THE EDDIE ARGOS RESOURCE

January Sales.

2012-01-23T09:49:00.000-08:00

If you are looking for something to spend your Argos vouchers on now Christmas is over. I still have some paintings left for sale.

I have two Clever Clever Jazz paintings left (19 and 20)

And a few Sealandscapes left

All the paintings are in acrylic on 5" x 7" canvas. There were 20 of each made and are numbered. They are not on sale and I don't accept Argos vouchers. They are £25 each (including postage to anywhere in the world)

Email me at eddie.argos.resource@gmail.com if you are interested.

Ahoy. German DJ-ing tour.

2012-01-13T06:28:00.001-08:00

Watch the fuck out Germany.

Stocking Fillers.

2011-11-30T07:07:00.001-08:00

Hello. Christmas is coming and some people have emailed me asking if I can make prints of some of my paintings. I don't really like making prints as it feels impersonal. So instead I have hand painted tiny versions of some of my paintings onto 5 x 7" canvases using acrylic paint.

I've made and numbered twenty Clever Clever Jazz paintings

And made and numbered twenty different Sealand-scapes.

I also have two 'Fuck Rock Lets Art' paintings left.

The 'Fuck Rock Lets Art' paintings are £22.50 including postage and the Clever Clever Jazz and Sealand paintings are £25 each. That includes postage to anywhere in the world.

If you would like to buy a painting email me at eddie.argos.resource@gmail.com

Guerilla Gigs.

2011-11-02T10:39:00.000-07:00

Do you remember the Guerrilla gig craze of 2004/5 ?

It was basically a load of terrible bands that fell out of Pete Doherty's pockets and then got signed by Alan McGee playing in the street like gormless buskers, playing on tube trains because the NME asked them too or playing last minute gigs cash in hand as they needed money for crack. It was horrible.

Well I have a dark secret to admit Art Brut also did a Guerrilla gig, in fact we did two. Although I think they are both entirely excusable.

The first one we played is definitely excusable as it was for Rock Against Racism. We spent all day driving around London playing songs on the back of a flatbed truck and then handing out flyers. Here is some footage of us playing in Camden.

Don't we look young. Well the rest of them do, I've always looked a bit like I was in my thirties.

As well as Camden we also played in Brixton and Brick Lane (with The Others).

When we played on Brick Lane we were asked to stop by Gordon Ramsey (he didn't ask us personally one of his producers did) as we were interrupting a recording of Hells Kitchen with our 'noise'. This prompted my friend Keith TOTP to go round telling everyone that Gordon Ramsey was a racist. Which is fair enough I think.

The other Guerilla Gig we played is more shameful. My brother had just moved to London to live on my floor and we decided that with Chris Chinchilla (Art Brut's first guitarist) and our friend Micky Ciccone we would go and see Pete Doherty play a 'guerrilla gig' at the Troubadour in Earls Court. (he was supposed to be at Reading with the rest of The Libertines)

I can't stress enough that at this point (2003) there was no second Libertines album or shitty solo material. We went expecting to hear songs from the first Libertines album (which I still think on the whole is surprisingly good)

Anyway Pete turned up broke a string in the first song and then ran away, leaving an angry mob of people shouting for more. The support band wouldn't play another set for some reason. So the promoters asked if anyone in the room was in a band. Art Brut had only played maybe one show perhaps two by then and we weren't even all at the show but my brother immediately put his hand up and said yes we're a band. So Me, Chris, Mickey and My Brother all climbed onto the stage and improvised some songs. We played Modern Art, Bang Bang Rock And Roll (I think for the first time) an amazing Ciccone song called 'Last Tube Home' and a cover of Teenage Kicks.

For me it was a great night, I'd got to play Art Brut songs with Chris too by far our largest audience yet, play with Micky Ciccone whose band I had been a fan of for a long time and I'd also had a chance to be onstage in a band with my brother, who I think had been hitting a tambourine drinking Becks and smoking the whole time.

I had almost completely forgotten about that night though till a couple of weeks ago when playing at Moles in Bath I bumped into a man callled Andy who had been at the Troubadour show and so sent me this footage of it.

I especially like the fact that the promoter says 'Alright lads are you really a band?' as we clearly didn't look like one, well we weren't really.

I also like that I now have a photo of me onstage with my little brother probably from the same week I wrote the song about him.

and finally I like that according to the Half Man Half Biscuit song Asparagus Next Left by playing a Guerrilla Gig in the middle of another groups Guerilla Gig I have played the ultimate Guerrilla Gig.

I have no idea who was playing the drums that night but I would like to thank that mysterious stranger. I would also like to apologise to the audience who I think due us playing didn't get a refund from the promoters for the show they were supposed to see.

Great White Shark.

2011-11-01T11:00:00.001-07:00

I made the front cover for Great White Sharks 'Bring Us Back Together EP'

As you can see it is a painting of a shark. The EP is great you can hear it HERE on their Facebook page and buy it from Amazon HERE

They are on tour at the moment

02.11 Wien - B72

03.11 Augsburg - Schwarzes Schaf

04.11 Stuttgart - 12zehn

05.11 München - Atomic Cafe

You should check them out they are awesome.

The Lovely Eggs.

2011-09-06T05:08:00.000-07:00

I am in love with The Lovely Eggs.

Come and see them play with us in Germany.

At THESE dates

Sunset Junction Cancelled.

2011-08-24T15:35:00.000-07:00

I'm an optimist. I really thought it was going to happen right until the very last second. I was listening to the live stream of the Board Of Public Works Meeting with my fingers crossed. I got so into listening to it in fact that I forgot it was real and was completely caught of guard when it didn't have a happy ending for me.

Sunset Junction got cancelled.

This is paticuarly bad news for Art Brut as we have non-refundable tickets to LA that we can't really afford without the festival. So instead of packing for our travel tomorrow we have all been FREAKING THE FUCK OUT.

Luckily and with MASSIVE THANKS to Jennifer Tefft we have somewhere to play now.

We are playing at The Satellite in Silverlake it is a fundraiser for ourselves as we are completely fucked. If you don't buy a ticket and come down and help us out we will be forced to leave Jasper in LA and trust me you do not want him as a neighbour he is a massive prick.

Here are the set times

The Hundred Days are on at 5-30pm

Art VS Science are on at 6-30pm

Art Brut are on at 7.30pm

You can get tickets HERE

Sunset Junction/Independent Postcards

2011-08-23T09:11:00.000-07:00

I've been making postcards for every show I play for a while now. I explain why HERE

I have got a little behind with it and there are a few festivals Art Brut played over the summer I've not got round to yet. Here are the postcards for our next two shows though we are playing at The Independent in San Francisco with Tapes 'N Tapes and at Sunset Junction in LA

I'm looking forward to them both I love the Independent in S.F and I pretty much used to live round the corner from Sunset Junction when I used to stay in Echo Park all the time and am looking forward to trying to find time to eat in my favourite restaurant and to go rummaging in all of the Out The Closet thrift stores I can find.

There is a chance Sunset Junction might not happen. So just in case I have made this extra sticker for the postcard

With the San Francisco postcard it will be at the Merch table with the T-shirts. I'm not sure how it will work with the LA postcard. I'll just be carrying it around with me I suppose.

The postcard's cost $40 a set. They come as 2 canvases a front and a back. I fill in the 'back' part of the postcard with what happened that day/at the show. They are made of canvas acrylic paint and sharpie pen (for the writing of what happened)

See you soon X

Hobo Style.

2011-08-10T07:48:00.000-07:00

Art Brut are of on tour again.

Hobo Style.

Have a listen to the Littlest Hobo Theme Tune recorded by Ian and Myself whilst you peruse the dates.

First a little trip to the US.

26th August - San Francisco @ THE INDEPENDENT (with Tapes and Tapes)

and then

27th August - Sunset Junction in LA

Then we're off to Europe

GERMANY

Sep 8th - Frankfurt @ Nachtleben

Sep 9th - Munich @ Atomic Cafe

Sep 10th - Leipzig @ Conne Is

Sep 11th - Erlangen @ E-Werk Club

Sep 12th - Stuttgart @ Schocken

Sep 13th - Krefeld @ Kulturfabrik

Sep 14th - Onasbruck @ Kleine Freiheit

Sep 15th - Bremen @ Tower

SWITZERLAND

Sep 17th - Geneva @ Usine

Sep 18th - Bern @ ISC

AUSTRIA

Sep 19th - Vienna @ Flex

Sep 20th - Saltzburg @ Rockhouse

ITALY

Sep 22nd - Torino @ Spazio 211

Sep 23rd - Rome @ Circolo Degli Artisti

Sep 24th - Bologna@ Covo Club

SWITZERLAND

Sep 26th - St Gallen @ Grabenhalle

FRANCE

Sep 27th - Paris @ La Maroquinerie

Oct 5th - Liverpool @ Mojo

Oct 6th - Sheffield @ The Plug

Oct 7th - Manchester @ The Ruby Lounge

Oct 8th - Coventry @ Casbah

Oct 9th - Bath @ Komedia

Oct 10th - Portsmouth @ Wedgewood Rooms

Oct 11th - Brighton @ The Haunt

Oct 13th - Leeds @ Brudenell Social Club

Oct 14th - Preston @ 53 Degrees

Oct 15th - Darlington @ Inside Out

Oct 16th - Derby @ Vic Inn

Oct 19th - Cardiff @ Clwb Ifor Bach

Oct 20th - Kingston @ Hippodrome

Nov 4th - London @ The Garage (Last FM)

Tickets from the usual places, see you there.

Ian recorded the music for The Littlest Hobo today in his bedroom, and I whispered over it in the living room of TOTP Towers. We probably wont be playing it live.

Songs Inspired By 60's Batman.

2011-08-04T09:07:00.001-07:00

How have I only just found out these AMAZING songs.

I thought my friends Spoiler Alert! were the first people to sing about Batman over a jazz beat, well besides Bird's Of Prey who sing THIS in the Batman Brave and The Bold cartoon.

But then I discovered these amazing gems.

The Penguin sings Capture.

The Riddler sings The Riddler

And (my personal favourite) Batman sings Miranda

AMAZING.

Acoustic Lakeside

2011-07-24T07:19:00.000-07:00

I love the Acoustic Lakeside. This was my third year.

You can read about my previous visits HERE, HERE, HERE and HERE.

I think because of those previous visits, I've earned a bit of a reputation with the people who run the festival. This was confirmed when they handed me a small bottle of Jagermeister at the airport and then again when they immediately handed me a pint of beer as I arrived at the festival.

They tried to put the beer straight into my right hand, I'm quicker than that though. I knew what they were doing. They were playing the drinking game Buffalo. They are obsessed with it at this festival. This time they'd made signs and even badges. I suspect that next year it will be called the Lakeside Buffalo festival.

As we'd stepped in at the last minute, due to the Subways having to pull out, only Ian and I could make it to the festival. We played a very stripped down set, just him on acoustic guitar and me shouting. Which was fun for me as I got to pretend I was Jonathan Richman. I definitely wasn't straight though. I was a bit tipsy.

We pulled it off though and had loads of fun. I think my favourite part was being carried around on someones shoulders to our song Modern Art.

Then we got drunk and hung out. I think Acoustic Lakeside festival is the best place in the world to get drunk and hang out. Every year I've made more and more friends, to where it reached a point this year where it felt like I was friends with absolutely everybody there. Which is exactly what you want at a festival, especially as they were all buying me drinks.

I cant really remember much of the evening. I definitely watched Thees from Tomte's new band whilst some new friends translated everything he said for me, then I danced with Thees for a bit. My final memory is of seeing a naked guy dancing on the stage. That is when I decided to leave. Anymore drink and I might have been that guy and no one wants that.

I had a great time at Acoustic Lakeside, and hope I get to go again next year, when it is renamed the Buffalo festival.

I make a post card for every show I play for reasons I have explained HERE and have made one for Lakeside. It is £40 including postage and looks like this.

It is on two canvases slightly larger than the canvases I normally use and made of acrylic paint and sharpie pen.

I fill out the postcard to the person who purchases it.

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

Fuck Rock Let's Art

2011-07-13T09:39:00.000-07:00

I used to play the vacuum cleaner in a band. When we played acoustically I'd play the dustpan and brush. This sounds like a joke but it's true.

I made some Fuck Rock Let's Art painting's the other week. They sold really fast. They were a limited series of 10.

I've made some new smaller more affordable versions. These paintings are limited to 20 and numbered by me in white paint.

They are in acrylic paint on 12cm X 8cm canvas and cost £22.50 each. (including postage to anywhere in the world)

You can contact me at eddie.argos.resource@gmail.com

or push this button

I have other paintings for sale in my shop HERE

Brilliant! Tragic! The Comic.

2011-07-06T07:07:00.000-07:00

Hey the Art Brut comic is now available to buy online.

We got all of my favourite comic book artist/people to contribute. I'm still not quite sure how we managed to do it and am incredibly flattered that they took time out to work on it.

so thank you..

Let's Be Friends Again

I was thinking of keeping every single copy for myself as I am quite the collector but although it would be cool to be the only person to own thousands of copies of this comic. It would also be very selfish of me. So you can now buy it from HERE

US Tour Second Half.

2011-07-03T09:56:00.000-07:00

Leaving Canada for the US was an adventure.

It felt like we were sneaking back into the country via a secret route. We drove over a number of bridges that could just hold one vehicle, took a number of detours because some bridges weren't complete and didn't see another a car or van for the majority of the journey. Even the guy from US customs who checked our passports and told us he'd never heard of our band did all his work from within what looked like an abandoned house.

It didn't get much better when we entered the US we took this 'Freeway' all the way to Maine.

So after driving through the woods for a few hours we ended up in Maine. We had a day off so Ian and I spent it mainly eating Lobsters (Maine-ly?) It was great.

Refreshed we arrived in Boston rocked the fuck out and played our brand new song Atlanta Girls. I love playing songs live for the first time and pretending that any mistakes we make are part of some new avant-garde direction.

Then on to The Black Cat in DC and Maxwells in NJ. Both favorites of mine too. We have played these venues a lot. So often in fact that before we left for this tour we joked about making a T-Shirt that said 'Art Brut- The Glass Ceiling Tour' I don't care though I hope we play those venues forever, I love them. They were both all ages shows with actual kids turning up some who weren't even born when Formed A Band came out. I thought this was pretty cool, especially as a 7 year old in NJ had mad his own T-Shirt. I was literally talking to the kids, I think I taught them some new swear words.

Next up was our Brooklyn show at Williamsburg Music Hall. We had played there before too back when it was called North 6. It's nicer now. I really enjoyed the show and our new record label The End brought us a bottle of Brooklyn Gin as a present. This ended badly for me as later in the night fueled by the Gin I thought it would be hilarious to hide in the cupboard in the Hotel room whilst Mike and Jasper went out to buy beer and then leap out and suprise them when they got back. Unfortunately when they were at the off license they got invited to a party and went there instead of coming straight back. To be fair to them they did invite me to the party but I had been asleep in the cupboard for about an hour by the time I got the phone call, so decided to just go back to sleep.

