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Biography
Refimprove|date=July 2009Infobox musical artist| name = Arab Strap| image =| caption =| background = group_or_band| origin = Falkirk , Scotland| genre = Sadcore , indie rock , alternative rock | years_active = 1995–2006; 2011| label = Chemikal Underground | associated_acts = Mogwai L. Pierre Malcolm Middleton | website = http://www.arabstrap.co.uk| current_members = Aidan Moffat Malcolm Middleton Arab Strap were an indie rock band from Scotland that consisted of core members Aidan Moffat and Malcolm Middleton .cite book | first= Martin C. | last= Strong | year= 2000 | title= The Great Rock Discography | edition= 5th | publisher= Mojo Books | location= Edinburgh | pages= 28–29 | isbn= 1-84195-017-3 The band were signed to independent record label Chemikal Underground , and split in 2006. As indicated by the title of Belle & Sebastian 's third record, The Boy with the Arab Strap , and by Aidan Moffat's involvement in the two Reindeer Section albums, they were a central part of Glasgow 's influential late 1990s music scene.
History
Vocalist Aidan Moffat and multi-instrumentalist Malcolm Middleton grew up in Falkirk , and bonded over their mutual love for Drag City (record label)|Drag City recording artists such as Smog (band)|Smog and Will Oldham (who at the time recorded under the name Palace Brothers ). They began collaborating in 1995, and their debut album, The Week Never Starts Round Here , was released the following year.
Over the course of their ten-year existence, Arab Strap worked with a number of musicians, including Jenny Reeve and Stacey Sievewright, as well as Adele Bethel and David Gow, who went on to form Sons and Daughters (band)|Sons and Daughters . Stuart Murdoch (musician)|Stuart Murdoch of Belle & Sebastian featured on the album Philophobia (album)|Philophobia , but the Belle & Sebastian album/song " The Boy with the Arab Strap " would later create something of a feud between the two singers.
Arab Strap's marked characteristics include sordid, personal, yet honest, lyrics – described by the NME as "fly on the duvet vignettes". http://www.nme.com www.nme.com Like fellow Scottish band The Proclaimers , their lyrics are sung in their native Scots language|Scots tongue .cite book | url= http://www.lwbooks.co.uk/books/archive/breakingupbritain.html | chapterurl= http://www.lwbooks.co.uk/books/archive/Breaking_up_Britain_Williamson.pdf | chapter=Language and culture in a rediscovered Scotland | title=Breaking up Britain: Four nations after a Union |editor=Mark Perryman | author=Kevin Williamson | authorlink=Kevin Williamson (politician) | year=2009 | publisher= Lawrence and Wishart | page=61 | ISBN=978-1-905007-96-7 |accessdate=2009-09-05 At first essentially an electro-acoustic band with a brooding, spare sound, later albums and gigs saw them develop a fuller sound that drew deeply on both indie and dance music.
Arab Strap's first two albums, The Week Never Starts Around Here (1996) and Philophobia (1998), depicted the desperate decadence of post-Thatcherite Britain. The former album's "The First Big Weekend", a five-minute piece of drunken mayhem that end with a joyous singalong, "Went out for a weekend, lasted forever / Got high with our friends, it's officially summer," which was the chorus to "Hey!Fever," one of the tracks on the EP The Girls of Summer . The 1999 live album, Mad for Sadness , demonstrated how the sometimes spare recorded sound of their early music could lift into a celebration of a sexually empty, drug- and alcohol-dependent life.
After these albums, Arab Strap's music became much more musically polished, but continued to focus on drink, drugs, and existentially bereft versions of sexuality.
In keeping with the theme of sexual allusion (see arab strap (sexual device) ), Moffat records as a solo artist under the name Lucky Pierre (later changed to L Pierre) http://www.aidanmoffat.co.uk/ Aidan Moffat's website – slang for the man in the middle of a gay threesome. This work is also characterised by a brooding, spare sound, but is instrumental in nature. Middleton also has a solo career under his own name, releasing two albums with Chemikal Underground and three more via Full Time Hobby Records.
