ART BRUT
BANG BANG, ROCK AND ROLL
FIERCE PANDA RECORDS
WERE JUST TALKING…. TO THE KIDS
Art Brut is a group out of South London. They play quick songs in a refreshingly brash, bratty, mock pretentious kind of way. They have bayonet-sharp, driving guitars that cut into your mind almost as deep singer, Eddie Argos‘, punchy-pop, one line declarative sentiments, that come across like some of the best rock music criticism out there. Most of the songs consist of Argos, talk-singing, like a cross between the proto-punks Buzzcocks at their snarling, sneering best, and Black Flag’s song “TV Party” for sheer exclamation point at the end of each word type enthusiasm. Yet, it’s really hard to put your finger on any real solid influence. There is a sense of loss at trying to find a genuine reference point to their debut “Bang Bang, Rock and Roll”. Argos, sings of things barely above drunken, spontaneous journal entry status…ex-girlfriends, little brothers, modernist art, Italian money, bands today, impotence, Los Angeles and almost always in first-person narrations. Yet, what elevates these songs into near anthem like quality is the tongue and cheek fervor, the playful zeal of Argos’ mock seriousness in language as well as delivery. Somehow, it’s refreshing that a band comes out striking the rock pose that nails it and deconstructs at the same time by playing off everything from overly serious rock and roll to the present state of music. From the opening song, in, “We Formed A Band”, when Argos slyly boasts about wanting to “write the song/That makes Israel and Palestine get along”, and one can do nothing but laugh at a voice that subtly combines a sense of grandeur with a sense of self-mockery. In the song “Bad Weekend”, Argos pushes the “were just happy to be here” shtick with lines such “haven’t read the NME in so long/ Don’t know what genre we belong, or in the title song “Bang Bang, Rock and Roll” he waxes music critic with an unsophisticated, spot on candor, “ I can’t stand the Velvet Underground. I can’t stand that sound, the second time around”, or later on, he snarls out “No more songs about sex and drugs and rock and rock and roll/It’s boring”. Art Brut might not be getting the same attention in the states as bands such as The Future Heads, Bloc Party, or Franz Ferdinand, but give them time. It was only a year or so ago that those very bands were questionable as to being able to find fans in the states. One must wait and hope that Art Brut has enough for another album that is as unpretentious, snotty, anthem-filled as “Bang Bang, Rock and Roll.
Mars Cleaver.