Album review: Aidan Moffat And The Best-Ofs
* Aidan Moffat first came to indie fame as one half of acerbic duo Arab Strap * Aidan Moffat was expelled from school, before securing a job in a record shop which he later packed in because he had a hangover. * The title of 'How To Get To...
Arab Strap : Turbulence - The Remixes
It's a brave soul who offers to take Aidan 'Songs In The Key Of Wanking' Moffat and co dancing, but that's exactly what Bis do on their reworking of 'Turbulence'. Of course, it's a fittingly seedy sortie, Moffat's pickled whisper jarring...
Arab Strap : The Red Thread
By now, and after all (and everyone) he claims to have been through, you'd imagine Aidan Moffat to be sufficiently well-equipped to deal with the pain of rejection and the fear of failure. Like his apparent dipsomania, though, Falkirk's favourite...
Arab Strap : Love Detective
"Don' wander, mayte! Iz orl in Scottish, innit?" larfs the disgusting cockernee barrer-boy in his oh so amusing Guy Ritchie-style East End patois. Oh dear. This isn't pop so much as jazz crossed with (ugh) literature. And it's either a spoof put...
Blackness/Rocket, Take Your Turn
Limited to 1,000 copies, alas, this drop-dead beauty transcends the Strap's occasional tendency towards grumbling, stumbling self-parody and carves out something truly splendid instead. Aidan's monologue is set to a skipping house beat and a...
New York Bowery Ballroom
Arab Strap could be - nay, have been - accused of many things, but pandering to an audience isn't one of them. So when Aidan Moffat strides to the mic it's no surprise to see he's left his 'I Love NY' T-shirt in the wash. "We're from Scotland,...
London Islington Union Chapel
Why the hell are we still here? Everyone should have tired of this horrible voyeurism long ago, curiosity waning and prurience fading as the same relentless stories were told again and again and again. Arab Strap know, though. They know...
Elephant Shoe
Love in Falkirk: it's paranoid. Not only is it paranoid, it's possessive and sadistic with a mushy centre to its gloomy ol' grizzly bear exterior. Anyone seeking to write a Guide To Loving Relationships self-help book for the 20-something bloke...
Glasgow Nice'N'Sleazy
Things happen when Arab Strap play Nice'n'Sleazy. Almost two years ago, one of Scotland's greatest indie rock follies was played out here against the backdrop of a particularly intense Strap performance, the dramatis personae numbering the...
Mad For Sadness
Their reputation precedeth them such that it's safe to say the world has not been losing sleep over the prospect of an Arab Strap live album. Yet preconceptions exist to be demolished, and here's limited-edition proof that an evening out with...
