Tuesday 27 October 2009

As Musa win top Q Awards, Oasis empty handed


As Muse win top Q award, Oasis empty handed. Oasis lost out to Muse and Arctic Monkeys at the first major awards ceremony since the Mancunian band split. The Live Forever band, whose guitarist and main songwriter Noel Gallagher quit in August, lost out to Devon three-piece Muse in the Best Act in the World today category while Arctic Monkeys took the Best Live Act prize. Both Coldplay and Mercury nominee Florence and the Machine joined Oasis in leaving the Monday awards ceremony empty handed.Kasabian won the Best Album award for West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum while pop triumphed over rock in the Best Track and Best Video categories, with Lily Allen (for The Fear) and Lady GaGa (for Just Dance) respectively victorious.West London trio White Lies were named Best New Act while Mr Hudson was named breakthrough act.A number of classic artists were honoured at the awards show at the Grosvenor House Hotel in London, with Led Zeppelin frontman Robert Plant winning the outstanding contribution to music award, Yusuf Islam - formerly known as Cat Stevens - taking the classic songwriter gong and Sonic Youth taking the innovation in sound accolade. Marianne Faithfull and the currently reformed Spandau Ballet took the Q Icon and Q Idol prizes, respectively, while U2 claimed the classic album honour for their 1984 release The Unforgettable Fire.Paul Rees, editor in chief of Q magazine, said: "Q remains proud of the fact that its awards recognising musical achievement and excellence during the past 12 months are decided by the nation's music fans, who once again have voted in their thousands."We are equally delighted to honour the enduring influence of those artists who have shaped our musical landscape and continue to do so. Collectively, I hope the awards not only highlight the unique breadth of Q's musical world but also the fact that great music remains timeless, enduring and ongoing."

Thursday 22 October 2009

Arena Tour Tickets Arctic Monkeys


Arctic Monkeys have placed a number of extra tickets on sale for their upcoming arena tour.
Earliet this year Arctic Monkey returned, ending over two years of silence from the band. Sure, Alex Turner may have delighted us with Last Shadow Puppets but to their army of fans their is no substitute for Arctic Monkeys.
Secluding themselves away in the Californian desert with Josh Homme, the band began crafting ambitious new material. Finding a new maturity away from their native Sheffield Arctic Monkeys returned with an invigorated new album.
Releasing 'Humbug' over the summer Arctic Monkeys return has been one of the year's most talked about musical events. Hailed by critics as one of their most complete statements to date the album stormed to number one.
The band are due to look out the year with a massive tour and an exciting new single. Arctic Monkeys are set to release 'Cornerstone' on November 16th, complete with a visually stunning new video from Richard Ayoade.
Arctic Monkeys confirmed details of a lengthy November tour some time ago. With tickets selling out almost instantly thousands of fans were left disappointed.
Now the group have announced plans to sell production holds and side view tickets for the upcoming shows. Due to go on sale tomorrow (October 23rd) fans will need to act quick to snap up the very limited tickets.
Arctic Monkeys are set to play the following dates:
November13 Liverpool Echo Arena14 Sheffield Arena16 Newcastle Metro Arena17 London Wembley Arena18 London Wembley Arena20 Birmingham NIA21 Manchester MEN Arena22 Nottingham Trent FM Arena24 Glasgow SECC25 Belfast The Odyssey26 Dublin The O2

Tuesday 20 October 2009

Release New Single, Arctic Monkeys tour


UK-based quartet Arctic Monkeys have announced US tour dates that will bring them to our shores throughout December. The Sheffield natives will launch their live winter assault at Chicago's Riviera Theatre on December 6, and wrap things up just over a week later at Montreal's Metropolis on December 14. Support for the US gigs comes from New Jersey punk trio Screaming Females. “Cornerstone” the band will also release the second single off their latest album, Humbug. It will be available digitally November 17 and as a 10-inch on December 8. The single will be attended by three new B-sides—"Catapult," "Sketchead" and "Fright Lined Dining Room"—and the track's accompanying video clip, directed by Richard Ayoade, can be viewed here.


