Ex-Arab Strap frontman and mordant wit Aidan Moffat will release a record with new outfit The Best Ofs in February next year.
The Falkirk-born songwriter, who occasionally moonlights as the Quietus’ resident sexpert, will release How To Get To Heaven From Scotland on Chemikal Underground on February 16th 2009, preceded by a deluxe, box set edition ‘Valentines Day release’ on the 14th.
Moffat describes the project as not so much a band as "an open-door club where anyone with a talent for something I like the sound of is welcome."
There’s no line-up in any traditional sense and members will come and go according to their availability, but for this album, the band includes Stevie Jones (Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan’s band) and Alun Woodward (ex-Delgados / Lord Cut-Glass).
Moffat’s spoken word LP I Can Hear Your Heart won rave reviews on its release in February this year. The Best Ofs release was recorded simultaneously with that album but "needed longer on the hob," according to Moffat.
Among the delights slated for inclusion on the special edition are a CD and LP version of the album, a 7" with covers of Sonny and Cher’s ‘I Got You Babe’ and Glen Campbell’s ‘Love Is Not A Game’, a five-track CD EP featuring 4 alternate versions of album tracks and an additional, bonus track, a ‘How To Get To Heaven From Scotland’ board game and a Valentine’s Card personally signed and numbered by Aidan himself.
Anyone expecting to hear "more whingeing from Glasgow’s alcoholic lo-fi miserablist" may be in for a shock – the album is reportedly a playful affair which Moffat reckons would make "the perfect Valentine’s Day gift for a loved one. Seriously."
Moffat continues: "I’m currently of the notion that I won’t make a record with the same band or under the same name twice. My next album will most likely be one that I’m writing and recording with Bill Wells.
"I’ve also started a sequel to I Can Hear Your Heart, but it won’t be any kind of conventional music album so I don’t think that falls under the new rules. I reserve the right to change my mind anyway."
