Everybody Was In The French Resistance - Fixin' The Charts

Everybody Was In The French Resistance, a side project of Art Brut's Eddie Argos and the Blood Arm's Dyan Valdés, revives the long tradition of answer songs. They seemingly chose a random assortment of pop songs to respond to from Michael Jackson to Bob Dylan to Kanye West. I'm not sure these will ever reach the heights of Etta James' "Wallflower" or Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Sweet Home Alabama", but it's surprising how consistently good and cohesive the album is. The songs are all entertaining and clever even if you don't know the original songs, although listening to each song back to back with its inspiration is a lot of fun. In particular I like "GIRLFREN (You Know I Got A)", a response to Avril Lavigne' s "Girlfriend", and "Superglue", a response to Elastica's "Vasaline". All the songs are loaded with pop culture observation and undeniably Argos, especially "Walk Alone", which is just as good on its own.

Art Brut @ Holocene

The Sunday after Halloween in a Halloween-loving town like Portland is probably not the best night for a concert. But that didn't stop Art Brut from pulling out the stops and shredding so hard on the guitar that an amp literally caught fire. The set list pulled from across their three albums, kicking off with a one-two punch of "Formed A Band" and "My Little Brother". And while it was a blast hearing the singles that first caught my attention, it was the songs off of the new album that made me want to grow old with Art Brut. Songs like "DC Comics And Chocolate Milkshake" just speak to me, even if I don't drink chocolate milk or read comic books. It captures those mundane things from my youth that I am not willing to give up, like PB&J. "Slap Dash For No Cash" perfectly sums up the garage rock I love and "The Replacements" could be about any number of classic bands I am just discovering. Plus, all the sarcasm and attitude is wrapped in riff after giant riff. And it sounds great when it's delivered live with Eddie Argos wandering through audience ranting and improvising.

Art Brut - "Alcoholics Unanimous" Video

Time to drink some water and rally. Art Brut is in town for a post-Halloween concert at Holocene. "Alcoholics Unanimous" seems particularly relevant today. Personally I can't think of a better way to work off a hangover than to have Eddie Argos shout sardonic lyrics at me over angular riffs. Dirty Dudes and Princeton open.