LOST in France explores the rise and creativity of globally successful Glasgow acts such as Mogwai and Franz Ferdinand, but it also excavates countless cult-pop treasures from the city's mid-late 90s DIY underground.
Art-punk miscreants Trout are given a righteous appraisal from Alex Kapranos, who sings the band's praises on-camera, and he performs one of their noise-pop classics, Owl In The Tree, with Stuart Braithwaite (Mogwai), RM Hubbert and Paul Savage (The Delgados) live onstage during their return trip to Mauron.
There's an enlightening, amusing scene in a French bar wherein Kapranos gleefully reels off some of the many other incredible, anarchic bands which came out of the city at that time, as his beer glass magically drains and refills – Urusei Yatsura, The Yummy Fur, The Poison Sisters, Glen or Glenda, Eska and The Blisters among them.
Of particular note are garage-pop livewires Lungleg and surf-rock rabble Pink Kross, both of whom Kapranos name-checks, and both of whom featured on the 13th Note's cult seven-inch Club Beatroot series back in the day. Alongside blues-fuelled libertines Gilded Lil and Cora Bissett's folk-punk wonders Swelling Meg, Lungleg and Pink Kross fired up the femme-punk spirit of riot grrrl with chaotic, inventive, Central Belt rock 'n' roll.
Lungleg's 1997 album, Maid To Minx (Vesuvius), is well worth hunting down for rockabilly indie thrills – think '50s B Movies, The Rezillos, The B-52s – as is Pink Kross's 1998 LP (released on Bis' Teen-C Recordings), not least for its joyous title: Chopper Chix From VP Hell.
Nicola Meighan
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