Humbug & Show # 266

Today's program showcased two tracks from the newest release by Arctic Monkeys. The songs come from the bands third full length album which is titled Humbug. The album differs from the bands other two albums for a variety of reasons. For one, a large majority the album was produced and recorded by Josh Homme (of Queens of the Stone Age) at his own Joshua Tree Studios in California. The band also recorded songs with producer James Ford, three of which are featured on Humbug ("My Propeller", "Secret Door", and "Cornerstone"). Secondly the music reflects a darker more aggressive version of the band (even more so than on their album Your Favourite Worst Nightmare). Despite the differences that may be described about the album, Humbug shows a band evolving while drawing on different musical differences.

Another thing featured on today's program was a performance that The Clash did on a French TV show in 1977. On the program they played "Complete Control", "1977" and did an interview. What's interesting and unique about the performances on this program is that the versions of "Complete Control" and "1977" are early versions of the songs. The guitars on "Complete Control" in particular, feature barely no distortion and the band as a result comes off sounding like an early 60's Garage Rock band. A rare glimpse at The Clash in their early days. The Video is posted below:




The Play List:

1. Neon Boys - That's All I Know Right Now
2. The Easybeats - Sorry
3. The Missing Links - Wild About You
4. Masters Apprentices - Undecided
5. Guided By Voices - Hot Freaks
6. Ride Theory - Genghis Con Artist
7. Young Rival - Another Nobody
8. The Bears - Decisions
9. Radio Birdman - Aloha Steve & Danno
10. Atomic 7 - Save Your Fork There's Pie
11. Phonocomb - Cliffhanger
12. Lost Patrol - Commanche
13. Fresh & Onlys - I'm Gonna Be Your Elevator
14. Arctic Monkeys - My Propeller
15. Arctic Monkeys - Pretty Visitors
16. The Stone Roses - Elephant Stones
17. The Clash - The Street Parade
18. The Clash - Complete Control (French TV 1977)
19. Ex-Boyfriends - The Secret of Immortality
20. Bureaucrats - Grown Up Age
21. Gruesomes - Thanks For Nothing
22. David Bowie - Queen Bitch
23. The Lurkers - Go Go Go
24. The Motors - Dancing The Night Away

To download this week's show visit the CJAM archives and select the files 10:00 AM and 11:00 AM on September 15th, 2009.

Flourescent Adolescents... The Arctic Monkeys Story and Show # 182

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)

Blank Generation comes in spurts... Show # 140

Richard Hell was one of the originators of punk in the CBGB's scene. Richard Hell (real name Richard Myers) is known for his fashion, poetry and music. He would move to New York (originally he was from Lexington, Kentucky) to join his friend Tom Miller (later he would change his name to Tom Verlaine) and the two formed the Neon Boys in 1972. They would be a three piece with Hell on bass, Verlaine on guitar and Billy Ficca on drums. The group would not last long and would eventually the Neon Boys would Morph into the band known as Television. Richard Hell would not last long in Television due to the positions of creative control within the band. It has been said that Verlaine eventually refused to play Richard Hell written songs and would tell Hell to stop jumping around on stage during the songs. Despite this Richard played with Television for a short while, Hell would leave in 1975 along with his compositions. It was around this time that The New York Dolls split up and guitarist Johnny Thunders and drummer Jerry Nolan were looking for a new group. Lasting for approximately eight months, Richard Hell briefly played Bass with Johnny Thunders & the Heartbreakers. He would quit due to various reasons, one being that he felt cramped and was not very happy with the musical situation amongst the band.

A few months after this, Hell formed his own band. They would be known as Richard Hell & the Voidoids. Consisting of Hell on bass, Ivan Julian on guitar, Robert Quine on guitar and Marc Bell on drums (later he would be known as Marky Ramone), the bands first release was Another World EP in 1976. It only featured three songs, "Blank Generation", "You Gotta Lose", and "(I Could Live With You In) Another World". In 1977 Blank Generation was released on Sire Records. Being the bands first full length album, It is a punk classic from the era which was fresh and both artistic. The album would feature songs such as "Blank Generation", "Love Comes in Spurts", "Liars Beware" and "Betrayal Takes Two". It should be noted that the versions of "Blank Generation" and "(I Could Live With You In) Another World" on the Blank Generation LP are different than the versions found on the Another World EP.

