The Arctic Monkeys are a band that draw in influences from punk, post-punk, and Brit pop creating a unique sound. With a voice similar to David Bowie and influences ranging from The Jam, The Clash, The Police, and The Smiths Arctic Monkeys formed in 2002. Alex Turner took on vocals/guitar duties, Jamie Cook took on guitar as well, and other school related friends Andy Nicholson (bass) and Matt Helders (drums) joined too; Initially Glyn Jones was the first singer he left and then was replaced by Turner. The band came from Sheffield, England and started playing gigs in 2003. The bands audience grew as they continued to play shows and pass out demos they recorded for free. The bands popularity grew even further when the songs started appearing on the Internet via their myspace page and other file sharing programs; A collection of the bands early demos can be found on the compilation Beneath the Boardwalk.
As popularity grew in England, the band released and EP titled Five Minutes with the Arctic Monkeys. The EP featured two songs "Fake Tales of San Francisco" and "From the Ritz to the Rubble". Both these songs would be featured on the bands first album, but were re-recorded. Unhappy with the offers they were getting from record labels (they wanted them to change their sound), the band refused initial offers. In June of 2005, they signed to Domino who gave the band more artistic freedom with their music. The bands first single was "I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor", which came out in October of 2005. It went to number one on the UK singles chart as did their second single "When the Sun Goes Down". The bands album came in January of 2005 and was released one week early due to high demand for it and Internet leaks. The album was titled Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not. The title came from the 1960 movie Saturday Night, Sunday Morning; It is also a novel by Allan Sillitoe. The album set the UK record for most sales in one week selling over 306, 000 and obviously going to number one on the UK Charts. In the US it went to number 24 on the charts.
After a tour, the band released another EP in April 2006 titled Who the Fuck Are the Arctic Monkeys? Soon after the release of this five track EP, bassist Andy Nicholson left the group due to the pressures of touring and popularity; He was replaced by Nick O'Malley. A year later in April of 2007 the band released their second album Your Favourite Worst Nightmare. This album was a departure from the bands first album, the sound was heavier, faster, and louder. Examples of this can be heard on their first single from the album "Brianstorm", and on songs such as "Teddy Picker" and "Old Yellow Bricks". The album once again debuted at number one in the UK and number 7 in the US. Currently the band is said to have started recording demos for the bands third album. Some of the song titles are "Sandtrap", "Put Me in a Terror Pocket", and "The Fire and the Thud". The band has also said in recent interviews that they want to move away from the conventional album format and release the album single by single. Alex Turner is currently involved in a side project called The Last Shadow Puppets. Along with Miles Kane (The Rascals), and James Ford (producer/drummer) the band released The Age of Understatement in April of 2008. The Arctic Monkeys are set to record another album with Josh Homme (from Queens of the Stone Age) as producer.
In other news Chris White of the CJAM show I Am Collecting Beautiful Things has challenged other CJAM shows to complete a four week task of not playing the same musical artist twice. He is not going to play the same artist twice all year, so compared to that four weeks or four shows is nothing. This should make the next four shows (including this one) quite interesting. I will be playing a lot of the usual bands, but also some different bands in the process. This was week one of the four week challenge.
The Play List:
1. The Rapture - Pieces of the People That We Love
2. Arctic Monkeys - Old Yellow Bricks
3. Radio 4 - Packing Up Things on the Scene
4. The Quotes - She's Got Me
5. The Checks - Take Me There
6. The Griefs - Whenever You're Around
7. Tricky Woo - Fever
8. Marble Index - Everyone Else
9. The Pack A.D. - Stray
10. Mudhoney - The Straight Life
11. Subways - With You
12. Strokes - Soma
13. Buddy Holly - Ting-A-Ling
14. Dead 60s - Don't Walk Away
15. Action Makes - Charley and the CFF
16. Hot Hot Heat - Get In or Get Out
17. Mark Inside - Blacksheep (demo)
18. The Staggers - Out of My Mind
19. Exploding Hearts - Modern Kicks
20. Green Day - Take Back
21. Carbon/Silicon - The News
22. Libertines - The Boy Looked At Johnny
23. Satelliters - Unknown State of Mind
24. The D4 - Peepshow
25. Franz Ferdinand - What You Meant
I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor
When the Sun Goes Down (Music Video)
Teddy Picker (Live Music Video)
Flourescent Adolescent (Music Video)
Live on Jools Holland (Brainstorm, 505, & Teddypicker)
Take it or Leave It (Live Strokes Cover)
No comments:
Post a Comment