I woke up in the cupboard the next day with just enough time, to go downstairs and get in the van, no time for a shower. We went and recorded the drunkest radio session in the world and then went to stink up the Marvel offices with the strong smell of stale booze that permeated from our bodies, breath clothes and hair.

You can read a bit of what we got up to at the Marvel offices HERE. Im amazed Janna managed to turn it into anything vaguely understandable. It was great fun meeting all the people that work there. I wish we could have taken them all to the pub and hung out unfortunately though we had to fly home and besides that i think we were scaring them a little.

We're next over for Sunset Junction in LA and a show at the Independent in SF see you then.

US Tour First Half.

2011-06-29T10:17:00.000-07:00

I've been back from our US tour for nearly a week now and I've only just managed to stop talking like I'm about to introduce a song. I would hate to live with me.

The tour was ace though.

We started in Chicago, always a favourite place to play, and met Reptar for the first time. They were coming on some of the dates with us. I already liked them and it was cool to see them live. I'd not seen them before so was expecting them to look a bit like the Talking Heads (who I think they sound a tiny bit like). They didn't at all though, they looked like hippies, cool hippies but hippies none the less. They were ace.

After Chicago we went to Cleveland and I made a horrible mistake on the journey there. At home my girlfriend keeps me in check and makes sure I don't eat too many cakes. I had no girlfriend with me though on the route to Cleveland and Art Brut don't keep such a beady eye on my dietary habits.

I bought a Cinabon

Even as a professional cake eater it still intmitaded me so I intentionally chose the smallest least extravegent one I could find. When I took it to the counter though they covered it in cream, some sort of sauce and then stuck another cake on top. I promise I'm not making this up. Here is a photo of me eating it.

I could only take about two bites before I went out of my fucking mind on sugar. I bounced around in the back of the van like a toddler for 10 minutes and then completely passed out. I woke up weakened and confused for the sound check and then had to go to the hotel to wash all the caramel that was seeping out of my pores instead of sweat off. I swear I still smell like a cake now two weeks later.

Because I was in the shower trying to get rid of the cake sweat, I missed the first band in Cleveland but Jasper told me they were awesome and before I left I managed to nab a free CD. Well I don' think it was supposed to be free but I couldn't find anyone sober enough to take my money of me. So if you see Spacer Ace let them know I owe them $5 and have a listen to them HERE I love the CD so it would have been $5 well spent.

After Cleveland we went to Toronto for NXNE and played the Mod Club which was loads of fun and then because it was a festival we got to go and watch a load of other bands. My favourite was Sheezer an all girl Weezer tribute band. They looked like the Page Sisters from Jack Of Fables and only played the good Weezer songs. It was exactly as amazing as that sounds.

Then we went to Montreal played a show, ate pizza, got drunk fell asleep, woke up and started the drive to Portland Maine for our day off. Luckily I wasn't driving as I thought we were going to Portland Oregon and apparently that is on the other coast. It would have been very embarrassing had I driven and everyone had woken up 3,000 miles away on the wrong side of the country.

Festival Advice.

2011-06-28T04:21:00.000-07:00

I wrote this for This Is Fake DIY, not sure wether they used it or not. It's a bit too late if you went to Glastonbury but here is some festival advice.

The festival advice I'm sure most bands have given you is that you should smear yourself in sunscreen, bring wet wipes, drink plenty of water and avoid dodgy burger stalls so you don't die of food poisoning. This is because most bands nowadays are a bunch of wet-behind-the-ears, public schoolboy softies.

Fuck that.

I don't believe in doing things by halves. If I'm going to a festival I want to fully immerse myself in the experience. To do the same, I suggest that you don't bring anything with you - not even a change of clothes or a tent. Actually, scrub that. You do need to bring one thing with you, and that thing is booze.

You will need this to help you take the harsher edges off of your festival experience. I suggest that you smuggle in a mix of vodka and some sort of soft drink (I find Irn Bru masks the smell of vodka the best), otherwise once you are trapped inside the festival compound they can charge you an exorbitant amount of money for warm beer in a shitty paper cup. You will find it hard to get smashed on that.

I'm totally for immersing myself in the festival experience, and you should do the same. However, a word of warning and my only real festival tip would be to avoid Glastonbury altogether. If it rains, then that fucker is like the last days of the Battle of the Somme. If it's sunny, it will be full of tiny kids running around your feet and people playing the new Adele record loudly from their overly expensive family sized fucking yurt. And no amount of Irn Bru blended with vodka will enable you to enjoy that.

Mad Thing I What I Wrote For Los Campesinos.

2011-06-27T12:09:00.001-07:00

For their new issue of Heat Rash Los Campesinos have asked a few people about a conversation they have had. They asked me when I was on tour in the US last week and in my confused state I thought they wanted a lot more than they did. They only wanted a few sentences and I wrote quite a bit. So I thought I'd send them a different thing consisting of a few sentences and put the mad thing I wrote here, so it wasn't completely wasted. So here it is.

Mad Thing I What I Wrote For Los Campesinos.

Los Campesinos asked me to write something about a interesting conversation that I have had at any point in my life. When they asked me (via email) the parameters for what I could write about were pretty broad. The email explained that it can be a conversation that I’ve had over the phone, or a chat I’ve had with a friend over a cup of coffee , the email even went on to say that even an email exchange would suffice.

Sounds easy right? Just think about an interesting conversation and write it down. Unfortunately though I’ve been struggling with this (which is why I’m sending this to them at the last possible minute, sorry again Ellen). Now I’m not sure if it’s because of the company I keep, because I’ve been put on the spot to suddenly think of something or just because of my shocking memory but I can’t think of one single interesting exchange I’ve had with a person ever in my entire life. The only interesting conversation I can think of –rather tellingly- is one I had with myself in a dressing room mirror in Seattle after I’d lost my mind a little through drinking, but I don’t think I want to share that with you.

That might actually be the problem. I’m in the middle of a long tour of America at the moment and I’m sure when I get back home, I’ll have a flash of realization and inspiration will strike but at the moment all my energy is being used up trying to work out how to clean my clothes and finding something to eat that isn’t covered in melted cheese. In fact probably the most interesting conversation I’ve been having is the backwards and forwards emailing between me and Los Campesinios with them trying to get this piece of writing of off me. Now I’ve written it and sent it. I’m afraid that conversation has finished too. So as you can probably tell I’ve intentionally written something that strays outside of the parameters they’ve asked of me. In the vain hope it won’t be good enough and the conversation will continue. So next time I’m asked about an interesting conversation I’ve had recently I can use the chain of emails as the answer.

Everybody Was In The French Resistance...Now

2011-06-06T14:07:00.000-07:00

Who wants some FREE Everybody Was In The French Resistance...Now songs?

You can Download them from Daytrotter HERE

They were recorded in analogue on to tape and sound very nice for it. It's also after we'd been on tour for a while so you get the 'U2' version of Think Twice (It's Not Alright) and the My Boyfriends Back version of Hey! It's Jimmy Mack.

Everybody Was In The French Resitance...Now are also playing a show for Death By Pop on July 1st at White Trash in Berlin.

HERE is the facebook page for the event. I think it's tickets on the door.

Snakebite City/Resonance FM

2011-06-04T08:18:00.000-07:00

Growing up in Dorset at the end of the Nineties, with no internet it was really hard to discover new bands to get into.

So I am very glad that Snakebite City existed.

Very little happened in Poole back then and the charts were full of shit like The Verve so being able to check out 25 mostly AMAZING and always at least VERY GOOD new bands for around a fiver was a life saver.

My school bag used to have more Snakebite City compilations than school books in it.

People often pontificate about what they would save from their house if it was burning down and whilst it would be a different story now when the first bedsit I ever lived in did actually get a bit fire damaged the first thing I checked hadn't been destroyed was my Snakebite City collection.

I'm still incredibly happy and proud that the first time Art Brut ever played a show it was for Snakebite City and that years after I first heard them on Snakebite City 7 I ended up becoming great friends with and eventually living with Agebaby.

Every single one of those bands on the Snakebite City compilations, in my eyes at least, deserved to be massive popstars and on TOTP constantly.

This Monday I will be playing my favourite songs from the Snakebite City compilations on Resonance FM. It will be live from 8PM tune in and have a listen.

Art Brut Week.

2011-06-01T06:58:00.001-07:00

Hello. This week Art Brut are playing every night at the Lexington, it is going very well thanks for asking.

The rest of Art Brut are already joking that it is a bit like spending a week inside my iPod and it has been brilliant for me to watch my favourite bands every night.

We had The Orphans and The Lovely Eggs on Monday and last night Keith TOTP and the Nightingales. Unsuprisingly they were all AMAZING. I wish I could take every night we're playing on tour for ever.

Tonight it's Winter Olympics and Ezra Furman and The Harpoons. All the nights have sold out but its worth coming down as we held a very few back on the door for the last couple of nights. If you want them you'll have to get there early though as they will vanish pretty quick.

I've been making postcards for every show I've played for more than a year now for reasons I write about HERE.

Last nights postcard accidentally got hidden away unloved under a pile of T-Shirts so if you would like to buy it you can email me at eddie.argos.resource@gmail.com. I fill it in and address it to whoever buys it.

It is across two postcard sized canvases in acrylic paint and costs Forty Pounds.

(I'll pay the postage, don't worry I'll use real stamps)

Art Brut Reunion Shows.

2011-05-23T06:22:00.000-07:00

Hello. Art Brut's new album is out you should go and buy it. You can do that HERE and on vinyl HERE

How long do you have to be away, before you play a reunion show? The (brilliant) Death From Above 1979 only went away for five years before their reunion shows. I'm intending on trimming that down to two years. Art Brut's last album was out 2 years ago so this is a reunion tour.

To get around Europe on this reunion tour we are using a white van, with a Sat-Nav. This is a classic. A text book touring experience.

What is unusual about this tour though is that this Sat Nav has quite a peculiar sing song voice especially for a robot whose main purpose is to tell you what direction to go in. Because of this every time it informs us

'at the end of the road.....turn right'

I expect it to break into a version of 'At The End Of The Road' by Boyz 2 Men.

This started me thinking, I would like a singing Sat-Nav. It could tell you to Go West, Turn, Turn Turn, to U-Turn and to Spin it Right Round Baby Round Round. Then when it's limited song based directions got you lost, especially as they all seem to be about going round in circles, it could tell you that you were On The Road To Nowhere

I admit though it would get annoying after a few hours at which point we could just switch it off and Go Our Own Way.

Tonight we are playing at Trix in Belgium. Here is the postcard.

I write about why I make postcards HERE. I'm also selling the few 'Fuck Rock Let's Art' paintings I have left. See you at the T-Shirt Stand

All love Eddie Argos X

Amsterdam. Postcard.

2011-05-21T18:45:00.000-07:00

Our tour starts tonight at BITTERZOETT, Amsterdam (with Buster Shuffle ) tickets HERE I've been making postcards for every show I've played for more than a year now. For reasons I explain HERE. Above you can see a poorly taken photograph of the postcard for tonights show. It is painted across two postcard sized canvasses in acrylic paint. I fill in the 'back of the postcard' canvas to whoever buys the canvases. The two canvas set costs 40 Euro there is only one for each show. I also have a couple of the 'Fuck Rock Let's Art' canvases with me I only made 10. They are 50 Euro each. Or 55 if you buy one mail order. The paintings will be at the T-Shirt stall. See you there Edxx

Pris - Blue Tack Baby.

2011-05-19T04:20:00.000-07:00

I heard this song in the middle of the night. It was so good I thought I'd dreamt it. I think Pris are AMAZING. HERE are some more songs by them.

European Shows. Postcards.

2011-05-17T14:31:00.000-07:00

Our album is out next Monday you can hear it over HERE streaming at Paste magazine. Then our little European tour starts we are playing. 22 May. BITTERZOETT, Amsterdam (with Buster Shuffle ) tickets HERE 23 May. TRIX, Antwerp (with Buster Shuffle) tickets HERE 24 May . NOUVEAU CASINO, Paris (with Jonquil , When Saints Go Machine ) tickets HERE 25 May. LUXOR, Köln (with Buster Shuffle) tickets HERE 26 May . LEEVE, Berlin (with Great White Shark ) tickets HERE 27 May. LEEVE, Berlin (with Great White Shark) tickets HERE 28 May . MOLOTOW, Hamburg (with Great White Shark) tickets HERE I've been making postcards for every show I play for a while now for reasons I talk about HERE Here is quite a bad photo of the postcards I have made for these shows. There is another half to each one of those canvases which is a seperate painting of the back of the postcard. I fill in the other canvas and address it too the person that buys it. The pair of canvases will cost 40 Euro and I'll be selling one set for each show. Hopefully see you there Eddie X

Fuck Rock Let's Art.

2011-05-17T12:50:00.000-07:00

FUCK ROCK LET'S ART

I used to play the hoover in a band. When we played acoustically I'd play the dustpan and brush. That sounds like a joke but it's true. I've made 10 of these 'Fuck Rock Let's Art' paintings. They will all be individually numbered and signed by me in white paint. They are £55 (including postage) and made of black and white acrylic paint on a 24cm x 30cm canvas. They are not screen prints each is individually hand made. I am only making ten on canvas but may make a T-Shirt or Tote Bag.

The Great Escape Brighton.

2011-05-16T06:27:00.000-07:00

We played the Great Escape in Brighton on Saturday. I had so much fun that I didn't even mind having to miss Adam and Joe and Doctor Who to do it.

The version of Modern Art we played got so long an improvised that we had to drop 2 other songs off the setlist. One day soon I'm sure we are going to end up playing Modern Art for 1hr45min I apologize in advance.

It was a lot of fun and nice and busy. Due to the nature of the festival though the venue threw us out IMMEDIATELY after we played so they could put on a club called 'Back To 1985'. I decided not to stay for that.

Because we were ejected from the building though. I neglected to sell my Postcard for Brighton. So if you want to buy it email me at

eddie.argos.resource@gmail.com

It is a painting across two postcard sized canvases. I fill in the 'back of the postcard' canvas with what happened and address it to you and then pop it in an enevelope with the other half of the painting and send it you.

It costs £40 (I'll pay for the postage and I'll use real stamps too not homemade ones)

I write about why I make postcards HERE

Art Brut Week.

2011-05-12T08:39:00.000-07:00

Hey Art Brut week at the Lexington is Monday 30th of May till Friday June the 3rd.

Here are some of the bands who are playing with us.

Monday 30th

The Lovely Eggs plus The Orphans. Tickets HERE

Tuesday 31st

An AMAZING band we're not allowed to announce and Keith TOTP And His Minor UK Indie Celebrity All Star Backing Band buy Tickets HERE

Wednesday 1st

Ezra Furman And The Harpoons and Winter Olympics buy Tickets HERE

Thursday 2nd

Baddies SOLD OUT

Friday 3rd

Bearsuit SOLD OUT

And we'll obviously be playing an entirely different set each night.

See you there XX

Brilliant! Tragic! The Comic Book.

2011-05-04T07:45:00.000-07:00

I don't think it's a secret that I'm a massive fan of comic books. So for Art Brut's new album Brilliant! Tragic! we decided we would compile a comic book version of Brilliant! Tragic! to release at the same time. It has lots of my favourite artist's contributing to it.

