Arab Strap: Classic Or Dud?

looking forward to the forthcoming New Order album - late august.

Not that there's anything wrong with that...

Ahh, the Girls of Summer EP.

finest moment

http://soundcloud.com/humandontbeangry/hdba_live-at-brudenell-social

The live recording of Malcolm's new solo project is really doing it for me at the moment...

Really enjoying Aidan's new album (w/ Bill Wells).

that live MM thing is kinda fucking unbelievable!! thanks for that

it's amazing isn't it..... i hope he records a full album of that stuff...

Really enjoying Aidan's new album (w/ Bill Wells).

Not sure I've heard a better song this year than "The Copper Top."

Really enjoying Aidan's new album (w/ Bill Wells).

― reverse the jelly baby of the neutron flow (onimo), Saturday, June 4, 2011 9:41 AM (2 months ago) Bookmark

Arab Strap are reforming for a one-off special gig at Nice N Sleazy in Glasgow on 17th November to celebrate the venue's 20th birthday.

Waiting eagerly to hear if I have tickets...

I got tickets!

They announced the free show on twitter at ~9am yesterday, giving an email address to contact for tickets. Apparently all tickets were gone by 9:30am and the event was oversubscribed by around 900%, so these are rather hot tickets here in Glasgow.

this was outrageously discriminatory against people who go to bed late.

anybody got any spares?

i saw wells and moffat last week in berlin. quite a short set (about 1 hour) but almost every song sounded like a song i'd already heard before, like a rediscovered classic from the subconsciousness of mankind. they played more or less the whole - pretty short - album and two songs from the ep. the trumpetist was great too, he added that special distant touch à la chet baker.

in the video of the already mentioned phantastic song "the copper top'" it is him in the coffin:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eu_qjcsF6Gs

you said that i'm ok but you're just having fun
and we were out with the girls and getting drunk in the sun
i would have tried to talk you 'round but you know I'm not a believer
you noticed my eyes were red but that was just with hay fever

bumping just for "The Copper Top" and also

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MwQgMRxOYGQ

New album

https://www.normanrecords.com/records/152144-bill-wells-aidan-moffat-the-most-important-place-in

Link with a track:

http://www.chemikal.co.uk/news/bill-wells-aidan-moffat-announce-new-album/

that song sounds great. i am intrigued for the follow-up of the debut which was one of my fave albums of the year it came out.

cool!

i happen to just listen to 'serenade' yesterday, prob 1 of my fav songs of all time

Let it be known...

http://arabstrap.scot/

I'd be more excited if their last several albums hadn't been really middling.

pleased with this. some good stuff on last romance imo

still holding on to slim hope that their label bosses might reform one day too

I'd love a S/D of stuff post Philiphobia

and why were they scared of Philip obv

i think elephant shoe and monday & the hug and pint are just as good if not better than philophobia

got off the bus with Elephant Shoe. Elephant SHIT more like!!!!!1

Surprised how few Arab Strap albums I own. May have sold them online while drunk or having a "don't like Arab Strap" phase.

I'll always love that their first single was basically a "Good Times" anthem.

Did they continue in that vein?

yes

Nothing else they've done reminds me of "first big weekend"!

It's on:

HELLO AGAIN.
ARAB STRAP WITH STEVE LAMACQ, BBC RADIO 6MUSIC, WEDNESDAY 15TH JUNE 2016 FROM 4PM.

Listened to 'The Red Thread' and 'Monday at the Hug and Pint' the other night, both are really good. 'The Last Romance' is a bit flat for me but has a couple of decent songs. "Where We've Left Our Love", which ended up on '10 Years of Tears', is better than anything on the album itself.

I suppose I should really give the other albums a go. I was all over Philophobia during my last year of school but the follow up was just dead borin'

Arab Strap fact: there's a locally-printed graphic novel called Big Moff which is a fairly prejudiced take on the life of Aidan Moffat, who in this form walks around entirely nude and tried to pay for items in the newsagent with jobbies.

