RIP Arab Strap

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So, I'm just back from the last ever ever EVER Arab Strap gig. It was emotional amazing stuff, like every gig I've ever loved wrapped into one big package of laughs and tears and remembrance of nights of drunken idiocy. With added balloons.

I know there's a thread about this tour on real-ILM but that's not here right now. So talk about the genius of drunken rambling Scottish blokes here please.

Or don't. Right now, they are my favourite band in the world. I hate that it takes them splitting up to make me realise this.

― ailsa_xx (ailsa_xx), Monday, 4 December 2006 23:43 (seventeen years ago) link

i really like arab strap.

― M@tt He1ges0n (Matt Helgeson), Tuesday, 5 December 2006 00:06 (seventeen years ago) link

I've wanted to check them out for a while, but it hasn't happened yet. Where should I start, discography-wise? I want to know their good stuff before the reunion tour.

― StanM (StanM), Tuesday, 5 December 2006 00:10 (seventeen years ago) link

back in the mid-nineties, when i was still a student, my big pal tom rang me and said: "i've discovered this band that are pretty much tailor-made for you."

he was right. "philophobia" was once my favourite album in the world but these days i can't listen to it: i've got a mint, unplayed vinyl version i bought to replace the CD my ex-flatmate's ex stole, but i don't think i'll ever put it on - at least, not for a long time. it was there for me when i needed it, and that's what matters. it exists now in my heart alone, and i think that's best.

"elephant shoe" was weak; "the red thread" was GODLIKE and is the one album of theirs to which i happily return. "hug and pint" bored me; i've just had to check to see whether i own "last romance" (i do) ... i've just started playing it and i remember nothing about it.

it's not them. it's me. i changed. i'm sorry, lads.

malcolm middleton's two solo albums, however, have rocked my world: i remember i spent a large part of 2005 bigging up the last one on ILM, but the only other person who cared was marcello. ach.

my mate big chris played bass with them for a while; i think an old pal of stet's played with them too. lovely blokes, from what i understand. for a short while, aidan seemed to be in every bar and club i visited; notably coming out of the cludgie in optimo (when it was at mas) with a copy of the record under his arm. at ATP 2005 (or was it 2004?) we had a "spot the moffat" competition; i think i got 25 points and tom got 23.

happy days, though. and they've done the right thing. honourable men. cheers!

― grimly fiendish (simon), Tuesday, 5 December 2006 01:01 (seventeen years ago) link

footnotes/clarifications: when you're 5'6", i suppose all your mates are "big". and that's "the record under his arm" as in the daily scottish tabloid, not a vinyl LP.

― grimly fiendish (simon), Tuesday, 5 December 2006 01:03 (seventeen years ago) link

Hello. I know them only from the first two albums. 'The Weekend Never Starts Round Here', and 'Philophobia' which are both excellent albums, that convey the positive and negative of small town Scottish life near perfectly. Especially 'Philophobia'. My brother's friend is a huge fan, so I'll post in later with his recommendations. Plus they've got a sense of humour if you look beyond the deadpan. Also 'I Would Have Liked Me A Lot Last Night' is a song I will always love, just for the sentiment. grimly fiendish's post is better but I'm going to post this anyway because I'm slightly boozed up and weirdly sentimental for a band I...

― Richard Docherty (fractal), Tuesday, 5 December 2006 01:09 (seventeen years ago) link

Great gig tonight. Farewell to my favourite Scottish band who aren't Mogwai.

The acoustic finale with Packs of Three, (something else I can't remember - Here We Go maybe?), Loch Leven, Soaps and Shy Retirer was nothing short of brilliant - and it was fitting that they finished with just Aiden and Malcolm on stage for the encore following the mentalness of the First Big Weekend (with added balloons!).

Where should I start, discography-wise?

I'd start with the Cunted Circus live album (you really can't go wrong with any of the live releases) and Philophobia. Then, in no particular order - Elephant Shoe, The Red Thread, Monday at the Hug and Pint. There's always the new Ten Years Of Tears compilation as well.

