someone youâve never met. Whether played on a hushed piano or pushed through Stuart Braithwaite and Barry Burnsâ guitars, their writing is sad in a way thatâs not personal: full of familiar emotions, but still opaque about the specifics. After 25 years, 10 studio albums, a dozen or so EPs, and plentiful film scores, Mogwaiâs fingerprints have become easy to recognize. As theyâve aged into elder statesmen of post-rockâtwo terms they would undoubtedly hateâtheyâve become like a football team running the Air Raid offense: They only call a handful of plays, but when they run them well, theyâre basically impossible to stop.
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Tim Story on the Feuding Characters in His Tom & Jerry Reboot: It s Not War; It s Sibling Rivalry
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In tackling one of the most notorious feuds in pop culture history, director Tim Story used one guiding principle: “It’s not war; it’s sibling rivalry.”
Those rivals would be Tom and Jerry, the beloved Hanna-Barbera cartoon characters who first came to exist out of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1946. The duo are now relaunching in a live-action/animation hybrid movie that debuts Feb. 26 on Warner Bros. and HBO Max.
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The studio approached Story with the property nearly three years ago, drawing on his deep comedy background with successful franchises including Ice Cube and Kevin Hart’s “Ride Along” series two mid-budget movies that together grossed close to $300 million worldwide and the ensemble films “Think Like a Man” and “Think Like a Man Too.”