November 15 and 16 at the Mercury Lounge. Zach Vowell sums up the current state of hysteria over these guys in today’s P-Fork:
There’s hype and then there’s HYPE. The Sheffield, England-based baby band Arctic Monkeys have somehow harnessed the power of the video iPod, Asian bird flu, the Arcade Fire, and Samuel Alito into one big blazing ball of buzz, resulting in mass hysteria and the UK-chart-topping debut of their second single ever, “I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor.”
Of course we take note whenever the UK press gets a hard on. For the unitiated, “I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor” and three other tracks are streaming at MySpace. If you like those, you’ll like this “Dancefloor” b-side.
Arctic Monkeys – “Bigger Boys And Stolen Sweethearts” (MP3 Link Expired)
Gotta love Arctic Monkeys … look how cute:
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i think that band is pretty poopy
The British press has a hard on for some new “saviors of rock” band every two weeks. For example, does anyone care about the Vines anymore?
It’s not the “British press”, just NME being their usual hypey selves. The whole “riding on the crest of an internet fandom wave” is bullshit, perpetuated by the admittedly canny press people over at Domino, who by virtue of being the label the Franzers are signed to can get any of their bands played without thought being given to quality. See ‘Test Icicles’ for proof.
Eh… I’m not going to get all excited because even as I enjoy the catchiness of the single now, I know I won’t care about this band by Spring 2006. They should have released it here back when it was camisole weather, then the obviously short shelf life wouldn’t have been such a liability.
the buzz is massivly overexaggerated over here. Everyone’s saying the internet was what made them hit #1 but it wasn’t just the internet, it was Dominino’s use of the internet and support of the medium that led them to hit the top of the charts.
Obviously the internet built up a community before they were signed but being such a poppy band dominino could have taken the band without the community and got them to the top.
The UK (music) press seems to start its day with a triple shot of coffee, a red bull a double dose of Viagr.a.
The arctic monkeys are good. But not that good. I’ll except Oasis comparisons in three years time when they are still hitting the top of the charts
As the monkeys themselves urge, “Don’t believe the hype”. find out for yourself.
i like myspace band pages where you can tell they’re hype cuz of crappier bands piggy backing and people showing off their humor in comments- let that sink in… ok. it does make you feel good. anyway at least the artic monkeys are a fun listen, oh that last go round with maximo park and editors- that was cute.
this band has a goodlooking lead singer and that’s about it…they sound pretty much like the strokes mixed with reel big fish
that’s a mash up i don’t need to hear
could a band with such an unbelievably shitty name really make it? this will be a useful litmus test…
as for the song, it’s pleasant enough. ultra-poppy production.
they sound exactly like the libertines.
i love the libertines.
ergo, i like the arctic monkeys and i don’t care if they stay or if they don’t or if they’re hyped or obscure, but they make some damn good songs to dance around to.
they’re catchy. period & end of story. if a band sounds like a band i like, as Arctic Monkeys do, chances are i’ll like them and the 10 others right behind them. music history is littered with bands being unable to sustain their initial er, impact but i don’t like them any less because of that.
yes, good dancing songs, BUT quite disposable. “franz without the posing” but sounds good to me. wish lyrics were less tailor made for loud teenagers nites out.
someone in the industry was telling me at the start of the summer that there was a good chance they’d be as big, possibly bigger than franz ferdinand. i found that hard to believe, but it doesn’t seem quite as far fetched now.
i bet you look good on the dance floor sounds like the riverboat song by ocean colour scene sped up. libs light and a lame band at that.
if it weren’t for the unbeleivably shitty name they would be a shoe-in, they can still be pretty big though. you have to admit the songs are not too shabby. nothing groundbreaking though.
Artic Monkeys is a terrible name and IBYLGOTDF is a great song. I agree that they sound exactly like the Libertines, which is good because the Libertines aren’t going to be bringing us anything interesting any time soon. The hype surrounding them is easy to avoid; all you have to do is ignore the British music press, and I’ve been doing that since Embrace was on the cover of every magazine. Anyone remember them? Neither do I.
it constantly amazes me how Yankees are so snobbish abt music from the other side of the Atlantic. For christ’s sakes. To begin with there’s so much crap and one-hit wonders in the US that slamming the Arctic Monkeys seems damn myopic, cos they’re gooood. They’ve been around for approx a year now, btw. It hardly seems fair to imply they’re amateur, or won’t last, or to say “They should have released it here back when it was camisole weather, then the obviously short shelf life wouldn’t have been such a liability”. Christ. It’s that cocky American attitude in such trivial matters that tends to piss everyone else off. Boil your head, whoever said that.