In alphabetical order

Let's Be Friends Again

I've seen most of it and it looks AMAZING. I'm still over the moon and incredibly flattered that these artists took time out to work on it. I cant wait to hold the print copy in my hands.

Now this is where you come in. I always loved reading the letters column in comics. Booster Gold's was called The Gold Exchange and I used to read it before I read the story to help build the anticipation. I could never write into The Gold Exchange though as I was buying the comics second hand five years later. You can however write into the Brilliant! Tragic! comic with any question you have and we will endeavor to answer the best ones.

Barnaby Fudge will be in charge of answering the questions so address them to him at

delightfullyfudge@gmail.com

or in the comments section below (I know that he reads my blog)

Biff! Bang! Hangover!

2011-05-04T07:31:00.000-07:00

I wrote a new Pow! To The People it is about the Top Shelf comic Liar's Kiss. I liked it.

You can read what I wrote about it HERE.

FUCK ROCK LET'S CHART.

2011-04-27T09:11:00.000-07:00

The Art Goblins album. It is a tape that actually plays and a painting. It is a compilation album more about which is written HERE

Each tape is numbered and comes with a certificate of authenticity (also numbered) and signed by me.

The name Fuck Rock Let's Chart is intentionally ironic. Painted cassette tapes are unfortunately not chart eligible.

Each tape is £25 including postage and packaging to anywhere in the world.

Also very limited offer. If you want a copy of the album and a green glow in the dark Art Goblin's 7"record (spilt single with Billy Ruffian). That will be £30 (inc P&P) and you can email me at eddie.argos.resource@gmail.com

The Art Goblins. Album Release.

2011-04-26T07:53:00.000-07:00

There is a new Art Brut album out soon you can pre-order it HERE

It leaked a little while ago and I kind of wish it hadn't. Surely part of the fun of getting a new album is in the anticipation in waiting for the release. Maybe that's just me though living in the past.

Anyhow it got me thinking about how albums aren't really physical releases anymore just songs floating in the ether. And although the Art Brut album is definitely getting a physical release both Vinyl and CD which again you can pre-order HERE. I thought it might be nice to turn the concept on its head and have a definite physical album you probably shouldn't really listen too.

So I have made an Art Goblin's compilation album.

It has seventeen borderline listenable Art Goblins songs on it.

The track listing is.

1) Anti-Gravity.
2) Disco
3) Fuck The MSP (Acoustic Party Mix)
4) The Young Own The Town
5) Disco (Original)
6) TheseAnimalMenswear
7) Nicky's Song
8) While Me Keyboard Guitar Gently Weeps
9) This Is French New Wave
10) Popst*r
11) Moving To LA
12) Johnny Dean
13) Debbie Loves Joey
14) Direct Hit
15) Charity Shop
16) Skin Flick
17) Fuck The MSP (The Welsh Elephant)

14,15,16 are actually demos of Future And The Boy songs (an Art Goblins side project). Any of the songs with the same titles as Art Brut songs are inferior earlier Art Goblin versions. Some of the lyrics maybe the same though. Track 17 is by my favourite Verwood based indie band The Welsh Elephant. Art Goblins just cover it so please direct your hate filled letters written in purple pen to them not me.

The Album is called 'Fuck Rock Let's Chart! The Art Goblins 1997-2007' and is made of acrylic paint and a cassette tape. All the tapes play. Although that doesn't necessarily mean you should play them.

Each tape is numbered and comes with a typed and numbered certificate of ownership which includes the tracklisting, a little bit about the band, including a list of all the members and recording details and is authenticated with my signature.

Each tape is £25 including postage and packaging to anywhere in the world.

There is no free download or any of that. Just the tape and the songs on it.

I'll be putting them in my shop tomorrow, but for now email me at

eddie.argos.resource@gmail.com if you would like to buy one.

The Art Goblins recorded from a CD straight on to a tape and then covered in paint. Is exactly the way these songs were supposed to be heard. Enjoy.

Indie Disco/ White Noise.

2011-03-29T07:38:00.000-07:00

I am an expert of the Indie Disco. Let me tell you why.

My touring with Art Brut has taken me all over the world. Unfortunately I am often too busy or hungover to do any sightseeing. For example I have never been to The Statue of Liberty in New York, The Capitoline museums in Rome or The Jane Austen Center in Bath. I have been to Indie Disco's in all of these exotic places though.

When I am on tour I sometimes end up at an Indie Disco five or six times a week.I have learnt from each and every Indie Disco I have been too. If I was to go on Mastermind my specialist subject would be The Indie Disco.

Here are some Indie Disco facts

90 per cent of all Indie Discos are called London's Calling.

The remaining 10 per cent are all called Panic.

Indie Discos don't play enough Helen Love.

That is just the tip of the iceberg of my Indie Disco knowledge.

I am utilizing my Indie Disco expertise with Dyan Valdes from The Blood Arm (who has a very similar set of skills) this Saturday the 2nd of April at White Noise at White Trash in Berlin see you there.

I'm also hosting Rock And Roll Bingo at White Trash tomorrow. For my friends 8 Legs/Great White Shark. Unfortunately my knowledge of Bingo is not as vast as my knowledge of The Indie Disco but I'm a fast learner and you should come to that too.

Arthur's Theme

2011-03-28T07:58:00.000-07:00

My friend Josiah from the band Light FM asked me to sing on his cover of the Christopher Cross song from the film Arthur.

They are re-making Arthur at the moment and we were hoping they'd use this cover in the film.

They are not.

it is HERE on soundcloud if you want to hear/download it.

Punk Rock Ist Nicht Tot!

2011-03-17T10:37:00.001-07:00

Hey. I have a pretentious art blog where I am making a painting for every song I have ever written.

it is HERE

I have just written about this St Pauli painting.

Brilliant! Tragic!

2011-03-11T07:05:00.000-08:00

The new Art Brut album is called Brilliant! Tragic! and is out everywhere on May 23rd. The Album art work has been done by Jamie Mckelvie. It looks AMAZING.

The songs on the album are in order.

Clever Clever Jazz

Lost Weekend

Bad Comedian

Sexy Sometimes

Is Dog Eared

Martin Kemp Welch 5 A-Side Football Rules

Axl Rose

I Am Psychic

Ice Hockey

Sealand

And we already have a song you can get your hands on called Unprofessional Wrestling.

Art Brut are working with Pledge on this album. You can bid on things over HERE

One of the things you can bid on is a Sealandscape painted by me signed by all the band. They will all be different. Here is the first one.

We have a new website on the way, if you are the sort of person that likes reading press releases though our press release is being used as a holding page HERE

We also have a little tour coming up HERE

Postcards!

2011-03-07T14:53:00.000-08:00

I like postcards for reasons I write about HERE.

I've been making one for every show I play for nearly a year now. This one is for the show we played in New York on friday.

The show was ace fun our first in ages. It went really well I had a great time. Im too tired to write about it now though.

This postcard is in acrylic across two canvases. On the canvas that is the back of the postcard I write about the show and then attach one of my own stamps to it before addressing it to you. This set costs £42 (including postage)

When I send it to you I put a real stamp on the envelope I send it in (mine unfortunately don't work in the real world, yet)

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

Unprofessional Wrestling.

2011-03-07T09:36:00.001-08:00

There is a free new Art Brut song. It's called Unprofessional Wrestling. You can get it HERE

People have been emailing me asking about the lyrics. I thought I was enunciating perfectly well. Here they are though.

Unprofessional Wrestling

It started off as just kissing

Now it’s a lot of sweat and a mess of limbs

We didn’t wait for a bell to ring

We’re unprofessional wrestling

Watch out for stray mattress springs

That carpet burn its going to sting

I can wear a leotard if that’s your thing

We’re unprofessional wrestling

I don’t even try to stop

What looks like a figure four leg lock

I don’t really care who wins

We’re unprofessional wrestling

I don’t think

I know what to do

We’re both still

Learning how to do these move

I don’t think

you know what to do

We’re both still learning

how to do these moves

We didn’t remove, our rings so

Trousers rip and a bra strap pings

They’ll be grazing on my shins

We’re unprofessional wrestling

I don’t know if I can cope

With you jumping from the top rope

You’ve already pulled my hamstring

Unprofessional wrestling

I don’t want you to put anybody else in

A full suplex half nelson

123 I’ll let you pin me

I cant wait to see what you do

As your finishing move

My ears are still ringing from Unprofessional Wrestling.

We have a pledge page now too. It is HERE if you fancy a look.

An Open Letter To Axl Rose (originally written for Artrocker Magazine)

2011-03-07T02:22:00.000-08:00

Dear Axl Rose.

Let me start off by saying I am a fan of your work. You have many fine songs. I also like the fact that you tell everybody to fuck off all the time. My younger brother found this inspiring growing up - it helped him find his voice in the world.

Unfortunately, I'm writing to you with regard to your recent appearance at the Reading Festival. I was in attendance with my brother and his best friend Tom. It was the first time either of them had seen you play. Although they enjoyed it (they were perhaps the only two people singing along to songs from Chinese Democracy), I felt the performance a little lacking. Don’t get me wrong, I still think you rocked the fuck out, but you have some of the world’s greatest songs in your arsenal and you left them unused or played them in a state of disrepair.

Do you know the other bands that were playing at this festival? Weezer, The Libertines, The Arcade Fire. These bands are a fucking joke compared to you. They all dream of having a song as good as November Rain, You Could Be Mine, Welcome To The Jungle, Estranged, Night Train, or Paradise City – songs which you just threw away with stadium rock posturing.

So Axl, let me tell you what you need to do. Put your house in order. You don't need that many guitarists. Pick a couple of your favourites and size down a bit. Once you have a more manageable-sized band (make sure to keep Tommy Stinson, as he was in The Replacements), start playing small secret shows and learn to enjoy yourself again. You will soon realise that you don’t need big gongs, fireworks or bizarre covers of Pink Floyd’s The Wall to have a good show. Take it from me, your songs stand up on their own.

Basically Axl, what I'm saying is that you used to be in the best rock and roll band in the world, and you still can be. You just need to remember where you came from. Once you've got yourself in order you can start telling everybody to fuck off again and I will have your back.

Oh and one other piece of advice, one that my brother was shouting at you at the festival: When you use a megaphone you have to hold the button down to make yourself heard.

POSTCARDS!

2011-03-02T07:09:00.000-08:00

I love postcards I explain why HERE.

I've been making them for every show I've played for quite sometime now. I like the thought of something unique and personal being available from each of our shows.

Last night Art Brut played at Jericho in Oxford you can see the postcard in my previous post and then the back of it after the show HERE. I've smudged John's address out with iPhoto so you dont all send him letters.

Tonight a band that sounds a bit like Art Brut (but definitely isn't us) called We Formed A Band is playing at the Enterprise in Camden. So I've made a post card for them.

It is in acrylic paint on two pieces of canvas. Once it is bought I attach one of my stamps and write about the show on the canvas that is the back of the postcard. This postcard cost £40.

I can be contacted at eddie.argos.resource@gmail.com

Hopefully see you later. I will be down the front.

POSTCARDS!

2011-02-28T09:55:00.000-08:00

I really like postcards. I explain why HERE.

For EWITFR...N! I made a postcard for every show. I intend to do the same for Art Brut this year.

This postcard is for the Oxford Jericho which we're playing at tomorrow. I've never been there before but from my internet research. I see they have a green sofa on the stage and Cuban flags hanging over the speakers.

I hope the green sofa is still on stage when we play. Its been a while and I might get a bit tired halfway though the set.

This postcard cost £40 for that you get both the canvasses. On the piece of canvas which is the back of the Postcard I write in what happened the day of the gig personally addressed to you. I then add one of my own stamps.

I'll have it with me tomorrow. If you are interested email eddie.argos.resource@gmail.com

Thanks.

Eating In The Dark

2011-02-27T17:51:00.000-08:00

Hello. My posts from the studio just before christmas ended rather abruptly sorry about that. I was learning to sing. The album is finished and should be out sometime in May.

Since recording the album I've moved to Berlin with my girlfriend. It is ace. My brother and his girlfriend came to visit last week so we got to do all the things tourists do. My favourite thing we did was to visit a restaurant called Nocti Vagus, a restaurant where you eat in the pitch black.

The first thing you do at Nocti Vagus is chose from one of four set menus. You do this upstairs where the lights are on so you can see. Three of us chose the meat menu and Hannah my brothers girlfriend chose the suprise menu. After you've chosen your meal you get taken downstairs to the dark room where you eat.

To ensure the dark room stays completely pitch black there is a holding room that you stand in before you enter. They turn off the lights in the holding room, open the door to the dark restaurant and then with your hand on the shoulder of the person in front of you you walk in to complete and utter darkness.

It was really scary at first. Your eyes are still trying to see things so you end up seeing lots of strange shapes. I don't trust my own mind whatsoever and was worried that it might suddenly decide to show me The Dungeon Master from the cartoon Dungeons and Dragons. I've been scared of that little fella for as long as I can remeber and because of that I forced my eyes shut for the first ten minutes. Whilst I was sat terrified with my eyes shut everybody else familiarized themselves with where the table was and where they were sat. I wish I had done this as when my first course arrived I realised I was sat about 2ft away from the table.

Once I found the table and then my soup and then my spoon and eventually my mouth I started to eat. The food really was delicious and my memory is so bad that it was like I had the suprise menu too. Once I started eating I began to relax a bit as the meal became more of a game, the trying not to get food all over myself game, I wasn't very good at it.

By the time I got to the second course I was completely relaxed. I was loving it. I was getting quite bold though. To see if I'd finished my plate of mash potato and lamb chops I put my hand flat on to my plate. I hadn't finished and my hand got covered in food. It was dark though so nobody could see me mucking about and licking lamb chops off my hand. This is brilliant I thought no etiquette. I was brought down to earth with a bump though when the waiter came back to the table and asked which one of us had used his dessert spoon to eat his soup, it was me. Even in the dark you cant escape cutlery based fascism. That is my only complaint of the meal though. I had a brilliant night. By the time it came to ordering our coffee I wanted to go round again and order another three courses.

Actually I had one other disappointment with the meal. It was with the suprise menu. I had been hoping through out the meal that it would turn out Hannah hadn't been eating anything at all. That her entire meal would just have been the power of suggestion.

To be honest though as we walked out into the light it turned out none of us had any food on us, not even me. So perhaps we had imagined all our food. If that is the case I should start trusting my mind more as my food was brilliant.

Biff! Bang! Downloadable comics!

2011-02-15T12:37:00.000-08:00

I wrote a new Pow! To The People supposedly about downloading comics. It was more a thinly veiled begging letter for comics though. You can read it HERE

The Eddie Argos Shop.

2011-02-14T08:02:00.000-08:00

I am now a shopkeeper.

I've made a little shop for all of your Eddie Argos needs (well a few of them anyway). It is HERE

I made little paypal buttons to put under the items I am selling. This is mainly because I enjoy making buttons (and pushing them, I've already sold myself about three paintings).

