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SXSW review: Everybody Was In The French Resistance … Now!
Eddie Argos of Everybody Was In The French Resistance … Now! performs Wednesday night at the Galaxy Room.
Eddie Argos is less a singer and more a particularly melodic stand up comedian.
The last time Argos swung through Austin — in October 2009 — he was fronting his regular band, energetic and consistently hilarious British punk rockers Art Brut. He turned 30 that night, and aside from wearing a snappy formal suit, thankfully showed no signs of growing up, leaping into the audience to extol the virtues of DC Comics and riffing on his own drunkenness.
Wednesday night at the Galaxy Room was no different, as Argos returned to Austin with side project Everybody Was In The French Resistance … Now! (hereafter referred to as EWITFRN, for your sanity and mine), featuring Argos’ girlfriend, Dyan Valdes from the Blood Arm. Where Art Brut slays killer punk rock anthems, EWITFRN slays sugary pop songs. But Argos’ delivery remains unchanged — he generally performs from the audience (“For dramatic effect,” quipped Argos between songs), spurning the stage, and doesn’t sing so much as he banters semi-musically.
Few front men could pull that off, but Argos is so consistently hilarious, charming and deadpan that his brand of cheek rock endears instead of grates. A coffee table book of “The Quotable Eddie Argos” would be a fantastic tome for the truly nerdy. Take, for instance, his thoughts on Bob Dylan: “Bob Dylan is much better than me. Although we both can’t sing and we kind of mumble.” Or how he changed the name of the band, a reference to the armed insurrection against Nazi occupiers during World War II, when touring through Sweden to “Everybody Was In The French Resistance … Now, Except For You.”
The actual songs are no more serious. Their debut self-titled album is a high-concept work with each track acting as a response to a famous pop song — a conceit Argos was kind of enough to explain before playing each new tune. Take, for instance, “Superglue” — the song is a response to Elastica’s “Vaseline,” because, as Argos reasons, what better way to pay tribute to Elastica than recording a song that’s the opposite of one of theirs? And what’s the opposite of vaseline? Naturally.
Or, say, “Bille’s Genes,” an entire song about the child abandoned by the protagonist of “Billie Jean.” The concept is a bit strained, but it does make for a fun exploration of the last 50 years of pop music, and the band does a great job channeling the spirit of the songs they parody on each track — “Superglue,” for instance, has a recognizable 90s-alternative grind.
Still, it’s hard to shake the feeling that EWITFRN coasts just a bit too much on Argos’ (substantial) charm. Wednesday night saw the band struggle to pick up energy in the early songs, and their use of a drum machine robs the songs of muscle they need to work in a live setting. The high concept writing sometimes veers dangerously close to shtick. To Argos’ credit, when the band drops the ball he seems to pick up on it pretty quickly.
“It’s not going to be like this forever,” said Argos early in the band’s set, addressing sound and tardiness problems. “Just until we get our (expletive) together.”
Hopefully they will. Because EWITFRN shows promise, and if Argos and Valdes can continue to invest time in the project — rather than simply returning to the safer confines of Art Brut — there’s some real promise there. When Argos tearfully sings “You gave yourself away” of an ex-girlfriend on “Think Twice (It’s Not Alright)” you get the sense he’s singing from a place of very genuine regret. And it feels real, and intriguing, and reminds you that all the best comedy has a tinge of tragedy to it.
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