Biography
Eddie Argos powers Art Brut’s lean art-punk with his animated spoken-sung vocals and incisive commentary on pop music, pop culture, and personal relationships. When the group surfaced in the early 2000s, listeners placed them inside the “Art Wave” circle alongside Franz Ferdinand and Bloc Party. What set them apart was Argos’ singular outlook, the core of their sound whether heard on the unpolished 2005 debut Bang Bang Rock & Roll or on the smoother productions of 2011’s Brilliant! Tragic! and 2018’s Wham! Bang! Pow! Let’s Rock Out!. By the time archival projects such as 2024’s And Yes, This Is My Singing Voice! surfaced, Art Brut were viewed as touchstones for IDLES, Dry Cleaning, and other candid British post-punk revivalists.
The band came together in 2003 after singer and Top of the Pops devotee Eddie Argos encountered guitarist Chris Chinchilla at a London afterparty for Ciccone. Guitarist Ian Catskilkin, bassist Frederica Feedback, and drummer Mikey Breyer soon completed the original lineup. They took their name from Jean Dubuffet’s concept of outsider art—work created by prisoners, isolates, the mentally ill, and other outsiders without regard for precedent or polish—and cut Brutlegs, a batch of rough demos that secured a Rough Trade contract. The label issued one Brutlegs track, “Formed a Band,” in March 2004; it climbed to number 52 on the U.K. Singles Chart.
Fierce Panda then signed Art Brut for the December 2004 double A-side “Modern Art/My Little Brother,” which reached number 49 on the U.K. Singles Chart. The following May the label released the band’s debut album, Bang Bang Rock & Roll. John Fortis produced the set, which offered polished versions of the Brutlegs material and peaked at number 116 on the U.K. Albums Chart. Its follow-up single, “Emily Kane,” rose to number 41. After extensive touring across the U.K. and the U.S., Chinchilla departed and was succeeded by Jasper Future, formerly of Argos’ earlier band the Art Goblins.
In 2006 Art Brut shifted to Mute for U.K. releases and recorded their second album with producer Dan Swift, whose résumé included Franz Ferdinand and the Futureheads. Issued in June 2007, It’s a Bit Complicated extended the confessional style introduced on “Emily Kane” and reached number 123 in the U.K.; in the U.S. it placed at number 14 on Billboard’s Heatseekers Albums chart and number 32 on the Independent Albums chart. The track “Direct Hit” also appeared on the soundtrack for EA Sports’ FIFA 08.
Following worldwide promotion for that record, the band traveled to Portland, Oregon in late 2008 to work with Pixies’ Frank Black. The sessions lasted two weeks and yielded the raw April 2009 album Art Brut vs. Satan. Graphic novelist Jeff Lemire supplied the artwork, and the release returned to the group’s early lo-fi approach, hitting number 138 on the U.K. Albums Chart and number 39 on the U.S. Independent Albums chart. The next year Argos’ side project Everybody Was in the French Resistance…Now!, also featuring the Blood Arm’s Dyan Valdés, issued its debut Fixin’ the Charts, a collection of responses to hits by artists including Kanye West and Martha Reeves & the Vandellas. Argos additionally led Spoiler Alert, which released a three-song EP in 2010 devoted to Batman, Booster Gold, and Blue Beetle.
Art Brut reunited with Frank Black for their fourth album, May 2011’s Brilliant! Tragic!. A comic-book edition accompanied the release, featuring contributions from Bryan Lee O’Malley, Jeffrey Lewis, and Jamie McKelvie, the last of whom also created the cover art. The band’s first retrospective, Top of the Pops, arrived in 2013 and gathered B-sides, demos, and rarities, among them a version of the Beatles’ “Her Majesty” arranged by Black. That same year Breyer and Future exited; Stephen Gilchrist and Toby MacFarlaine stepped in on drums and guitar. Also in 2013 Argos published a volume of Art Brut lyrics, followed in 2014 by the memoir I Formed a Band. His first full-length comic, Double D, drawn by Steven Horry, appeared in 2015.
New music returned in 2018 with Wham! Bang! Pow! Let’s Rock Out!. Produced by Jim Moray and featuring the Wedding Present’s Charlie Layton on drums, the fifth album chronicled Argos’ experiences during the hiatus—relocating to Berlin, becoming a parent, and facing serious illness. During that period Argos pursued side endeavors including commissioned paintings of favorite album covers, a comic-book column, and Haus Band, which released a cover of “She Belongs to Me” for Bob Dylan’s birthday in May 2021. Art Brut toured in 2023, then issued two archival sets in 2024: the concise greatest-hits collection A Record Collection, Reduced to a Mixtape and the expansive And Yes, This Is My Singing Voice!, which compiled Bang Bang Rock & Roll, It’s a Bit Complicated, Brutlegs, B-sides, and a 2006 Paris concert.