On 9 September 2006, the band announced on their website that they were to split upCitation needed|date=December 2009. They celebrated the ten years since their first studio album with the release of a compilation record, Ten Years of Tears . They went on tour in Europe for the last time at the end of the year, and played their final show at the end of a secret tour of Japan at Shibuya O-Nest on 17 December 2006.
Post-breakup
In a 2008 interview, Middleton stated: "It was a good time to call it a day. Unless there's a definite need and desire for us to play, I don't think we should ever get back together. We always said we would collaborate again when we split up, but I think maybe it's still too soon. Maybe in a few years when we've got time, we'll maybe try something for a laugh. Who knows? " The Skinny (magazine)|The Skinny : Issue 39, December 2008, p. 39
In December 2009, Monday at the Hug & Pint , The Red Thread (Arab Strap album)|The Red Thread and The Last Romance entered The Skinny (magazine)|The Skinny s "Scottish Albums of the Decade" list at #7, #12 and #25 respectively. http://www.theskinny.co.uk/articles/scottish+albums+of+the+decade? page=1
In April 2010, the Scenes of a Sexual Nature box-set was released, featuring early albums, live recordings, and a newly-recorded track.
In August 2011, Aidan Moffat and Malcolm Middleton released a cover version of Slow Club 's new single, "Two Cousins", under the name "Two Cousins 1999". Moffat noted, "It’s not an Arab Strap performance as such, rather it’s the two guys who used to be Arab Strap recording their own, informed pastiche". http://thequietus.com/articles/06684-listen-aidan-moffat-malcolm-middleton-cover-slow-club The Quietus article about the cover release.
On 17th November, 2011, the band reformed for a one-off show, as part of Glasgow venue Nice N Sleazy's 20th birthday celebrations.
Discography
Studio albums
The Week Never Starts Round Here (1996)
Philophobia (album)|Philophobia (1998) UK Albums Chart #37
Elephant Shoe (1999)
The Red Thread (Arab Strap album)|The Red Thread (2001)
Monday at the Hug & Pint (2003)
The Last Romance (2005)
Live albums
Mad for Sadness Go& #33; Beat 3 May 1999
The Cunted Circus Private pressing 2003
Acoustic Request Show Private pressing 2005
Compilations and EPs
The Girls of Summer EP Chemikal Underground 1997 UK Singles Chart #74
Live Too Many Cooks 1998
Cherubs EP Go& #33; Beat 1999 UK Albums Chart|UK Budget Albums Chart #5
Singles (Arab Strap album)|Singles Bandai 1999
Fukd ID #2 Chemikal Underground 2000
Quiet Violence Private pressing 2002
The Shy Retirer EP Chemikal Underground 2003 UK Budget Albums Chart #25
Ten Years of Tears Chemikal Underground 2006
Scenes of a Sexual Nature Chemikal Underground 2010
Singles
Year
Release
Album
Label
UK Singles Chart Positioncite book
1996
" The First Big Weekend "
The Week Never Starts Round Here
Chemikal Underground
-
1997
"The Smell of Outdoor Cooking"
'(none)'
Lissys
-
"The Clearing"
The Week Never Starts Round Here
Chemikal Underground
-
1998
"Here We Go"/ "Trippy"
Philophobia (album)
48
"(Afternoon) Soaps"
74
2000
"To All A Good Night"
(none)
-
2001
"Love Detective"
The Red Thread (Arab Strap album)
66
"Turbulence"
-
2005
"Dream Sequence"
The Last Romance
-
2006
"Speed-Date"
-
"The Shy Retirer"
(none)
Self-release
-
" There Is No Ending "
The Last Romance
Chemikal Underground
-
References
Reflist
External links
http://www.arabstrap.co.uk Official site (Arab Strap)
http://www.discogs.co.uk/artist/Arab+Strap Arab Strap discography at Discogs
http://www.chemikal.co.uk/arabstrap.htm Arab Strap page at Chemikal Underground
http://www.melodic.co.uk Melodic Records
http://www.timmcmahan.com/arabstrap.htm Lazy-i Interview, May 2003
Arab Strap DEFAULTSORT:Arab Strap Category:Musical groups established in 1995 Category:Musical groups disestablished in 2006 Category:Musical groups from Glasgow Category:Scottish indie rock groups
