“The Hawk is Howling” was released in September. Why is Mogwai only touring now? Following the band’s performance at last September’s New York All Tomorrow’s Parties, drummer Martin Bulloch was taking a shower when his pacemaker burst through his chest. Well, not burst exactly, but it pierced his skin, causing obvious alarm and immediate cancellation of the tour.
PROFILE. In the middle of Mogwai’s most recent album, “The Hawk is Howling,” is a bouncy pop nugget, quizzically titled “The Sun Smells Too Loud.” This wouldn’t be so odd were the rest of the album not full of hauntingly beautiful instrumentals.
“That did turn out kind of cheery,” multi-instrumentalist Stuart Braithwaite muses. “Originally that song was only the guitar loops. Then we had the idea to make the drums twice as fast as we normally do and ended up with this Neu meets New Order tune.”
Though it’s seemingly the simplest song on the album, playing it live is a “gargantuan pain in the arse,” says Braithwaite. “If it went wrong it would be a complete car crash.”
Speaking of cars, this infectious gem is the perfect, um, vehicle for a would-be-hip car ad, which in turn usually generates wider record sales. Car ads ushered the Flaming Lips and Grandaddy more into the mainstream, after all.
“That would be quite nice,” admits Braithwaite of regaining “Hawk’s” lost impetus. “We had a song on a jeans advert during the Super Bowl once.”
He’s referring to Mogwai’s torrential “Summer,” which blasted out as bulls stampeded past two Levi-clad uber models.
“The only people that noticed were geeky indie kids, who thought we’d completely sold out. We genuinely only did it because we were broke,” complains Braithwaite.
Matters were made worse when a Scottish journalist reported the band got paid “half a million pounds or something bizarre,” he adds.
“Not only did all these geeky indie people think we’d sold out to Satan, but everyone in Scotland thought we were rich and wanted us to buy them drinks all the time. When we in fact just needed to pay a tax bill and were all still living with our parents.”
Mogwai
With The Twilight Sad
Friday, Saturday, Sunday, 8
Wilbur Theatre
246 Tremont St., Boston.
MBTA: Green Line to Boylston
$25, 617-423-4008
www.thewilburtheatre.com