For Tomorrow

Regular readers of this blog will note that I generally prefer stuff from the other side of the Atlantic. Even during Britpop’s glory years my favourite records were by Pavement and The Afghan Whigs. I don’t know why this is. Despite this, there’s no doubt that the UK can occasionally throw up a band to compare with the best of them – The Smiths and Blur say. And from what little I’ve heard so far, there might be a new one on the horizon – The Arctic Monkeys. But what a rubbish name.

Part of the problem with new bands in this country is that the hype is so extraordinary to begin with that when it dies down there doesn’t seem to be all that much left. NME has a great track record of bigging up the flimsiest of bands – anyone remember Terris? But even by the hyperbolic standards of our august journals, the story of The Arctic Monkeys seems almost impossible to believe. If you believe their website and reports in the press (and why wouldn’t we?) their gigs so far have been populated by people who’ve driven hundreds of miles to witness a band who hadn’t even released a record. The whole Arctic Monkeys buzz was created by their own home made demo which was passed from fan to fan or downloaded from t’internet.

I must admit that I’d seen mentions of the band in various places but had thought it another build-em-up knock-em-down story so hadn’t really paid much attention. But I heard a single on the radio last week and decided that there may be a little more to this band than most. On downloading their demo, I can see what all the fuss is about. Plus, they’ve signed to Domino, who are a proper record company.

The single “Fake Tales Of San Francisco” starts of as a slightly stuttering Brit-rock song with some interesting and amusing lyrics, is elevated by a great call-and-response chorus and then suddenly morphs into the Pixies at the top of their game and even has chance to throw in a classic “Yeah yeah yeah yeah!” It really is something. Their other songs seem to follow a familiar pattern – all stuttering verses, terrace chant choruses and state of the nation lyrics, all sung in a thick Yorkshire accent. In fact, whether people take to the Arctic Monkeys will largely depend on whether they take to not just the lyrics and the accent, but the frequent use of dialect – songs where ‘stomach’ gets rhymed with ‘summat’ and ‘Mondeo’ with ‘say owt.’

It’s still far far too early to be proclaiming these to be anything other than an excellent new band who could well be something important. But the songs I’ve heard so far point to great things.

Anyway, make your own mind up by watching the new video or by going here and downloading the demo. If the demo link no longer works then a google search will most likely turn up most of them for you.

In other news, McCartney gets the Observer music monthly treatment.