― nu_onimo (nu_onimo), Tuesday, 5 December 2006 01:27 (seventeen years ago) link

Oh, and also 'The Week Never Starts Round Here'

― nu_onimo (nu_onimo), Tuesday, 5 December 2006 01:29 (seventeen years ago) link

I'd have liked to have been at this tonight. I've seen them a few times, always patchy, but it sounds brilliant. I still rank The Night Before The Funeral high. Grimly OTM about the Red Thread.

― stet (stet), Tuesday, 5 December 2006 01:32 (seventeen years ago) link

Nice wee quote from Aidan in his Sunday Herald article:

We never did become the kind of rock stars we'd read about, but I would genuinely rather mean a lot to a little that a little to a lot.

― nu_onimo (nu_onimo), Tuesday, 5 December 2006 01:39 (seventeen years ago) link

you'll always be a bigger man than me, grimly.

― colin0Hara (colin_o_hara), Tuesday, 5 December 2006 02:22 (seventeen years ago) link

Thanks for the recommendations!

― StanM (StanM), Tuesday, 5 December 2006 09:30 (seventeen years ago) link

malcolm middleton's two solo albums, however, have rocked my world: i remember i spent a large part of 2005 bigging up the last one on ILM, but the only other person who cared was marcello. ach.

I missed this bit. I really enjoyed both of his solo albums. Possibly more than Arab Strap's output.

― tissp! (tissp!), Tuesday, 5 December 2006 10:52 (seventeen years ago) link

I just got the new L. Pierre in the mail.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 5 December 2006 16:21 (seventeen years ago) link

i really like "hug & pint"

― M@tt He1ges0n (Matt Helgeson), Tuesday, 5 December 2006 16:36 (seventeen years ago) link

How is it? I haven't actually heard anything of Moffat's solo stuff.

(actually, didn't he do the fukd id thing with the Exorcist theme remix on it?)

xpost

― tissp! (tissp!), Tuesday, 5 December 2006 16:37 (seventeen years ago) link

It's one of the greatest instrumental records of all-time and deserves a place amongst the pantheon of Bach, Mozart, Davis, GY!BE etc etc etc.

― nu_onimo (nu_onimo), Tuesday, 5 December 2006 16:47 (seventeen years ago) link

Not really, but it's quite good in a meandering fucking-around-with-stuff kind of way. A good crash-out record.

― nu_onimo (nu_onimo), Tuesday, 5 December 2006 16:48 (seventeen years ago) link

I like the idea of that, actually

― tissp! (tissp!), Tuesday, 5 December 2006 16:50 (seventeen years ago) link

new l pierre album, 'dip', is truly sublime.
6 tracks - 38 minutes.
no laptop beats, very pure and organic, with a theme of nature throughout (seaguls/sea noises open and close the album, as per the cover art).
rather special i must say.

― mark e (mark e), Tuesday, 5 December 2006 18:09 (seventeen years ago) link

i wasn't too impressed by aidan's first one - good in parts - and haven't heard much he's done solo since. but you might be convincing me here, dudes.

― grimly fiendish (simon), Tuesday, 5 December 2006 20:07 (seventeen years ago) link

I too really like Malcolm Middleton's solo stuff. I feel I have now been suitably sold on Aiden Moffat's ventures, I just need to hear them now.

(xpost, or maybe not)

― ailsa_xx (ailsa_xx), Tuesday, 5 December 2006 20:15 (seventeen years ago) link

My post was referring to 'Touchpool', not 'dip', which I've yet to hear.

― nu_onimo (nu_onimo), Tuesday, 5 December 2006 22:44 (seventeen years ago) link

I will always wuv Malcolm for playing to a tiny audience at an early (the first?) Winchester Club and then coming back for more a few months later.

― Madchen (Madchen), Wednesday, 6 December 2006 17:30 (seventeen years ago) link

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