One of my favorite new bands of the year, Art Brut, are finally going to make a few stops in the U.S. and Canada on their new globe-spanning tour.
11-09 Hoboken, NJ - Maxwells
11-10 New York, NY - Mercury Lounge
11-11 Brooklyn, NY - North 6
11-12 New York, NY - Tribeca Grand
11-14 Toronto, Ontario - Lee's Palace
11-15 Chicago, IL - Schuba's
11-17 Los Angeles, CA - Spaceland
11-18 Los Angeles, CA - The Echo
TinyMixTapes says it all in their review of debut Bang Bang Rock and Roll:
Art Brut, a scruffy punk band from London formed just to prove that they could. The rumor is that the band quickly started writing Formed A Band, the lead-off single from their debut album Bang, Bang Rock and Roll. Just as you might expect, its about them forming a band. Ironic lyrics such as "And yes, this is my singing voice/ It is not irony and its not rock and roll pretty much says it all. Oh, and they want to write a song as universal as Happy Birthday. Big ideas indeed, but somehow it works.
...
Songs like Bad Weekend, with lyrics like "popular culture no longer applies to me" make you feel like you were in high school again -- like the whole music world was just a small punk rock community filled with your friends and their crappy bands. Its surprisingly comforting to hear a band like this come along and put everything in perspective, making you fall in love with music relating to your life, instead of becoming so grandiose and impersonal as most music has in recent years.
Erm, reviewer j.-p. at TMT either has missed the whole point or is terribly confused. They're 'completely ironic,' but comforting because they are genuinely personal? What the hell is he saying?
adjunct said:
Erm, reviewer j.-p. at TMT either has missed the whole point or is terribly confused. They're 'completely ironic,' but comforting because they are genuinely personal? What the hell is he saying?
Have you heard the album? It truly does come across as incredibly ironic and, later, absolutely genuine.
If you can, really try to see these guys - they put on a hell of a show...
I watched them at the Leeds festival about two weeks ago and they where given a really early time slot but they proper rocked and Argos is s proper funny guy (the Drummer is just plain crazy).
adjunct said:
Erm, reviewer j.-p. at TMT either has missed the whole point or is terribly confused. They're 'completely ironic,' but comforting because they are genuinely personal? What the hell is he saying?
Have you heard the album? It truly does come across as incredibly ironic and, later, absolutely genuine.
Yes, I have, and no, not really. It sounded like a disaffected indie kid making jokes about being a disaffected indie kid. It was like compiling the punchlines to every joke told in the local indie venue on a slow Wednesday night. Which is not to say I didn't like it, but come on, telling the same jokes with a half sneer doesn't make them any more "genuine" than the distinctly more ironic full sneer.
[Edited on Sep 15, 2005 by adjunct]
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robosagogo
State College, PA
September 2004
SEP 15, 2005 11:27 AM
Yes, go see them. There's no reason for staying in. There's nothing on the television.
P.S. Thank you Keith for doing that New Music mix thing and turning me on to these guys.
Keith
Oklahoma City, OK
August 2002
SEP 15, 2005 09:40 AM