An
EP by
Scottish post-rock/
noise terrorists
Mogwai, released in 1998 on
Chemikal Underground records. Track listing:
- Christmas Steps
- Rollerball
- Helps Both Ways replaced on the actual EP with:
- Small Children in the Background
Christmas Steps is possibly
the definitive Moggies track ever, being around 12 minutes long, playing the
quiet-
LOUD!-quiet card with bowel-evacuating
power and concluding with gorgeous
violin parts. Helps Both Ways, meanwhile, was removed from the EP after the
promo stage, as it contained unauthorised samples of a commentary from
American football geezer
John Madden, including the phrase of the title, "really he helps both ways". It was resurrected for the
album "
Come On Die Young" with substitute commentary spoken by an
actor.
The "
fuck the
curfew" element of the title is a
political statement on the UK
government's latest trick of trying out all their
shitty new policies in Scotland first before inflicting them on the rest of the
island (see also:
poll tax). In this case, there was a
crackdown on youths of
16 or any younger being out after 8pm, or something equally
ridiculous. The band also distributed the message in lovely
handwriting-on-
yellow stickers, one of which can be seen under my
bass' control knobs.