hail hail the celts are here.

My father is a Scottish immigrant. Most of my relatives live in Scotland. I have been there many times. I think I feel another theme coming along! AWESOME SCOTTISH MUSIC!!!!! I find it very ironic that for a country (and more specifically the city of Glasgow) that is known for toughness, shitty weather and religiously affiliated gang violence has very very very soft sounding musical stand outs. I guess that's what a lifetime of rain will do to you, sad songs and fighting.

Starting with a more recent group, Belle & Sebastian. Kinda obvious if you are into music but whatever I'm not that guy, the music douche. I'm more of a jack of all trades douche who is lovable and pragmatic. That being said they are pretty legit, 2 of their founding members were named Stuart which makes them pretty Scottish. They also pulled an upset when they won best new group at the Brit awards. The front runners were 5ive. So props to fucking up 5ive's dreams. The video is Lazy Line Painter Jane a nice 5 minute jam. I really like the female vocalist.



My second pick is rapidly becoming my favorite Scottish band the legendary THE JESUS AND MARY CHAIN. Stoners and pussies in way too tight jeans that I hate really fucking love them which would normally make me hate them but they are so good that they rise above that! They might be skinny weirdos but they have huge Glaswegian mouthes on them, they talk a gang of shit and it rules. I saw an old episode of The New Music from the mid 80's and they had random kids breaking in to their dressing room from a small window and they were completely apathetic like the shit was supposed to happen all the while the interviewer is like WTFFFF. The song I chose is JUST LIKE HONEY. This shit literally moves me. I'm so bonered for this tune that I'm paying my friend to paint a visual representation of the song. I wish I was kidding.



Now for the last selection I could have went for something more obvious like Mogwai or something but I decided to keep it 80's. I picked ALTERED IMAGES (a group that Jesus and Mary Chain dissed a lot). A new wave group that went from John Peel's and NME's darlings to big time sellouts. The song is called HAPPY BIRTHDAY and it was one of their biggest hits and the beginning of their transition from punky new wave to all out commercial pop. I would say it's a fun song but I really hate it when people say a song or a band is fun. It's like you don't want to say it's good cause you're an asshole. So I'm gonna say that the song is good, damn good.



BONUS TIME:

As you might know Scotland is not an independent state and it's something a lot of people want to see. The Corries are a really old folk group that wrote a song (FLOWER OF SCOTLAND) that became the national anthem. All Scots got sick of Scotland The Brave because it was tacky and it's the song everybody always plays on the bagpipes. Flower of Scotland is so much better. It's soft but it really gets you riled up. When will we be a nation again?