eccentric and uber-funny english and german art punk/wave band art brut are named after french painter jean dubuffet's definition of outsider art: art made without thought to imitation or presentation by prisoners, loners, the mentally ill, and other marginalized citizens.

art brut is fronted by top of the pops fan eddie argos (vocals), and is currently rounded out by jasper future (guitar), ian catskilkin (guitar), frederica feedback (bass), and mikey breyer (drums).  legend states that they began writing songs five minutes after they formed.

the band, contemporaries of acts like franz ferdinand and bloc party, formed in 2003, blender magazine soon described them as the best unsigned group in the uk.  The band released their first lp in 2005, bang bang rock and roll, and it’s follow up in 2007, it’s a bit complicated.

i’ve read that while on stage, eddie kindly explains the origin of each and every track and even considerately asks, "any questions?"  he is a front man’s front man: he woos the crowd into frenzy while stage diving and skipping around stage.  “why do a gig and then exercise, why not combine the two?” eddie ponders.

in late 2008 art brut returned to the studio to record art brut vs. satan, released 21 april, 2009.  the album was produced by the band’s number one fan, the pixies’ frank black.

''i don't always enjoy the recording process; all that fiddling with guitars and drum sounds waiting for my turn to ‘sing’.  this time though, we did it just right," said eddie argos.  “with the amazing black francis conducting us, we pressed record, jumped around and played our songs.  this is how i always thought albums were made and it's definitely how we're doing it from now on!'”

click here for november 20, 2007 set recorded in washington d.c. by npr's all songs considered  in d.c.  click here for an april 28, 2009 all things considered review.  don't forget, the album cover image always links to sample songs and the band's image to their website.

check here to see if art brut has any gigs scheduled near you.

as always, please buy this album from your local independent music store by people who know and love music and not from retailers like wal-mart (soulless, globally-homogenizing, community-killers) or i-tunes (albums should be listened to as an entire composition with album cover and liner notes in hand).  incidentally, these two companies sell more music than any other retailer in the united states.  that my friend, bites.