Years, possibly even decades, from now, when sociologists finally get around to cataloging the whole of rock 'n' roll, from its storied birth to its ignoble end, they might discover that the majority of rock songs all said pretty much the same thing. Some of us have already figured this out, thanks to a band out of the U.K. called Art Brut.

The group has their spiky garage-punk moves down pat, from the tussling guitar parts to the pounding rhythm sections. And on top resides frontman Eddie Argos, who doesn't really sing so much as declaim excitedly. "Formed a Band," the first song on their excellent debut Bang Bang Rock & Roll (Fierce Panda), begins with the band revving into the opening riff, soon followed by Argos unleashing a chorus that reveals what truly keeps the heart of rock 'n' roll barely beating.

"Formed a band! We formed a band! Look at us—we formed a band!"

Art Brut constructs perfectly rousing punk anthems that delight in the ridiculousness of rousing punk anthems, which only makes them even more perfectly rousing punk anthems. Other songs on the album celebrate such unlikely thrills as headbutting a Matisse painting, planning a doomed-to-fail bank heist in Italy and "drinking Hennessey with Morrissey."

But it's the band's current U.K. single, "Good Weekend," in which all that is awesome about Art Brut occurs at once. Over the great lost Kinks riff, Argos takes great lengths to proclaim the wonderfulness of his "brand new girlfriend." In the midsong breakdown, he spells it all out: "I've seen her naked—twice!" The preposterousness of love songs is laid bare, giving proper esteem to the giddy act of falling in love.

Some things to know: There's already an ex-Art Brut, rhythm guitarist (and co-founder) Chris Chinchilla, who explained his departure in a rather vague LiveJournal entry. He's been replaced by one Jasper Future, and the other band members are equally improbably named: Ian Catskilkin (lead guitar), Freddy Feedback (bass) and plain ol' Mikey B (drums).

As for Argos, he's way odder-looking than most other lead singers and audibly proud of both his thick accent and barking non sequiturs. ("Stay off the crack!" he cries at the end of track two, "My Little Brother," in which the title character turns into a rock snob before the singer's very eyes.) He's landed many comparisons to The Fall's Mark E. Smith, but Argos isn't foul-tempered enough (and the rest of the band not nearly damaged enough) for that to really hold much weight. Many critics have drawn a link to Jarvis Cocker of Pulp, a band much adored at Under the Rock headquarters. Art Brut are clearly not Pulp, due to enough reasons to fill up a whole other column. But of course Pulp were hardly Pulp on their first album.

Bang Bang Rock & Roll still hasn't received a Stateside release yet, and the band's first U.S. tour earlier this month was all too typically brief, including three shows in New York (four if you count Hoboken, and I sure do) and zero in Philadelphia. If anyone's pushing these guys in the States, they'd better start doing a more serious job of it.

There's enough about Art Brut to dismiss them as mere joke-rock, perhaps, but in interviews Argos professes a total sincerity regarding his texts that's hard to shrug off. (He really does sing as if these statements just happened to bop into his head.) Anyway, let's face it—so much rock comes off so patently ludicrous at this point, it's about time we had some heroes that were aware of it. Let's hear it for Ridiculous Rock.

Stay off the crack at undertherock.blogspot.com.