US Tour First Half.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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)