Psychiatric Tissues: The Arab On Radar Book

by Jeff Schneider

The Arab On Radar Book. Arab On Radar are one of the most iconic and influential noise rock bands in underground music history. Tales of their interests in sex, drugs and violence have swirled for years. In this memoir about playing guitar in the band, Jeff Schneider aka Mr. Clinical Depression, candidly reveals the truth about life inside the band stripping away the myths and revealing what life was like for musicians on top of the scene, enjoying artistic creation on a level that has yet to be understood.

270 pages, Paperback

First published January 17, 2018

Reviews

[Peter Landau · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lisa Carver came into town and it took me a while to find the venue downtown. It was in the basement of a posh boutique hotel, but then you never know how one of these performances are going to play out. This one was exceptional. I had a come-to-Jesus moment, experiencing Dynasty Handbag for the first time. There was a gender-fuck punk band and a performance of Beauty and the Best to a mix-tape with dancing furbies, all between one-act plays Lisa wrote and her friends (myself included) performed. But I missed the opening act, Jeff Schneider reading from his memoir PSYCHIATRIC TISSUES: THE STORY OF THE ICONIC NOISE ROCK BAND ARAB ON RADAR. I saw the little black book on the merch table and as I looked he came up to me for the sale, which I hadn’t intended to make, but I’m a sucker for books. Having spent most of my cash getting my wife and I into the show and then supporting Lisa buying one of the T-shirts her daughter designed, I only had five singles. He let me have it for that, a loss I’m sure, and I promised to read it. I’m glad I did. What a nutty mess! There’s so little detail and yet so much information spewed over little structure and often less sense, but always with conviction, opinion and verve. I want to know so much more about the band, and have been listening to them obsessively since cracking the spine, but what is lacking in facts is more than made up for in attitude. I had heard of Arab on Radar prior to picking up this book, and I know about as much now as I did then, but I feel as if I was in the van with these guys and know Schneider so well that I both want to be his friend and possibly cross the street when I see him coming. (If you’re reading this, Jeff, I owe you money for the balance of the book, please contact me!)

[Jocelyn Metzger · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the best memoir capturing the noise rock music scene of the 1990's 00's. Highly recommended. It shows what the inner workings of Arab on Radar were like and discusses many popular bands still playing today. I loved the Lightning Bolt story! The band was tragic it seems and Jeff Schneider's input shows the dynamics and personalities of all the members well. Awesome book!

[Jesse Hilson · Rating 5 out of 5]

NOISE ROCK MEMORY-EXCAVATION

Psychiatric Tissues. Jeff Schneider. Pig Roast Publishing, 2018. 269 pages.

“I wanted to punch Neutral Milk Hotel in the face, not the people in the band, but the songs that represented them.” —Jeff Schneider, Psychiatric Tissues

Musical memoir is a genre I don’t have much familiarity with. Neither did I know much about the iconic noise rock band Arab On Radar before I read the book Psychiatric Tissues by Jeff Schneider. But this didn’t matter because I easily read the book in two days and was thoroughly engrossed. Schneider was a guitarist in the band who went by the nom de guerre Mr. Clinical Depression (virtually all the band members had such monikers), and his ability to tell a story—replete with grisly anecdotes from the road, analyses of the indie music industry in the 90s and 2000s, shoutouts to individuals along the way who either gave their all to help the band or were obnoxious hindrances, proud reflections on the band’s gritty hometown of Providence RI—is remarkable and assured. It’s rough and bears the traces of long experience and knowledge whereof he speaks.

It’s also funny as fuck and had me laughing out loud, real uncontrolled laughter which doesn’t hardly ever happen when I’m reading books, even books that are considered to be conventionally humorous. It takes something special and hard to define to make me lose it. This book has that thing and it’s just one of Schneider’s talents that helps pull you like a hooked fish steadily through the book. His sense of humor derives from the working class wise guy voice of an artist from the East Coast crossing paths with the freaks, pretentious “sweater-lovers,” people with identical “Romulan” haircuts, shysty music industry types, cookie-cutter hardcore bands, and other denizens of the often compromised post-Nirvana indie music scene as it existed in those years. Arab On Radar toured the USA and Europe, collecting bizarre, sometimes violent experiences, and one area in which the book excels is Schneider’s ability to quickly paint witty pictures of the people the band meets, and also, of course, the people the band is comprised of. The encounter in the UK with ineffectual bobbies (“goofy ass cops with yellow construction bibs”) while looking for stolen musical gear was just one of many hilarious portraits too numerous to recount, but he does.

The book is many things but one of its more utilitarian functions is to serve as a handbook for musicologists who want to delve into a musical subculture as it has existed around the turn of the millennium and beyond. The arcane lore is given—of bands, labels, producers, studios, and perhaps one of the most fascinating bodies of information in the book is an almost night-by-night recounting of the venues Arab On Radar played at in cities around the country and world. The band was apparently phenomenal in their live performances, and to this chump reader, who hasn’t seen live music since the 90s, I was absorbed in the tales of humping gear in and out of locales, playing with maximum devotion even when there was “no one” in the audience, getting in scuffles both social and physical with other bands (Death Cab for Cutie mistaking AOR for roadies who will handle their gear like servile coolies was priceless), and just the memory-excavated physical descriptions of the stages and performance spaces, especially when the skepticism of Schneider and the rest of the band seemed to give way to awed approval.

Violence, sex, and drugs color much of the story; it is a blessing that Schneider can remember the details as well as he can, but again, he does. The book isn’t all raucous adolescent fun, of course. Often a gnawing anxiety and depression attacks the author, and the regret over lost friendships, lost opportunities for love, and just people vanished to time, unavoidable to those writing a memoir about their youth, take their toll. The passages offering bitter criticism of the fake weakness and elitism of musical scenes strike a familiar chord to those of us who came of age in the 90s when the issue of bands selling out and being fake were common currency (I’m sure it’s a perennial problem, but Schneider’s tale had a generational resonance for me somehow).

All that’s left to do now is to pay attention to the catalog of music that existed, and do the archaeology that this book gives a series of guideposts for.

[Justin Burdick · Rating 5 out of 5]

as a huge arab on radar fan, and sorta wondering what the deal was watching the whole half reunion show thing happen in real time, this is a tell all from probably the best person to be speaking on it, the guy who apparently was sorta ostracized from said band

this goes through it all from his upbringing to the bands early years with andrea and the albums, going really in depth, a segment about how draining recording cocaine mummy from yahweh or the highway was and the most FOMO tour of all time for me, the OOPS tour, segments about brian (from lightning bolt) and zach (from hella or i guess death grips more popularly NOW) having an outdoor drum off, and a particular joke satirical facebook post about performing on a late night talk show (one i remember thinking was a real thing and asking my mom to DVR it LMAO) as with most behind the scenes niche music stuff, im a huge sucker for shit like this

jeff holds no punches and has a very specific and distinct voice in this which sets it apart from your average wikipedia article esque retelling, he started pig roast publishing since putting this out and has put some cool stuff out since so that’s another plus

[Doug Pfeffer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Saw the author read at a thing in Brooklyn, then bought this.

[Christopher Owens · Rating 4 out of 5]

https://www.thepensivequill.com/2024/...

[Michelle DH Salazar · Rating 5 out of 5]

Should be a movie.

[Video_ouija · Rating 5 out of 5]

Schneider knows how to tell a good story