Wednesday, March 25, 2009

how can abrasive and smutty be so catchy?


I Collect vinyl records and Ive been going kinda hay wire on ebay lately. One rare out of print LP I picked up was Arab on radars "Rough day at the Orifice." (this sloping economy is making rare records a steal). I had heard of this band a few times and finally checked out their myspace page a few weeks ago. I was rather amused by the unique sound while at the same time feeling uncomfortable at the same time. I dont think there are many bands that sound liek this nor have such a bizarre subject matter. In all honesty I havent taken it off my turntable in the last 3 weeks. Its an abrasive sound yet itstill keeps you interested.


This bands use of effects and slide guitar use reminds me very much of the no wave scene. The harsh pedals, strange tuning and slide guitar give a almost metal scraping metal sound very much like Teenage Jesus and the Jerks. The First song to pop in my head in relations to Arabs sound was Teenage jesus's "Red alert." The difference from the No wave is that fact that the subject matter is very smutty while delivered in a almost creepy yelping style. The drums are spastic yet keeping the guitars in check. After reading about this band, I found out their first album had a bassist so Im curious as to what it sounded like.

I recently downloaded and bunch of their discography, Im interested checking out the rest of their catalog. I found the song #5 on youtube and loved it. This band live looked nothing but interesting and entertaining. The singer flails around like as does the rest of the band. While performing their uniform consisted of matching dickie pants and work shirts (hurray for team unity). There is jsut something very uncomfortable about this band while at the same very interesting. Check them out,

Enjoy the video
Tom


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