ARCTIC MONKEYS:The Beatles A dame bests

At age 92, Dame Vera Lynn has beaten the Arctic Monkeys and even the Beatles to seizure the No. 1 record in Britain.The singer who 70 years ago recorded an evocative reminder of home for British soldiers fighting far away on Monday became the oldest living artist to have a No. 1 record in Britain when her album "We'll Meet Again The Very Best of Vera Lynn" took the top spot. This week's British album charts were a authentic trip down memory lane. The Beatles had 17 records in the top 100, thanks mainly to the release last week of their remastered albums. Michael Jackson had five appearances in the top 100.

Brit's superstars: the Arctic Monkeys

Only three years since their debut and the Arctic Monkeys have already endured losing a band member, headlined festivals next to the likes of Radiohead, manifested a front man side project, and received hype comparable to that which surrounded four other adolescent brit-pop rockers. Unlike the original "Fab Four," the Arctic Monkeys have struggled to gain mass popularity on this side of the Atlantic. Their success in the U.K. is a different story. Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not sold over 360,000 copies in its first week, making it the fastest selling debut in the United Kingdom ever. In 2007, they dropped the loud and fast Favorite Worst Nightmare, which was a solid album in its own right. After two years of anticipation they released Humbug on August 25, 2009.On Humbug, the Arctic Monkeys have not strayed too far from their bread and butter. The characteristic syncopated riffs and perceptive lyrics are still here in full force. That said, this album sounds very different from their previous work. Simply put, our little Monkeys are growing up. Alex Turner's lyrics have always felt as if they were coming from an old soul, now it seems as though the band's aesthetic is finally starting to match. That is not to say that the album does not rock, but it is in a bluesy way that your dad might enjoy. The band as a whole is much more focused on song structure and arrangement. When compared to their older works, there is a feeling of restraint throughout the album, trading much of their youthful energy for a more subdued, mature mood.Musically, Humbug is full of loose, rhythmic rock songs. The addition of more guitars, synths, and backing vocals give the mix an atmospheric texture. This may be a result of producers Josh Homme, from Queens of the Stone Age, and James Ford, of Simian Mobile Disco. Ford also produced for Turner's side project, The Last Shadow Puppets. The album was also recorded at Joshua Tree, California. Their D.I.Y. garage rock vibe has been replaced by lush textures and a more methodical mixing process. Turner's vocals are front and center, as they should be. His melodies in "Cornerstone" are quaint and delicate while his quick rhythmic delivery in the verses of "Secret Door" carries a hip-hop influence. Helders's drum beats are par for the course, precise and full of quick fills. The bass here plays a distinctly different role, abandoning dirty distorted tones in favor of one thick and mellow. All in all, Humbug is good, not great. It will most likely be looked back on as a transition album. It's the product of a band going through some sonic experimentation without settling into anything too comfortable. This is an important, yet somewhat awkward step. Not surprising coming from a band of adolescents turning into a band of adults that have a lot going for them. Fast forward 10 years, a couple of drug addictions, and a guitar-less album later and the Arctic Monkeys may have defined rock for a generation.

Arctic Monkeys in Brixton, warm up for Reading And Leeds Festivals

Arctic Monkeys warmed up for the Reading And Leeds Festivals by playing the O2 Academy Brixton tonight (August 26). Getting ready for the weekend's (August 28-30) headlining slots, the band played their first gig since the Monday (August 24) release of third album 'Humbug' with supergroup Them Crooked Vultures, who played their first ever UK gig, supporting the Sheffield four piece. Kicking off with ’Humbug’ opener 'My Propeller', the band followed it with their Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds cover and current B-side 'Red Right Hand'. waiting before playing current single 'Crying Lightning', frontman Alex Turner introduced the group by saying, "Hello, we're Arctic Monkeys," before jokingly adding, "Have we got time for one more?"The group joined by their currently industed live keyboard player and extra guitarist John Ashton (their former sound man) then not quite paused between songs as they performed a set that move something by pulling from all three of their albums with the likes of previous singles 'Brianstorm' and 'I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor'. For new album track 'Potion Approaching', Turner rejected his guitar, trying his hand as an out and out frontman. "Did you enjoy Them Crooked Vultures?" he then asked the bunch ahead of the next song, 'Pretty Visitors'. "I surely did. We were blessed to make a record with two of those chaps and I can tell you they're a great group of bastards. I'd like to dedicate this song to them." Following 'Humbug' track 'Dangerous Animals', the band went right back to their beginnings, launching into 'The View From The Afternoon', the opener from first public appearance album 'Whatever People Say I Am That's What I'm Not'. After a soft version of 'Cornerstone' Turner explained, "I'd like to take it down, take it down even further" before introducing 'Favourite Worst Nightmare''s 'The Only Ones Who Know' and 'Do Me A Favour'. "Have you had a good night, everybody?" the singer asked the crowd ahead of set closer 'Fluorescent Adolescent'. "Well I hope it continues to be one!"Returning for an acclamation, the band performed 'Secret Door' before finishing the night with '505'. "Thank you," declared Turner as his group covered things up. "Some of you I'm sure we'll see at the weekend."

