“A simplistic take on danceable garage rock that anyone could produce if they practiced enough”
Interesting to see the American take on the Arctic Monkeys. It contains the classic k-punk baiting line, “So, are they manufactured? Who gives a shit? What matters is the songs.” And the evocation of grim British life is silly, kind of patronizing, and innacurate. Surely “a world that exists after school discos and without the possibility of university or gainful employment” is more likely to be soundtracked by happy hardcore or terrible trance than by the Arctic Monkeys’ student indie. Still, when the article starts slagging them off, it starts making interesting points:
It’s an interesting tune, actually: a clumsy, repetitive “funk” instrumental that smacks of white kids who’ve had no contact with actual funk—or hip-hop or reggae or dancehall or R&B, for that matter—but who think they ought to be able to do something funky by repeating a riff with a backbeat for three minutes. It raises a question: What would the Arctic Monkeys sound like if they tapped into their locale beyond lyrics, if they took note of Sheffield’s long history of industrial and electronic experimentation?
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maybe their music’s not that original becuse they are more interested in channelling their, uh, roots, in, uh, 1960s naturalist cinema:
“The week before its release, the source behind the album’s name was
revealed as a reference to northern actor Albert Finney and the 1960s
film Saturday Night and Sunday Morning. The band are reportedly fans of old British ’60s movies, and lead singer Alex Turner revealed to
UK-tabloid The Sun that the album is what the film is about. “Songs
including “The View From The Afternoon”, “Dancing Shoes”, “Still Take
You Home” and “From The Ritz To The Rubble” all cover that bit of the
weekend and feature the same character.”
here
Comment by leila @ 3/11/2006 2:42 am
So… a Northern band that really likes British movies about the working classes in the late 50s and early 60s.
They’re what the Smiths would have been if Rourke and Joyce had been the frontmen.
Comment by Tim Footman @ 3/12/2006 11:27 pm
I love articles like this that take the critical high-ground on some act (”I’m sure it’s great for provincial kids, but come on, we are all a bit more sophisticated than that”) but then can’t help but betray themselves by wheeling out some other no-mark guitar slingers (in this case the immeasurably boring Bloc Party) by way of supposedly telling comparison.
And here’s an answer to the rhetorical question “What would the Arctic Monkeys sound like if they tapped into their locale beyond lyrics, if they took note of Sheffield’s long history of industrial and electronic experimentation?”: Fucking awful!
Comment by Stefan @ 3/13/2006 2:42 am