The city of Sheffield, England has produced famous bands or singers before and the trend continues to this day with the latest addition to their wall of fame. The Arctic Monkeys! The Arctic Monkeys are a four-man group consisting of lead singer and guitarist Alex Turner, Drummer and backup vocals Matt Helders, Lead guitarist and backup vocals Jamie Cook and temporary bassist Nick O’Malley. The band started up when one Christmas Alex and Jamie both received guitars as presents. They taught themselves to play and then brought in Matt and Andy Nicholson (the original bassist who recently quit). Unlike most bands that receive success through playing hundreds of gigs in hope of getting heard by a producer, the Arctic Monkeys took their own route to stardom. They would give away free cd’s of their music at their shows, but since they couldn’t afford thousands of blank cd’s fans quickly started to rip the cd’s which then lead to them sharing the files with other friends who would then send the ripped files to other friends and so on and so on. The band gained massive popularity in northern England and this lead to them releasing their first EP in May of 2005. after the success of their first EP “Five Minutes with the Arctic Monkeys†record companies came a knocking at their door, the band was hesitant at first to sign with any major record label using the logic “we made it this far without them…why should we let them in now?. They would eventually sign onto Domino Records in June of 2005, the lure of money was too much for them to stay away but while signing with Domino they kept their Indie roots by not signing to a real “major labelâ€.
While the sound of the Arctic Monkeys is not one set style is it a hybrid of a few different styles, many would consider them indie/new punk. Personally I consider them an indie, up-tempo rock band. Their lyrics are very unique different from anything you’ve heard before, their bass lines are fantastic, you can feel the drummers passion with the drumlins, Alex Turner has a fantastic voice and Jamie does a great job at keeping the song together with his guitar.
Little would Arctic Monkeys know that the end of 2005 and the year 2006 would be such a huge success for them. Along with selling over 35 000 copies of their first full cd they also appeared on NBC’s hit show Saturday Night Live.
No one knows for sure where the Arctic Monkeys will go now except them but one can be sure that they have already revolutionized the way bands can become a success and will certainly continue to revolutionize the indie music industry.
heres two songs of theirs if you want to hear
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=TESFB7TR
perhaps vampires is a bit strong but…
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=IP1HEEY0
when the sun goes down