You can still buy things from me by emailing eddie.argos.resource@gmail.com if you prefer. I like to hear from people so you can just email and not buy anything if you fancy that too. I'm a bit flakey though so might not reply straight away.

An Entire EWITFR...N Show.

2010-12-08T17:42:00.000-08:00

EWITFR...N was an unusual thing to tour. We'd written the songs a while in advance recording the album in Joshua Tree with our friend Dave Newton. When it came to touring it it sort of turned into a cabaret thing with lots of talking between the songs. I think it worked out really well. When we tour Volume 2 of Fixing The Charts I think we're going to aim for all seated venues and really embrace the cabaret feel of it.

This show was filmed at Union Hall, Brooklyn by our friend Alex de Campi

If you want to buy the album it is available HERE and Merch is available HERE and when I get back home HERE

Back In Salem. Weekend Round Up.

2010-12-06T10:35:00.000-08:00

We spent all day Saturday taking our songs apart and putting them back together again with Black Francis conducting us. Everything is now sounding at least as twice as awesome.

Here is Ian recording a guitar solo in the bathroom for our new song 'Axl Rose'.

And HERE IS is a 360' Image of the studio. My face really is that wonky.

Back In Salem.

2010-12-04T08:31:00.000-08:00

If the Art Brut twitter feed is to be believed, I spent all day yesterday looking at pictures of dogs dressed as people whilst Black Francis wrote the record.

This is not true.

I spent all day locked behind some patio doors shouting for your entertainment

I'm even trying to sing a little bit. It is going very well, at this rate we will end up with a double album by christmas.

Back In Salem.

2010-12-03T10:27:00.000-08:00

I intend to write every day no matter how boring it is.

Yesterday we did lots of this

And if your interested, it turns out an SM57 after lots of trying of other mic's is probably the best one to use.

It was great to see Black Francis and Jason again, hard to believe its been two years since we recorded Art Brut VS Satan. I can't wait to start shouting all over this record. Hooray.

Back In Salem- The Journey So Far.

2010-12-02T09:34:00.000-08:00

Art Brut are back in Salem recording our new album with Black Francis.

Actually we haven't started yet. I've just woken up on the first day refreshed and ready to go. It was a long journey to get here and I slept for most of it.

The five of us headed out on two separate airplanes. Mike and Fred went via San Fransico to Portland and Ian, Jasper and I got to Portland via New York on Delta. This isn't because we needed space from each other or anything, just because we are all flying back at different times.

It seems it was training day at Heathrow and we were the test subjects. I'm guessing we were the first people the security person we spoke too had ever had too clear. He had some questions I'd never heard before.

"Where did you pack your clothes?"

and

"How did you get to the airport?"

After he had gone to his supervisor to make sure we were ok to go, he came back over with a few more questions. The first was

"Do you ever make videos?"

Which I thought was a weird one, and made me slightly worried that he had seen THIS and wasn't going to let me fly. Then he asked

"Do you ever use professional actors?"

To which we lied and said yes (the real answer being no we cant afford them). Then it all became clear when he said.

"Because I'm only working here till I get back on my feet acting wise, I mean I've been in an episode of Spooks and in the backround of Torchwood and I even did an advert"

Then his final question.

"Can I send you a head shot?"

I gave him Jasper's email address.

Then we got on the plane and flew with Delta's really grumpy old lady cabin staff across the atlantic, trying to make them smile or at least be civil to us, with no success.

We had to change in New York and get on another plane to Portland. As I sat in my new seat a friendly American (you know the sort) asked me if I was allergic to cats. I thought it was a pretty unusual conversation starter but he had a cat with him under his seat. Apparently it costs nearly twice as much to fly a cat as it does to fly a person. I explained to him how cheap cats are to replace but apparently that was a bit cold of me. That didn't stop him talking so I suggested that next time he fly he shave the cat and dress it up as a baby as I think they travel free. Then to his relief the stewardess made me change seats.

I spent the entire flight asleep with my head sliding around on the seat listening to Bob Dylan and dreaming that I was rocking out. Which was embarrassing both in the real world as my head kept colliding into people and also in the dream world as I was actually listening to a lot of slow songs like Lenny Bruce and the people at the gig in the dream kept telling me stop dancing as I was ruining their experience. So I woke doubly embarrassed.

When we got off the plane, we immediately bumped into Mike and Fred who had arrived at exactly the same time. Although they looked a lot fresher than us.

We grabbed our stuff and our friend Jason picked us up to take us to our other friend Charles Normal's house where we are staying and is AMAZING. Then I slept some more, sadly I didn't return to the Bob Dylan concert to apologize for my behaviour.

We're just heading off to the studio now. See you later.

The Art Goblins.

2010-10-13T03:50:00.000-07:00

My first band from when I was 17 The Art Goblins got back together for John Peel Day. My friend Adie Nunn filmed the whole thing here it is in three parts

If you are interested the set list is;

1)Fuck Rock Let's Art

2)Anti-Gravity

3)Are You Afraid Of The Art?

-------Climb Into And Then Escape From Sack-----

4)I Wanna Be Johnny Dean

5)Popstar

6)Fuck The MSP

7)Disco

8)A Special Cover For John Peel Day

I said it would be the last show. I've changed my mind though as it was too much fun.

Some Things For Sale.

2010-09-01T07:22:00.000-07:00

Since I put the link up for the Everybody Was In The French Resistance...Now T-shirts. I've had a few emails from people who are having trouble buying them in the countries where they live so I have decided to set up this little shop

If you live in the UK it is still better to get your T-Shirts from HERE though as it will be easier and they have a larger range than me

In this little shop we have the Green T-shirt in Large and Medium they cost £20 each which includes postage and they look like this

We also have the limited edition screen prints (only about 15 left) you can only buy these here and they cost £15 including postage and they look like this.

and finally we also have this postcard painting from from the Acoustic Lakeside festival it is in acrylic on two canvasses costs £35 including postage and looks like this. (I will personalize it for the person who buys it)

I'm the shopkeeper so email me at eddie.argos.resource@gmail.com

I Believe In Magic.

2010-08-20T06:13:00.001-07:00

I designed a T-Shirt for Soundscreen design. They are limited to 72. You can buy them HERE.

I don't mind if you don't believe in magic. I should also admit that Dyan helped out (quite a lot) with my face on the T-Shirt.

Oh and there is a bio of who I am HERE

Spoiler Alert!

2010-08-11T04:25:00.000-07:00

Spoiler Alert! are a mysterious group of people that write songs about superheroes. They are a band definitely not made up of mild-mannered Dyan Valdes, Keith TOTP and Eddie Argos, even though they sound like they might be.

Eddie is far too busy writing the next Art Brut album to be writing songs exclusively about Superheroes

Dyan is too busy planning The Blood Arm's forthcoming European tour (In November)

and Keith is busy getting his own album ready for release.

So like I said it's definitely not us.

The songs were certainly not mixed by Micky Strickson nor were they recorded at Dean St Studios. DC Comics in no way endorses these songs, although the revenue earned from them will be spent on DC Comics (and maybe some wine), so what goes around comes around.

Their first EP which contains songs about Booster Gold, Blue Beetle and Batman is available from the Indelicates record label Corporate Records. Which I wrote about before HERE.

Buy the songs HERE

They can be contacted through eddie.argos.resource@gmail.com.

ACOUSTIC LAKESIDE FESTIVAL.

2010-08-10T11:59:00.000-07:00

I don’t know if you remember me writing about Acoustic Lakeside festival last year but its HERE. Art Brut introduced the festival to the drinking game Buffalo. It’s a game in which if you have your drink in your right hand when someone yells ‘Buffalo’ it means you have to finish it. It seems we might have created a monster.

I returned to Acoustic Lakeside this year with Everybody Was In The French Resistance…Now. The festival has gone Buffalo mad. Absoloutely everybody I met with no exception was drinking with their left hands.

Possibly because they had puts signs up everywhere warning people the game was in progress.

At one point I was watching a band and switched my glass to my right hand to applaud. Immediately some young girls appeared out of the shadows and shouted Buffalo at me. This happened to me about three times. The man you can see pointing at the 'Attention Buffalo' sign is the king of Buffalo'ing he got Ian three times with pints of wine. I'd show you a photo but Ian would not appreciate it.

I truly love the Lakeside festival. I wish I could have had more time there. The whole event just feels like a brilliant party. Along with Indietracks its my favourite festival to play. The brilliant atmosphere brings out the best in the bands that play too. Lakeside and Indietracks were both my favourite EWITFR...N shows of the year.

I've made some Buffalo themed postcards for Lakeside. They come as a pair and cost £38 (including postage) One canvas is the front of the postcard, the other is the back, which I fill in. They are made of acrylic paint and 100% cotton canvas (5 x7") They look less expressionist than the photo. I only have a camera on my phone

I will be writing Buffalo on the postcard so don't open it with a drink in your right hand.

Contact me at eddie.argos.resource@gmail.com

Indietracks Postcard

2010-08-02T12:05:00.000-07:00

Everybody Was In The French Resistance…Now played Indietracks last week. Indietracks is a brilliant festival, one of my favourites and the line up this year was great. I’m just gutted we couldn’t stay the whole weekend. I’m especially sad about missing The Pooh Sticks reunion, as well as M.J Hibbert and Shrag

We did get to see Veronica Falls and Allo Darlin, though, who were both brilliant.

Indietracks is definitely the most ‘Indie’ festival in the world. Before we played I was lying in the grass being nosey and listening to the conversations different groups of people were having around me. To prove my point: one conversation was about sending off for 7-inch records from the back of the Melody Maker and having to get your mum to sign the cheque, and another was about Jad Fair’s album that he recorded with Teenage Fanclub. It was nice. I felt at home and wanted to join in with both conversations.

I think the show went very well. I definitely enjoyed it. Ironically (as I hate them) my favourite part of our set is when we break into a little bit of a U2 song. I especially enjoyed doing that in front of a load of fans of indiepop. Here is a snippet of video from it.

Although we had to leave almost immediately after we played, I still managed to blag both the new Wimpy Milkshake and the new Shrag album. Both are brilliant and I think are out later this month. You should definitely buy them when they are released.

I’ve made some postcards for Indietracks. Each postcard set is on two 5x7” canvases. One canvas is the front of the postcard, and the other is the back. I fill in the back with what happened that day. It costs £35 for the set.

Thats quite a shaky photo of the painting as I only have a camera on my phone.

Contact me at eddie.argos.resource@gmail.com

Latitude.

2010-07-27T11:39:00.000-07:00

I played in the poetry tent at Latitude last week.

It was the first time I've been camping in about ten years. I think it was Ian and Dyan's first go at camping in a while too.

We all bought the cheapest tents we could possibly find: £20 from Argos (the shop not me). Unfortunately they were all NME endorsed tents. They came with the NME logo on them and a picture of a guitar. Which was fine for Ian but when I tried to swap mine for one that had a picture of a microphone on it they looked at me like I was mad.

I just presumed everybody going would be as cheap as us and have bought the same cheap tent. I even brought some ribbon along to tie too mine so I would be able to identify it from the thousands of other NME tents I imagined would be at the festival.

When we got there it turned out that we were the only people attempting to sleep in what was basically a shit wendy house. No need for the ribbon.

I'd been asked to play the poetry tent by Luke Wright who is a brilliant poet who wrote this blog about embarrassing himself introducing Art Brut a while back.

I'd said yes to playing the poetry tent without really thinking it through. My vanity said yes before I'd had a chance to stop it. I'd been flattered that someone had thought I was capable of playing a poetry tent.

As Latitude got closer though I bottled it and decided to bring a band with me: (p)Art Brut. Ian from Art Brut and Dyan from EWITFR...N and The Blood Arm. We were supposed to have rehearsed all the week before but then I suddenly got sick, so only managed to squeeze two practices in before we got there. We spent the entire day before we played rehearsing behind the Poetry tent, which must have pissed the actual poets off. Wendy Cope seemed especially nonplussed that she hadn't brought her guitarist with her.

Anyhow in the end I think it went quite well. As a concession to it being a poetry tent, I dressed a bit like Phil Juppitus, as that is how I imagine all poets dress. And as I had been sick all week I did the entire set sober, which was a bit strange for me but fun nonetheless. After we played I suddenly felt much better. Perhaps my debilitating sickness had just been a case of stage fright. Serves me right for thinking I was a poet.

Latitude was a brilliant festival. I hope I get to perform in an inappropriate tent again next year. Perhaps I could appear in the literary tent without having written a book or maybe I can do whatever that weird stilt walking thing into the lake was. Or perhaps I'll just buy a ticket.

I think the two best things I saw were Paul Heaton in the Word Tent and Belle And Sebastian on the main stage. Both were incredible. I had to leave early Sunday so unfortunately missed my mate Jim Bob reading from his book in the Literary Arena. I have read it though and it's brilliant. Go and buy it.

I made three postcards for Latitude but have sold them all sorry.

Five Children’s Books You Should Read.

2010-07-22T17:34:00.001-07:00

Here is another one of those top 5's I wrote for something else. But am now putting up here.

This one is about children's books

I still read children’s books. It is a little embarrassing, but whenever I’m in a charity shop (or “thrift store” to you Americans), I can’t help heading over to the children’s book section and searching for a Three Investigator or Famous Five book I may have missed out on. Don’t get me wrong, I can read. It’s not that I’ve not got past a certain reading level, it’s just that there is something very satisfying about zooming through a book in (at the very most) a couple of hours. Here are my top 5 favourite children’s books.

5) Archers Goon by Diana Wynne Jones. I first found out about this book as a child from the BBC adaptation that was on at tea-time. I missed the final couple of episodes and couldn’t stop wondering how it turned out. More than a decade later Chris Chinchilla (Art Brut’s original guitarist) lent me his battered copy. I read it as a twenty-something and still thought it was brilliant. I don’t want to tell you the plot as it will spoil it, but you should go seek it out.

4) The Diamond Brothers series by Antony Horowitz. I love this series of books about a dimwitted private detective and his smart-mouthed younger brother. I love puns and wordplay, and these books are full of them. How can you resist a series of books whose titles are all plays on the titles of other famous films and novels? The Falcon’s Maltesers, The Blurred Man, The French Confection, The Geek Who Stole Christmas and South By South East. I’m eagerly awaiting the new novel The Radius Of The Lost Shark.

3) The Three Investigator series by various authors. I’ve loved The Three Investigators since I borrowed The Mystery Of The Haunted Castle from the library when I was seven. What is there not to love about a junior detective agency which has its secret headquarters in a junk yard in Rocky Beach, California? The early books all had a foreword written by Alfred Hitchcock who the trio would always go and visit to tell him about a solved case in the final chapter of the book. When I was growing up, Jupiter Jones was my hero. He still is a bit. In the books he is described as “stocky.” I used to overeat to be just like him (which I also still do a bit).

2) The William Brown series by Richmal Crompton.William is a mischievous schoolboy whose heart is generally in the right place, but he often gets into trouble anyway. And because so many of these books were written over a period of nearly fifty years (1921-1970), with William and his friends remaining the same age, they have also become a fascinating look at how a small village life in England changed over that period. Don’t read them for that reason though, read them because they are hysterically funny.