The group would play among the CBGB's crowd alongside Blondie, Ramones and Talking Heads. Hell would wear a fashion style of ripped clothing that would become known as the punk fashion in the UK when punk broke there in 1977. The band would open for the Clash, but they would never gain the popularity of a band such as The Clash or Sex Pistols. They did not tour enough to support their albums. The group seemingly broke up, but in 1982 they returned minus guitar player Ivan Julian. In 82, Destiny Street was released. The album would feature covers and few new compositions. The band gained new members Naux as the second guitarist and Fred Maher on drums (Marc Bell left to become a member of the Ramones during the Voidoids hiatus). The album would feature six new compositions (one B-side), and three covers (the Kinks, Them, and Bob Dylan). After this the group once again failed to tour behind the album and would break up.

In the 80's Hell would continue to do poetry and was in a few movies. In 1980 he was in the film Blank Generation, and in 1985 he was in Desperately Seeking Susan with Madonna. In 1984 a collection of outtakes was released titled R.I.P., and later Funhunt (a live album). Hell would be involved with various smaller musical projects, in 1992 he joined Dim Stars (a group that had Quine from the Voidiods and Thurston Moore from Sonic Youth) and would release an album. He would release various novels of his poetry, and in the late 90's he was featured in a book called Please Kill Me : The Uncensored Oral History of Punk. In 2000, the Voidoids reformed with the original line-up and recorded a new song "Oh". In 2005, Spurts: The Richard Hell Story would be released, an anthology cataloging Hell's career with various groups.

I also played two new Arctic Monkeys tracks "The Bad Thing", and "Old Yellow Bricks" which is on their new upcoming album Your Favorite Worst Nightmare. The album isn't released until April 24th, but if you look hard enough on the net you can find it. I also suggest if you do download it and you like it, go and buy it when it comes out on April 24th, as I will be doing.

Here's the play list:

1. Sex Pistols – problems
2. Chuck Berry – too much monkey business
3. The Kinks – harry rag
4. Scavengers – money in the bank
5. Buzzcocks – paradise
6. The Demics – new york city
7. Teenage Head – picture my face
8. Gruesomes – what’s your problem?
9. Los Strait Jackets - all day and all of the night
10. Richard Hell & The Voidoids – kid with the replaceable head
11. Richard Hell & The Voidoids – time
12. Generation X – flash as hell
13. Public Image Limited – analisa
14. Wire – outdoor miner
15. The Police – does everyone stare
16. Neil Young – cowgirl in the sand
17. Modernettes – I can only give you everything
18. Marble Index – I don’t wan to try and change your life
19. The Stooges – greedy awful people
20. The Stooges - she took my money
21. The Briefs – stuck on you
22. The D4 – exit to the city
23. Sloan - nothing lasts forever anymore
24. Sloan – back stabbin’
25. Arctic Monkeys – the bad thing
26. Arctic Monkeys - old yellow bricks

Fiction Cigarettes ...Show # 138

Here's the play list for show # 138:

1. The Hives – knock knock
2. Arctic Monkeys – brianstorm
3. Fiction Plane – wise
4. Albert Hammond Jr. – in transit
5. The Odds – make you mad
6. Marble Index – I believe
7. The Expos – little red hook
8. Dead 60’s – the last resort
9. Exploding Hearts – not the fall that hurts
10. Love Me Nots – cry
11. Dirty Pretty Things – B.U.R.M.A.
12. Nirvana – serve the servants
13. Franz Ferdinand – fade together
14. The Rapture – pieces of the people that we love
15. Radio 4 – caroline
16. Queens Of The Stone Age – tangled up in plaid
17. The Stooges – the weirdness
18. Rage Against The Machine – new millennium homes
19. Pearl Jam – severed hand
20. Ride Theory – dead radio love
21. Hot, Hot, Heat – this town
22. The D4 – diamond, ruby, stone