The Islanders.

Art Brut are now a classic rock band. 10 years and a Best Of. Hooray.

Because we've reached this landmark stage in our career  the next step for me obviously would be to flounce of and make an incredibly pretentious rock opera. Luckily I've avoided this common pitfall by flouncing off and working on a lo-fi musical.

The Islanders is a true story about a trip I took to the Isle Of Wight with my then girlfriend Amy in the late nineties.

Amy tells the story as a monologue, while our friend the folk genius Jim Moray and myself tell my side of the story. My version is upbeat and optimistic, Amy's is a much more honest appraisal of the situation at the time and quite a bit darker.

We think its pretty unique to tell the story of the end of a relationship, with us both on stage.

Sorry perhaps I should have prefaced that with *Spoiler Alert; We are not still a couple 16 years later*

With Art Brut my writing is very autobiographical and The Islanders feels like an extension of that. Albeit this time with me being subject of somebody else's autobiographical writing for a change.

I feel Amy has managed to give just enough information about us to make me squirm but thankfully not enough to make me really embarrassed.

However I'm the first to admit that I have quite a high threshold for being embarrassed and feel I should warn you that at one point during the show there is a slide projection of me sitting in the bath. (From the waist up so don't get too worried/excited)

We've already had a run through of The Islanders at the Ferment Festival at the Old Vic in Bristol and now with their support, the support of Show And Tell and the support of Ideas Tap we're going back for a short run at The Old Vic in April before we take it to to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival for a month in August .

You can buy tickets to the show in April HERE 

You can like The Islanders on Facebook HERE

You can follow The Islanders on Twitter HERE

And read a small interview with Amy and Myself HERE

And I'll give you more information about Edinburgh nearer the time.

As well as being a stage show, we're also working on a book with Nasty Little Press and some downloads of the songs too. Steve Horry is illustrating the book and as you can see from the cover above it is going to be excellent.

Hopefully see you in April, all love Eddie Argos.

Some Mother Fucking Paintings For Sale.

I released some songs from a side project called Eddie Argos and The Lo Fi Punk Rock Motherfuckers about a month ago you can buy them HERE and you should as they are great.

I also made some paintings to go with the songs. I made four different Wam! Bang! Pow! Paintings of which I've sold two and also a painting for Paquito's Lament.

The song Paquito's Lament is a true story about my friend -  for arguments sake lets call him Paquito - who came to Berlin with his band and ended up accidentally stabbing a hells angel with a broken bottle.

Here is the painting, its on canvas (30cmx40cm) in Acrylic and costs 60 pounds including postage anywhere in the world.

And here are the remaining two Wam! Bang! Pow! paintings they are the same size also acrylic on canvas and also cost 60 pounds including postage.

Wam Bang Pow! #1

Wam! Bang! Pow! #2

If you are interested you can email me at eddie.argos.resource@gmail.com

Art Brut Now A Classic Rock Band.

Art Brut have been called many things over the course of our career, not all of them polite. The thing we get called most often is an ‘art band’, which I accept is totally our fault for putting the word Art in our name. However, Art Brut have never seen ourselves as an art band, we have been adamant since we began that we are, in fact, a classic rock band.

 Unfortunately, it is impossible to begin your career as a classic rock band, no matter how often you persist in referring to yourself as one. 

 Over the last ten years, however, Art Brut have been tirelessly working towards the moment we could finally call ourselves a classic rock band and know in our heart of hearts that it was true. Our mission is finally complete.

 I submit the following evidence towards the case of us being a CLASSIC ROCK BAND

 - We have been on the front cover of German Rolling Stone.

 - Toured the world extensively.

 - Appeared on American chat shows.

 - Posed naked in the NME.

 - Had our lyrics be the subject of lectures at a Berlin university. 

 - Released four albums over the period of ten years (the last two produced by the legendary Black Francis from the Pixies).

 - And finally we are held in universal regard by both our peers and the general public.

  (Actually, with that last one I've never checked with our peers and have very little to do with the general public but am fairly certain that is the case).

 So, to celebrate our new status as a CLASSIC ROCK BAND we have decided to release a Best Of Compilation.

 It is called ‘Art Brut; Top Of The Pops’ and is a double album (or if you are downloading it, a lot of songs).

 CD1 contains the best and most popular songs from our career in chronological order. So you can see clearly that we have followed the CLASSIC ROCK blueprint exactly -

 Album One, Excited,
 Album Two, Confused,
 Album Three, Angry
 Album Four, Experimental

 Plus, TWO BRAND NEW TRACKS. They’re about enjoying natural disasters and making pop music. Optimistic rebirth.

 This is textbook CLASSIC ROCK BAND stuff.

 CD2 contains rare songs that Freddy Feedback rescued from our vaults including live songs, covers we finally got round to asking for permission to release, hard to acquire b-sides and unreleased demos from our recording sessions for ‘Its A Bit Complicated’ that took place with Pulp's Russel Senior (who is not mad, I promise).

 Here is the full tracklisting -

 Formed A Band

 My LIttle Brother

 Emily Kane

 Modern Art

 Good Weekend

 Direct Hit

 Nag Nag Nag Nag

 St Pauli

 Pump Up The Volume

 DC Comics

 Alcoholics Unanimous

 Summer Job

 Demons Out

 Axl Rose

 Sexy Sometimes

Lost Weekend

Sealand

Arizona Bay

We Make Pop Music

 Extra Disc

 Formed A Band (Early Keith Top Of The Pops Version)

Bad Weekend (Early Keith Top Of The Pops Version)

 These Animal Menswear (B-Side to My Little Brother)

 Modern Art ( Early Keith Top Of The Pop Version)

 Maternity Ward  (B-Side to Emily Kane CD single)

 Blame It On The Trains (Produced by Russel Senior) 

 Post Soothing Out (Produced by Russel Senior)

 St Pauli (Produced by Russel Senior)

 About Time (B Side to Emily Kane CD single)

 Ignorance is Bliss (B Side to Direct Hit)

 Catch (Cure Cover)

Modern Art (recorded for Berlin Live)

 Just Desserts  (alternate version of B-Side to Alcoholics Unanimous)

 Moved To LA (Art Brut vs Satan iTunes bundle)

 Weird Science (B-Side to DC Comics and Chocolate Milkshake)

Positively 5th Street (B-Side to Alcoholics Unanimous)

 Unprofessional Wrestling (Download only)

 The Great Escape (We Are Scientists/Lynyrd Skynyrd cover)

 Her Majesty (Beatles cover arr. by Black Francis)

Post Soothing Out (recorded for Berlin Live)

 As a treat to ourselves we commissioned one of our favourite artists Michael Riedel to do the art work for us which you can see here -

 We are playing live in these Venues to celebrate our new status.

May 3rd, Cologne, Luxor tickets HERE

May 4th, Hamburg, Molotow tickets HERE

May 6th, Berlin, Lido tickets HERE

May 7th, Stuttgart, Schocken tickets HERE

May 8th, Munich, Atomic Cafe tickets HERE

May 29th, London, Scala tickets HERE 

   We look forward to seeing you all there. 

 Next phase is HERITAGE ROCK BAND, see you in another 10 years for the Second Volume.

 Work hard, fly right and don't forget to tip your bartender.

 Eddie Argos (23 in the NME Cool List in 2007 and 44 in 2004, not placed 2005, 2006, 2008, 2009,2010, 2011, 2012)