The Great Scots are back

2008's The Hawk Is Howling, featuring such marvellously titled ditties as 'I'm Jim Morrison, I'm Dead' and 'I Love You, I'm Going To Blow Up Your School', was arguably the first time Mogwai's powers of naming had outshone their music. Let's hope that's not the case this time around, given that the new record - their seventh, featuring a reunion with Paul Savage - is called Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will and contains tracks such as 'George Square Thatcher Death Party' and 'You're Lionel Richie'. By the sounds of it, the album'll be out in advance of their UK tour in February, when I'll be sampling its wares at the Regal here in Oxford.

In other music news, following on from the revelation that she's a Tea Party sympathiser, the Velvet Underground's Moe Tucker has spoken at greater length (and more animatedly) about why she's a card-carrying member of the movement. Just don't suggest she might have been in the closet about being a conservative (or "independent", as she prefers)...