Toadcast #212 - The Tartan Shortcast

Ah, Tartan Shortbread, that most wonderful of sardonic Scottish put-downs. 

For those unfamiliar with the term, this is the offhand dismissal used to describe the sort of mawkish, clichéd tourist tat which masquerades as Scottish heritage and culture for those with woefully little imagination.  Alternatively, I suppose you could say that Tartan Shortbread is a blanket term for Scottish heritage as a sort of motorway service station take on national identity.

Anyhow, given I work very much at the coalface of the DIY music world in Scotland, I find that I have been oddly unsupportive of a large number of Scottish who have emerged in the last couple of years to considerable enthusiasm from the Scottish music press, both professional and amateur.

For some reason, the recent bands who have shown some likelihood of cracking an audience wider than the relatively narrow confines of the five million or so people in Scotland itself just haven't appealed to me, with a few notable exceptions.  However, sitting down to assemble the playlist for this week I noticed that there were something like seven of the ten songs which happened to be by Scottish bands.  Oh, I thought to myself, I appear to be Scottish again.  How nice.

01. Django Django - Default (00.17)
02. Andrew Bird - Eyeoneye (08.41)
03. Lower Dens - Brains (12.47)
04. Randolph's Leap - Bile (26.17)
05. Clean George IV - XP Avenue (32.51)
06. Dumb Instrument - Reverse the Hearse (35.57)
07. The Occasional Flickers - When the Sky Looks so Grey (41.11)
08. R.M. Hubbert - Sunbeam Melt the Hour (with Marion Kenny & Hanna Tuulikki) (50.20)
09. The Twilight Sad - Don't Move (55.49)
10. Brown Brogues - Anyone But You (62.04)