1) Raging Robots And Unruly Uncles by Margret Mahy. I was given this as a birthday present when I was very young. It has a complicated plot about a family of brothers whose father is trying to educate them to be evil villains, and their cousin Prudence whose father is trying to turn her into a prim and proper lady. It involves a magic doll, an evil robot and a Library/Garden/TV Repair/Bus Service/ Parrot Aviary/ Fortunetelling business. Read this book, if only for the last paragraph. It is one of my favorite paragraphs ever written.

Indie Tracks Postcard.

2010-07-21T10:22:00.001-07:00

I've made a couple of postcards for Indie Tracks. Here they are on my desk.

I'll be selling them with our Merch at Indie Tracks.

They are £35 for a set. The set includes either the Indie Tracks logo or a scene from Indie Tracks.

Each set comes with the picture on one canvas and the postcard back on another. I fill in the postcard part with what happened that day.

I can make some more if needs be. But only if you are going to Indie Tracks or really really want to be there.

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

Latitude Postcard.

2010-07-12T09:41:00.001-07:00

Latitude Postcard.

I've been making Postcards as Merchandise for the last couple of Everybody Was In The French Resistance...Now shows. For reasons I go into here.

I'm playing Latitude this weekend. In the Poetry Arena. I think I'm on at about Midnight on Friday. Im playing re-workings of Art Brut and EWITFR...N songs with Ian on acoustic guitar and Dyan on the Piano. I cant wait.

Anyhow I've also decided to make postcards for all the festivals I'm playing at this summer. This is what the one for Latitude looks like. I'm making three of them. They come as a set on two pieces of canvas (5x7") and are painted in acrylic. I fill in the blank part of the postcard with what happened that day. They are £35 for the set of two.

I can be contacted at eddie.argos.resource@gmail.com

See you there. X

Top 5 Thursday. Food I Miss When I'm In The US

2010-07-07T18:27:00.000-07:00

I have been writing a series of Top 5 lists for a website. We were going to put one up every week. I'm writing something else for them instead now though. So I have a stockpile of these that I'm going to put up on my own blog(s) every Thursday

Here is the first one.

Top 5 Delicious things from the UK that I miss when I’m in the US.

My girlfriend lives in Los Angeles so I spend a lot of time there. America has a lot of very tasty food. I love the fact that it’s OK to eat cakes for breakfast and their eggs are for some reason a lot tastier than the ones we have at home. There are some foods I really miss when I’m there, though.

5) Yorkshire Puddings.

Actually, it’s not just the Yorkshire pudding I miss; it’s the entire roast dinner. In the UK, it is tradition on a Sunday to have roast beef, pork or chicken with roast potatoes and other assorted roast vegetables. It’s a bit like what Americans have for Thanksgiving, but we have it every Sunday. My favourite bit is the Yorkshire pudding. Yorkshire pudding is made of batter and left in the oven to rise whilst you roast your meats. On the plate, you use it to soak up all the gravy. It is pretty tasty. I recently ate in a ‘British’ restaurant in Palm Springs and they served it with a salad. A bit weird, but I wolfed it down anyway (sans gravy) to satiate my craving.

4) Vimto

Vimto is a cordial that you mix with water to make a delicious fruity drink. They don’t really have cordials at all in America, let alone Vimto. This is odd, considering that Americans add sugar to absolutely everything, so you’d think they’d like the option to be able to add a sugary mix to water. Somebody recently brought me 7 bottles of Vimto to one of our shows. I did them all in one day.

3) Bread

All bread in America is terrible. I don’t know what they do to it. Its either filled with sugar and additives, or if it’s the healthy option, it seems to be made out of sawdust, seeds and bits of old twine. I really miss a nice medium sliced loaf of white bread when I’m in America

2) Bacon.

I always forget that American bacon is different than UK bacon. I order it in cafes, and when it turns up all petrified, crispy and inedible I always wish I’d ordered something else. Bacon in the UK is sort of like Canadian bacon but longer and more delicious

1) Cadbury’s Chocolate.

Most of the chocolate you get in America is disgusting. The absolute worst is Hershey’s. Hershey’s Kisses look like old dog poo that’s not been picked up by the owner and left to dry in the sun and probably tastes even worse than that. I would rather eat poo. When I’m in America I really miss Cadbury’s chocolate, especially the recently reissued Whispa Golds - a bubbly chocolate filled with caramel. Seemingly reissued just to fuck with the fact I'm supposed to be on a diet.

Lyric Free-Cycle

2010-07-05T16:26:00.000-07:00

There is a thing called free-cycle in which people put items they no longer want on to the internet in case other people would like them and then if other people do want them those people can come round that first persons house and collect them of that person for free.

Thats not a very good description but you get the idea.

I've been writing lyrics all day. This involves me going through my phone and looking at all the ideas I've had, funny little rhyming couplets and what not. I threw a lot of them away as I was clearly mental and or drunk when I saved them into my phone

for example

"This Kanye West, Taylor Swift thing. Looks as real as proffessional wrestling"

being just one that I've thrown away. (EWITFR...N were going to write a song about the MTV Awards).

As I was banging my head on my desk earlier trying to think of lyrics. I thought it would be nice if there was a writing version of Free-cycle. Im sure someones got the lyrics I need somewhere and I may have the lyrics they are after saved in my phone.

I was going to start it and call it 'Lyric Free-Cycle' but I think half the fun of writing lyrics is chasing down that elusive rhyme. Also I think it might cause a problem with my publisher.

So I've decided not to start it. You can if you like but dont send me the link as I think it will spoil my fun.

EWITFR...N Live on Geekweek

2010-07-02T16:00:00.000-07:00

About a month ago Everybody Was In The French Resistance...Now were live on Geeweek.com.

I've only just figured out how to find the archived shows. So here it is.

I should probably tell you that this is after Ian had gone back to the UK. So it's Nathaniel from the Blood Arm stepping in. Although he has stepped in so many times now I'd say he is actually a member of EWITFR...N wether he wants to be or not.

I should also let you know that when we got to the venue we found out the PA didn't work. So had to rework our set and perform it without a P.A. or any amplification for the instruments or my voice. Luckily we are incredibly talented so you probably cant tell that there is anything wrong

Thanks to Geekweek for having us. It was a lot of fun.

Enjoy.

European Festivals.

2010-06-28T07:33:00.000-07:00

Hello. Im playing at some festivals over the summer with a few different bands.

I'm doing one with Art Brut, a few with Everybody Was In The French Resistance..Now and a couple just as myself.

The ones just as myself will be sort of poetry events. Although I'll have Dyan and Ian playing acoustic guitar and piano with me. I'll be doing different songs from all different bands. Some EWITFR...N, some reworked Art Brut maybe a Glam Chops song and some Art Goblins. I haven't decided yet. I've also been writing some new songs, well lyrics, that might not fit on the next Art Brut record so maybe some of them too.

Anyhow here are the dates

July 16th - Latitude in the Poetry Arena as Eddie Argos

July 23rd - Indie Tracks as Everybody Was In The French Resistance...Now

July 24th- Acoustic Lakeside Festival, Austria as Everybody Was In The French Resistance...Now

August 6th Off Festival, Poland as Art Brut

August 27th Reading Festival (Alternative Stage) as Eddie Argos

August 28th Leeds Festival (Alternative Stage) as Eddie Argos

We played Indie Tracks and Acoustic Lakeside last year and they were great. I wrote about them Here and Here.

People have been emailing me asking about Art Brut and what's going on. We're busy busy busy writing our 4th Album.

Hopefully see you at the festivals.

Postcards from EWITFR...N! - US Tour

2010-06-08T15:32:00.000-07:00

I was painting postcards for every show of the US tour here is an example of some of them.

I ran out out of time and canvas though, about half way around America.

Now I'm home I'm already making some postcards for the shows that I didn't have time to on the road. I've already sold a few of them. But if you were at a show where there wasn't a postcard or if you really wanted to be at a show and couldn't make it and want to buy a postcard. Im now selling them from here.

Just email me at eddie.argos.resource@gmail.com

The postcards come on two stretched cotton 5 x 7" canvases (one for what would be the front of the postcard and one for what would the back). They are painted with acrylic paints and cost $50. I'll pay the postage as it is my fault that they weren't ready in time for the shows.

EWITFR...N! End of the tour.

2010-05-31T17:50:00.000-07:00

I always intend to write a tour diary every day when I'm on tour. In the same way I intended to make a postcard for every show.

I bit off a bit more than I could chew this time though. So here are the edited highlights. I still intend to finish all the paintings I started too

I’ve traveled through nearly all of America since the last time I wrote.

We played in St Paul with our friend Raven whose band were brilliant. Whenever we play in the twin cities I inevitably get into a conversation about both the Replacements and the Hold Steady . This time was no exception and I ended up speaking to a guy who was convinced that his home address is going to be mentioned on the next Hold Steady album as it is literally the only place in the Minneapolis/St Paul area that Craig Finn has not put in a song yet.

After Minneapolis we played. Madison, Chicago, Detroit and Toronto with our friends Team Band. They were brilliant you can hear them HERE

It was nice to be back in Chicago with a different band. Art Brut played in Chicago so much last year it was beginning to feel like we were a local band. Chicago is a very generous place. Whenever I play in Chicago I get given some amazing presents . This time I got given a Replacements DVD, a Scotland Yard Gospel Choir album and a tin of exotic Vimto.

Vimto is my favourite drink (besides booze). I’d never seen this sort though.

It was just a delicious as normal Vimto.

I treat Vimto like a live giving medicine. I had intended to save the Vimto till the end of the tour but I felt so bad from all the booze the day after Chicago that I drank it the second I woke up. In my mind Brandon who gave me the Vimto probably saved my life.

We also played a few shows with The Grates who were great you can hear them HERE.

We played Philadelphia with the Grates. In Philedlphia we stayed in the most terrifying hotel I’ve ever been too. For days people had been warning us about it. I still wasn’t prepared though. It was the Motel 6 by the stadium. The lobby was full of people who looked like Dog The Bounty Hunter. We parked our van in a spot where a van had clearly just been broken into. Using the theory that lightening wouldn’t strike twice. When I was loading the guitars into the hotel some people in the lift asked me what sort of guns they were I couldn’t tell if they were joking not. We got the sense that something pretty shady was going on on the 15th floor. The next day Ian and I kind of regretted Not going up for a nosey about. The Rolling Stones definitely would have.

In New York we had a cartoon of ourseleves appear in The New Yorker

and I had a reunion of sorts with all the bands I'd played with when Art Brut did our 5 nights sold out residency at The Mercury Lounge last summer. We played with Murder Mystery, Phil And The Osophers and Les Sans Culloutes again and I bumped into Jeffery Lewis (pretty much completing the set) in the street when I was looking for a nice cake.

Finally there is a cat that has the same name as me that I met on Twitter. When we played in DC its's owner handed me this Postcard it had made of itself.

It is going up on my bedroom wall as soon as I get home to the UK.

I cant really remember much else of what happened. It was a pretty intense tour.

I started off making postcards for every show now I'm back in LA I'm going to finish the process. If you were at a show where I wasn't selling a postcard because I'd run out of time/canvas. You can email me at eddie.argos.resource@gmail.com and I'll sell you one. They are $50 dollars each. I'll pay postage as it's my fault I didn't have them in time.

EWITFR....N North Dakota, Montana, Glasgow

2010-05-07T09:52:00.000-07:00

The day after waking up in Great Falls was nearly exactly the same day again. Another thirteen hour drive although this time to a hotel in Jamestown. It felt a bit like the film Groundhog Day. And just like the film Groundhog Day, we learnt a lesson by repeating our day again. This time we bought food earlier in the day that we could heat up at the hotel.

Absolutely nothing happened on our drive to Jamestown. But I did see an amazing travel programme just before I left the hotel. It was trying to convince Americans what a lovely holiday destination Glasgow is.

I love Glasgow, but the programme wasn’t really selling it to me. It began with the presenter explaining that there were no special monuments or historical places of interest to go to in Glasgow, and it did this by showing clips of all the interesting places and beautiful monuments of Edinburgh whilst the voice over said,

“There are none of these things in Glasgow. It is an industrial city”

Next, the presenter was in a large shopping center explaining how it was one of the biggest shopping centers in Europe and how people came from all over Europe just to go shopping there. Then she added the disclaimer:

“Not for Americans though, the exchange rate is terrible, everything is VERY expensive here.”

So after clarifying that there were no places of historic interest or beauty, and that the shops were incredibly expensive for Americans, the presenter got into a taxi and asked the taxi driver her to take her to a well-known Glaswegian landmark. He told her that there weren’t any. Next she asked him what was the biggest change to Glasgow he had seen in his lifetime. He said,

“Well, the biggest difference for me is that it’s cleaner now, when I was growing up everything was covered in a thick layer of black soot.”

So to recap: Glasgow has no famous monuments, places of historic interest or beauty, it is very expensive and the biggest improvement it has had in the last 40 years is that it is no longer covered in soot.

I think if I had been in charge of that programme I would have framed it a bit differently. The presenter was very happy with her free hotel room, but that was about it. I would have just shown thirty minutes of amazing music: Belle and Sebastian, The Yummy Fur, Bis, Franz Ferdinand, 1990s, Ureausi Yatsura, Sons and Daughters, We Are The Physics etc. The commentary between the songs would be my voice saying,

“There has never been a bad band from Glasgow, the people here are brilliant. Go to Glasgow and have lots of fun, especially now that it is not covered in soot.”

I think that would have worked better.

EWITFR...N Seattle and Great Falls

2010-05-05T08:48:00.000-07:00

The show after Kennewick was Seattle. Nothing unusual or funny happened. It was just a gig in a bar with some people who seemed to enjoy it. We played with a band called the Tea Cozies. I really liked them. We swapped records with them. Theirs sounds a little bit like Elastica. Have a listen.

The next day we began our massive drive from Seattle to Minneapolis. It takes nearly three days of solid driving. The first day we drove 670 miles, which took about 12 hours. The landscape is just mountains or wide open plains. That can do funny things to your head. We arrived in Great Falls, where we were staying, at about 11pm. The only place left open still serving food was a fast food place called Hardees. The food didn’t look particularly appetizing, but as it was all there was and we were ravenous we went for it. Hardees was supposed to shut at midnight, but as it was a Sunday, whoever was working there had decided to shut up about thirty minutes early. We could see the fucker in there sneaking around trying to hide from us as our stomachs grumbled.

I think the long drive had made us go mad as when we got back to the hotel. Dyan wrote a strongly worded email to the company and Ian and I tried to eat instant noodles that we had cooked in coffee cups in the hotel microwave. As I shoveled burning hot yet uncooked noodles into my mouth with a makeshift fork I’d fashioned out of a straw and some coffee stirrers (Ian went for using biros as chopsticks). I got angrier and angrier I had to be physically restrained from going back to the Hardees and throwing a brick through the window. It’s lucky Dyan wrote the email. If it had been me it would have ended up as a death threat and the police would probably have become involved. Actually my email would have just been a photo of me in my pants using a pen to eat noodles with ‘you have reduced me to this’ written underneath it.

