Scottish Bands/Artists Appreciation Thread
 

Alrite, seen as I appear to be the only Scot on here, I think it would be appropriate for me to do a thread dedicated to Scottish bands/artists.
(By the way I had actually spent about an hour doing this thread before & then it somehow got lost when I tried to post it....)
I used to hold a pretty negative/mediocre view of Scottish music when I was younger & first getting into music i.e I had only really clued up on the likes of Travis, Proclaimers & Del Amitri.

Big Country are my favourite Scottish band for this song alone (& many others). The riff on this song is just amazing.I love how they create this bagpipe like sound on their guitars.
Long Live Stuart Adamson & its such a shame he died the way he did.


John Martyn is truly a great artist & guitar player. I love how he combined Folk & Jazz music in a way that nobody else could. His music is so distinctive & so is his voice.
I only recentley got into John Martyn a few months ago (sadly he tragically died not long after..) when I purchased his 'Solid Air' album. I also have a lot of his other albums & out of the ones Ive bought I can honestly say Ive never heard a bad album from him yet. 'The Apprentice' & 'Grace & Danger' are my two favourite albums by him. Others I have include 'Inside Out', 'One World' & 'Well Kept Secret'.
This is the first song I ever heard from the first album I bought 'Solid Air'.
I have always found this song very moving & only recentley found out that he had written it for the late Nick Drake who was suffering from depression at the time. I couldnt limit it to one track alone so have tried to narrow it down to a couple.


Another track I simply couldnt leave out:


'A couple' becomes three!

R.I.P John.

I recentley came to appreciate Idlewild after someone gave me a copy of the 'Remote Part' album which i promptly went out and bought for myself.
The thing I love about this band is how you can tell their Scottish just by listening to them (which cant be said for all Scottish bands).
Heres a very good track of theirs:
This is the first song I ever heard from this band and I knew right away I had been missing out on a great band


I dont care what anybody says about them, to me they are national icons.
The Proclaimers, are a great band and musically personify Scotland for me.
This song has been the last track played at pretty much every birthday party/school dance I can just about remember. Also when I used to go see Scotland at Hampden, they play it about 20 times a match (including when we score). Its so lifting to hear 50,000 people singing this song simultaneously. Every time I hear this song it reminds me everything good about Scotland, being Scottish & also brings back a shiitload of memories.


Also heres an insight into what its like to hear this song at Hampden.
I was at this game!! Great atmosphere. Was an excellent game throughout (1-1) until that wee bastard scored right at the end on the 90 mark. Gutted, was still a great game though.

Another two classics I couldnt leave out:

They mention my name in this song! ('Lewis no more') Theyre referring to the Scottish island I was named after!


Another timeless classic I couldnt have left out. It took me a while before I found out they were Scottish though!:


I have always liked Travis but think that everything they did after 'Good Feeling' pales in comparison. I couldnt leave these tracks out though. No matter what they are now, they f*cking rocked in their early days!


F*ck man, I forgot just how good they used to be!




This is a true forgotten classic:

Mods: Sorry I had to double post as I was over the character limit & just simply couldnt leave Edwyn Collins out! P.S. If you are able to merge it for me then thats sound!.

Edwyn Collins is another of my favourite Scottish artists & very underrated outside his one hit 'A Girl Like You'. The albums 'Gorgeous George' & his recent comeback album 'Home Again' in particular are harshly overlooked.

I grew up listening to this song, I have never grown tired of it and never will.
He is massively underrated outside of this song & Im still to check out his previous group- Orange Juice.


This is a very good track of the album:


This is from his comeback album after recovering from a brain haemorrhage & caught my attention at time of release which prompted me to buy the album which is also very good.


So there you are, you may say I am missing out a lot of Scottish bands but that is either due to me just forgotting about them or not hearing them yet.

I didnt put Bay City Rollers in as I dont really like them & Boards Of Canada someone gave me a copy of all their albums on a usb but Ive not gotten round to listening to them yet. I have been looking on Wikipedia & Im surprised at just how many Scottish bands there are and plan on going on a Scottish bands binge soon!Category:Scottish musical groups - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

So feel free ,if theres anyone Ive stupidly missed out ,to let me know.

Bodkin!

http://www.progarchives.com/progress...4231792007.jpg

Awesome heavy prog, this blows most scottish bands out of the water. John Martyn is of course always great too.

As hyphenated-American, I really don't want any one to know I'm part Scots & Scots-Irish et cetera.


