Scottish cult band BMX Bandits playing two NYC shows this week

Perhaps better known for having members who’d end up in better known bands (Teenage Fanclub, Soup Dragons, Vaselines), Glasgow’s BMX Bandits — not unlike The Pooh Sticks — have played an important part in Scotland’s indie pop scene and have earned them cult status. (Kurt Cobain once said “If I could be in any other band, it would be BMX Bandits.”) Led by Duglas T. Stewart, the band make scrappy, shambly, often very DIY pop that’s not unlike, in spirit and form, Beat Happening. The band are probably best-known for their 1993 album for Creation Records, Life Goes On, and its single “Serious Drugs” (co-written by Norman Blake and very much sounding like it). Their most recent album is 2012’s In Space. You can stream that LP, plus a best-of compilation, and some other songs from YouTube, below.

Duglas T. Stewart  current keyboardist Chloe Philip are in NYC this week and BMX Bandits will be playing two shows while here: Thursday (4/7) at Sidewalk Cafe and an early show at Cake Shop on Friday (4/8, 7 PM set time). Joining them in this ad-hoc version of the band with be Kevin Alvir of The Hairs, Jacob Danish Sloan (TPOBPAH, The Hairs, Dream Diary) and My Teenage Stride mastermind Jed Smith. Sidewalk (11:30 set time) is no cover though there is a “two-something minimum”; tickets for Cake Shop are on sale now.

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