I’d like to say it was the 13-hour van journey that had made me so mad and angry, but when I woke up the next day I was still livid. Luckily we didn’t have time for me to go and vent my frustration as we had another 13-hour drive ahead of us.

If there is a lesson to be learnt from this it's dont make me hungry, you wouldn't like me when I'm hungry.

EWITFR...N Tour Diary. Portland and Kennewick

2010-05-04T08:48:00.000-07:00

The first show after California was in Portland Oregon. We played with a band called And And And, who were pretty awesome and had perhaps one of the drunkest and most confused people I’ve ever seen playing with them.

The crowd was pretty small, apparently due to a basketball game that was happening at the same time. As I’m sure you all know, if you were to look at a Venn diagram of sports fans and fans of conceptual pop music/reply songs, there would be massive overlap in the middle. In fact, it just looks like a perfectly-drawn circle.

My postcard went to a man called I think Ryan.

We stayed with more members of Dyan’s family in Portland but barely had time to sample their hospitality, although there was just enough time to be in their bathroom when they were trying to get ready for work (sorry). We were in a rush as we had an important radio session to get to in Kennewick.

The radio session in Kennewick was one of the most fun/surreal radio sessions I’ve ever done. We had to play our songs acoustically to a small group of disinterested school children without any monitors or way of hearing what we were playing.

I don’t know if you’ve ever blindly played a song that is an historically accurate account of Nazi-occupied France to a group of school children who look like they really want to leave, but if you haven’t, I recommend you do. It is character building.

Our show in Kennewick that night was in a booze-free coffee shop. So not only was the audience sober, they were very sober. It was a quiet show again, much quieter than Portland. This was not because of a sporting event this time; it was just because they really didn’t like us.

Bill Hicks has a joke about an audience looking at him like a dog that’s just been shown a card trick. I’d like to say that about Kennewick but I don’t think that would be fair to them. Looking into the audience their faces more resembled people that had accidentally walked into an empty shop, been greeted by a friendly shopkeeper (me), and then realized there was nothing they wanted to buy. Their faces all had a polite look, but one that was hiding a frenzied plan for escape. That’s fair enough, I don’t think EWITFR…N is for everyone and I appreciate them for trying to enjoy it.

We sold one T-shirt to a man that almost looked ashamed to be buying it. I didn’t sell my postcard. I’m saving it to hopefully sell to some one who really enjoys us. I’ve written ‘wish you were here’ on it.

EWITFR...N Tour Diary.

2010-05-04T00:41:00.000-07:00

Everybody Was In The French Resistance...Now are driving around America in a tiny white van playing shows. I thought I would write about it.

California

The tour got off to a shaky start. Ian was supposed to be coming over a week early to learn all the guitar parts but was trapped in England by the unpronounceable volcano. We ended up training Nathaniel from The Blood Arm to play the parts in case Ian didn’t arrive in time. Ian arrived the night before the first show and learnt most, of the parts the next day. So, we played our first couple of shows as a four piece. You can see some clips of our Echo show HERE.

It didn’t feel much like a tour until we left California. I pretty much live in LA now, and San Diego isn’t much of a drive, so we stayed in our own beds after the first two shows. And in San Francisco, we stayed with Dyan’s parents ate Julia Child’s coq au vin and drank their delicious wine, so it felt more like Christmas than being on tour.

Even after the show in San Francisco, we stayed with our friend Keith Boadwee and drunk a mountain of booze, but his hospitality made it feel more like a slumber party than part of a tour.

I’ve been making postcards for every show. In California they went to Janella, Mauricio, and Lee and Randy.

We also got to play with two of my favourite bands: Ezra Furman and The Harpoons in LA and Carletta Sue Kay in San Francisco.

Eugene

The tour really began when we stayed in our first Motel 6, with all its cost-cutting effectiveness (tiny towels, no shampoo and no ‘Do Not Disturb’ sign being the main three). The no ‘Do Not Disturb’ sign is the cleverest cost-cutting, as it allows them to hound you out of the motel from about 8am to make room for the next load of tired and confused guests.

In the vending machine of the Motel 6, I saw a drink called Squirt. Squirt has to be the worst name for a soft drink ever. It sounds so unappetizing.

“Can I interest you in a glass of Squirt?”

“I have a jug full of Squirt in the fridge if you would like to try some?”

“I’m sorry I only have some warm Squirt to offer you, I hope this is ok?”

These are all questions I’d be disgusted to hear. I imagine Squirt to have quite a brackish taste. Ian tried some though, and told me it tastes a bit like Mountain Dew or Sierra Mist, which of course just makes Sierra Mist and Mountain Dew sound like euphemisms.

Postcards from EWITFR...N! - US Tour

2010-04-20T15:56:00.000-07:00

I've been making Postcards for the Everybody Was In The French...Now. I wrote about why I was doing it HERE.

For the US tour I'm making a postcard (or maybe two, I haven't decided yet) for every show.

Here are the postcards for the Californian leg of the tour.

All the postcards will be made of two 12.7 x 17.7cm 100% pure cotton canvases,acrylic paint and pen.

The second part of the postcard looks like this.

I will fill it in with what has happened that day and add one of my stamps which look like this

The postcards will cost $50 and be available at the merch table.

The Californian shows are

April 23rd The Echo, LA

April 24th Casbah, San Diego

April 27th Bottom Of The Hill, San Francisco

See you there Edx

Postcards from EWITFR...N! - Paris

2010-04-13T13:15:00.000-07:00

I've been making postcards for places that Everybody Was In The French Resistance...Now have played. Here is the postcard for Paris.

Our show in Paris was supporting The Fiery Furnaces. They were awesome.

We arrived at the venue pretty early in the afternoon. With the later soundcheck I was looking forward to hanging out with all the Everybody Was In The French Resistance...Now touring party in Paris. All five of us.

Chalky the tour manager let us out the van and we waited for him to come back. Turns out the nearest parking for the venue was two train stops away. Thats why I've drawn a map of the surrounding area for the postcard. I've left the directions for parking in as a kind of ironic joke.

We were worried about our name upsetting people but the gig went really well.

Everybody Was In The French Resistance...Now have a tradition of coming on to the same piece of music every night. That piece of music is the Marseillaise, the French national anthem . As we were supporting in Paris this worked out particularly well for us as when the audience heard the music they all automatically got to their feet, ready for the show.

This painting is sold but if you were at any other of the Everybody Was In The French Resistance...Now shows and would like me to make you a postcard they come on two separate canvases cost £35 and I can be reached at eddie.argos.resource@gmail.com

The Replacements.

2010-04-12T09:00:00.001-07:00

I've added The Replacements to my Fuck Rock Lets Art blog.

Which is HERE

Postcards from EWITFR...N! - Hamburg

2010-04-11T16:43:00.000-07:00

I've been making Postcards. I made one for every date of the Everybody Was In The French Resistance...Now UK tour. I don't have time to make one for every show from the European leg of the tour but am making some on request. Here is the postcard for Hamburg

I was hoping somebody was going to ask me to paint a postcard for Hamburg. It was perhaps my favourite German show and definitely one of my favourite venues.

The Prinzenbar is a very old building that used to be a cinema. Its walls already look like a painting, a flaky old yellow-ing painting. It really is beautiful. Using the power of the internet you can actually have a real look round it by clicking HERE

When we played there what struck me was the contrast of the beautiful old building and the fact it was being used as a music venue for club nights and putting on funny indie bands. It did feel a lot like we didn't belong there and that we'd snuck the PA equipment in ourselves. My over-riding memory of the night (besides it being a brilliant show) is worrying that someone might come in at any minute and chase us out. I remember walking down into the audience during Think Twice It's Not Alright and looking back over my shoulder, seeing the PA and thinking how incredibly out of place it looked.

The postcard is of a speaker against the backdrop of the faded yellow walls.

If you were at one of the European shows and would like a postcard let me know my email is

eddie.argos.resource@gmail.com

The postcards are £35 each plus postage (about £3) and when I send them to you I will fill in the back with what happened that day and add a stamp that I have made.

Postcards from EWITFR...N!

2010-04-09T09:33:00.000-07:00

I recently made a postcard painting for every show Everybody Was In The French Resistance...Now played in the UK.

They all sold pretty fast and since then I've had a few emails from people asking if I'm making any for the European tour we did.

I'm only home for about a week before I head off on the US tour. But if anyone would like a postcard from one of the European dates they can email me and let me know. I'll make it and post it up here before sending it to you. I'm still only going to make one from each venue though and only for people who were there or really really wanted to be.

The postcards are on two 4" x 6" canvases (one for the front and one for the back of the postcard) and are made with acrylic paint and sharpie pen. They cost £35 plus postage for the pair.

You can get in touch with me at eddie.argos.resource@gmail.com

Everybody Was In The French Resistance...Now US tour

2010-04-07T01:39:00.000-07:00

We're going on a massive US tour.

April 23 @ The Echo, Los Angeles, CA
April 24 @ The Casbah, San Diego, CA (EARLY SHOW)
April 27 @ Bottom of the Hill, San Francisco, CA
April 29 @ Mississippi Studios, Portland, OR
April 30 @ Red Room Coffee and Concert House, Kennewick, WA
May 1 @ High Drive, Seattle, WA
May 4 @ Turf Club, Minneapolis, MN
May 5 @ The Frequency, Madison, WI
May 6 @ Schubas, Chicago, IL
May 7 @ Majestic Café, Detroit, MI
May 8 @ El Mocambo, Toronto, ON
May 9 @ La Sala Rossa, Montreal, OT
May 11 @ Great Scott, Boston, MA
May 12 @ Mercury Lounge, New York, NY
May 13 @ Union Hall, Brooklyn, NY
May 14 @ North Star, Philadelphia, PA
May 15 @ DC9, Washington, DC
May 16 @ Local 506, Chapel Hill, NC
May 17 @ The Earl, Atlanta, GA
May 18 @ Bottletree, Birmingham, AL
May 19 @ Exit/In, Nashville, TN
May 21 @ Mangos, Houston, TX
May 22 @ Emo's Indoors, Austin, TX
May 23 @ Hayley's, Denton, TX
May 26 @ Rhythm Room, Phoenix, AZ

We've got Ian Catskilkin playing guitar and drums with us this time. So we're writing a response to a Mott The Hoople song just to give him a big solo.

See You there Edx

POSTCARDS FROM EWITFR...N - Manchester

2010-03-29T12:41:00.000-07:00

I've been painting postcards. For reasons I explain HERE on the first blog which was London. I've also painted postcards for NOTTINGHAM, NORWICH, BRISTOL, and LEEDS. They have all been sold.

Manchester was the last UK show of the Everybody Was In The French Resistance...Now tour.

Here is the Postcard for Manchester.

I know its not very rock and roll to admit but I have a bad back. My bad back is probably due to a combination of all the jobs that I've had that have involved lifting heavy things and my (very rock and roll) lackadaisical attitude to health and safety procedures.

My bad back comes and goes. When its at its worst though I can't stand up straight, can barely walk and am in a lot of pain. It nearly ended the last Art Brut tour when, in Amsterdam, I had to be carried to hospital. Luckily they gave me lots and lots of powerful painkillers and I managed to hobble through the rest of the tour.

On the EWITFR...N tour my bad back had begun to slowly get worse. By Leeds I was worried that I was going to seize up again like I had in Amsterdam. Luckily though Dyan had been told a neat trick by her physiotherapist. Apparently if you have the sort of bad back that I get you can get a tennis ball, place it under your back in the problem area, lie on the ground and roll around forcing the ball into your back and this will help.

I was skeptical. But the promoter in Leeds had brought me a tennis ball (taken from his dog). I lied down on it and rolled around the floor. It really did help. I spent most of the day in Manchester rolling around on my back, on the tennis ball, in a three piece suit (optional) and by the time we came to play the show I was fixed.

I couldn't believe it. All the pain I've been in over the last five or six years all I'd needed to fix it was a fucking tennis ball.

Anyway the tennis ball saved the show and now I carry one everywhere I go. So I've decided to paint a tennis ball for Manchester, the final day of the UK tour and I wish I had known about their magic healing properties before.

The Manchester postcard is made of two 100% Cotton Canvases (4"x 6"), Acrylic Paint and Sharpie pen. I will fill in the back with what happened that day and add a stamp that I have also made to it. (I will post it to you in a proper envelope with real stamps though)

It is £35 plus postage. There is only one and I would prefer to sell it to someone who was at the show Manchester or really really wanted to be there You can contact me at eddie.argos.resource@gmail.com

(I am not a Doctor. If you have a bad back. I advise you to seek a proper medical opinion)

Clever Clever Jazz

2010-03-12T11:32:00.000-08:00

I have a pretentious Art Blog in which I'm attempting to make a painting for every song I've ever written. I sort of cheated this time and used one painting for two songs.

Those two songs are Skin Flick and Charity Shop by my old band Future And The Boy.

I think with Skin Flick I was trying to write lyrics like the Yummy Fur and Charity Shop was based around a short story I had written about a man finding all his possessions in a charity shop and then realising he was dead.

These songs are being released by Filthy Little Angel off shoot Leaving Home Records. They have pressed 200 of them and they are available HERE for £4 from April 5th (I think you can pre-order)

My pretentious art blog is HERE. It has paintings for sale and a story about my old band The Art Goblins.

POSTCARDS FROM EBWITFR...N -Leeds

2010-03-12T04:36:00.000-08:00

I've been painting postcards. For reasons I explain HERE on the first blog which was London. I've also painted postcards for NOTTINGHAM, NORWICH and BRISTOL. They have all been sold.

Here is the Postcard for Leeds

Leeds was the fifth show of the UK tour and for this one we had Internet Forever with us instead of the Lovely Eggs. Despite Internet Forever being brilliant, I did miss the Lovely Eggs a little bit. Mainly because I'd spent most of the night before drinking and playing table football with them and wanted a rematch because I'd lost.

After our show at the Thekla we'd gone to a place called the Lanes to watch Tender Trap. Which is where I was beaten by The Lovely Eggs at table football. My friend Matt Biscuit from The Art Goblins had also come out for the evening and he beat me at bowling. Now I shouldn't have really been bowling as I had a bad back. I was full of booze though and felt invincible.

The next day waking up in the Bristol hotel room I could barely walk. I was bent double, I looked like a question mark. I was terrified that we wouldn't be able to play the show in Leeds. It took me nearly an hour to get dressed and then Dyan had to carry me out to the van. I'd suffered from a bad back like this before and knew that it usually gets worse before it gets better. Instead of sitting in one of the vans seats I lay completely flat on my back on the floor for the entire trip to Leeds.

Leeds is quite a long way from Bristol so we stopped at a service station half way for lunch.It took me ages to climb out of the van. In the end I had to slide out slowly on my back with my groin raised high in the air. I slowly inched my way out with my three piece suit riding up around my waist, swearing loudly to myself and laughing at the ridiculousness of the situation. It wasn't till I'd managed to get out of the van that I noticed that in the car parked directly next to us there was a family eating sandwiches staring in at me. I'm suprised they didn't phone the police.

I thought about painting me sliding out of the van on my back for the postcard as a kind of play on the way female popstars have to learn how to get out of limousines in short dresses. The image is still too painful for me though and would look more than a little vulgar.