Arctic Monkeys played:

'My Propeller''Red Right Hand'

'Crying Lightning''Brianstorm'

'Still Take You Home'

'I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor'

'Potion Approaching'

'Pretty Visitors''This House Is A Circus'

'If You Were There Beware'

'Dangerous Animals'

'The View From The Afternoon'

'Cornerstone'

'The Only Ones Who Know'

'Do Me A Favour'

'Fluorescent Adolescent'

'Secret Door'

hot on new album to Arctic Monkeys

VICTORIA -- For a round of holocene phone interviews, Arctic Monkeys frontman Alex Turner thought he'd be well-served to sit in the Brooklyn, N.Y., park near the home he allotment with his girlfriend.
The press schedule would have him adhesive to his cellphone for at least the next few hours, so the singer-guitarist hatched a plan to bring a Frisbee along for some mindless escape.
Turner, 23, forgot one key part of his plan -- the Frisbee. Perhaps it was all for the better. "We're pretty highest when we play," he said. "You're gonna get an arm-ache from the level that we offer it."
I suggest using the catchphrase "bring the heat," having just watched Bull Durham on the telly. "The heat," Turner says, pondering the North American expression. "We don't leave home without it."
Turner, a native of Sheffield, England, left his home in late 2008 for London, only to emigrate six months later to Brooklyn when his gal pal, Alexa Chung, a former model, scored a gig hosting MTV's It's On with Alexa Chung.
The new zip code has had zero impact on the career arc of Turner's band, whose third record, Humbug, arrives in stores Tuesday on a mountain of advance hype and acute publicity, particularly overseas.
In the band's homeland, few acts are bigger. Its 2006 debut, Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not, surpassed Oasis' Definitely Maybe as the fastest-selling debut album in British music history, while its followup, 2007's Favourite Worst Nightmare, debuted No. 1 in the U.K. and saw all 12 tracks from the album enter that country's radio charts.
There was no need to batch with success for Humbug, but Turner felt a slight tinkering was in order. "I think we were a lot more open to start with this time. I think that was a compulsion, to approach it with more of an open mind than we have with things before. In the past, we always had this brand of regulation in place, almost like, 'We need to be able to play this live.' We were always aware of that when we were making records. If we recorded something on Monday, on Tuesday night we wanted to be able to play it live."
Turner, bassist Nick O'Malley, guitarist Jamie Cook and drummer Matt Helders will beyond all doubt be able to replicate the Humbug material live, despite the complexity of the studio versions.
Three songs off the album were produced in New York by James Ford, who was at the studio console for Favourite Worst Nightmare, but the majority were produced by Queens of the Stone Age brain trust Josh Homme, whose affinity for riff-heavy experimentalism was bear in mind an odd pairing with the Monkeys' brash Brit-rock.
Homme, who produced parts of Humbug at a studio in Joshua Tree, Calif., near the Mojave Desert, came to the project at the decision of the pair's London-based label, Domino Records. Turner thought it was a curious choice at first, but felt he had nothing to lose by sending menifestation along to Homme for feedback. The band was invited to California for a chat, and soon after, the decision was made to move forward with Homme on the recording of Humbug. "He said, 'Don't leave home without the heat,'" Turner joked.
Homme left his mark -- he plays guitar here and there, while his former Queens of the Stone Age bandmate, Alain Johannes, mixed the album but there's no mistaking the innate Britishness of Turner's lyrics.
The band's third album is a long exit from the previous two albums, though it has a considerable amount in common with last year's At the Apollo, afrenetic CD-DVD set documenting the quartet's 2007 world tour.
Turner said the scrappy side of the band has been in hiding long enough. "There was a anxiety to make a more aggressive record. We've been enjoying the rock side of our shows, by any chance more than the melodic-song side of it. After having had a moment away from playing live, we wanted to introduce a bit of diversity, expand a little more."

Arctic Monkeys: Humbug

Cool band plus cool producer: what could acceptable go wrong? Quite a lot, as it turns out, because Arctic Monkeys and their tendered partner, Queens of the Stone Age’s front man, Josh Homme, seem to have no middle ground. No enjoyable middle ground, anyway. The band strain to reach their idea of what this collaboration might be and sound only, well, strained. It’s not a consumed album (Alex Turner’s lyrics are always worth a listen), but the wrong headedness of the link up is accented by the best track, Cornerstone (produced by James Ford), a lovely, natural, unpressured song that sits in more familiar Monkeys territory and is all the better for it. The music press have already approvaled Humbug, but I’m taking bets on the band’s next album being taged “a come back to form”; by then, this one will be seen as an intriguing but needless amusement.