I just posted some pictures from a Maximo Park gig that u guys here might like. Sorry to spam i just dont have a reader base!
http://cbotwellblog.blogspot.com/
I’m not sure I’m seen a bigger collection of cynics in a long time. You all must work in the music industry or aspire to it.
The Arctic Monkeys show at The Mercury Lounge on Nov 16th is moving to The Bowery Ballroom. All tickets purchased for the Mercury Lounge show on Nov 16 will be honoured at The Bowery Ballroom. Extra tickets for The Bowery Ballroom show will go onsale at 12 noon today (NY Time) This is 16+ ages show.
http://www.arcticmonkeys.com/
What is more cynical:
1) discussing and evaluating the media-generated hype that surrounds a new band
OR
2) categorically dismissing everyone in the discussion as “a collection of cynics” without even citing an example
My vote’s for number 2.
I’m not a particularly big fan of the AM’s but comparing them to The Libertines is unfair. The AM’s have actually got a few decent tunes to back up, at least some of, the hype.
Really, I’ve had more fun with current UK hypes than I have with the Canadian hypes recently. Yeah, I dig Wolf Parade, New Pornos, and Arcade Fire, but (blasphemy, I know) Broken Social Scene are fucking boring. Metric, Feist, blah. Tegan and Sara sound like Ashlee Simpson, only Ashlee writes better tunes.
I’d much rather hear The Rakes or The Cribs or The Long Blondes. Or The Arctic Monkeys. It’s not the best of the lot (The Cribs’ New Fellas is my new favorite drunken group singalong record), but it is really, really good. Yeah, they’re basically Franz Ferdinand, but ugly. But who cares? They’re fun.
The thing is with the Monkeys is that the fans are totally buying into the hype. Tickets for a Monkey show go for a good 40 pounds, and they always sell out. People sing along to songs that are barely released. Dance Floor hit straight to number 1 without much radio play as say a Robbie Williams or so. Yes they’re not original, nor are they anything orgasm inducing. But you have to give credit where credit is due. The pressure will be with the album.
What? They don’t sound like the Libertines at all! Their songs are pretty good if you like the sort of dance rock sound they’re going for but lets not compare them to the libertines just because both bands are British. I actually thought the “Strokes meets Reel Big Fish” comment was hillariously accurate even though the songs are better than that remark would seem to imply.
I am in the UK and bought into the hype. Downloaded the AMs complete set of music and believe me they are good.
Listen to the radio 1 live gig and try not to be impressed.
The lyrics are one of the keys to their success over here cos they relate to everyday life in England.
Not sure whether you Yanks can relate to them though as growing up in England is much much different to growing up in the States.
It?s amazing how far Arctic Monkeys have gotten on their own without any big media machines fueling them. Now that they?ve made the cover of the NME and they?re being hailed as Britain?s best new band, I?m starting to tire of them already! They?re really being overhyped. I was annoyed this week by the singer?s interview with NME where he bashes Kaiser Chiefs. I thought he sounded really pretentious. Sure, Arctic Monkeys? music is catchy, but I don?t think they?re that great a band (just my opinion). To me, they sound a lot like dozens of other bands out there and they?ve yet to prove they have any staying power. It will be interesting to see where they are in a year?s time.
Yawn, yawn……usual hyped-up english band of the month. These kids are just out of their huggies damn it ! All posing and no substance
saw them live at the astoria,london. It was the moment they blew up. Had’nt we turned up to that gig then it could have been a different story.
But they are a really good band who aren’t ashamed to voice their northern accent!
The British indie/punk scene….it’s all kicking right off!
Just ask Pete Doherty.
Sorry to disagree with you Yanks,but arctic monkeys are brilliant!
I urge you all to go to the gig next week!
Also have you heard ‘fake tales of san francisco’?
what rubbish above about t’lads …
it’s not domino, it’s not the press, it’s certainly damn well not the nme, thank god. It’s people like me (& a hell of a lot of people before me, I was a latecomer here) who went to the gigs, heard the demos, couldn’t believe it & told other people. They only signed for domino in june but were huge way before then, selling out gig after gig before anyone had written a word or before the London A&R could be bothered to get themselves up to Sheffield to see them. It’s genuinely – for once, & maybe the only time this will truly ever happen, because yes, now the industry will try & fake what’s happened here – word of mouth. (That MySpace is nothing to do with them, by the way. They didn’t put stuff on the net themselves to begin with. It was people who’d seen them in Sheffield who put it up & it all spread from there).
Just this once, suspend the cynicism. Good things do happen (once in a while). & if you’re going to see them in the States, you lucky people, you have it all to come… & I’ll see you in NY.
There’s a good & accurate (NME-untainted)article on their history here:
http://www.hostmybb.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=2527&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0&mforum=arctic
Bah, Arctic Monkyes are soooo October,i thought everyone was listening to The Automatic this week?
too late to stop them now!
http://www.arcticmonkeyslinks.co.uk
“it constantly amazes me how Yankees are so snobbish abt music from the other side of the Atlantic.”
