British pop punk with attitude. Garage guitars and smart-assed one-liners. Droll lyrics spoken not sung. Fun, funny, snotty, literate, fast. Their one-sheet calls them “confident and confrontational” -- very accurate. They achieve a convincing punk/drunk feel without ever losing their cool. Good if you like the Libertines, the Fall, Maximo Park, Bloc Party, the Futureheads -- to a lesser extent, Franz. This stuff belongs on the Trainspotting soundtrack.

Art Brut were formed in 2004 and are “named after French painter Jean Dubuffet's definition of outsider art” (thanks Wikipedia). It is worth mentioning that this record was produced by Black Francis (Pixies).

try: 1, 5, 2, 8, 11
no FCC, as far as i can tell.

*1. a total powerhouse. fast, brash, bratty, unrepentant. careens and crashes all over the place. positively marvelous lyrics.
*2. big guitar sound, cut chords on the beat. melodic minor-key chorus makes this a curiously affecting nostalgia piece.
3. somber electric guitar & backing “ah” vocals. this song is a tribute to public transportation.
4. spoken word narrative over swingy electric guitar melody. more “ah”s.
*5. if you do not laugh out loud at this, by all means do not play it. fast, poppy, irreverent. ill callbacks.
6. bouncy bass. quick hammer-on / pull-off guitar licks. in sum: “the record-buying public: we hate them!”
7. harder clashy guitars, discordant. bass-under-vocals bridge.
*8. driving rock n roll with incredulous commentary: “how have i only just discovered the replacements!”
9. guitar-as-bass riff and hollow drums. straight-ahead, bare verses. busier chorus.
10. power-pop. ironic woah-oh opener, shared bass-and-guitar trade-off line. new wave 80s chorus.
*11. a late bloomer. starts slow, moves smoothly between lots of musical ideas. infectious guitar & groovy bass at crux. great layering, break and build. “i fought the floor and the floor won!”