Arctic Monkeys Myspace For Sale

Having just posted about the Arctic Monkeys... I thought I'd mention this for those of you who are a little more involved in the story of their success... I'm sure you no doubt have heard about how Myspace helped them out... how it started their career... in fact I think I have told people that myself... here is the truth:

Arctic Monkeys Myspace for Sale

They didn't even know what myspace was lol...

New British Invasion? (Pt 3)

So I said I'd post Monday... and now it's Friday... but let's be realistic. At this point there are maybe three people reading this. And I know them all very well! Well anyway... The last post in my British invasion series is about the Arctic Monkeys. If you aren't familiar with them at this point I'm surprised you are reading my blog seeing as it's all British, and this is the biggest brit band around. Here's a refresher course from Wikipedia:

"They first started to gain the attention of the mainstream public when their demos were made available to download on the internet in late 2004. Around this time they began to receive a great deal of attention from BBC Radio 1 and the British tabloid press for their catchy songs and witty lyrics. They had already had several sold outgigs in Sheffield by this point and their reputation was building up.
In May 2005, Arctic Monkeys released their first EP, Five Minutes with Arctic Monkeys, featuring the songs "Fake Tales of San Francisco" and "From the Ritz to the Rubble". This release was limited to 1000 CDs and 500 7" records, but was also available to download from the iTunes Music Store.

Their popularity rapidly grew after several shows. Mark "The Sheriff" Bull, a local amateur photographer (not to be confused with James Sheriff who was a college friend who administers the band's website), and passionate music fan, made the contents of Beneath the Boardwalk – which he named himself rather than use the term "demo" again - freely available to download from his webpage. These tracks quickly became available on several peer-to-peer file-sharing networks."

And boom that's how we got where we are today:

"Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not became the fastest selling debut album in chart history, selling 363,735 physical copies in the first week. This smashed the previous record of 306,631 copies held by Hear'say with their debut Popstars, and is likely to be even higher once online downloads of the album are added. The record's first day sales alone - 118,501 copies - made it the fastest selling debut rock album, and would have been enough to secure the Number One chart position.

In its first week of release in America, Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not, sold 34,000 units, making it the second fastest selling for a debut indie album in America. While not as strong as the British reception, the album debuted #24 on the Billboard album chart."

WOWZERS! Right? These boys may be the great British hope for breaking in the mainstream... I mean it's a damn fine album and they have lots of energy and presence... here's a little taste... this is a really good live set from KCRW... I know, I know... you can thank me for it later lol...


Arctic Monkeys- "A View From The Afternoon"

Arctic Monkeys- "Dancing Shoes"

Arctic Monkeys- "Fake Tales Of San Francisco"

Arctic Monkeys- "You Probably Couldn't See For All the Lies But You Were Staring Straight At Me"

Arctic Monkeys- "Vampires Is A Bit Strong, But..."

Arctic Monkeys- "From The Ritz To The Rubble"

Arctic Monkeys- "A Certian Romance"

Make sure to comment on which of the three bands posted here you think has the potential to make it in America... I'd be interested to see what people think...

Sorry...

Sorry guys no post today... I got totally fucking shafted at work and I'm WAY too pissy to even sit at the comp to do a proper post... sorry... be back tomorrow with your arctic monkeys treats...

New British Invasion? (Pt. 2)

So here is the second post in my "Invasion" series... The Subways found their way into the US conciousness when they appeared on "The O.C." playing "Rock & Roll Queen" last season. Since then they have made a dent here and there but have yet to brake all the way into mainstream media. They are young, insanely energetic (check out their videos or even their live photos), and Billy Lunn with his missus Charlotte Cooper genuinely seem like indie rock's cutest cutest couple (Josh Morgan their poor drummer never gets talked about but cheers to him! What would "Oh Yeah" be without those drums... it's always Charlotte Subway this and Billy Subway that...). Hopefully they will make a dent and help lead the new revolution refered to commonly as the "Brit-pack" (that has to be an NME phrase). I'm gonna post a couple up here and you folks tell me what you think... leave something in the comment area. REMEMBER, you need iTunes or Quicktime to listen to these... they are better quality than your average MP3!

The Subways- "Rock & Roll Queen"

The Subways- "Oh Yeah"

Once again COMMENT PLEASE PEOPLE! The next installment will be Arctic Monkeys... I have a bunch of good ones for that... you will have to wait till Monday however! If this goes well I will keep going with this and post the rest of the bands featured in the USA Today article. Have a good holiday everyone, and thanks for calling into the radioshow last night... that was fucking awesome to know we have a following!

