I've decided to delete Pitchfork from the links section. Not only because they are a group of the biggest bandwagon jumpers music journalism has ever seen. It's because they're the website that gave Arab On Radar's Soak The Saddle a 2/10 and gave Bonnie Prince Billy a 10/10.
Arab On Radar were one of those bands that were in the right place at the wrong time. If they made the same music they were making 10 years from now, they would've got the attention they deserved. They did have a bad reputation behind them, too. I mean, they were infamous for opening for Marilyn Manson and were chased out by some wannabe goth kids. But there was just something in their music that didn't please people's ears. The dissonance in their music was definitely considered "horrible" back then. AoR weren't the first to make no wave music, though. Their influences probably drew back to New York no wave from the 70's like DNA, Teenage Jesus & The Jerks, and Mars. They later released their first two albums Queen Hygiene II and Rough Day At The Orifice shortly after performing their first shows. About four years after being released, both albums were re-released on Three One G.
Queen Hygiene II came out first. When it came out, nothing else had sounded like it. Maybe U.S. Maple, but barely; it had little to no odd time signatures. Fuzzy bass-lines, high pitched guitars, and vocals that nearly no one found listenable. You really had to have listened to this brand of music before to enjoy it. I heard this a couple years ago, and I had already heard both U.S. Maple and AIDS Wolf, so I was in the clear. You may even find yourself stuck on this album, maybe for a week or two. It can qualify to be danceable; but you wouldn't want to find yourself on the dancefloor rocking it to "My daddy said eat the yellow snow!" Which brings me to my next topic: lyrics. This may be the prime reason why people hated AoR. They were more offensive than ever. You can't go through one song without hearing a dirty joke. I took it as a charm of the band and chuckled at the lyrics. Unlistenable, vile, and disgusting: just what I need!
Rough Day At The Orifice was the same thing except the guitar playing became more technical and the drums had more off-kilter beats. The lyrics were a little more dirty this time; just when you thought it couldn't get any worse. In comparison to Queen Hygiene II, this is a lot more energetic and harder to cope with.
These are definitely two great albums in which any noise rock fan needs to have on hand.
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