I like differnet Scottish bands but only a few songs like Snow Patrol, Franz Ferdinand, Dire Straits, Eurythmics, Annie Lennox, The Average White Band, Tannahill Weavers, and of course Big Country, too bad they didn't become as big as U2.

My favorite band from Scotland is The Rezillos, actually the first time I heard them I was at Jazz store looking for Les Paul and Wes Montgomery, because Steve Howe was influenced by them. While I was in the basement of this store, that had non-Jazz albums, I heard this band I never heard before and it was the greatest bass playing I ever heard, I sheepishly asked the guy who worked their and said he was playing the Rezillos. Whenever I was in a music store, I would look for their CD, but could never find it. Every so often I'll ask someone about them and they never had a clue who they were. I found a store that could special ordered the CD. It finally arrive something like 6 months latter. It was well worth the wait.

YouTube - The Rezillos - (My Baby Does) Good Sculptures

YouTube - Average White Band - Pick up the pieces

YouTube - Franz Ferdinand - Take Me Out

I want to say that The Rezillos + AWB = Franz Ferdinand (style-wise); but I won't becuase I don't want any criticism for saying so.

Dire Straits are from Newcastle...

Not strictly Scottish, but worthy of inclusion. ;)

Mcf*ckity f*ck! :banghead:I knew there was someone Id left out! Ill have to a bit for Primal Scream & Jesus & Mary Chain.
Ive heard of Mogwai, Arab Strap, Belle & Sebastian but I only know other people who are into them.
I didnt include Franz Ferdinand as I dont really rate them as a good Scottish as such- certainly not up beside the likes of these.
Also Snow Patrol (although they have a few Scottish members)- I would class as Irish as the lead singer is Irish, he has an irish accent & he sounds Irish. Annie Lennox & Eurthymics just dont match my tastes but I can respect here as an artist.
As for Big Country, I wouldnt want them to be as big as U2 as U2 are a bunch of *******s.
Somebody keeps badgering me about Frightened Rabbit, whom Ive not gotten round to checking out yet, good I suppose aye?
Yeah I wouldnt class a bunch of Jordies as a Scottish band. Although i think Mark Knopfler was born in Scotland.

Haha, thats just a rip off The Proclaimers.

Cool man ive never heard of this band before, will need to check them out. Got any recommendations on where to start? Im glad you like John Martyn. Have you heard an album called The Apprentice? Ive included some tracks from it here.

Primal Scream:
I have been into this band for as long as I can remember. Screamadelica was one of the first albums I ever heard from them but Give Out But Dont Give Up was my favourite. It took me ages to appreciate the other songs on Screamadelica (apart from Loaded & Movin On Up) although I always loved 'Damaged'.

This song has one of the best intro riffs I have ever hear in my life- lost count of the times I used to listen to this full blast on the Ipod.
I also love the album, Give Out But Dont Give Up (1994) on which they collabarated with George Clinton- which was how I got into him in the first place.


Like Urban said in his review, one of the best album openers of all time, which I can only agree on.


Another good un


One I forgot about!


'Vanishing Point' is an extremely underrated album & I stupidly took a very long time to get it.




Jesus & Mary Chain- I got into them through Primal Scream when I heard that Bobby Gillespie was the drummer in them previously.
The early stuff is my favourite, especially the track 'Upside Down'. They are an example of when noise can be blissful.



Sorry about the sound quality, was the only one I could find apart from ****ey fan boy covers

Geordie* and Bodkin only have one album, I'll send you a link.

he was only with them for Psychocandy, then he went & did his own thing with the Scream. it's really always been just the Reid kids.

i can't even stand Psychocandy anymore (which is apparently a 'masterpiece' of the '80s), the production is terrible and it sounds grating after a while. Darklands and Honey's Dead are both superb albums though, much stronger songwriting too.

Aye man cheers for that, Ill probably listen to it tomorrow.
Yeah, I dont know a lot about the Jesus & Mary Chain- Ive only got their 21 Singles album which i really like, have had Psychocandy & Darklands on my wishlist for years now. I just knew Bobby Gillespie had played with them before Primal Scream who I think did their first album in 89? I recentley got it to complete my collection & it has a different punkier sound to it. Wasnt too keen on it though.

While I am most certainly not Scottish, some of my favorite bands are.