Tour Dates For Arctic Monkeys:

12/06 - Chicago, IL - Riviera Theatre*
12/07 - Pittsburgh, PA - Mr. Smalls Theatre *
12/08 - Washington, DC - 9:30 Club *
12/11 - New York, NY - Terminal 5 *
12/13 - Boston, MA - House of Blues *
12/14 - Montreal, CA - Metropolis

Tracklist For "Cornerstone" Single:

01. Cornerstone
02. Catapult
03. Sketchead
04. Fright Lined Dining Room

Saturday 10 October 2009

Arctic Monkeys: Scor-zay-zee and Le Donk


Infectious juvenile humour, plus a charismatic star turn from Paddy Considine, playing a self deluded roadie called Le Donk, more than correct for the shortcomings of this ramshackle experiment in barefoot British film making. Shot in five days at the meagre cost of £48,000, it follows Le Donk’s half cocked attempts to secure a live slot during an Arctic Monkeys concert for his rapping protégé Scor-zay-zee (Dean Palinczuk). Along the way there are domestic dramas and professional spats that, though consistently amusing, are crying out for more work, more cash, and more development than the finally limiting five day format allows.

Wednesday 7 October 2009

Arctic Monkeys announce 'Cornerstone'


Three new B-sides are set to release Arctic Monkey they have announced on forthcoming new single 'Cornerstone'. The band Sheffield will release the single on November 16, with new songs 'Catapult', 'Sketchead', and 'Fright Lined Dining Room' available across its release formats. All the B-sides will be available on the 10 inch single release of the single. 'Catapult' will be available as the B-side of the seven inch single. All the songs to download will be available, but there will be no 'Cornerstone' CD release. Although yet to release details, the band are set to team up with Oxfam again for the single release. They previously made the seven inch vinyl of last single 'Crying Lightning' available to buy exclusively in branches of the charity shop.'Cornerstone' will be the second single release from Arctic Monkeys' third album, 'Humbug', which was released in August.
Arctic Monkeys tickets:
Nov 16, 2009 19:30 at Newcastle Metro Radio Arena, Newcastle - Buy from Seetickets
Nov 17, 2009 19:30 at Wembley Arena, London - Buy from Seetickets
Nov 21, 2009 19:30 at Manchester Evening News Arena, Manchester - Buy from Seetickets
More Arctic Monkeys tickets

Sunday 4 October 2009

The Like, Arctic Monkey


UK overnight stars Arctic Monkeys’ first two albums, 2006’s Whatever They Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not and ‘07’s Favourite Worst Nightmare were as wired as a speed freak after a night mainlining caffeine and diet pills. Furthermore, although it’s normally a little hard to imagine anything associated with Queens of the Stone Age being “mellow” except maybe sexxxy love-jam “Make It Witchu,” from Queens’ 2007 LP Era Vulgaris everything is relative, and as produced by QOTSA main man Josh Homme, the Monkeys’ new album Humbug takes just enough edge off to leave the impression that the red-headed stoner-rock god may have actually taught the Monkeys how to relax. (Yoga, we’re sure.) The smoldering pace of songs like “Crying Lightning,” “Pretty Visitor” and “Dance Little Liar” doesn’t necessarily mean the Sheffield-spawned band has gotten lazy, just perhaps a bit more mature, a feeling mirrored in frontman Alex Turner’s never more incisive lyrics.

Friday 2 October 2009

A sweet treat to Arctic Monkeys'


For a guy who writes some nasty lyrics, Arctic Monkeys frontman Alex Turner has a thing for sweets. Take Humbug, the band's third and excellent album. The fact the band hails despite from the same country as Ebenezer Scrooge, the title comes from a British treat. Early on the album there's also a reference to a gobstopper, or jawbreaker.

“I suppose there are a lot of references to the sweets,” bassist Nick O'Malley says. “Alex does have a actual sweet tooth. It comes through in his lyric writing.

“He likes baked goods as well.”

But in making Humbug the Monkeys had to leave their regional culinary preferences behind.

Hailed as the next big thing in the U.K. (an annual occurrence), the Monkeys arrived in the United States three years ago as teenage superstars back home. They were cheeky and not lacking a distinctive sound, a dark guitar rock well on the dance floor that played strangely.
There was buzz befitting a band confident enough to title an early EP Who the (Expletive) Are Arctic Monkeys?.Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not, the Monkeys' debut album, was well received, though hardly one to retire on.The group of a second album revealed to be in a holding pattern.

Hooking up with Queens of the Stone Age's Josh Homme shook their tree. Homme invited the band to his desert studio in California. They left most of their gear, and the sweets, behind.

