Mogwai Recruit Iggy Pop for New Song “Underground”

Mogwai have announced a new compilation called Happy Tears, which will feature highlights and rarities across the group’s 31-year history as well as a new track starring sinewy rock legend/Stuart Braithwaite’s personal hero, Iggy Pop.

On “Underground,” Pop speaks from a robot’s POV—“I am a robot/And I am unhappy/I have been designed/To make money/But I want to make love”—before addressing a range of seemingly random topics (blowjobs, shrewd producers, the Rolling Stones, how it’s “great to be a nepo kid”). Happy Tears arrives January 8 via Rock Action. It will be released alongside Happy Tears: The Story of Mogwai, a new audio documentary about the band’s rise.

“Hearing the Stooges had been a life-changing moment for me,” Braithwaite wrote in his 2022 memoir Spaceships Over Glasgow: Mogwai, Mayhem and Misspent Youth about his love of Iggy Pop, adding, “I had a VHS video of Iggy playing live and I watched it over and over. His performance was unlike anything or anyone I’d seen before. The spectacle was great but it was his voice and songs that really captured me.”

“I’ve always liked Mogwai,” Pop wrote in a statement. “The opening of the track reminded me of the crushing modern loneliness. The sung vocal, which was arranged by Matt Sweeney, felt like it was made for someone who is pissed off and doesn’t mind saying so.”

Happy Tears:
01 Yes! I Am A Long Way From Home
02 I'm Jim Morrison I'm Dead
03 Hunted By A Freak
04 Take Me Somewhere Nice
05 Boltfor
06 CODY
07 Brand New Paths to Helicon 1
08 How To Be A Werewolf
09 Auto Rock
10 Remurdered
11 Ritchie Sacramento
12 Lion Rumpus
13 Underground (feat. Iggy Pop)

01 Angels vs Aliens
02 Die 1 Dislike!
03 Ether (with The KNDS Fairey Band - Live)
04 The Sun Smells Too Loud (Holden remix)
05 If Not Destroyed: True
06 Full Blast Michael
07 Hingmy Malmsteen
08 Dracula Family
09 Harry Patter
10 Ritchie Sacramento (Other Two remix)
11 Nick Drake
12 Owl Mince
13 Mogwai Fear Satan (Live)

Mogwai: Happy Tears

Alex Suskind has overseen music coverage for New York magazine’s Vulture and, before that, Entertainment Weekly. He has written about TV, film, technology, politics, and tons of other stuff for The Guardian, Vanity Fair, and The Fader. ... Read More