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The Arm
In a world where genres mix and match like cats and dogs living together, it's not hard to imagine the unholy offspring of LCD Soundsystem and The Fall, especially in a town like Austin where nothing sounds quite like it does in the rest of the world. Until last year, The Arm appeared most often as a side project for frontman Sean O'Neal and ex-On!Air!Library! drummer Kevin Bybee of This Microwave World (who we covered last year). Add guitarist Alex Lyon (also appearing at SXSW in Zykos) and Alex Ramirez on bass, and you've got something that's somewhere between dance punk, post-punk, in-your-face public address, physical comedy (without props, unless you count the stage organ), and in general, just plain pissed off.
"We are bright young men!" O'Neal shouts, with equal parts insouciance and sincerity, and it's the boundary between the two that make The Arm interesting. They're yet another band who leave the audience scratching a collective head over whether to take it seriously, whether it's all tongue-in-cheek, or whether the entire performance is a giant middle finger up at the music industry and the scene at large. They're as shocking as they are funny, and they're loud while doing it, braiding together DFA-esque funk and no wave panache with general discontent and The Fall's humor and recklessness. And O'Neal's stage presence is uncannily like James Murphy's, down to flagrant mockery of everything and everyone, and nifty interpretive hand motions.
When most bands would fall apart, The Arm deliver, succeeding at wading through sets cripplingly fraught with technical difficulties. Rather than buckling, The Arm rise to the occasion, upping the snark and aggression, borrowing a page or two from hip-hop posturing and Fugazi contortion, channelling anger, social disaffection, and disappointment with their present performance, proving true the legend that "given the chance, they will kill you."
The Arm - To Your Id
The Arm - Bright Young Men
The Arm - Song Automatic 1-2-3!
The Arm - Give Up While You're Young!
The Arm's official website is here. Order their self-titled debut from Tight Spot. A new album is on the way.
Posted by Last Girl to the Party at 02.12.06 at 12:58 AM
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