Everybody Was In The French Resistance… Now/Internet Forever, London Dingwalls

February 9, 2010

Tonight marks a few occasions. First up, it’s the first time I’ll see Internet Forever, whose shonky, fuzzy twee has been poking at my heart for a sizeable amount of my time. It’s also only the second time I’ve visited little-used-for-good-gigs Dingwalls (the last time I was there was to see Crystal Castles, in the height of Skins Series One). And overarching this is the fact that it’s Everybody Was In The French Resistance… Now‘s first show (save a couple of gigs in Cambridge in Birmingham which are duly discounted), and the first time I’ve seen national hero Eddie Argos playing in something other than Art Brut.

I’m close to writing this here review in a mock-tabloid style, for I see what both of these bands are doing as something that should be indoctrinated in hoards of thee impressionable youth’s minds. This gig is going full throttle at a justified version of just how the Alex Turners and (god forbid) Mike Skinners of the world of idol/musician crossover got extrapolated from a roulette wheel as the nation’s new templates to look up to.

It’s more than that, as both bands fully succeed at being entirely engaging; there’s not a moment to drift in either’s set. Internet Forever’s instrument swapping and deliberately (and ever so slightly) off-the-beat cohesion is charmingly raucous and adorable. ‘Cover The Walls’ is a corker with its rough-edged, brain-lodging hooks, and the knowing plainness of the vocals make the earworms harder to shift. The same happens on the magically uncynical ‘Break Bones’, ‘Pages of Books’ posing as a marvel because of its short sharp rhythms and fairground-esque keyboard sounds. They’re great, and it’s way more than  a case of their promo schedule hitting my mark..

And tonight’s headliners are  Everybody Was In The French Resistance… Now, a new band from Eddie Argos (Art Brut, Glam Chops) and The Blood Arm’s Dyan Valdes. I briefly fell out of love with Argos at what I then deemed just another Art Brut show in spring 2009, only to have my adulation restored with a life-changing performance at Indietracks. And it’s only now I realise just what a great man he is. Imagine being friends with Eddie Argos: the man who not only once told you to form a band, but then spearheaded an album (EWITFR… N’s) full of ripostes to popular songs. Songs like Sinatra’s ‘My Way’, Avril Lavigne’s ‘Girlfriend’ and Martha and The Vandellas’ ‘Jimmy Mack ‘.

Our man Argos, more captivating than I’ve ever seen him, doesn’t leave a single nuance unexplained. On ‘Hey! It’s Jimmy Mack!’ – starting with his familiar shtick (“hey it’s Jimmy mack, yeah I heard your track/ and if that’s your attitude, I’m never coming back”) – it’s clear that I want to immortalise the moment he and Valdes decided to write this thing. “She was a bitch,” says Argos, before the song, on how the original’s sung about telling a boyfriend of her plans to cheat on him.

The album the songs come from is Fixin’ The Charts Volume One, which is based on the idea of righting popular songs’ wrongs. There’s ‘Billie’s Genes’, an anthem against the weirdness of Michael Jackson’s ‘Billie Jean’, which mixes Europop with cod-disco synth. brass, too.

A cynic – or even, worst thought, a Real Music Fan – could call these japes tired, but when the happiness and jollity emanating from the stage becomes tangible at a live show like this, it’s clear that EWITFR… N should be plastered all over the place and adored – it’s what they’re designed for. Well, that and for having a whole lot of fun.

If you’re yourself cynical, just have a think about the idea of covering/responding to the misogyny of Kanye West’s ‘Gold Digger’ with a song called ‘Coal Digger’. It’s like Lawrence from Felt gone Denim, but hopefully a larger scale. Hopefully…

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