King Tut's: Wake the President

There's an old man that haunts Sauchiehall Street, dressed in a three-piece suit, leaning on a cane. Every time you bump into him he's got the same story: "Son, I wouldn't lie to you. I'm a Christian." With a tear in his eye he tells how, yet again, he's lost the tenner from his wallet and needs some cash to get home. In a way, his story is as representative of the city as any Alasdair Gray novel or Belle and Sebastian song. Sad, proud and elegant, he walks the street searching for that lost ten pound note.

These characters are inspiration to the scores of bands and artists working in Glasgow. For Eric Sandberg, one of the twins that runs Say Dirty Records and plays in Wake the President, the old men sitting at bars or drunkenly wandering the streets are the lifeblood of Glasgow, the very core to understanding the city. The songs he sings, melancholy reminiscences of blonde girls from the past, tales of the deceit and debauchery of the West End, resonate with the slurred poetry of these men, philosophising over a whisky water at the Ben Nevis. "For me, my lyrics are about respecting the past, the language and tongue of Glasgow." You can hear Burns, Goethe and Carlyle in the words just as you can hear the muttered remembrances of sizzled drinkers.

The strum of an acoustic guitar, the plaintive Glaswegian burr, a jangle from Eric's brother Bjorn's vintage telecaster: it sounds like the whimsy of vintage Orange Juice but with the sordid, brutal honesty of Arab Strap. And the city is catching on. A recent gig to celebrate Say Dirty's success saw a defining performance from Wake The President, the Sandbergs resplendent in braces and tweed, harmonising Eric's lyrics of love, loss and late night drinking. They've been courted by the Electric Honey label, pack Brel every Thursday for their Out to Play evening and, along with the likes of Popup, seem to be redefining the indigenous sound of the city.

"All my songs are a narrative," says Eric, "'Blonde Girls' is about this guy I know who fucked his leg and retrained as a primary school teacher. For a proud old Scotsman to do that- a man with an enormous amount of pride - was incredibly brave." Not only that, but: "he was a dirty old man, and I related to that."