Event

Everybody Was In The French Resistance...Now!

In 2005 Eddie Argos took Art Brut to the top of the pops, lyrically anyway, as indie rocks thick-browed sardonic clown prince. It wasnt about singing, it was talking to the kids, with acerbic cheek and barbed wit, so much so that Berlin University taught a lecture in his lyrics titled The Depressive Dandy: The Lyrics Of Eddie Argos. Three albums in and the shtick wore a little thin. Cue Everybody Was In The French ResistanceNOW, a side-project that allows Argos free reign to fix his sites on new targets. Its not about hitting the top of the pops, its about Fixin The Charts (Volume 1). Eddies teamed with Dyan Valdes of L.A.s the Blood Arm on 12 tracks which respond to better known hits: My Way (Is Not Always The Best Way) dialogues with Sinatras My Way; Billies Genes talks to Billie Jean; Coal Digger is in rebuff to Kanye. Get it? You get it. G.I.R.L.F.R.E.N. is for Avril Lavignes Girlfriend, which Eddie says is part of an alarming new archetype in pop songwriting: girl steals other girls boyfriend. This is a divisive message to send to young girls everywhere, and songs like Girlfriend (see also You Belong With Me by Taylor Swift) only teach young women that they can derive more worth and status from stealing each others boyfriends than they can from realizing their own achievements.

The chorus covers that ground in girl-group fashion (G.I.R.L.F.R.E.N. You know Ive got a girlfriend In case you had any doubt I thought wed better spell it out.), the video has Ed and Dyan pulling tarot cards to make it clearer. For those who take their satire with some substance. -- Stereogum