Personalised. BRING ME TEA! BRING ME COFFEE! paintings.

Hello. I've made a new series of paintings based around the song Alcoholics Unanimous.

Do you like Coffee or Tea? Do you often have a hangover? Do you often have a hangover so bad you can't even talk? What you need is a BRING ME TEA!/BRING ME COFFEE painting you can point too.

I have made 20 blue and 20 pink, numbered and signed BRING ME COFFEE paintings and 20 blue and 20 pink numbered and signed BRING ME TEA paintings.

I really enjoy painting the same thing over and over and seeing the subtle differences, but I also really enjoy making my art personal for the person that receives it.

In the painting the mug is blank, if you have a favourite mug you can personalise the painting by sending me a photo of it and I will paint it into the picture, so the mug in the painting will be of your favourite mug.

The paintings are acrylic on stretch canvas (18cm x 24cm) they cost £42 including postage to anywhere and are available from HERE

End Of The Year Round Up.

I've never understood people that make their end of year lists in the middle of December. What if they get a really good book for Christmas? Or suddenly discover a brilliant album on NYE at a party.

All end of year lists should be written about a week into January, after a period of proper reflection, not spur of the moment half way through December.

I don't really like lists anyway, so here is a kind of cultural round up of the year.

First I should say I was really busy, I released a memoir, a graphic novel, toured a spoken word show, and had two art exhibitions. Quite a lot of stuff to fit into a year and probably frustrating for the people waiting for an Art Brut album, sorry.

While I didn't discover an amazing new album on NYE I did get a great book for Christmas, Russell Senior from Pulp's 'Freak Out The Squares'. Art Brut worked with Russell on a couple of songs a few years ago, his book made me wish we'd worked with him more. In fact, it actually made me wish I'd forced him to join Art Brut on the Violin. He would have caused loads of trouble. It would have been brilliant. Even if, for some unusual reason, you don't like Pulp, you should definitely read Russell's book it is hilarious and brilliant

Other than that, I read J.B Morrison's 'Frank Derrick's Holiday Of A Lifetime' which was fantastic. I've loved every one of Jim Bob/J.B Morrison's books but this one was really special. I read it all in one day over the course of a series of flights and trains from Berlin to some festivals in the middle of nowhere in the UK. I liked it so much that,despite having other books with me, I read it again on the way home. If you haven't read it you really should. I loved it.

I also really enjoyed  Christopher Brookmyre's 'Dead Girl Walking' if you don't know Christopher Brookmyre and you like thrillers/detective novels. I suggest you start from the beginning and read all his books. It was ace to be reading a Parlabane story again.

I was a judge for the British Comics Awards this year and through that I read loads of great Comics and Graphic Novels. The books that I especially enjoyed were The Motherless Oven - which freaked me out as it seemed to be based in an alternative version of where I grew up in Parkstone, and The Rabbit. I also loved Metroland, which was not nominated but I picked up at Thought Bubble and of course Phonogram: The Immaterial Girl which I've been lucky enough to have read all of and is my favourite volume of Phonogram. My favourite comic of the year was Julia Scheele's 'I Wished I Was Married To The Sea' a beautiful little anthology of her work that I carried around in my bag to take out and look at/read for a couple of months after I bought it.

I began the year in a bit of grump about how terrible the state of music was at the moment, but this was pretty stupid and churlish of me as 2015 has been a great year for music. The height of my strop was at SXSW where for the first two days I managed to convince myself there was no good new music as the only decent band  I'd seen were The Pop Group - who formed in 1977. On my last day though I saw Hinds, Happyness, Honeyblood and Ultimate Painting who were all AMAZING and made me realise I was an idiot for being a grump.

Secretly the greatest band in the world, if only more people knew they existed,  The Indelicates also had an album out this year which you should buy as it is fantastic, as did The Nightingales also FANTASTIC and Mikey Georgeson and The Civilised Scene (also fantastic). I also played the FIDLAR album on repeat for most of 2015.

Luke Haines released an album too called British Nuclear Bunkers, which Im sure is incredible, but I don't listen to records that don't have lyrics on them - no matter how good they are. If you do you should check it out as I'm certain it was the best record without lyrics on it that came out this year.

