Art Brut, Art Brut vs. Satan
Featured Album
Art Brut: Making anthems out of the stuff you didn't know you were thinking about
Has any band ever made more out of absolute, insoluble rock fandom than Art Brut? Four of them make a noise — guitarists Chris Chinchilla and Ian Catskilkin on instant-buzz chainsaw riffs and chords, bassist Frederica Feedback and drummer Mike (yep, just "Mike") keeping the beat turning forward — and Eddie Argos declaims over it. Pretty simple.
Argos 'spiels tend to be catchy songs about topics you've spent time thinking about without even knowing you'd been thinking about them. And most of them have to do with rock and roll. "If we can't change the world, let's at least get the charts right," he whines over the closest his ragged bunch is going to get to hit-single chords on "Demons Out!" "The record-buying public — we hate them! This is Art Brut vs. Satan!" He answers the Replacements '"Alex Chilton" with his own "The Replacements": "Secondhand records are cheaper! Reissued CDs have extra tracks!" Just in case you think he's got a one-track mind, he's also interested in "D.C. Comics and Chocolate Milkshake" ("Even though I'm 28! I guess I'm just developing late") and, on "The Passenger," he extols the virtues of public transport ("Some people hate the bus/Not me, I can't get enough").
But his real heart is revealed in the chorus of "What a Rush": "You like the Beatles/And I like the Stones/But those were just records that our parents owned/I can't believe all the things I said/I blame it on a massive rush of blood to the head."
