Bang, Bang Rock and Roll
Fierce Panda, 2005
rating 4.5/5
reviewer: jean-pierre


I feel strange writing this review considering how big Art Brut will become over the next few months. No American dates are scheduled thus far, but they’re doing the UK festival circuit this summer and are poised to win just about everyone over. Surprisingly, the band came together to do just the opposite.

In this era of guerrilla marketing, blogged-out music hype, and doing whatever you can to get your band to stand out, 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, it’s about them forming a band. Ironic lyrics such as "And yes, this is my singing voice/ It is not irony and it’s 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.

Art Brut are completely ironic because they say they’re just messing around, but in fact, they’re terribly talented. Singer Eddie Argos has the Mark E. Smith sneer that LCD Soundsystem was hoping they could cop. And its not just post-punk songs that the band excels on. Try “Emily Kane,” with its sugary ode to Argos’ 15-year old girlfriend. Turns out that the real Miss Kane heard the song, and while she has a steady boyfriend, she found the gesture to be quite sweet.

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. It’s 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.

1. Formed a band
2. My Little Brother
3. Emily Kane
4. Rusted Guns of Milan
5. Modern Art
6. Good Weekend
7. Bang Bang Rock and Roll
8. Fight
9. Moving to L.A.
10. Bad Weekend
11. Stand Down
12. 18,000 Lira