My favourite album of the year - today at least, yesterday it was probably The Indelicates and the day before FIDLAR etc - was Ezra Furman's Perpetual Motion People, I've known Ezra for a long time and its fucking ace to see him finally get the recognition he deserves. I hope he becomes as famous as Prince, he certainly deserves to be.

I've definitely forgotten other records that I loved this year, which is a great feeling to have as it means there were so many. Hooray.

I'm doing my spoken word show in the UK and Germany in 2016 too. If you would like to come there are dates on my website

Hopefully see you there.


Eddie. X

FORMED A BAND PAINTINGS FOR SALE.

I really enjoy making the same painting over and over again.

I'm genuinely trying to make each one identical, so the slight differences that occur between each painting fascinate me, as do how the paintings change over time. What I'm doing is a productive form of naval gazing I guess, and also a form of mediation. It is very satisfying to come out of a very deep thought after hours of contemplation and find myself surrounded by paintings that I've made.

I retired a lot of my motif's last year. And have been working on a lot of new paintings.

I did not retire  Formed A Band though. Formed A Band is my favourite painting to make. I've made and sold more than 200 of them, all in different sizes. 

I love the fact that there are hundreds of Formed A Band paintings out there, resting on peoples shelf's or hung on peoples walls. I'm an idiot, so believe in magic and I honestly believe that is a mystical energy being released from this motif being out in the wild, that powers my DIY endeavours. I'd turn it into wallpaper if I could and then try and convince people to plaster their houses with it. TILL I BECOME ALL POWERFUL.

ANYWAY...

While I didn't retire the Formed A Band motif. I did presume that everybody who wanted one already had one. I have had a few email requests though of people asking if they could buy one for their loved one for a Christmas present so I am making some this week. 

For this week only if you'd like to buy a Formed A Band painting. You can get them from my shop.

They are 40 x 30 cm, acrylic paint on canvas board.

and they are HERE

And if you really like the Motif there is a MASSIVE one HERE

Double D

I have written a graphic novel it's a collaboration with Steve Horry who is brilliant and designed the covers for two of my books, Keith Top Of The Pops album artwork and a drew a picture of Art Brut posing like the JLI. All of which you can see HERE


Our book is called Double D and is about an overweight schoolboy who discovers he can use his excess body weight to fuel super heroic abilities.

The book is coloured by David Cooper, lettered by Colin Bell and edited by Alex Sarll. An AMAZING TEAM.

It is released Wednesday 11th November.

You can read two exclusive pages on Pitchfork HERE

And five! Exclusive pages on Comic Book Resources HERE

Once you've read those previews you should go and order a copy. Thanks.

It's released by Image so is easy to get in your local comic shop or online

If you have never gone into a comic shop to order a comic before HERE is a handy guide from our friend Kieron Gillen

Art Exhibiton

I had an art exhibition a little while a go, my first in the US. It was great. I was exhibiting alongside Lee Ranaldo whose art I love, and I got to fly out for it and everything.

It was for The Show On The Road, an AMAZING art gallery, or if you like 'visual food truck'

I'm a little bit in love with the idea of a 'visual food truck' I like that it is 'pedestrian level art, not high art or low art but road art' Karen Light who runs The Show On The Road explains her idea much better than I ever could in this video 

I was over in the US with the exhibition for the period of SXSW which was ace too, we were in the convention centre, here is a video of me performing a weird stripped down version of Modern Art inside the gallery.

We sold loads of paintings. HOORAY..but there are still some left and I thought it would be a good opportunity for some Americans, who have wanted to buy some of my art in the past but not wanted to pay for it in GBP or to have to pay the expensive shipping to get it across the Atlantic, to buy some.

I'm also proud of the paintings and want to put them on my blog.

Here they are with prices.

These three are from my new 'Talking To The Kids' series of paintings, despite the K is for Kultfigur looking smaller they are all the same size as you can see HERE

A is for Art: Acrylic on 20cm x 20cm canvas = $85 + P&P

F is for Fanzine: Acrylic on 20cm x 20cm canvas = $85 + P&P

K is for Kultfigur: Acrylic on 20cm x 20cm canvas = $85 + P&P

Last year I finished making my Ignorance is Bliss, Clever Clever Jazz, and Fuck Rock Lets Art series of paintings forever, but I still had one or two of the larger paintings left, they were on exhibition too.

