Arab Strap

Growing up together in the Scottish town of Falkirk, vocalist/drummer Aidan Moffat and multi-instrumentalist Malcolm Middleton shared a deep affection for outsider indie rock.

Forming Arab Strap in 1995, the pair put their own DIY stamp on the subgenre, finding close peers in Glasgow acts like Mogwai and The Delgados.

Soon, Moffat was mumbling spoken-word accounts of excessive drinking and romantic disappointment over spindly, lo-fi post-rock on 1996’s The Week Never Starts Round Here.