Artist · chart history
Art Brut
Band Deptford United Kingdom Formed 2003
Art Brut formed in 2003 in Deptford, United Kingdom. Art Brut has 6 chart appearances on 6 radio countdowns from 5 stations on RockLists, spanning 2004–2025. The most successful song on radio countdowns is “Formed A Band”, which appears on 4 lists with a best position of #31. The station that charted Art Brut most often is 90.9 The Bridge (Kansas City, MO), with 2 appearances. The artist’s biggest year on year-end countdowns was 2004.
Art Brut got going in Deptford in 2003, and they took their name from Jean Dubuffet's term for outsider art: work made by loners, prisoners and misfits with no interest in polish or imitation. That's a fair description of what they do. Frontman Eddie Argos doesn't really sing so much as holler and talk his way through the songs, grinning, over a no-nonsense guitar band featuring Ian Catskilkin, Freddy Feedback and Mikey B, with Chris Chinchilla in the early lineup and Jasper Future joining in 2005.
Bang Bang Rock & Roll, their Rough Trade debut, landed on 30 May 2005, and it's a riot: "Formed a Band", "Good Weekend" and "Emily Kane" are the singalongs everybody carried out of it, each one sounding like it was written on a dare and recorded before anyone could change their mind. Argos's lyrics are funny, self-aware and constantly circling back to music, relationships and his own obsessions. The press lumped them into an "Art Wave" alongside Franz Ferdinand, Bloc Party and the Rakes, but nobody else sounded quite this cheerfully shambolic.
The follow-up, It's a Bit Complicated, arrived on 25 June 2007, with Art Brut vs Satan in 2009, Brilliant! Tragic! in 2011 and a fifth album, Wham! Bang! Pow! Let's Rock Out!, in 2018.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
Songs by Art Brut on radio countdowns
| # | Song | Strength | Lists | Best | #1s | Peak year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Formed A Band | 4 | #31 | – | 2004 | |
| 2 | Good Weekend | 1 | #56 | – | 2006 | |
| 3 | Emily Kane | 1 | #494 | – | – |
Albums with charting songs
Where each song was first released, from MusicBrainz.
Year-end chart timeline
Combined year-end countdown points per year. Taller bars mean more songs placing higher across more stations.
Every countdown appearance
| Year | # | Song | Countdown |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 382 | Formed A Band | 90.9 The Bridge Top 909 Songs of the 21st Century |
| 2025 | 663 | Formed A Band | 893 Essential Songs of The Current: 2005 to Now |
| 2022 | 119 | Formed A Band | 90.9 The Bridge Top 909 Songs of the 2000s |
| 2019 | 494 | Emily Kane | KEXP Listeners' Favorite Songs of All Time |
| 2006 | 56 | Good Weekend | Y100 Top 88.5 Songs of 2006 |
| 2004 | 31 | Formed A Band | John Peel's Festive Fifty of 2004 |
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