Mogwai have teamed up with Iggy Pop for a new song as the Glasgow band mark 30 years with a career-spanning compilation.
The Scottish post-rock pioneers have announced Happy Tears, a collection bringing together highlights, rarities and previously unreleased material from across their three-decade career.
The album will be released on 8 January 2027, with new track Underground, featuring Iggy Pop, available now.
Mogwai guitarist Stuart Braithwaite has previously described The Stooges and Iggy Pop as a big influence on his life and music.
Writing in his book Spaceships Over Glasgow: Mogwai, Mayhem and Misspent Youth, Braithwaite said: “Hearing the Stooges had been a life-changing moment for me. Their self-titled album was pretty much my bible.
“It was druggy, dumb and completely primal. I’d never heard anything quite like it and even though that band had pretty much fallen apart by the time I was born, I grew to love the three Stooges albums as much as any music I’d heard.
“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.”
Iggy Pop said he had long been a fan of Mogwai and described Underground as reflecting “crushing modern loneliness”.
He said: “I’ve always liked Mogwai. 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 is being released through Mogwai’s own Rock Action Records, which is also celebrating its 30th anniversary.
The Glasgow label was originally created as a way for the band to release their own music, including debut single Tuner in 1996, before growing into one of Scotland’s best-known independent labels.
Rock Action has released more than 150 records and worked with Scottish artists including Arab Strap, The Twilight Sad, Kathryn Joseph, Cloth, Sacred Paws, Errors and Remember Remember.
The new Mogwai collection includes songs from throughout the band’s career alongside rarities and previously unreleased recordings.
It also features a new version of New Paths to Helicon 1, retitled Brand New Paths to Helicon 1, recorded with the Budapest Art Orchestra and orchestrated by Adam Wiltzie of A Winged Victory for the Sullen and Stars of the Lid.
Happy Tears will be available as a 2xLP, 4xLP, 2xCD and digital release.
The expanded 4xLP edition includes 13 additional tracks, with six previously unreleased recordings, two remixes, two live tracks and three rarities.
A new feature-length audio documentary, Happy Tears: The Story of Mogwai, will also be released on 8 January.
Produced with creative studio Cup & Nuzzle and narrated by BBC 6 Music presenter Matt Everitt, the documentary tells the story of the band through an oral history covering three decades of music, friendship and independent music.
Braithwaite says in the documentary: “I never thought we’d be making 11 records, because hardly any bands I liked ever did.
“We’re doing it being weirdo Scottish instrumental misery mongers. Like, yeah, that’s pretty wild.”
Mogwai will also return to Glasgow later this year for two hometown shows at the Royal Concert Hall on 20 and 21 November.
The concerts form part of a European tour and follow a summer of international festival appearances and one-off performances.
The band are expected to perform material from throughout their career, including songs from their 11th studio album The Bad Fire.
Released in 2025 and produced by John Congleton at Chem19 Studios in Blantyre, the album includes Lion Rumpus, God Gets You Back and Fanzine Made Of Flesh.