Kevin Bronson on January 7th, 2010

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Eddie Argos [pictured last year at Spaceland], who as the frontman of U.K. quintet Art Brut put the rapier wit in rock, is getting ready to unveil the side project he has with his girlfriend Dyan Valdes, keyboardist in the L.A. quartet the Blood Arm. Its unruly name is Everybody Was in the French Resistance … NOW!, and their album, “Fixin’ the Charts, Volume One,” comes out in February on Cooking Vinyl.

The album’s a stitch; it’s a song-by-song retort to a bunch of tunes in the pop canon, with Argos’ shout-sung narratives (with Valdes’ background cooing) taking on the likes of Avril Lavigne, Michael Jackson, Paul Anka and Bob Dylan, among others. The band kicks off a tour in February in Argos’ native England, but Los Angeles fans can get a sneak preview: I hear that “Hot Sauce Mentor” – the band billed to play Club Underground at the Echo on Friday night – is, in fact, Argos and crew.

Do your homework. Argos backgrounds the songs here. “When I look at you / I wish I’d used superglue” indeed.

‣ Shedding his skins: Jason Boesel, the Rilo Kiley/Bright Eyes drummer who is releasing his solo debut “Hustler’s Son” next week on Team Love Records, has found a way to tour behind his album – have local folk-rockers Dawes share the bill and serve as a back-up band. Boesel and Dawes won’t make it to L.A. until March 11 at the Troubadour, the final of their 25 dates. Boesel [whose single we shared back in November] was also recently featured on Daytrotter, the session having been recorded at Elliott Smith’s old digs, New Monkey Studios in Van Nuys.

‣ National publicity radio: NPR has the poor judgment to assign a pal of Vampire Weekend the task of trumpeting the stream of the new album “Contra.” Next overhyped release, please.

‣ Learning more: Speaking of NPR, one of our local heroes Learning Music was recently featured on “All Things Considered.”