Anyway we got to the Brudenell Social club fine. I was suprised as it turned out to be a proper social club with tables and seating. The sort that I used to go to with my grandad. Its an amazing venue.

Luckily as I do a lot less jumping and kicking in EITFR...N then I do in Art Brut, I managed to play the show. Although with we me hanging off the microphone stand and everybody sitting down at tables it did give it a kind of cabaret feel.

From my experience with my back, I knew it was only going to get worse and was worried about the next show in Manchester. The promoter gave me something though that cured my back and saved the show in Manchester. I'll paint it for the Manchester postcard.

My Leeds postcard is made of two 4"x6" 100% cotton canvases, acrylic paint and sharpie pen. It costs £35. If you buy it I will fill the back in with pen and add a stamp that I have also made.

I will post it to you in a proper envelope though.

I can be contacted at eddie.argos.resource@gmail.com

POSTCARDS FROM EBWITFR...N - Bristol

2010-03-11T08:14:00.000-08:00

I am making a postcard for every show Everybody Was In The French Resistance...Now played on our UK tour. This is my 4th Postcard. The first three are Here, Here and Here. They have all been sold.

Here is the fourth postcard it is for Bristol

Bristol was the 4th day of our tour and the third with the Lovely Eggs. By now they were pretty much my favourite band.

I'd been to the Thekla before a number of times. I'd never played it before though and I was really excited to finally be given the chance.

Dyan had played here previously with her main band The Blood Arm.

The night The Blood Arm played the Thekla their singer Nathaniel had made the crowd run from one side of the boat to the other making it violently rock from side to side. We found out when we played there that the manager who had been working in the office that night didn't know how to swim and as the boat started swaying feared for his life. Being shift manager of the Thekla is presumably the same as being the captain of the Thekla. So he would be expected to go down with his ship.

Anyway, I was excited about finally getting to play the Thekla as I'm a big fan of Vivian Stanshall and he used to live on it.

In 1982 the novelist Ki Longfellow-Stanshall who was married to Vivian had the idea of buying a huge boat and using it to stage poetry events, cabaret, musicals, live music and plays. The Thekla was found in the half abandoned docks in Sunderland and was perfect for the job. The Thekla had been a german boat used too carry timber and her hull was vast, clean, open and lined with a very hard wood. It was sailed down to Bristol harbour and renamed The Old Profanity Show Boat and although its name has since returned to the Thekla is still docked in the same place today.

You can read more about it HERE on wikipedia.

From the research I've done (mainly wikipedia) I've worked out Vivian, Ki and their daughter lived on the boat for, I think, three years.

For an English Heritage blue plaque to commemorate the link between a location and a famous person. The famous person has to have been dead for twenty years. We're five years off of that for Vivian Stanshall. My postcard is of the plaque Im presuming will be going up in five years time.

Vivian Stanshall is often described as a "great British eccentric" He didn't like this label though and insisted he was just being himself.

This postcard is made of two 100% Cotton canvasses (6"x4"), a sharpie pen and some acrylic paint.

If you buy it. I will fill the back in with what happened that day, add a stamp that I have also made and then stick it in an envelope with a real stamp and send it to you.

It is £35 plus postage. There is only one. You can contact me at eddie.argos.resource@gmail.com

POSTCARDS FROM EWITFR...N - Norwich

2010-03-10T12:12:00.000-08:00

This is the third postcard I've made. The other two are HERE and HERE. They have both been sold.

Here is the Postcard for Norwich

Norwich was the third day of the tour and our second with The Lovely Eggs. There was also a local band called t he Grenouilles that played too.

I liked the Grenouilles a lot, but they were a bit of a peculiar band. They played very melodramatic chamber pop songs and then in between the songs they would tell jokes about cheese.

So you would have a powerful emotive song played on the violin and then

"What did the cheese say when he looked in the mirror?......Halloumi"

and then another dark acoustic song followed by

"What do you call a Cheese that doesn't belong to you?....Nacho Cheese"

A haunting wistful sad song was followed by

"How does a welsh man eat cheese when he is sat on the edge of a cliff?... Caerphilly"

It was a very enjoyable set.

The Lovely Eggs love Cheese and have a couple of songs about how much they love it. They had been talking about their love of cheese the night before and mentioned that they have a song about cheese that is so rude they never play it live in case their parents find out. It is about Garstung Blue. They played it in Norwich for the Grenouilles. It was quite rude. I've been looking for it online to link to it. But the song is so rude it must get taken down from the internet whenever it is posted.

The Norwich Postcard is made of two 100% Cotton Canvases (4"x 6"), Acrylic Paint and Sharpie pen. I will fill in the back with what happened that day and add a stamp that I have also made to it. (I will post it to you in a proper envelope with real stamps though)

It is £35 plus postage. And I would prefer to sell it to someone who was in Norwich or really really wanted to be there You can contact me at eddie.argos.resource@gmail.com

POSTCARDS FROM EWITFR...N - Nottingham

2010-03-08T07:43:00.000-08:00

I wrote yesterday about why I'm making postcards. The London one is still available.

This is the postcard from Nottingham.

Nottingham was the second day of the tour and our first day with the brilliant Lovely Eggs.

We played quite an early show as there was a club night afterwards. Towards the end of our set, out of the corner of my eye, I could see a man with some inflatable bananas impatiently waiting for us to finish. This was confusing. As it was their first night with us The Lovely Eggs thought it might have been part of our set and that we were about to reply to a banana based song. Maybe Bananas in Pyjamas or Yes, We Have No Bananas. We weren't though unfortunately as yet there are no banana based songs in our set.

The second we left the stage the man with the bananas sprung into action and hung them in the middle of the room. I don't know much about Nottingham. I'd like to think though that it is full of surrealist artists who go to all the gigs and review them in an unusual way and that someone hanging a huge pair of inflatable bananas in the middle of the room immediately after you've just played is a massive compliment. I asked all the drunk students turning up to the club afterwards if this was the case, but they just looked at me like I was mental.

My Nottingham Postcard is made of two 4"x6" 100% Cotton Canvases, Acrylic Paint and Sharpie Pen.

I am only making one postcard for each place we played. I would prefer it if you were at the gig. But I will also sell it to you if you really wanted to be there. I will fill in the back with what happened that day address it to you and add a stamp from the stamp book I've just made.

Don't worry though when I send you the two canvases I will put them into an envelope and use real stamps.

My Postcards are £35 plus postage. You can email me at eddie.argos.resource@gmail.com.

POSTCARDS FROM EWITFR...N

2010-03-07T11:49:00.000-08:00

I have a bit of an obsession with Postcards. On my other blog about painting two of the paintings are already of postcards. And as I very rarely update it, that comes to 50% of the blog.

I'm not sure what it is I like about Postcards. Part of it is definitely how antiquated they now feel. The idea of buying a photo, writing on the back, buying a stamp and then finding a post box to put it in does seem like a lot of effort in an age where we can take photos with our phones add some text and then send them to our loved ones at the push of a button.

Because of this the role of the postcard has changed it is now something we buy for ourselves from museum gift shops to blu-tac to our walls or stick to our fridges with magnets to let our friends know all the exciting places we've been and fantastic things we have seen.

Nowadays when a postcard is received I believe it has a far more personal touch than it has ever had before.

I have made a postcard for every date Everybody Was In The French Resistance...Now played on the UK leg of our tour.

Here is the first one it is for London.

They are made of 2 quality 100% cotton canvases (4"x 6"), acrylic paint and sharpie pen.

I'm only making one for each show. If you buy it I will fill in the back with what happened that day. I've also made some stamps to attach and I'll fill in the address.

I will use real stamps and an envelope to send them to you though.

My postcards are both personal and something to stick on your wall to show your friends the fantastic places you have been (the venue we played) and the amazing things you have seen (us)

My postcards cost £35 plus postage. They are only for people who were actually at the gig or really, really intended to be.

A review of the London gig is HERE

If you would like to buy the postcard you can email at eddie.argos.resource@gmail.com

I will be putting up the Nottingham postcard later tonight.

Everybody Was In The French Resistance...Now

2010-02-04T04:58:00.000-08:00

Couple of things.

We've added my two favourite bands at the moment to the Everybody Was In The French Resistance...Now tour. Internet Forever and The Lovely Eggs. As well as adding two new dates.

So it now looks like this.

Cambridge Haymaker Feb 5th

Birmingham The Flapper Feb 6th

London Dingwalls Feb 9th (with Internet Forever )

Nottingham Feb 10th (with The Lovely Eggs)

Norwich Art Center Feb 11th (with The Lovely Eggs)

Bristol Thekla Feb 13th (with The Lovely Eggs)

Leeds Brudenell Social Club (with Internet Forever)

Manchester Ruby Lounge 15th Feb (with The Lovely Eggs)

In London we also have Fulcher, Smith and Dance playing. Which Mike and Jasper from Art Brut play in and are awesome.

See you there Edx

Everybody Was In The French Resistance...Now

2010-01-25T04:08:00.000-08:00

Avril Lavigne has all the habits of the collector, but none of the etiquette.

We of Everybody Was in the French Resistance…Now! have already explained our objections to Avril Lavigne’s song “Girlfriend”: it is a mean-spirited attack designed to put down other girls and justify stealing their boyfriends. In our response, “G.I.R.L.F.R.E.N. (You Know I’ve Got A)”, the boyfriend in question tells Avril to leave him alone once and for all.

Ironically, her song about stealing boyfriends is, itself, stolen. Fans of the 1979 Rubinoos hit “I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend” will notice that the chorus in Avril’s song is nearly identical, save for the change in gender. The Rubinoos sued Avril in 2007 for stealing their song. It was eventually settled out of court, hopefully involving a huge cash settlement for The Rubinoos.

We of The French Resistance…Now! are raising the banner of solidarity with The Rubinoos. The b-side for “G.I.R.L.F.R.E.N.” is a cover of the original song, “I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend.” Have a listen on our Myspace (www.myspace.com/fixingthecharts) to hear how Avril ripped their song off. Then, show your support for the wronged Rubinoos by purchasing our single and b-side on iTunes HERE. We promise we will send the publishing royalties to their rightful owners.

HERE is the video for our single, streamed on Stereogum. It is an homage to the French New Wave films “Cleo from 5 to 7” and “Band of Outsiders,” and was directed by singer Nathaniel Fregoso of The Blood Arm.

Everybody Was In The French Resistance...Now European Tour

2010-01-13T13:43:00.000-08:00

After our UK Tour

Everybody Was In The French Resistance...Now are touring the Continent.

Here are the dates.

17th Feb Botanique BRUSSELS

18th Feb Trabendo (supporting The Fiery Furnaces) PARIS

19th Feb Magnet (Club NME) BERLIN

20th Feb Prinzenbar HAMBURG

21st Feb Mousontourm Studio FRANKFURT

22nd Feb Blue Shell COLOGNE

23rd Feb Albani Club WINTERTHUR

24th Feb Bar 59 LUZERN

25th ROTTERDAM TBC

27th AMSTERDAM TBC

America is joining in a little bit later.

Hope to see you at the shows Edx

Everybody Was In The French Resistance...Now

2010-01-11T10:19:00.000-08:00

Everybody Was In The French Resistance...Now had a little trial run of our live show on Friday.

I suffered a little from first night nerves. So accidentally referred to EBWITFR...N as Art Brut twice, forgot a few of the lyrics and did the 'classic' forgetting to make sure the Mic is firmly attached to the lead mistake. But besides that I think it went very well.

We've quite a few more rehearsals before the touring starts. So we will be tight and ready to go by the first date in London

And by 'We' I mean me. Dave and Dyan already have it down pat.

Dyan's cousin Geoff and his friend Lukas came down for the show and filmed some of it.

Here is Creeque Allies. (the first song in the set)

And Here is Waldo P Emerson Jones

If you live in the UK our album is available as a download on AMAZON at £4.99 for a limited period. The link is HERE

The UK and European tour dates are on our Myspace HERE

Biff! Bang! Pow!

2010-01-09T15:51:00.000-08:00

I've written a new Pow! To The People it is HERE.

It's about Under Pressure a collection of strips from Letsbefriendsagain.com

You should go and take a look at their strips they are awesome.

David Devant and His Spirit Wife

2010-01-06T14:30:00.000-08:00

David Devant and His Spirit Wife are one of my favourite bands.

There was a documentary made about them in the late Nineties. I have it on VHS so consequently I haven't seen it in about 10 years. I often check youtube though to see if someone has uploaded it.

Today I was rewarded. A load of new David Devant videos including the documentary 'Oh No Not David Devant Again! ' have been uploaded.

Here it is

Their short film Light On The Surface was uploaded too. it is HERE and HERE

The album that they are talking about the release of at the end of the documentary is 'Shiney On The Inside' . One of the greatest records ever made. If you dont already own it I urge you to track it down.

I think it is available HERE their first album Work Love Life Miscellaneous is available on itunes too check it out.

Vessel/ Mr Solo / Mikey the lead singer of David Devant and His Spirit Wife has a blog/website it is HERE

and David Devant and His Spirit Wife are playing 100 club on the 4th Feb you should go.

GEEKWEEK

2010-01-04T16:56:00.000-08:00

I used to regularly write a thing called Pow! To The People for Playbackstl. Something I intend to start up again in the new year.

Pow! To The People was supposed to be about different comics I had read each fortnight. But it ended up mainly being me writing about how much I love Booster Gold.

Because of this Jeff Katz who ,with Geoff Johns, wrote the first 12 issues of volume 2 of Booster Gold sent me an email. We've only had a chance to hang out once but we email backwards and forwards now and again and he seems like a pretty great guy.

I'm telling you all of this as he has just started a website called GeekWeek and has asked me to contribute. Geekweek was secretly on the web for the contributers to fool around with for a couple of weeks before it was announced. Consequently I've already started checking it everyday like the internet addict that I am and I can vouch that its pretty great. And I'm not just saying that because I've been posting about Adam and Joe, Doctor Who and David Devant and His Spirit Wife on there.

If you haven't already checked it out have a look. You can follow it on twitter too.

Art Brut - Catch by The Cure

2009-12-31T08:49:00.000-08:00

Art Brut got asked to cover a Cure song for an NME compilation a while ago. It was free on the front cover of the magazine. We were asked to contribute pretty late and I was worried that somebody would have already chosen Catch as it is my absolute favourite Cure song. Seems its just me though as it was still going spare.

I didn't know it was on Youtube or if I did I'd forgotten till somebody just sent me a link to it a minute a go anyway here is our cover of Catch.

Everybody Was In The French Resistance...Now

2009-12-30T09:37:00.000-08:00

Although "Fixin' The Charts" is an album of response songs. When we were writing it we were very conscious of making sure it could stand alone. So when I did an interview with The Morning After Pills Blog last week I was delighted that she didn't know it was a 'response' album. On the blog the writer refers to herself as the village idiot. I don't think so though. I think it just proves we did our job properly.

Here is the interview. I'm very jet-lagged in it so a bit more mumbly than usual. Still more comprehensible than Robert Downey Jr in Sherlock Holmes though. Also Dave didn't buy his guitar back from Elastica it was mistakenly given to them in the first place and they were just returning it.