Get more 'bottle' Monkeys

Alex Turner comes to term with being a songwriter21 August 2009 - With a Mercury Prize nominated side project under his belt and two year's since Arctic Monkeys' last album frontman Alex Turner seems more comfortable than ever as a musician. "Perhaps I've come to terms with the idea of writing, or being a 'songwriter'," he accepted to Steve Lamacq on 6 Music. "It's a term that used to send a shivers down my spine. It just felt a bit like I should have a cut away acoustic guitar or something." There's one weekend left until the discharge of Arctic Monkeys' intercepted third album Humbug on Monday 24 August, a record which Turner claims contains more "personal elements". "Perhaps because it's written with more of a veil over it, that allows you to put in more emotion," he explained. "I didn't want make up a load of characters this time and I maybe just got a act more bottle to write a love song."

Crying Lightning to Arctic Monkeys

That Arctic Monkeys have come back is in itself no bad thing. That Arctic Monkeys have come paddling back into town on a boat baltantly entirely powered by their own egos, however, has not gone down quite as well with otherwise stalwart Monkeyfans.There are many good things about the video, of course. It has Arctic Monkeys in, for one. And it's directed by Richard Ayoade, who was very good as Marsh in The IT Crowd.The point is not that it's a BAD video, or that the song is bad, or the bridly are suddenly bad. It's just that their accurate forward, down-to-earth access has suddenly taken a turn for the adipose. That's not adipose, that's just the title screen. Although it's a pretty overblown title screen. And it's up for about nine seconds, which seems somewhat over the top. But let's not get picky about the details. The video is basically embraced of two simple halves. The first part is concerned entirely with Arctic Monkeys being in a boat. A boat with no visible means of propulsion: it's just a floaty boat. A floaty boat with some burnt out lightbulbs and some musical apparatus. Which is a nice idea: a cruise is nothing without a band, after all. I just hope they've brought a very long extension chord. But then, perhaps they haven't. As the boat floats directly into an apparent storm, you start to effect that there could actually be some logic to this after all. Maybe the song is, in fact, about how Arctic Monkeys have developed some mysterious way of plugging directly into thunderclouds, and that this makes them sad for some reason, and that this video therefore represents a straight forward visual representation of the lyrics. But then all of that goes out of your head when giant glowing Monkeys start rising up out of the waves. And, like you at home, the Monkeys in the boat looking up at giant glowing versions of themselves, floating above the waves with differing levels of ironic awe. Just like you are doing, at home. Except theirs is more the "OMG!" kind of amazement, while yours is most likely of the "WTF?!" category. They stand in water, giant luminescent rocking sea gods with guitars. With giant glowing rock god crotches. And poncey rock-god haircuts. Or lack of haircuts, more like. All of them. Look at that. Seriously, boys, stop it. It's one of life's cruellest gags, the fact that accomplishment makes you believe that you can sport any hairdo you want just because people tell you you look great whatever you do. See? Magical clean electricity, invented by Arctic Monkeys, and displayed through this useful (if haircut free) video.The answer to global warming: solved. All we need to create unlimited amounts of clean power on tap are a set of giant glowing rock-god Monkeys willing to stand around and widdle their magical electrical wee all over your energy-requiring appliances. And that's just it. Arctic Monkeys in a boat, then giant glowing Arctic Monkeys floating over the water. That's all there is to it and yet it seems to have left a bit of a abusive taste in the mouth for many Monkeys and/or music video fans across internetland.I guess it feels a bit like the boys who felt like your nextdoor neighbours have suddenly adjudged to be big self-important rock stars alternately. Which is fine: and they can, and clearly they're not taking it completely seriously, but still, it feels like an adipose letdown.Just a bit like: "Hey, do you remember when we were bloke growing up around the way, and we'd get sordet dabs on a Saturday with our pocket money, and hang around t'park until it got dark, then light the way home … with our giant glowing rock crotches?"It's exactly like that, it is.
Labels: Arctic Monkey concert Tickets, arctic monkeys infor, watch arctic monkeys

Arctic Monkeys, Killers, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and more,Lollopalooza 2009 scene report

Another year, another Lolla and this time, we’ve got our man on the scene, Burhan Hamid (EW tech wizard by day, alt-fest poo-bah by night! Or at least weekend!) with a full scene message. Read his conspectus of the long-running annual indie-culture band bonanza below, now cramped to a one-0ff three-day event in Chicago. Says Burhan:
“The problem with festivals like Lollapalooza is that you have to make difficult judgment throughout the day. Important things like: do we go see Rise Against or TV on the Radio? Tool or the Yeah Yeah Yeahs? Santigold or Glasvegas? Use a Porta Potti or…I’ll let that one go. Here’s a recap of some of the bands that my buddies and I got to see on a scorching hot Saturday and even hotter Sunday at Lollapalooza in Chicago’s once beautiful Grant Park: