Scotland the Brave

England's northern neighbor has long produced groundbreaking bands. I'm thinking of Simple Minds (when they were truly groundbreaking), Orange Juice, Josef K, the Jesus and Mary Chain, Primal Scream, The Beta Band and Franz Ferdinand... (and not so much Big Country, Del Amitri and the Proclaimers.)

Add another band to the groundbreaking list: Django Django. The similarity with the Beta Band is obvious -- after all, Django's David Maclean is the younger brother of the Beta Band's John Maclean. But add more synths, surf guitars, and Brian Wilsonesque vocal harmonies and you're getting closer. Their self-titled debut album got major critical acclaim from usual suspects like NME and The Guardian, but also on this side of the Atlantic courtesy of Rolling Stone, which voted it the 26th best album of 2012. I'm not sure how I missed it last year, but I'm happy I found it now.

Song in My Head

I realize I'm running the risk of turning this blog into a platform for 80s revivalists, but the new song from Simple Minds really is quite good. I'm not keen on nostalgia for nostalgia's sake, but "Blood Diamonds" is a stunningly beautiful track that will make you think it's 1983 all over again. Maybe it's the synths or the fact that -- unlike most guys his age -- Jim Kerr's voice hasn't lost a step. Either way, these guys lost their way in America after the success of Once Upon a Time -- but this song pretty much eliminates the intervening 30 years (yikes).

Song In My Head

Simple Minds' sublime instrumental "Somebody Up There Likes You" from 1982's New Gold Dream. It's a perfect respite between harder driving (and better-known) songs like "Promised You a Miracle" and "New Gold Dream". I just got the somewhat misleadingly titled X5 collection (it's actually the first six studio albums if you separate Sons and Fascination from Sister Feelings Call, as was originally intended) and I'm enjoying it immensely. Before John Hughes movie "The Breakfast Club" pigeonholed them, Simple Minds were an interesting and artistic band.

Vacation!

As I head off to a week at the Jersey Shore, I leave you with a fairly obscure Simple Minds track from 1980 -- "I Travel". Like most early Simple Minds, it sounds nothing like you'd think it would. It's dancy, edgy, political and arty.

By the way, Simple Minds released their first five albums -- all the ones before New Gold Dream -- as a special box set called Simple Minds x5. It's a great reminder of a band that totally changed its sound in an effort to become commercially viable. But there's some pretty cool stuff going on in the early Simple Minds catalog, and for $20 it's probably worth picking up.

Enjoy the week!