One Minute Brief of the Day:
Campaign to promote @Art_Brut_'s new album: Wham! Bang! Pow! Let's Rock Out!
with @ILoveAlcopop #WhamBangPow
Today we've got a very different brief with some brilliant prizes. Really looking forward to seeing the results of this one!
It's been a while, but Art Brut are back with a blazing new album, Wham! Bang! Pow! Let's Rock Out! - and Alcopop! Records are keen to see what OMB can do to build some fun, creative content to be used at the invite-only pre-album launch at Signature Brew's new Taproom on 8th November, which will be packed with music and media people.
Brief: We want you to listen to the album's opening single (of the same name) and create posters inspired by the record. We've added some info below to help too.
Prizes:
We'll give a copy of the album (on CD or vinyl) to every piece of art we like and use, and a £50 Alcopop! Records voucher + £50 cash for the band's favourite.
More info:
Alcopop! Records are pleased to announce they
have signed Berlin-based post-punk art rock band Art Brut, who will play a special return headline show on 7th November in London at Boston Music Room.
Here to remind us of our insatiable, adolescent
appetite for music, Art Brut are back together. What started as a break-up
album and turned into an ‘in-love record’, Wham!
Bang! Pow! Let’s Rock Out! is a collection of post-punk, poppy bangers that
recall the distinctive sound that burst out of the Berlin-based band back in
2005. It’s been seven years since the group’s last LP and sees Argos’
self-referential, sincere narrative shape into poignant reflections of
encompassing a youthful heart in a world that perpetually forces us to grow up.
Argos was careful to “live a life” before
attempting a new album. “I moved to Berlin, I nearly died with Peritonitis. I
was in hospital for a bit. I had a son, I had a relationship that broke up. I
wrote a comic, a memoir, a musical and had a one man show,” he says. “I don't
want to be that band who writes the sort of songs like "I don't like
touring, touring is really boring". I think we needed a rest so some stuff
could happen to me, to fill me up.”
Produced by award-winning folk musician Jim
Moray, Wham! Bang! Pow! Let’s Rock Out!
is Art Brut at their pop band best. Argos recorded his vocals in one or two
takes, channeling the sporadic nature of his live performances while hand claps
and ad-libbed jokes and howls produce a raw and authentic work. Morphing almost
any mundane experience into a hilariously candid anecdote – whether it’s
watching hipsters eat falafel on ‘Good Morning Berlin’, planning a better diet
after a health scare on ‘Hospital!’ or dodging a train ticket inspector on
‘Schwarzfahrer’– Wham! Bang! Pow! Let’s
Rock Out! is testament to the frontman’s unconventional approach to finding
inspiration in just about anything.
“It’s not a game over, I got an extra life, I was
born again, in a pure white light,” Argos trills on album opener, ‘Hooray!’,
sparking an exuberant return to an industry where, if we’re honest, Art Brut
never really fit in. On Wham! Bang! Pow!
Let’s Rock Out!, Art Brut are creating anthems for outcasts.
With the departure of Jasper Future and Mikey
Breyer, Art Brut are now made up of founding members Argos, Ian Catskilkin and
Freddy Feedback while Toby Macfarlaine joins on guitar and Charlie Layton joins
on drums. “I've known Charlie forever,” Argos explains. “He's also the drummer
for The Wedding Present but we always wanted to be in a band together since we
were kids. Now it's been about 25 years of knowing each other, he's finally in
our group. Toby plays bass for Graham Coxon normally, he's in the band cos he’s
an amazing guitar player and I love him.
Ian found him and I looked at his twitter feed to see what he was about and he
had posted 'A Day in the Life of Vivian Stanshall" from the Bonzo Dog Doo
Dah band. I was like "yeah perfect! he's in!’’
Argos describes Art Brut as a democracy, with the
new line-up adding new ideas to the pot. “Toby and Charlie both rock the fuck
out which is what I like,” he adds. “Wham!
Bang! Pow! Let’s Rock Out! is a bit more back to basics Art Brut. It's sort
of the record I was trying to make after the first record and we didn't quite
succeed. I think I'm more confident now and I know what I want. Not being mean
about our other records but it's a poppy punk record which is what I wanted to
do. I think speaking is a more honest way of getting what I want across. And I
can't sing too.”
While he wrestles with the realisation that Art
Brut are now, as he describes, a “heritage band”, Wham! Bang! Pow! Let’s Rock Out! sees the band producing their most
accomplished and innovative work to date. “I think it's because we love it,”
Argos says of the band’s longevity in the face of an ever-changing scene. “I've
always been quite gregarious about being in a band. I thought it would fix
everything. I can't imagine ever leaving Art Brut. It's quite addicting really,
we're a fun band when we play live. There's a nice mix of that and heart, we're
not ironic or anything. I think it's fun to be in Art Brut. Maybe that's why we
can't stop?”
Here's the album sleeve by Jim Avignon and single sleeve by @rhirhilee84 for inspiration
