Art Brut played a short US tour last month in advance of their new CD "Its a Bit Complicated" which will be released June 26th on Downtime Records. The band released an advance of 4 new songs along with an unmastered version of Nag Nag Nag Nag.

I haven't heard the first Art Brut CD so I don't have a point of reference to compare these new tracks to but I really like them and am looking forward to hearing the whole CD. I've seen pictures on BrooklynVegan's site of the mass crowd singalongs at the band's show last year at the Siren Festival and these tracks will likely go over just as well. I have seen reviewers compare Art Brut musically to The Fall but I really don't hear a basis for this comparison. Singer Eddie Argos has a similar "spoken word" delivery like Mark E. Smith but there the comparison ends. If anyone has seen Smith on a rampage (think back to the Brownies gig in 1998), Argos seem to have none of Smith's bile. Musically, the band is probably closer to Franz Ferdinand and Argos' vocals may be better compared to a British version of Lou Reed.

While the first single from the upcoming release is Nag Nag Nag Nag, the track that stood out for me was Direct Hit. This track is up for Steve Lamaq's Rebel Playlist this week on BBC6 Music. So...click this link to vote for this song.

The band is touring Europe for most of the summer and here are the upcoming tour dates:

May 18 2007 8:00P The Great Escape Festival Brighton
May 25 2007 6:00P Art Rock 2007 Saint Brieuc / France
May 30 2007 8:00P Transilvania Milan / Italy
Jun 2 2007 6:00P Skabazac Festival Rodez / France
Jun 3 2007 8:00P Mascotte Zurich / Switzerland
Jun 4 2007 9:00P Atomic Cafe - SOLD OUT Munich / Germany, Bayern
Jun 5 2007 8:00P Gebaeude 9 Cologne / Germany, Nordrhein-Westfalen
Jun 6 2007 8:00P Lido Berlin / Germany, Berlin
Jun 8 2007 8:00P Lille Vega Copenhagen / Denmark
Jun 10 2007 8:00P Melkweg Amsterdam / Netherlands
Jun 11 2007 8:00P Botanique Brussels / Belgium
Jun 13 2007 8:00P Astoria London
Jun 14 2007 8:00P Academy 2 Birmingham
Jun 15 2007 8:00P Academy 3 Manchester
Jun 16 2007 8:00P Oran Mor Glasgow
Jun 18 2007 8:00P Cockpit Leeds
Jun 20 2007 8:00P Trabeno Paris / France
Jun 23 2007 8:00P Southside Festival Neuhausen / Germany
Jun 24 2007 8:00P Rock A Fie Festival Luxembourg
Jun 30 2007 7:00P Microcosm Festival La Roche Sur Yon / France
Jul 15 2007 8:00P Soundlabs Festival Roseto degli Abruzzi / Italy
Jul 20 2007 8:00P Vielles Charrues Caraix / France
Jul 21 2007 8:00P Garden Nef Party Angoulème / France
Jul 27 2007 6:00P Hrachkova Festival Valasske Mezirici / Czech Republic
Jul 28 2007 8:00P Les Transcevenoles Sumene / France
Jul 31 2007 8:00P Sedieres Festival Sedieres / France

Links:
Art Brut's MySpace page (link)