Ready Art Brut?
The negative reaction to Art Brut‘s new album — that there is a new album — is, to paraphrase Kanye West, a pretty strange way to start a conversation.
It’s also only adds to the British band’s legend. Brilliant! Tragic! (Cooking Vinyl), produced by Black Francis, demonstrates business as usual in the sense that the Cruze is another Chevy. Those elements that have built Art Brut’s fanbase are not in short supply, though they do enough to justify its creation aside from wanting to tour. Loud talker/frontman Eddie Argos has a defined vocal personality, but even it shows range particularly when you can hear the sincerity in portions of opener “Clever Clever Jazz.” He can also be spied carrying a tune. Drunken revelry persists for gags instead of for the spiritual communion of The Hold Steady, and if Argos seems to be repeating himself, he’s not mailing in the performance. At this point, he’s playing to fans, and that’s all they can ask. (Wednesday@Double Door with Reptar and Team Band.)
Opener Reptar, unlike local bill-mate Team Band, don’t have much in common with their headliner. They don’t even seem to have much in common with each other, or their music. One’s allegedly a native Brazilian, though the band are from the red-blooded Southeast and half of them attend the University Of Georgia. Oblangle Fizz, Y’all (Makerecordsnotbombs), their debut EP due next month, is equally slippery, a slick, yet intricately assembled five songs that manage to sound both British and like Talking Heads. Primarily, they’re a party. Franz Ferdinand filters into “Stuck In My ID” before getting sucked through crazy-straw effects and plopping down in an eco Passion Pit jam. It’s the sound of being 20 and forming a band. (Look at us!)
— Steve Forstneger
Category: Stage Buzz, Weekly
