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March 29, 2024, 11:48:24 AM

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Art Brut

Started by Mark Steels Stockbroker, April 27, 2013, 04:41:47 PM

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Mark Steels Stockbroker

They've got a compilation album out on Monday. Are they splitting up then?

I liked the first album and the early singles. Everything after that was increasingly mainstream "alternative rock", though the lyrics kept up a vein of HMHB-ish humour. They were a good live band when I saw them in 2005 or thereabouts.

alan nagsworth

Pretty sure it's to commemorate their tenth anniversary, which I saw documented some place or other last week. I never paid attention to them really although their singles are cemented in my memory in that same dry Fall/mclusky fashion and I find myself in the shower with the urge to shout 'COME ON LET'S HAVE A FIGHT!'

Obligatory 'can't believe it's been ten years since Formed A Band' comment.

Tairy_Green

I met Eddie Argos at a gig in Bedford (not an Art Brut show, but maybe his girlfriend's band) years back, and drunkenly told him that Good Weekend was my "life anthem" as I had indeed just got myself a brand new girlfriend. He was incredibly friendly, humble and appreciative, then asked me how many times I'd seen her naked, and thus cemented himself in my list of heroes.

Fantastic live band too. One of the great also-rans, which fits in well with their own self-mythologising.


Mark Steels Stockbroker

They've done some Oasis support slots I think. Been reasonably successful, but the later albums don't have that genuinely anarchic spirit of the first one. As I think Eddie admitted, due to them having to get more professional after the initial success.

23 Daves

Always a really good live band (as numerous people have already commented) and an extremely unlikely act to have ever come close to tickling the mainstream and getting on Top of the Pops. The more I think about it, the weirder I think it is that a band with angular riffs and sardonic, self-deprecating semi-spoken lead "vocals" could come within a gnat's chuff of the Top 40, not just once but on a number of occasions. If nothing else, they've reminded me just how much the charts have become a closed shop over the last ten years.

I loved the first two albums, and actually felt that "It's A Bit Complicated" was an improvement on "Bang Bang Rock and Roll" - the lyrics are sharper and there's a lot more to get your teeth into musically as well. BBR&R was great for a few listens but didn't stand up to a great deal of repetition - once you knew all the punchlines and the three chord riffs the appeal waned quite quickly.  Ambition oddly suited them, I think.

I haven't really been so excited by their most recent albums, largely because (like Teenage Fanclub, a band they otherwise have nothing in common with) their sound is so sharply defined that they don't have a great deal of room to manoeuvre.  All you can reasonably expect is more of the same.  I sort of wish they'd do a Fall and bring some electronics in.  I might buy the "Best Of" though, just to refresh myself with any gaps in my recent knowledge and to grab the second CD of oddities. 

As for Eddie Argos, my team beat his team in a pub pop quiz once. Then he pretended he didn't want to win anyway and was actually trying to go for the second prize because that was "free drink, not record tokens"[nb]"Free Drink, Not Record Tokens" could actually be the title of an Art Brut track.[/nb].  And he pointed and laughed at me for not knowing the correct ages of The Beatles.  He is amusingly gittish. 

SteveDave

I'm still at a loss as to why a lot of my female friends have a certain wetness for Eddie Argos. His real name is Kevin.

imitationleather

I'm going to the Scala gig. I saw them quite a few times BACK IN THE DAY MATE and they never disappointed. I remember seeing them in a pretty empty Brixton Windmill the week that Formed a Band came out. My word, I can't believe a quantity of time has passed since that event but apparently it has.

Stuff that's happened since then:
1. I lost my virginity.
2.

I don't think anything else really matters, nothing that I can recall right now anyway.

Er, so... Yeah I'm looking forward to the gig. I stopped paying attention after the third album but did listen to the most recent one a couple of times and it seemed to have a couple of nice tracks but as 23 Daves said they were constrained by themselves and the image they'd cultivated and so were limited in what they could play songs about without it no longer being Art Brut.

Lisa Jesusandmarychain

Quote from: SteveDave on April 29, 2013, 11:58:23 AM
I'm still at a loss as to why a lot of my female friends have a certain wetness for Eddie Argos. His real name is Kevin.