The band came together in 2003 after singer and Top of the Pops devotee Eddie Argos encountered guitarist Chris Chinchilla at a London afterparty for Ciccone. Guitarist Ian Catskilkin, bassist Frederica Feedback, and drummer Mikey Breyer soon completed the original lineup. They took their name from Jean Dubuffet’s concept of outsider art—work created by prisoners, isolates, the mentally ill, and other outsiders without regard for precedent or polish—and cut Brutlegs, a batch of rough demos that secured a Rough Trade contract. The label issued one Brutlegs track, “Formed a Band,” in March 2004; it climbed to number 52 on the U.K. Singles Chart.
Fierce Panda then signed Art Brut for the December 2004 double A-side “Modern Art/My Little Brother,” which reached number 49 on the U.K. Singles Chart. The following May the label released the band’s debut album, Bang Bang Rock & Roll. John Fortis produced the set, which offered polished versions of the Brutlegs material and peaked at number 116 on the U.K. Albums Chart. Its follow-up single, “Emily Kane,” rose to number 41. After extensive touring across the U.K. and the U.S., Chinchilla departed and was succeeded by Jasper Future, formerly of Argos’ earlier band the Art Goblins.
In 2006 Art Brut shifted to Mute for U.K. releases and recorded their second album with producer Dan Swift, whose résumé included Franz Ferdinand and the Futureheads. Issued in June 2007, It’s a Bit Complicated extended the confessional style introduced on “Emily Kane” and reached number 123 in the U.K.; in the U.S. it placed at number 14 on Billboard’s Heatseekers Albums chart and number 32 on the Independent Albums chart. The track “Direct Hit” also appeared on the soundtrack for EA Sports’ FIFA 08.
Following worldwide promotion for that record, the band traveled to Portland, Oregon in late 2008 to work with Pixies’ Frank Black. The sessions lasted two weeks and yielded the raw April 2009 album Art Brut vs. Satan. Graphic novelist Jeff Lemire supplied the artwork, and the release returned to the group’s early lo-fi approach, hitting number 138 on the U.K. Albums Chart and number 39 on the U.S. Independent Albums chart. The next year Argos’ side project Everybody Was in the French Resistance…Now!, also featuring the Blood Arm’s Dyan Valdés, issued its debut Fixin’ the Charts, a collection of responses to hits by artists including Kanye West and Martha Reeves & the Vandellas. Argos additionally led Spoiler Alert, which released a three-song EP in 2010 devoted to Batman, Booster Gold, and Blue Beetle.
Art Brut reunited with Frank Black for their fourth album, May 2011’s Brilliant! Tragic!. A comic-book edition accompanied the release, featuring contributions from Bryan Lee O’Malley, Jeffrey Lewis, and Jamie McKelvie, the last of whom also created the cover art. The band’s first retrospective, Top of the Pops, arrived in 2013 and gathered B-sides, demos, and rarities, among them a version of the Beatles’ “Her Majesty” arranged by Black. That same year Breyer and Future exited; Stephen Gilchrist and Toby MacFarlaine stepped in on drums and guitar. Also in 2013 Argos published a volume of Art Brut lyrics, followed in 2014 by the memoir I Formed a Band. His first full-length comic, Double D, drawn by Steven Horry, appeared in 2015.
New music returned in 2018 with Wham! Bang! Pow! Let’s Rock Out!. Produced by Jim Moray and featuring the Wedding Present’s Charlie Layton on drums, the fifth album chronicled Argos’ experiences during the hiatus—relocating to Berlin, becoming a parent, and facing serious illness. During that period Argos pursued side endeavors including commissioned paintings of favorite album covers, a comic-book column, and Haus Band, which released a cover of “She Belongs to Me” for Bob Dylan’s birthday in May 2021. Art Brut toured in 2023, then issued two archival sets in 2024: the concise greatest-hits collection A Record Collection, Reduced to a Mixtape and the expansive And Yes, This Is My Singing Voice!, which compiled Bang Bang Rock & Roll, It’s a Bit Complicated, Brutlegs, B-sides, and a 2006 Paris concert.