Well, that Crazy Frog song was never number one in the U.S.
The arctic monkeys are really good. I can see why some of you wouldnt get a few of the lyrics (as they are observations of local society), but they are really quite funny. I mean who else could get stomach to rhyme with something(summat).
i dont care what any1 says arctic monkeys should always be recognised for their musical talent and not for how long they are selling for, if they always have their first – last album on the market they should be respected be every1 who playes or loves music !!
right you lot keep saying the name is shit but look at half the bands that have made it and are around now… reel big fish, foo fighters they hardly have good names!!! the arctic monkeys rock… saw them at leeds fest and they rocked… but i really cant see the likeness to the libertines.
Hype? No record labels or hyperbolic press were involved in me taking an instant liking to them when I was linked to a website of their demos and song earlier this year. I then went on to pimp them to everyone I know. It’s called word of mouth. Sometimes it happens when people really really like something and they want to share. That the press and the record labels caught wind of the buzz and went bananas (hee) over the Arctic Monkeys does negate the fact that their songs are ace.
A year or so ago, my good friend in sheffield said he’d photographed and interviewed this band and they were the most down-to-earth, yet ingenious band he’d seen met. They gave him their demo CD, which is now all over the internet.
I agree that the British press hype anything more exciting than a nursery rhyme, but having absorbed almost every song the Arctic Monkeys have let loose on the salivating public and seen them live as much as possible (given their gigs sell out in the uk in minutes, not easy), the criticism on this site is lame. It’s far too easy to criticise a band that everyone loves. if you’re going to, at least do so with some accuracy and intelligence.
Yes, musically they make you want to dance. But, there’s invention, excitement and a lack of fear for trying a variety of rhythms within a strict pop/indie sound and it’s anything but repetitive. Lyrically, witty, but more than that, the songs have such clarity you can picture the world they explore.
Don’t accept criticism of them based on one song or from someone who has had one listen and made up their minds to counter what the rest of the world has told them. Get the demos, or the forthcoming album and give it a few listens. better still, get your **** to a gig, and even if you haven’t heard a sound from them, by the second song, you’ll not stop yourself getting involved…
Ignore the hype, but do listen
Why is everyone so worried about media and hype? Surely you’re all perpetuating the very thing you all claim to loathe. I think it’s a really fun song, I saw them play and they were completely unpretentious and played with an unstudied coolness which comes from enjoying what you do. For the record, no-one in Britain pays much attention to the NME, they list tour dates and have occasional unstaged interviews with interesting new bands, that’s about it.
See the band, you’ll understand
I think the Arctic Monkeys are great!
If you were british you would see that comparing the Am’s to the libertines is like comparing chalk and enormous. they are two different types of british music with totally different messages and feelings within the music.
although you yanks will say this is rubbish, because you know fuckin everything you cunts.
they come from two different scenes all together!
im not even going to get into the comparison with Ocean Colour Scene made earlier, Do you have any fuckin ears? Des Sheffield,
Re David Brent:
The Vines are not British, but from the land of Oz
from my own personal experience afta livin in the UK and the USA, it seems that the UK is much more open2music than the usa, if its not manufactured then the americans R’nt interested, look thru the range of music 50 cent its more manufactured than say dizzee rascal, the onli decent bands that have come out of the usa in recent times r then white stripes and mayb the strokes otha that that wait for razorlights 2nd album they R guna take ova the world (wish it was the stereophonics, but 5 albums down the line i doubt it very much
.) so bring on razorlight!!!!!!!!!! p.s pete docherty is a waste of space!!!
Oh my word what a waste of space you yanks are! accept it for what it is! A bunch of young northern lads penning some half decent tunes that young uns can have a dance and relate to. The End..lighten up!
You have to be English to understand this. Your not. Fuck off.
Just repyling david brent, the vines are Australian not british or through you would get fooled with craigs fake accident. Arctic monkeys are a gift of progesswive indi rock, loving it.
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The Arctic monkeys are amazingly talanted
I used to live in sheffield and i live neer to sheffield now
There was hype around the city before they were famous, everyone knew who the Arctic Monkeys were.
I have a friend who works for them and films there vidios, and he was the first to tell me about them saying “there amazing and there going to be the next big think”. so being good friends I ignored him.
But when we heard them I was hooked. They are amazing!
The lyrics reflect life in england, so ime not suprised America dosent understand them, but to say there rubbish us unbelivable! especily as the best america has to offer is Justin Timberlake. hes a sqeeky tallentless idiot, and for some reason you think hes amazing and we get american press hyping him up
anyone who dosent like them has no taste