It's because he's a dead ringer for the young Tony Slattery (without the 'being one of them gayers' thing).

Glyn

Wasn't sure on the etiquette of bumping very old threads vs starting a new one sorry but just to say that Alcopop are releasing a remastered and extended edition of Bang Bang Rock & Roll if anyone is interested :  http://ilovealcopop.awesomedistro.com/products/663776-art-brut-bang-bang-rock-roll-vinyl-digital


Mister Six

Ooh, does that prefigure the full Art Brut catalogue finally coming to Spotify? Really annoying that they don't have Bang Bang Rock & Roll or It's a Bit Complicated up there. I know Eddie Argos prefers the heavier, sparser Frank Black production and rockier sound, but for me the contrast between the cleaner guitar hooks of the first two albums and Eddie's voice were what made Art Brut special. Although there was plenty to like on Art Brut vs. Satan.

Still haven't given Brilliant! Tragic! a proper shake, or listened to Wham! Bang! Pow! Let's Rock Out!, so maybe that'll be this weekend's little project sorted.

Glyn

Quote from: Lisa Jesusandmarychain on May 03, 2013, 01:17:13 PM
It's because he's a dead ringer for the young Tony Slattery (without the 'being one of them gayers' thing).
Eventually it had to happen :
https://youtu.be/pxrSFMm6FZ8

Icehaven

I started reading this thread without clocking how old the first posts were and was thinking "How can it only be 10 years since Art Brut formed? I'm sure I remember going to see them a few times at least 15 years ago." Durrr. I've not kept up with them tbh (all I really remember is a song about spending all your money on records for parties and Eddie Argos saying "Ready Art Brut?" before every song they played at their gigs) but I might have a listen to that best of.

sutin

I'm currently listening to their best of after hating We Formed A Band for 15 years. I can't get over his accent. It can't be real, can it?

Lisa Jesusandmarychain

Yes, it *is* his singing voice.

SteveDave

Quote from: sutin on August 07, 2020, 12:26:58 AM
I'm currently listening to their best of after hating We Formed A Band for 15 years. I can't get over his accent. It can't be real, can it?

You'll never get those 3 minutes back.

Brundle-Fly

I always got them mixed up with Selfish Cunt.

Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth

Shart Brut, more like.

sutin

That voice almost makes me feel sorry for him. It's literally the worst accent i've ever heard.


SteveDave

Quote from: sutin on August 07, 2020, 04:02:48 PM
That voice almost makes me feel sorry for him. It's literally the worst accent i've ever heard.

He's no Phil Minton.

jobotic

What's wrong with it?

I expect you all have interesting Northern or Scottish accents or something. Well some of us don't.

Lisa Jesusandmarychain

The worst accent I've ever heard from a hip and hep Indie group is yer man from the Bobby Gillespies, with his gruff Glaswegian making-no-effort- to- sing vox. Supposedly to counterpoint the posh lady, but it doesnae work at all, completely spoils the songs.


It's obligatory to mention matey boy Kenneth Williams Features from the B-52s when speaking of these things, too.

imitationleather

Art Brut are great. I pity those who think otherwise.

Sin Agog

Television No Personalities

(Tbf, I've never heard their first, supposedly alright, album).

chveik

at some strange point indie music became even more boring than mainstream pop

imitationleather

What do we think of The Chats, who are pretty much the Australian Art Brut?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j58V2vC9EPc

sutin

Quote from: Lisa Jesusandmarychain on August 07, 2020, 05:09:57 PM
It's obligatory to mention matey boy Kenneth Williams Features from the B-52s when speaking of these things, too.

Literally the greatest voice of all time bar none.

sutin

Quote from: imitationleather on August 07, 2020, 10:31:01 PM
Art Brut are great. I pity those who think otherwise.

Instrumentally there's nothing wrong with them, it's the guy's voice and dumb-as-absolute-fuck lyrics. He sounds like he won a contest.

jobotic

Quote from: imitationleather on August 08, 2020, 03:37:56 AM
What do we think of The Chats, who are pretty much the Australian Art Brut?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j58V2vC9EPc

Love that one but can't imagine listening to hours of them

Art Brut were a laugh the time I saw them (2011ish).