Artist: Arab Strap
Title: Here We Go/Trippy
Format: 10" single
Label: Chemikal Underground
Catalogue Number: CHEM013
Year of Release: 1998
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Looks like the official site is being updated at the moment, probably into more of a retrospective given that the band are in the middle of their farewell tour. Anyway, because of that I couldn't check a few things I wanted to about the lyrics and such like, but never mind.
The wonderful discogs filled me in that Tremendon O'Hare is a pseudonym of Brendan O'Hare, erstwhile member of Teenage Fanclub, Mogwai and Telstar Ponies. I think it's him doing the shouting on Trippy, but I could be wrong.
First things first though. Here We Go appears here in exactly the same form as on the album Philophobia, and is a lovely little number in the Arab Strap vein of songs about failing relationships. After an argument, which Aidan is too drunk to remember the cause of, the unhappy couple are walking home, although she is some way out in front. This time to himself allows the singer to reflect on how they are getting on - the answer would appear to be 'not very well'. He's tried to leave once already, but contrarily he gets stupidly jealous. He wouldn't say no to a threesome though, so long as he was one of the two men she 'had in mind'. What a charmer!
Favourite line: "Here we go/Same time, same place/My embarrassment/Versus your damp face"
Trippy was described by the NME as a missing chapter from Trainspotting, but this is the kind of lazy journalism you'd expect from them. I can imagine the review writing process - It has drug-taking and dance music, and it's from Scotland... let's see... what could it be like? What it's more like is the evil big brother of First Big Weekend (you know, the Guinness advert), although it starts more slowly in the style of first album closer Deeper.
It's another fun-filled day in Falkirk, and our hero gets invited round to a friends house to take some acid. Malcolm, the guitarist, is also there, and they have a giggly time of it in (variously) the house, the pub and the park. Unlike someone else, who screams for people to leave him alone, throws up, and generally makes a nuisance of himself running around a lot and shouting. The screaming part is quite unpleasant, recreated on the record, and coincides with a build-up in tension and guitar noise which is released with an instrumental techno-and-bass-guitar mid-section, which I'd suggest making a nice cup of tea during, as it goes on a bit.
This section comes to an abrupt end with the sound of a record stopping on a turntable, which I've always liked when judiciously employed, as here (which must sound a bit out-of-place if you have the CD... but then I suppose the record doesn't really stop on vinyl either... hmmm... will have to think about that) and then the end of the tale follows, in the slower style of the opening, where everyone agrees the shouty guy is a 'dick', and Aidan is a wreck at work the next day. So maybe it is a bit like Trainspotting, after all - except shorter, and not made into a film.
