Arab Strap
Knitting Factory in NYC 4/8/6
Arab Strap is mainly the work of Aidan Moffat and Malcolm Middleton who met in 1995 in Falkirk, Scotland (or so their bio reads). I haven’t been able to listen fully to the newest Arab Strap release, The Last Romance, mainly because I haven’t been able to find it in stores although I have a couple of their older records. From their myspace page tracks, it appears to be an even more melodic affair instrumentally with some backing horns and some sweet backing female vocals on “If There’s No Hope…” I was kind of hoping there would be some backing female vocals live but this did not come to fruition. Still, the backing band members did a great job of keeping up on drums, guitar, bass, and sometimes keyboard.
I recognized some of the songs on myspace live as well as some familiar songs from previous albums (forgive me…due to the fact that I am moving, I have those albums packed and cannot check at this time to see which songs were played) I have also not followed solo efforts so I am feeling as if this blog will be a bit lacking. Suffice it to say, I enjoy the sometimes brooding and sometimes bitter lyrics about relationships set in a vocal style that I would say is part way between a more nasal somewhat atonal Morrissey or a super melodic sing songy Tom Waits. (It isn’t like either of these two but maybe somewhere in the middle)
Here are some direct links to mp3s posted on their official site:
We Don’tr Make Eachother Laugh Anymore mp3
I leave you with pictures (click on blog title or more)
