The Weekly Feed: Experimentation Edition
Morning Roundup: Change Edition
Former Blade Staffers Launch 'DC Agenda'
D.C. Unemployment Rate Reaches 11.9 Percent
D.C. Insurance Dept. Denies Birth Control Coverage Meddling
When someone is so excited about forming a band that they write a song about the exuberance of that experience, it’s easy to see them putting on a great live show. Because let’s face it, anyone who proclaims, “Look at us! We formed a band!” is clearly the sort of pop culture loving being that would flaunt how happy they are to be in a band for as long as humanly possible. It also suggests that the person writing such a song is not necessarily someone who by conventional standards appears to be a person in a band.
Enter Eddie Argos of angular British act Art Brut. He'd seem a good character for a nerdy schlubby protagonist in a Judd Apatow movie. In addition to not looking at all like a rock star (and not actually being able to sing), his songs speak to things like the virtues of public transportation, DC Comics and bad hangovers. That's over and above the songs about his misadventures with women, which proclaim, at best, "I saw her naked TWICE!" and at worst...well, let's just say that breakout hit "Emily Kane" is a borderline stalker anthem meant to find a pubescent girlfriend ten years gone.
Yet, he's 100 percent engaging because his low brow subject matter meshes perfectly with a purist vision of rock 'n' roll music. Before launching into opener "Formed a Band" at the Black Cat on Monday, Art Brut started with a brief cover of The Modern Lovers' "Roadrunner," and spoke highly of both the Ramones and Iggy Pop throughout the set. Argos looked back fondly on the days when NME was a legitimate tastemaking publication and when record stores sold solely records and not computer games and DVDs. "I HATE computer games!" spat Argos in the middle of "Bad Weekend."
The fact that Argos is (mostly) unscripted and genuinely enthusiastic drives the band's live show just as much as their jagged guitar riffs. The kitschy cleverness of Art Brut only makes for a few good album listens, but on stage, Argos forgets his lyrics, adds to his stories, and much to the delight of bloggers who don't always remember song titles, announces what they are going to play before every song, right after a summoning cry of, "Ready, Art Brut?" Plus, how many grown men jump rope with their microphone cables or go into long winded stories about their visit to the DC Comics headquarters and still keep the audience right with them?
It's unclear how opener Princeton ended up on this bill. The quartet, fronted by twins Jesse and Matt Kivel, played songs that never drifted far from mid-tempo or the middle of the road. While they primarily stuck with instrumentation that recalled a watered-down Belle & Sebastian and vocals that were about as engaging as Ben Stein's, they had a few flourishes here and there: the occasional gritty guitar solo, a goofy interpretive dance of sorts by Matt Kivel and a dancey synth line over their last song, one of the few standouts in the set. They really wanted the audience to get into their music and asked for them to clap along to several of the songs, for the entirety of those songs. It was a nice try, but it's hard to get an audience psyched about songs when the band members themselves look rather bored.
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A few more photos from the show for those who may be interested:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/darkwaterphotography/sets/72157622498882009/
The most wonderful thing about this band is how Frank Black's production work on their most recent album really shines through. It's a work of art. Brut.
They didn't play Direct Hit?!