Orange Juice- YouTube - Orange Juice - Falling and laughing

The Vaselines- YouTube - The Vaselines-Son Of a Gun

The Pastels- YouTube - The Pastels - Nothing to be done

Teenage Fanclub- YouTube - Teenage Fanclub - The Concept (audio only)

Belle and Sebastian- YouTube - Like Dylan In The Movies - Belle & Sebastian

Josef K- YouTube - Josef K - Heaven Sent

Mark Knopfler is not Jordanian, his father is of Jewish decent.

Very funny, as much as I like Dire Straits, lets stop talking about them as they are not a scottish band.

You keep talking about them, hey the only reason I temporarily thought Mark Knopfler's Scots was because he said his father was the only Jewish doctor in Scotland, I must of missed the part were his family moved to Newcastel upon Tyne.

Please refer to my previous post.

ah I forgot the vaselines, amazing band!

Yeah also I forgot Biffy Clyro who are alright.

I brought up a broad spectrum of Scottish music and in lieu of talking about the Tannahill Weavers, The Rezillos, or the Average White Band you put down the bands you heard of and don't like, and it's you keep bringing up that band, it not my fault I thought Mr. "So and So" who spent 7 years of his life in Scotland is Scottish.

Jesus christ take a chill pill.

JAMC, Danananaykroyd, Cutting Pink With Knives(i think), *** Against You, Boards Of Canada(when i'm in the right mood) and i'm sure there are others i like that i'm forgetting.

Arab strap
boards of canada

Hm. this one's a mystery. besides Mogwai, what other scottish bands do I listen to. hmm....
I'm lost.

anyways, here's a video of of of their songs

Recently I've been digging The Twilight Sad.

Omg yes ^. Such an incredible band.

Does no-one here know their Scottish history? Or music history for that matter. It's a matter of record that Clouds (1-2-3) are officially the most important and influential Scottish band ever. See the article in Scotland on Sunday 15th/17th April 2012.

Not all of us are Scottish.

There was also another Scottish band called The Clouds who released only one single in 1987. Teenage Fanclub frontman Norman Blake was their guitarist. They were rather good, if you're into C86 indie type stuff.

Any of you lot ever listen to Aerogramme, they were post-rock with a twist.



Then there's Mogwai, whom I'm sure most of the forum are well acquainted with already.
If not I recommend their album 'The Hawk Is Howling'

Any opportunity to post The Blue Nile, they are (were?) a truly great band. It's a pity that they weren't more prolific but then again their perfectionist approach to making music resulted in gems like this song and excellent albums such as A Walk Across The Rooftops and Hats.



Their debut album Rattlesnakes is an album I'm digging a lot lately. An amazing album from beginning to end. I love the way this song builds and builds.



The shambling charm of The Pastels is hard to resist. Their vocals are dodgy, their musicianship leaves a lot to be desired, but I can't imagine it any other way. You can't go wrong with good catchy songs like this.



I might have posted this somewhere before. Even though it was released in 1987 it has a very early-90's shoegaze quality to it. They're also from Cocteau Twins' neck of the woods.

Really like The Beta Band personally. Probably know hundreds of other Scottish bands, but I don't really check for nationality or notice it that often.

BEST

...yet you've noticed the nationality of Scottish bands "probably hundreds" of times. That's pretty often.



Anyway, some of the usual suspects are my favorites, specifically Jesus and Mary Chain, Arab Strap, and Mogwai.

I used to listen to this album by Appendix Out all the time:
http://www.filtersage.com/cover/music/41Y22AEEFRL.jpg

I guess I discovered it because Drag City released it and it sounded basically like a Scottish version of Palace Brothers or Smog who were in vogue at the time.

Here's them doing a cover of my maybe favorite Pavement song:

Can you read properly?

Yes

the most obvious one being Jesus and Mary Chain, of course

Proclaimers?

Jesse Rae?

Runrig - Loch Lomond is probably the most played scottish song ever. It literally gets played at every occasion as the last song. I ****ing love it. Especially the 'dance'.

i really liked this.....looking into them now

but still my absolute favorite band from Scotland is DIVORCE




they just recently released a new 7inch/digital download on bandcamp.....and for what their site says they have plans for their first full length later this year :)

Belle & Sebastian all the way. I love them so much.

Divorce are fantastic. My friend's band has played with them many times in Glasgow, and they're always a treat to see live. I'm surprised and delighted someone on here has heard of them! One of the best bands around here at the moment, for sure.

Gerry Rafferty



Sensational Alex Harvey Band



Nazareth (loudest band I've ever heard)