I don't make these anymore. Besides the MASSIVE originals, I don't think I have any even in Berlin. If you are a fan of these motifs than it is pretty much your last chance to buy them.

Here they are

Ignorance Is Bliss: Acrylic on canvas 40cm x 30cm = $125

Fuck Rock Lets Art: Acrylic on canvas 40cm x 30cm = $95

Clever Clever Jazz: Acrylic on canvas 25cm x 30cm = $125

I also made a smaller version of a St Pauli painting I was commissioned to paint a few years ago

St Pauli: Acrylic on canvas 30 x 40cm = $100

And some smaller versions of my transparent mix tapes from my exhibition in Berlin earlier this year.

There are three different versions of this all 30cm x 60cm acrylic on canvas $145 each.

The postage on all of these paintings is somewhere between $10-15 and every painting gets a free Brilliant! Tragic! Art Brut comic included so all in all a bargain!

These are not the best photos and the best way to see the paintings is definitely to visit the truck in Austin

I mean look at this!

The Show On The Road is at Austin Daily Press for free beer Friday every Friday, driving around Austin in the week and is also going to be at THIS which looks great. And is also available for all sorts of events.

Get in touch with Karen@TheShowOnTheRoad.com if your interested in finding out more about The Show On The Road or if you are interested in buying a painting you can email either of us. I'm Eddie.Argos.Resource@gmail.com.

All love X

I Wrote A Memoir.

Hello, I've written a memoir.

It begins with me playing the Vacuum Cleaner as an instrument onstage in my first band and ends with  Art Brut recording Art Brut VS Satan in Salem Oregon with Black Francis.

In between you found out about the time I  kicked Paul McCartney, fought Kele from Bloc Party, what colour Russell Senior from Pulp tried to make me sing in and the important lesson learnt from Anton Newcombe at the Red Rock Amphitheatre in Colorado, as well as the stories behind your favourite Art Brut songs plus much much more...

The book is designed to look like a Just William book, with a cover by Steve Horry, internal illustrations by Katie Pope and is edited by Simon Indelicate.

I'm crowd funding it.

It is available, with special perks, from HERE

Eddie Argos - I Formed A Band.

I'm performing a spoken word show in Islington on the 22nd of October  and in Jersey at the Branchage Festival this Saturday 27th September.

I've recently had it pointed out to me that actually all Art Brut shows are spoken word as my singing voice is not very different than my speaking voice, but these spoken word shows won't have any musical backing, it'll just me talking at you.

The show I've written is called Formed A Band it is about forming a band, specifically me forming Art Brut and how I went about it. Some of it will be funny because I am an idiot and did quite a few stupid things.

However there is a vaguely serious reason for me performing this show and I'm afraid when I tell you it I'm going to sound self important and a little bit like a grumpy old man, but I'm going to say it anyway.

So, without wanting to sound too much like Jake Bugg, here we go...

I'm not really a fan of those TV shows where people try and get famous by singing/performing  in front of judges, I think it is detrimental to music and art and that the pop charts are much worse because of it.

I recently became worried that nowadays people think those shows are the only way to become a performer so to show there is another path, I have decided to tell my tale of starting a band which is full of happenstance, hoover playing and pretending you can sing like Aretha Franklin.

Luckily no judges were involved.

I'm not telling my story in front of Simon Cowell or Ricky from The Kaiser Chiefs with a tear in my eye, hoping to win a very short lived record contract and a mawkish christmas single, I'm telling it upstairs at the Hen and Chicken and in a tent on Jersey. You should come.

That has made the show sound a bit grumpier than it is, I promise I wont shout at you (well no more than usual)

You can buy tickets for the Hen and Chicken show

HERE

The Branchage show might actually be called I Met A Man Called Chris Chinchilla At A Party as I've only got 30 minutes and I havent quite figured out how to shorten the story yet.