Mogwai treated the Music Hall of Williamsburg to a strong set that combined some classic picks with their newer, more head-banging material.

I’m glad I finally got to see these guys live. Sick with a vicious flu, I was certain I wasn’t going to make it. That was, until I came across a video of a performance of “2 Rights Make 1 Wrong” featuring cello that ripped me to shreds. With minutes left, I immediately sprang to Music Hall. I got there in the middle of the first song.

Mogwai certainly aren’t the most photogenic or energetic band, and Stuart (the bald one) is the only one with any sort of energy or presence on stage, but of course they make up for it with sonic stimulation. I spotted two laptops on stage, one running Ableton Live, and I’m wondering how they’re incorporating this software, because I couldn’t tell. Snapping photos next to their guitar guy, I saw how the tunings change from song to song (Mogwai diehards, check the last pic for his setlist with tunings). These guys have found ways to wrench gut emotions from their strings, sometimes with three guitars chugging at once, blending together to form one beast of a sound. I’m sure on record there are many, many more layers, but, paired with the volume levels they are notorious for, live in the flesh you can really FEEL it grab you.

With their other recent setlists a little too bloated with cuts from their latest, The Hawk is Howling for my liking, this tour saw them bring back some carefully chosen older gems like “Yes! I’m A Long Way From Home” and “Summer.” The bro-centric audience, with more than a few conspicuous long-haired headbangers, rode every wave, especially the powerful 4-song closer of “2 Rights Make 1 Wrong” (yes, vocoder, no cello), “We’re No Here,” then “Like Herod” and “Batcat.” There were several moments where the drums would drop out and the strobe light would pulse faster and the crunchy drone would slowly climb where it all locked together, and for “We’re No Here” and “Batcat,” the band channelled straight-up metal a la Isis/Mastodon (as for the other two, rightful staples). This is where the peaks were found in this set, but still couldn’t approach the sublimity of a performance like the one linked earlier, at least to me. As a matter of fact, instead of reading this, just watch that clip. Like, now.

The headliners for this year’s Latitude Festival have been revealed early, and among those performing this year are Grace Jones, Nice Cave and the Bad Seeds, Pet Shop Boys and Bat for Lashes, among others. 

The recently created festival debuted in 2006, with headliners like The Lemonheads, Patti Smith, Antony and the Johnsons and Mogwai, and it has continued to grow in popularity since, having live theatre performances, comedy and poetry readings along with music.

This years festival will take place on July 16-19 in Henham Park, Southwold, Suffolk, England, and the rest of the performers on the bill will be announced soon.

Bloc Party are set to release a remixed version of their third album Intimacy on May 11 (in the U.K.), and aside from the lead single — a version of “Signs”, remixed by Armand Van Helden (out April 27 in the U.K.) — we’ve learned that among the bakers dozen enlisted to remix the album are No Age and Mogwai.

The full track listing of Intimacy Remixed, with the remixers in brackets
01. Ares (Villains)
02. Mercury (Hervé Is In Disarray)
03. Halo (We Have Band Dub)
04. Biko (Mogwai)
05. Trojan Horse (John B)
06. Signs (Armand Van Helden)
07. One Month Off (Filthy Dukes)
08. Zephyrus (Phase One)
09. Talons (Phones RIP)
10. Better Than Heaven (No Age)
11. Ion Square (Banjo or Freakout)
12. Letter To My Son (Gold Panda)
13. Your Visits Are Getting Shorter (Double D)

Are you ready for some excitement? This spring/summer is bound to be a musically fulfilling time, as Mogwai, Leonard Cohen, Depeche Mode and Late of the Pier have all announced tour dates for the upcoming months.

Mogwai are the first to set sail, starting off their tour in Athens, Greece tomorrow night. The band will be touring throughout Europe, the U.S., and Australia, ending their three month tour at the Orpheum Theatre in Los Angeles, CA. Recently the Scottish band asked fans to sign a petition to protest laws that limited the volume at UK concerts, according to Pitchfork, so if you’re out at a Mogwai concert in the U.S. or Austrailia, be ready to have your eardrums rattled.

Leonard Cohen will be touring throughout April and May, making his first stop in Austin, Texas, after which the tour will continue throughout the U.S., ending on June 2 in Morrison Colorado. Cohen just recently played his first U.S. show in 15 years at NYC’s Beacon Theatre. The 74-year-old performer said, “It’s been a long time since I stood up on this stage in New York City. I was 60 years-old, just a kid with a crazy dream. Since then I’ve taken a lot of Prozac.”

In support of their soon-to-be released album, Sounds of the Universe, Depeche Mode will also be touring starting in July. The electro legend’s “Tour Of The Universe” will start off in Toronto on July 24, and will continue on for 21 more dates throughout North America.

Late of the Pier, the eclectic quartet from Nottingham, England, is playing a month of tour dates in the U.S. starting on March SXSW. The band will then be making their way throughout the greater U.S. regions, ending their tour on April 19, in Indio, California, where they will be performing at the Coachella Music Festival.