Everybody Was In The French Resistance...Now

2009-12-29T10:30:00.000-08:00

ALBUM AVAILABLE TO DOWNLOAD...NOW ( in some places)Fixin' The Charts has come out a little early on some Amazon websites as a download.

I know for a fact it has come out in the UK and you can download it HERE

and in Germany HERE

I don't know where you live though so maybe check the Amazon in your country although it may well just be those two.

The album is officially out on 25th Jan in the UK/Europe and about a week later in the US.

GLAM CHOPS

2009-12-20T07:45:00.000-08:00

Glam Chops is a Glam band that I am in. We played last night. I think it went quite well. Especially considering I've pretty much been out the country since October and we'd not had a chance to rehearse.

It was the first time we'd ever played our Christmas song live. We released it last year as a download for free. As we thought it might cheer people up in the bad economic climate.

We are still in a bad economic climate. So it is still free.

You can get it HERE

It's the second Christmas single I've been apart of. I was on Black Box Recorders song 'Christmas Number One' two years ago.

Im a bit sad that I was too busy with Art Brut/Everybody was In The French Resistance...Now this year to record a christmas song.

I think to make it up I want to record an entire Christmas album with Glam Chops for next Christmas. I've just got to convince the rest of them its a good idea.

Everybody Was In The French Resistance...Now

2009-12-18T04:07:00.000-08:00

Art Brut Shoes.

2009-12-15T11:37:00.000-08:00

Not sure what to get your loved ones for Christmas get them Art Brut shoes.

They come in three different flavours. Two of the flavours have Jeff Lemire's amazing album artwork on them.

You can buy them HERE

Everybody Was In The French Resistance...Now

2009-12-13T11:01:00.001-08:00

We finally got round to adding our single to our myspace page.

You can now hear our song 'G.I.R.L.F.R.E.N (You Know I've Got A)

HERE

and you still have time (well until midnight tonight) to do us a favour and go and vote for it

HERE

Everybody Was In The French Resistance...Now

2009-12-06T15:13:00.000-08:00

We're going on tour. Its going to be quite a big tour going all over the place but for now Im just going to give you the British dates. Well I say Britain but we're just doing some English dates. I'm sorry Scotland and Wales. I'm also sorry if we're not coming to your part of the country. Apart from Middlesbrough I'm glad we're not playing there.

In case we're not playing in your part of the country. I thought I'd write a nice thing about each city we're playing in, to perhaps tempt you out to have a little trip to come and see us.

LONDON

London is our nations capital. There is lots to do and see here. Buckingham Palace, The Tower Of London, The Tate, The Zoo, The Sherlock Holmes Museum, etc. This will be our first ever show. So if you are the sort of person that goes to shows hoping that something might go wrong and wants to see how the band react when it does this is probably the show for you.

LONDON DINGWALLS 9th FEB. BO: 0870 060 0100 Buy Tickets HERE.

NOTTINGHAM

Nottingham is probably best known historically as the home of Robin Hood. Even though a lot of scholars argue that if Robin Hood did even exist he probably lived in Barnstable. If your a purist for historical accuracy, even when it comes to what maybe fictional characters, fear not. There is still lots of non Robin Hood based fun to be had in Nottingham. As well as Robin Hood stuff they also have one of the few remaining Turkish Baths in England and a very nice Transport Museum.

NOTTINGHAM BODEGA 10th FEB BO: 0871 310 0000 Buy Tickets HERE

NORWICH

Although I can find no evidence of it someone once told me that there is a traffic roundabout in Norwich that has a family of Chickens living on it.

NORWICH ARTS CENTRE 11th FEB BO: 0160 366 0352 Buy Tickets HERE

BRISTOL

I love Bristol everybody that lives there speaks like a pirate. We are playing at the Thekla in Bristol which is a boat that used to belong to Vivian Stanshall. Those two pieces of information should be enough to make you want to visit Bristol by themselves. Although to gild the lilly a little it also has some theaters, some nice museums and a zoo.

BRISTOL THEKLA 13th FEB BO: 0871 310 0100 Buy Tickets HERE

LEEDS

The Kaiser Chiefs, The Music and The Pigeon Detectives are all from Leeds. Don't let that put you off though. Leeds has a lot going for it. Some even call it the Knightsbridge of the north. It has the only reparatory theatre outside of London and The Rough Guide To Britain claims shopping in Leeds is one of the top 30 things to do in the UK. It is also apparently one of the best places in the country to go mountain biking.

LEEDS BRUNDELL SOCIAL CLUB 14th FEB BO: 0871 230 0010 Buy Tickets HERE (haven't put their tickets on sale online yet)

MANCHESTER

I've gotten bored of this now. Its Manchester you know what its like. It has two football teams that don't get along and loads of bands came from there. Its nice. There are loads of pubs and its fun. Come and see us.

MANCHESTER RUBY LOUNGE 15th FEB BO: 0161 832 1111 Buy Tickets HERE

Okay. I apologise. I'm being a bit facetious in my descriptions of some of those places. Please don't beat me up over it. I genuinely love all of those cities and cant wait to be playing them with Everybody Was In The French Resistance...Now.

Live Everybody Was In The French Resistance...Now is going to be me, Dyan Valdés from The Blood Arm, David Newton who produced the album and used to be in The Mighty Lemondrops and a Drum machine/Backing track machine thing that I am thinking about naming Drum-free Bogart.

Here are the dates again without the tourist business written underneath them.

Feb 9th London Dingwalls

Feb 1oth Nottingham Bodega

Feb 11th Norwich Art Center

Feb 13th Bristol Thekla

Feb 14th Leeds Brudenell Social Club (haven't put their tickets for sale online yet)

Feb 15th Manchester Ruby Lounge

Hope to see you there.

COMMUNIQUÉ

2009-11-30T15:33:00.000-08:00

Tracklisting :

1. Creeque Allies

Response to “Creeque Alley” by the Mamas and the Papas

“Creeque Alley” by the Mamas and the Papas is the story of the late sixties West Coast folk scene and the formation of their own band in the midst of it. “Creeque Allies” is the story of the early forties French resistance scene and the formation of the freedom fighters who eventually drove the Nazis out of France.

2. G.I.R.L.F.R.E.N (You Know I’ve Got A)

Response to “Girlfriend” made famous by Avril Lavigne

Pop songs have traditionally been “boy meets girl,” “girl meets boy,” “boy/girl overcome a problem,” or “boy/girl break up” – in the last decade or so, there has been an alarming new archetype in pop songwriting: “girl steals other girl’s boyfriend.” This is a divisive message to send to young girls everywhere, and songs like “Girlfriend” (see also “You Belong With Me” by Taylor Swift) only teach young women that they can derive more worth and status from stealing each others’ boyfriends than they can from realizing their own achievements.

3. (I’m So) Waldo P. Emerson Jones

Response to “Waldo P. Emerson Jones” made famous by the Archies

The Archies can’t figure out Waldo P. Emerson Jones, a new character on the block who impresses all of their girlfriends and generally shows everyone up. The Everybody Was In The French Resistance … Now! version tells Waldo’s side – he was a little-known “nerd” at their school who spent the summer reinventing himself and came back with added confidence, a new haircut and a much cooler name (Waldo P. Emerson Jones is clearly not the name his mother gave him).

4. The Scarborough Affaire

Response to “Scarborough Fair,” traditional

The singer of the 17th-century ballad “Scarborough Fair” instructs the listener to locate his former lover and charge her with a series of impossible tasks. The Everybody Was In The French Resistance…Now response takes his unreasonable demands to their logical conclusion.

5. Billie’s Genes

Response to “Billie Jean” by Michael Jackson

The kid is your son.

6. Think Twice (It’s Not Alright)

Response to “Don’t Think Twice It’s Alright” by Bob Dylan

Breaking up is hard. Not everyone can be as tough as Bob Dylan, who claims that he needs to “travel on” when his lover wastes his “precious time.” Everybody Was In The French Resistance … Now! have read between the lines, and have rewritten the song based on how Bob Dylan most likely actually felt when he bid “fare thee well.”

7. Hey! It’s Jimmy Mack

Response to “Jimmy Mack” made famous by Martha Reeves and the Vendellas

Jimmy Mack heard Martha’s song. So he’s never coming back.

8. He’s a “Rebel”

Response to “He’s A Rebel” made famous by the Crystals

The Crystals sang a love song to “dangerous” men. Everybody Was In The French Resistance … Now! opened up the conversation to other men, who see through the “rebel” schtick and argue that it’s all just an act.

9. Coal Digger

Response to “Gold Digger” by Kanye West

Kanye West patronizes the chip-shop janitor who is working his way towards cooking the fries. Everybody Was In The French Resistance … Now! know that the janitor is just working to make ends meet until he gets his shit together and releases a hit record.

10. My Way (Is Not Always the Best Way)

Response to “My Way” made famous by Frank Sinatra

Paul Anka admires a selfish man’s death-bed declaration that living his life according to his own convictions and desires alone is enough. Everybody Was In The French Resistance … Now! think that one should take others’ opinions into consideration.

11. Superglue

Response to “Vaseline” by Elastica

If Elastica had used superglue instead of vaseline (or for that matter, heroin) maybe they would have stuck together.

12. Walk Alone

Response to “You’ll Never Walk Alone” made famous by Gerry and the Pacemakers

Gerry and the Pacemakers (and all of Liverpool) are terrified of being alone. Everybody Was In The French Resistance… Now are comfortable with their own company.

Fixin’ the Charts, Volume One (COOKCD512) is a companion piece to all of these pop songs, but can be appreciated as a work in its own right. Pop music transmits all of our culture’s most valued ideals from one generation to the next; let’s make sure we get it right. Vive le Resistance!

Everybody Was In The French Resistance...Now

2009-11-06T13:44:00.001-08:00

Just the facts.

This is the front cover.
The original photo was taken by Alfonso Valdes and turned into the cover artwork by Andrew Swainson

This is the Track listing

1) Creeque Allies

2) G.I.R.L.F.R.E.N (You Know I've Got A)

3) (I'm So) Waldo P Emerson Jones

4) The Scarborough Affaire

5) Billie's Genes

6) Think Twice (It's Not Alright)

7) Hey Its Jimmy Mack

8) He's A "Rebel"

9) Coal Digger

10) My Way (Is Not Always The Best Way)

11) Superglue

12) Walk Alone

Everybody Was In The French Resistance...Now are Dyan Valdes and Eddie Argos.

The album is called 'Fixin' The Charts' and was produced by David Newton at his studio 'Rollercoaster East' in Joshua Tree California.

It is out in January on Cooking Vinyl.

Whoops got a bit behind.

2009-11-05T01:09:00.000-08:00

I was intending on writing a blog every day for every show.

Then it was my birthday, then I got busy sorting out some Everybody Was In The French Resistance...Now stuff, then I had some song ideas I wanted to work on, then the days I hadn't written about started adding up and the task looked insurmountable, then the dog ate it etc.

Here are some of the days I've missed so I can start slowly catching up. It was ages ago though and anything amusing that might have happened has long been forgotten. Im just writing them because I promised myself I would.

Tuscon

We played at a place called Club Congress. It is the place where John Dillinger had his last stand against the local police. It is also a hotel. The hotel is pretty old by American standards and they try to keep it in that style. There are no televisions in the rooms and all the furniture and fittings are from the 30's (I think). Although it is an old building for America, it looked, in a good way, like the first bedsit I lived in when I left home.

The show was fun it was all ages so they put a rope down the middle of the room. It was one side for over 21 drinkers, the other for under 21's not drinking. I enjoyed aiming specific songs at specific sides of the room. Legally drinking and the age of consent in Arizona are both 21+ so most of our songs went over the heads of the under 21's who have definitely not had sex or drunk any booze. They seemed to enjoy the show anyway.

San Diego

San Diego was fun. We played the Casbah one of my favourite venues in America. I twittered about the show and quite a few people told us to 'Rock The Casbah'. This reminded me of a game my brother invented in which when at an indie disco with Jasper you request that the DJ plays 'Rock The Casbah' by The Clash. Once it starts playing you change the words to 'Rock The Jasper' and rock Jasper from side to side against his will. You can also change the words 'Sharia Dont Like It' to 'He Really Dont Like It' so the song becomes 'He Really Don't Like It/Rock The Jasper/Rock The Jasper'. He really doesn't like it, which makes it even funnier.

My friend Ben Lee has just moved to San Diego. I can see why. Everybody we met was really friendly. I was hanging out with the band that supported us Northern Towns and some of their friends from other hardcore bands afterwards and they were so nice I briefly thought about moving there myself.

Pomona

All I can really remember about Pomona is that one of the support bands covered the theme music from Ghostbusters which was quite funny as they were one of those sort of Killers-y bands and it was unexpected. It would have been funnier though if they had followed it up by immediately covering the theme music from Ghostbusters 2.

I spent most the day in Pomona reading Colin Meloy from the Decemberists 33 1/3 book about the Replacements album 'Let It Be'. The book is a lot more about Colin Meloy growing up than it is about the Replacements. I still really enjoyed it though, the album is clearly a very personal record for him. It made me wish I had owned 'Let It Be' when I was growing up. I think it would have helped.

I wonder how you go about writing those 33 1/3 books. I would like Paul Guided Missile to write one about The Yummy Fur's album Sexy World. Well I'd like to write it myself but he's probably far more qualified.

Austin, Houston, El Paso

2009-10-28T14:33:00.000-07:00

It was my birthday. I celebrated by not going on the internet for three days. I've been enjoying writing about every show though. So here is a catch up.

Houston.

We had a fun show in Houston. The first band on were really good. They had a very complicated name that I cant remember though. My girlfriend flew out for the show and her Aunt took us both out for dinner at a Mexican restaurant. I don't speak Spanish so they managed to organise a suprise cake and a man to sing to me whilst I was sat at the table, without me realising. The song he sang to me wasn't the traditional Happy Birthday though it was a mexican version. There was an awkward moment when I couldn't work out if I was supposed to wait till he stopped playing before I blew out the candle or if he was waiting for me to blow out the candle so he could stop playing. I think this is called a Mexican stand off.

I blew the candle out and ate the cake it was delicious

Austin

Austin was the day of my Birthday. I put on my best suit and wandered down to the big record shop in town, Waterloo records. Whenever I go into a big record shop I immediately forget what records I like. I get overwhelmed. The only band I remember that I like is Half Japanese. It happens every time. Luckily they have released a lot of records. So I bought a Half Japanese album and walked back to the bus. People kept beeping their horns at me and yelling. I just presumed it was because I was wearing a woolen suit and they were quite rightly letting me know I was an idiot, as it was very hot. When I got back to the venue though a homeless person pointed out that my flies were undone. They had been undone since I got up. I'd been walking around all day with my flies undone. If it hadn't been my birthday I'd have been embarrassed. It was my birthday though so I could do what ever I wanted to and I chose to walk around with my flies down. Its how I like to wear my trousers. I might make a tradition of it and wear my trousers like that every year on my birthday.

El Paso

Was our first day off. We had played 11 shows. We slept and ate chinese food.