Nothing else they've done reminds me of "first big weekend"!

― blazed carrot (rip van wanko), Tuesday, 14 June 2016 07:03(9 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Well, there is this of course:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSAms-TTtwc

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-rtJydFXVjkQ/VZJZ-8ni2yI/AAAAAAAACbo/dDyqNwS6pG8/s1600/BrawBlog_CollectedRob_05.jpg

lololololol

someone told me that the artist behind Big Moff approached Aidan to see if he was OK with and he said something like "aye, it's a fair depiction". This I think was prior to the character filling entire alleyways with faeces

Elephant SHIT more like!!!!!

clever, I guess but also very wrong.

more like elephant shit

shite

listened to Philo again for the first time in maybe 10 years, so so so good

I remember a post from a few years ago someone was lamenting the fact that Other Music was playing Arab Strap in the store, as if that was the lamest thing imaginable. Smh

Weird. Managed to miss that

a) there is an Aidan Moffat film ("Where You're Meant To Be")
b) that it was shown in Oxford
and
c) that Moffat played live, too.

There are some other screenings coming up:

http://whereyouremeanttobe.com/event-screenings/

Was at the London show on Thursday and it was simply the best show I ever saw them do. The flow of the set, how rehearsed they were, how much fun they were having... they even made me care about Turbulence, a song I never took to before.

I'd like to think this was a point proven, and it's over for another 5 years and the next anniversary. Something this special shouldn't be devalued.

Anyone heard Moffat/Hubbert's "Ghost Stories for Christmas"?

Yeah it’s bloody excellent, immediately bought a ticket for their Manchester Soup Kitchen show, without stopping to realise it’s the night of my work Xmas party. About 50/50 on going atm and that’s turning down a lot of free booze, so you must realise it I is v good.

ill listen to any old hubby material but haven't heard yet

Is "Only You" typical?

We sold more units than The 1975 and The Beatles this week ha ha ha ha ha ha hahttps://t.co/HhIcOkHdrJ

— Aidan Moffat (@AidanJohnMoffat) December 14, 2018

and yes, fairly typical aye

Tonight Aidan jumped off stage to chuck a prick of a heckler out and Hubby joked about fucking the Queen. The music was bloody good too.

Gigantic archive collection up on Bandcamp today

https://arabstrap.bandcamp.com/

They're back?!

pic.twitter.com/BnRW4osTAE

— Arab Strap (@ArabStrapBand) August 27, 2020

yayy i'm a sucker for this band

I feel like they never really "go away" that long but I'm always happy to have em back.

I'm assuming/hoping it means new music.

indeed it does!

https://youtu.be/f4CN6sxDvr0

video somewhat NSFW

(if you still have a workplace idk)

anyway this is surprisingly good!

Yeah, it seems very good!

still enjoys a good shag our aidan

it almost sounds like they were satisfying an Arab Strab Comeback Single checklist: ominous guitars, beats, strings, shagging. check!

Off-topic, but this must be one of the earliest threads on ILM; I don't see many that predate 2001.

A joy to have them back tbf, this is good.

New album contains zero surprises so far but it's solid as hell. Probably better than a couple of their original LPs.

I didn't know I wanted this, but halfway in it's clear I did. Very much.

Off-topic, but this must be one of the earliest threads on ILM; I don't see many that predate 2001.

Well, ILM does have (some of) its roots in a fan community for Belle & Sebastian, by whom see the third album.

Never really listened to this act before, but damn I enjoy this!

New album is great, pretty much what I want from an Arab Strap record in 2021.

"Another Clockwork Day" is somehow one of the most touchingly romantic things ever.

Now, this is what you call an Arab Strap album.

https://pitchfork.com/news/arab-strap-announce-album-share-video-for-new-song-bliss-watch/

“When you stay on brand”

Album seems fairly decent.

Sounds better with alcohol, it must be said (and was probably already presumed).

Really enjoying it but would struggle to say why particularly. Perhaps because it sounds like this - This is a thread for ILXORS IN THEIR 50's - set to song?