Way back in 2001 — as a freshman at the University of Vermont — I had a rough year. Although I loved the city of Burlington and found most of my classes to be enjoyable and engaging, the transition was difficult for me. I entered college in a long-distance relationship (my mistake!), I had an unfortunate roommate pairing (anti-social, borderline-creepy-psychotic who maybe spoke 10 words to me the entire year), and knew early on I’d be changing schools due to a shift in my study/career plans. So I saw that first year as a punt, to use a random football analogy. I spent a lot of time beating a path through the cold and snow from my dorm on central campus down to Church Street and back. Usually to hit up Kountry Kart Deli for lunch, Pure Pop for CDs, and maybe Radio Bean if I was playing a set there. There were four albums I remember grinding into dust that year in my portable CD player (ah, 2001!). Godspeed You! Black Emperor’s Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas To Heaven, Van Morrison’s Astral Weeks, Slint’s Spiderland, and Mogwai’s Rock Action. I can still remember walking from my dorm (Wills) over to the Harris/Millis area either to eat or grab something from the little marketplace that went up halfway through the year, listening to “Sine Wave” into “Take Me Somewhere Nice” and trying to focus on Dave Pajo’s backing vocals because, you know, he was in Slint! How cool was that!?
Although Mogwai never recorded for Temporary Residence, LTD they did contribute a volume of the Travels In Constants series right around the time Rock Action came out in 2001. The songs were a couple years old at that point (they were originally recorded in 1999) but as I was just getting into the band, I wanted to soak in everything they’d ever recorded, so finding a copy of the CD became a mission for me. Eventually I tracked one down on eBay (and probably overpaid for it) and got to hear the band’s take on “Arundel” which was originally written by Pajo and appears on his album Live From A Shark’s Cage. The other two tracks, “Untitled” and “Quiet Stereo Dee” I think are both original compositions and exclusive to this disc.
Little known fact (unless you read Wikipedia): the album cover features a still of Stevie Chalmers scoring the winning goal for Celtic F.C. in the 1967 European Cup Final against Internazionale. Maybe that means something to you if you follow the European Cup and/or were alive in ’67.
Mogwai
Travels In Constants Volume Twelve
(Temporary Residence LTD – TIC12, 2001)
01. Untitled
02. Quiet Stereo Dee
03. Arundel [Papa M] [MP3]
