Glasgow
Glasgow appears in 3 Songsheets issues: Post-Rock, London Indie, 2002-07 and C86 and Indie Pop. 6 artists in the archive came from here, including Mogwai, Franz Ferdinand and Primal Scream.
Glasgow's contribution centers on Mogwai, formed in 1995 and signed to the city's Chemikal Underground Records (and later Jetset and Matador), who brought a punk aggression and feedback-drenched intensity to post-rock's contemplative foundations. The band emerged from the city's indie rock scene, playing early shows at venues like the 13th Note Café, and their 1997 debut Young Team established a louder, more visceral strain of the genre that influenced countless imitators. Glasgow's history of guitar experimentation through bands like The Jesus and Mary Chain provided fertile ground for Mogwai's particular brand of beautiful brutalism, which remains the city's defining post-rock export.
Scenes
Artists from Glasgow
- Mogwai
Stuart Braithwaite and Dominic Aitchison formed Mogwai in Glasgow in 1995, chasing a specific sound they'd heard in Slint's Spiderland: what Braithwaite called its 'psychic playing,' the sense of four musicians breathing as a single organism.
- Franz Ferdinand
Formed in Glasgow in 2002, Franz Ferdinand signed to Domino in May 2003.
- Primal Scream
Bobby Gillespie and Jim Beattie formed Primal Scream in Glasgow in 1982, and for a while Gillespie also drummed for the Jesus and Mary Chain, playing on Psychocandy.
- The Pastels
The Pastels formed in Glasgow in 1981 amid the Postcard era, and played their first gig at Bearsden Burgh Hall, booked by Stephen McRobbie (Stephen Pastel) after he had seen Crass there.
- Orange Juice
Orange Juice began in the Glasgow suburb of Bearsden in 1976 as the Nu-Sonics and became Orange Juice in 1979, drawing on Subway Sect, Television and Buzzcocks as well as the Byrds and the Velvet Underground.
- Alan McGee
Alan McGee was born in Glasgow in 1960 and met Bobby Gillespie at King's Park Secondary School; they played together in a punk band, the Drains.