Mogwai tour dates
02.20.09 – Athens, Greece (Gagarin 205)
02.21.09 – Thessaloniki, Greece (Mylos)
03.03.09 – Brisband, Australia (The Tivoli)
03.04.09 – Sydney, Australia (Enmore Theatre)
03.05.09 – Melbourned, Australia (Golden Plains Festival)
03.07.09 – Meredith, Australia (Golden Plains Festival)
03.08.09 – Perth, Australia (Beck’s Music Box)
03.20.09 – Dublin, Ireland (Dublin Academy)
03.21.09 – Dublin, Ireland (Dublin Academy)
03.22.09 – Dublin, Ireland (Dublin Academy)
04.20.09 – Houston, TX (Numbers)
04.21.09 – New Orleans, LA (Republic
04.22.09 – Birmingham, AL (Workplay Theatre)
04.23.09 – Asheville, NC (Orange Peel)
04.24.09 – Carrboro, NC (Cats Cradle)
04.25.09 – Philadelphia, PA (Trocadero)
04.27.09 – Brooklyn, NY (Music Hall of Williamsburg)
04.28.09 – Brooklyn, NY (Music Hall of Williamsburg)
04.29.09 – Brooklyn, NY (Music Hall of Williamsburg)
05.01.09 – Boston, MA (Wilbur Theatre)
05.02.09 – Northampton, MA (Pearl Street)
05.03.09 – Montreal, Quebec (Metropolis)
05.04.09 – Toronto, Ontario (Pheonix)
05.05.09 – Buffalo, NY (Tralf Music Hall)
05.06.09 – Pontiac, MI (Crofoot Ballroom)
05.08.09 – Chicago, IL (Congress Theatre)
05.09.09 – Milwaukee, WI (Turner Hall)
05.10.09 – Minneapolis, MN (First Avenue)
05.11.09 – Omaha, NE (The Slowdown)
05.12.09 – Denver, CO (Bluebird Theatre)
05.13.09 – Salt Lake City, UT (In The Venue)
05.15.09 – San Diego, CA (Belly Up Tavern)
05.16.09 – Los Angeles, CA (Orpheum Theatre)

Leonard Cohen tour dates
04.02.09 – Austin, Texas (Long Center)
04.03.09 – Grand Prairie, Texas (Nokia Theatre)
04.05.09 – Phoenix, AZ (Dodge Theatre)
04.07.09 – San Diego, CA (Copley Hall)
04.10.09 – Los Angeles (Nokia Theatre)
04.13.09 – Oakland, CA (Paramount Theatre)
04.17.09 – Indio, CA (Coachella Festical)
04.19.09 – Vancouver (GM Place)
04.21.09 – Victoria, B.C. (Save-On Foods Memorial Centre)
04.23.09 – Seattle, WA (WaMu Theatre)
04.25.09 – Edmonton, Alberta (Rexall Place)
04.26.09 – Calgary, Alberta (Jack Singer Hall)
04.28.09 – Saskatoon, Saskatchewan (Credit Union Centre)
04.30.09 – Winnipeg, Manitoba (MTS Centre)
05.03.09 – Minneapolis (Orpheum Theatre)
05.05.09 – Chicago, IL (Chicago Theatre)
05.09.09 – Detroit, MI (Fox Theatre)
05.11.09 – Columbia, MD (Merriweather Post Pavilion)
05.12.09 – Philadelphia, PA (Academy of Music)
05.14.09 – Waterbury, CN (Palace Theatre)
05.16.09 – New York, NY (Radio City Music Hall)
05.19.09 – Hamilton, Ontario (Copps Coliseum)
05.21.09 – Quebec City, Quebec (Pavilion de la Jeunesse)
05.22.09 – Kingston, Ontario (K-Rock Centre)
05.24.09 – London, Ontario (Labatt Centre)
05.25.09 – Ottawa, Ontario (National Arts Centre)
05.29.09 – Boston, MA (Wang Theatre)
06.02.09 – Morrison, CO (Red Rocks)

Depeche Mode tour dates
07.24.09 – Toronto
07.25.09 – Montreal
07.28.09 – Washington, DC
07.31.09 – Boston, MA
08.01.09 – Atlantic City, NJ
08.03.09 – New York, NY
08.10.09 – Seattle, WA
08.12.09 – San Fransisco, CA
08.14.09 – San Diego, CA
08.16.09 – Los Angeles, CA
08.17.09 – Los Angeles, CA
08.20.09 – Santa Barbara, CA
08.22.09 – Las Vegas, NV
08.23.09 – Phoenix, AZ
08.25.09 – Salt Lake City, UT
08.27.09 – Denver, CO
08.29.09 – Dallas, TX
08.30.09 – Houston, TX
09.01.09 – Atlanta, GA
09.04.09 – Tampa, FL
09.05.09 – Ft. Lauderdale, FL

Late of The Pier tour dates
03.18.09 – Austin, TX (SXSW)
03.19.09 – Austin, TX (SXSW)
03.20.09 – Austin, TX (SXSW)
03.21.09 – Austin, TX (SXSW)
03.24.09 – Jacksonville, FL (Jack Rabbits)
03.26.09 – Miami, FL (Gansevoort Hotel)
03.27.09 – Miami, FL (Vagabond Hotel)
03.28.09 – Miami, FL (Bicentennial Park)
03.30.09 – Atlanta, GA (The Earl)
04.01.09 – New York, NY (Bowery Ballroom)
04.02.09 – New Haven, CT (Yale)
04.03.09 – Brooklyn, NY (Studio B)
04.04.09 – Philadelphia, PA (TLA)
04.07.09 – Washington, DC (930 Club)
04.08.09 – Boston, MA (Paradise)
04.09.09 – Montreal, QC (Les Saintes)
04.10.09 – Toronto, ON (Kool Haus)
04.11.09 – Chicago, IL (Congress)
04.14.09 – Seattle, WA (Chop Suey)
04.15.09 – Portland, OR (Holocene)
04.16.09 – San Fransisco, CA (Popscene)
04.19.09 – Indio, CA (Epmpire Polo Grounds)