Arctic Monkeys
If anything, Sheffield, England's Arctic Monkeys are a harbinger of the second coming of Brit pop. Hailing from the same geographical terrain that gave the world Jarvis Cocker and Def Leppard, this four-piece outfit combines high and low culture with dash and a snotty confidence that belie a band that began life in a college classroom. Alex Turner and Matt Helders found common cause at Barnsley College in 2002, after discovering that they both had unreasonable devotio! n to the music of the Smiths, the Clash, the Jam, Oasis and, oddly, the Queens of the Stone Age. Naturally such credentials led to the new pals deciding to start a band, with Turner taking the slot as the guitarist and Helders as the drummer. The trouble was they didn't have any equipment, so they asked their respective parents for instruments the next Christmas. After they packed away the last of the holiday ornaments, the two 16-year-olds began rehearsing in earnest in a nearby warehouse, drafting rhythm guitarist Jamie Cook and bassist Andy Nicholson to round out their arch and bratty sound. Soon this newfound outfit was penning lyrics full of suburban ennui, swagger and intellectual promise, all underpinned with breathless guitar riffs that teetered on the edge of punk. Within a year they had enough songs to fill out a set, with lyrics about fighting boredom in the British suburbs while scattering brainy schoolboy references to Shakespeare's Capulets and Montagues and DJ culture! like they were empty beer bottles and crumpled cigarette packages. But underneath all the brittle cool, the Monkeys disseminated surprisingly sage advice about life, love and the perils of the nighttime world. Their songs stood out from the brat pack because they combined a high-minded archness while exploring a generational existential claustrophobia; because of that they struck a deep chord with U.K. fans, who saw their own dilemma mirrored in the lyrics. Domino Records noticed the fervor they were creating -- from selling out clubs to appearing on the Carling Stage at the 2005 Reading and Leeds festivals, with fans singing along to all their songs -- when they hadn't even released a CD. The band was hounded so much by label scouts that for a time they barred them from their gigs, b! ut Domino prevailed, and signed the young musicians in June 2005, when the oldest member was a mere 18. Within months, they had put out their first EP, Five Minutes With the Arctic Monkeys, limiting the release to only 1,000 CDs and 500 7-inch records, but allowed their songs to be downloaded, showing their devotion to digital music culture. Their first album, Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I Am Not, was on shelves in the U.K. by January 2006 and became the fastest selling debut album in U.K. chart history, securing the No. 1 spot. When Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I Am Not finally was released on our shores the next month, it sold a healthy 360,000 copies in its first week, and as a result it secured the honor of becoming the second-fasting selling debut indie album in America.
Jaan Uhelszki
Particulars About Arctic Monkeys
Artist
Arctic Monkeys
City
Sheffield
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