“Clean underwear, that's about it,” O'Malley says.

The band made use of Homme's well stocked studio. “I very much liked a few of the basses I used,” he says. “But you wouldn't think about stealing them. Josh is a big guy.”

O'Malley says being so removed from the band's comfort zone was a big help. “It's like nothing we'd ever done before,” he says. “They showed us around the national park (Joshua Tree); it was like nothing we'd ever seen before. It was like an alien landscape.”

The result is a darker, edgier recording that makes good on the band's early promise. The beats are still slinky enough for shaking a leg to, not surprising considering Homme's role. There's a bigger and buzzier bass and drum sound.

Turner continues to write dark and detailed songs with cutting commentary about people and their problems, like a line that turns the chicken/egg cliché into a sneering barb on Pretty Visitors. It all starts turning with My Propeller, a sort of bleary-eyed play on My Starter Won't Start, that suggests some oil and a spin will get it going again.

Don't expect more desert inspired rock. O'Malley says there's talk of building a studio and “getting all Phil Spector with the next one. We like to try different things; we're still quite young.”

Until then they will be touring a lot, which O'Malley says the band has gotten better at. Whereas it had been a testy grind especially a European tour last year that included multiple vehicle breakdowns and an instance when lightning struck the van O'Malley sounds eager to present Humbug live. “It's exciting because we're playing so much better together,” he says.

As for the lightning: “It was just a actually big bang, what you'd expect, I suppose. There was a visual aspect of it. A big bright light.

“But the van is likely one of the safest places to be.”

Thursday 1 October 2009

Kool Haus, Toronto 2009, Arctic Monkey


TORONTO - Arctic Monkeys' most current album may be called Humbug, but their dynamic gig at Kool Haus on Tuesday night elicited a response that was anything but, "Bah, you know what."
A lightning bolt of musical energy lookingly struck the venue as the fresh-faced British rock quartet, aided by a touring keyboardist guitarist, delivered an exciting and fast paced hour and 20 minute set to a sold out crowd who responded with cheering, applause and the occasional sing and clap along.
After the young conference members engaged in a "Monkeys! Monkeys!" chant, the Sheffield pair kicked off the night with Dance Little Liar from Humbug and played no fewer than eights songs from the new disc with the standouts proving to be Crying Lightning and Potion Forthcoming, early in the gig, and Dangerous Animals, and My Propeller towards the end.
The band, led by confident and accomplished wordsmith and singer guitarist Alex Turner, last played in Toronto at the same venue, so the question now is why aren't they any bigger across the pond after three albums into their fast rising career?
Not only are they huge in England, but they've improved exponentially in a live setting with three of the four band members, Turner, bassist Nick O' Malley and guitarist Jamie Cook, sporting long hair which made for excellent hair whipping chsnce amidst a fondness for strobe lights and ultra loud sound.
Drummer Matt Helders was no wall flower either as he bashed his kit so hard and fast during the song Sketchhead it was no great that Humbug producer Josh Homme of Queens Of The Stone Age nicknamed him "the Octopus."
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After that particular impressive display, Turner commanded: "Matthew Helders on drums. If you like him, tell him you like him Toronto!"
But truth be told it was older, more well known tunes like Brianstorm, Still Take You Home, I Bet You Look Good On The Dance Floor, View From The Afternoon, Do Me A Favour, and Fluorescent Adolescent that made the crowd go absolutely nuts.
"You look good Toronto," said Turner, who moved to Brooklyn earlier this year where he's shacked up with MTV personality and fellow Brit Alexa Chung.
Right back at ya Alex.
The band also admirably tackled a Nick Cave cover Red Right Hand, whose title comes from a line in John Milton's epic poem, Paradise Lost, during the encore complete with moody red lights and just the right amount of swagger.
Energetic, explosive and cooler than cool, Arctic Monkeys' performance proved just how vital rock 'n' roll can be.
SET LIST:
Dance Little Liar
Brianstorm
Crying Lightning
Potion Approaching
Pretty Visitors
This House Is a Circus
Still Take You Home
I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor
If You Were There, Beware
Sketchead
Dangerous Animals
View From the Afternoon
Secret Door
Cornerstone
Do Me a Favour
Flourescent Adolescent
ENCORE:
Red Right Hand
My Propellor
505