British indie-rockers Art Brut [ tickets ] have announced an initial set of dates for an upcoming North American tour, with three shows at Austin's South by Southwest music festival setting the outing in motion.

The London-based five-piece will kick off the first of three SXSW appearances March 15, and then head to the West Coast before swinging a wide arc eastward on a tour that will eventually take the band to 18 cities, playing mostly small clubs and theaters.

Art Brut--named after the outsider art movement spearheaded by French painter Jean Debuffet--played its first U.S. gigs last November, following the release of the band's debut album, "Bang Bang Rock & Roll."

Released last summer, "Bang Bang Rock & Roll" features all new re-recordings of older Art Brut songs that were originally released as singles, or featured on 2004's "Brutlegs," a collection of the band's demos, odds and ends.

Art Brut was formed in 2003 after singer Eddie Argos left his previous band, The Art Goblins ("Their stage show would see him 'playing a vacuum cleaner' and escaping from a sack," notes the band's official biography), and moved to London. He met the band's original guitarist, Chris Chinchilla, at a party, and the nucleus of Art Brut was formed, as the band's first single for the Rough Trade label, "Formed a Band," relates in minimalist fashion.

Chinchilla departed the band last August and was replaced by Jasper Future, one of Argos' former mates in The Art Goblins.