New British Invasion? (Pt. 1)

So I don't know how many of you saw it buttttttt USA Today did a piece on the new wave of brit rock a couple weeks ago. They basically had Arctic Monkeys, Hard-Fi and The Subways leading the way. On the next page they had bits about Editors, Babyshambles and a couple other groups. I can see how this might be possible... but... I dunno. We have a lot of new listeners on my radioshow and it seems like people are more interested in brit rock but I think (especially nowadays) Americans can only get down on things that are American. I mean, fuck, a large portion of this country supposedly voted for GW! Anyway... my girlfriend said she heard Editors at the mall, and she thinks Richard Archer from Hard-Fi is pretty hot (not as hot as me she says.. hehe...) so she believes that this article might carry some weight. I say you, the people, should weigh in on this one. I'm gonna post a couple Hard-Fi tracks today... then I will post some stuff from The Subways on the next post, and do some Arctic Monkeys on the one after that. Obviously at this point Arctic Monkeys have made the biggest splash going to #24 on the US Billboard charts and having the fasting selling "indie guitar based album" sales in the US ever... make sure you commment so I can get a feel of what the world thinks... I may not be able to post for a couple days...

I'm going out of town to hang with the girlfriend's family... I really like them so it should be a good weekend... lots of Korean food... yummy...

Hard-Fi- "Stronger (Non-Album Track)"

Hard-Fi- "Middle Eastern Holiday (Wrong Tom vs Rockers Mix)"

I may not be able to post for a couple days... I'm going out of town to hang with the girlfriend's family... I really like them so it should be a good weekend... lots of Korean food... yummy...

P.S. To listen to some of the files on this site you will have to use iTunes or Quicktime. I imagine you already are...

Show me, Show me, Show me how you do that trick...

So I'm just getting out of work right now. Not in the best mood ever but that is more for the personal blog. SO ANYWAY... Tonight is the big Albion night... if you stumble across this site today try to give it a listen at 89.1 WIDR FM Kalamazoo. We have a really good show planned out! I would also like to mention (even though this is for the more personal blog) that today is my three month anniversary with my girlfriend. She is by far the best thing that has ever happened to me. I have no idea where I would be without her. My inclination is to post the Beach Boys "God Only Knows" but this is a brit related site so I am going to post a song by The Cure.. but FIRST check this out...

Charles (from "The Spirit Of Albion") and his dream about he, David Bowie, and myself saving the world

That's too hilarious to leave out... somebody needs to read that lol...

The Cure- "Just Like Heaven"

Once again.. listen to the show... and call in! All the details are at The Spirit Of Albion webpage. I'll be back later tonight or early tomorrow with another post, and probably part of the set list from the show tonight...

Time For Heroes

As usual, I was rifling through the Hype Machine, and noticed a lot of tracks with the word "hero" in them... and I decided that is really enough for a whole post dedicated to the word!

First up is a cover of David Bowie's "Heroes" done by none other than the fabulous Oasis! I fucking love Oasis... I realize a large portion of the world doesn't BUT if it weren't for Oasis we wouldn't have had Brit-Pop, which means we wouldn't have young bands like Arctic Monkeys because they wouldn't have had an inspiration, which means I wouldn't be able to buy the NME here in America... make sense? I'm not sure that's true but they are one of the few bands I listened to as a kid that still rile me up over a decade later...

Next up we have "Time For Heroes" by The Libertines. This was originally supposed to be a "folky" song in order to have "Up The Bracket" sell as well as The Strokes "Is This It", it was sped up and turned into a punk ballad. This song is very stirring and makes you proud to be young. I was listening to a recording of Dot Allison and Pete Doherty live in Preston where he suddenly went from playing "Ballad Of Grimaldi" to "Time For Heroes"... and when he did the crowd went from being inattentive to boisterously singing along with every word. I'm putting up the live version because I like to put up tracks that are hard to get, or are b-sides, or are just really rare. It's pretty bad quality but it is rare lol!

Last but not least... here is "Hero" by Bloc Party. This song was part of the "Two More Years" EP. I wasn't super into Bloc Party when they came out only because when a British band gets mad exposure in the U.S. quickly (i.e. Keane) they usually can't be trusted... but this is a mad crazy good song. And that concludes our hero worship!

Oasis- "Heroes"

The Libertines- "Time For Heroes (Live)"

Bloc Party- "Hero"

I just wanted to mention that you can find all the Bloc Party remixes and b-sides @ "...good weather for airstrikes". Hope you all enjoy!

Gorillaz In My Midst

Ok that's a silly title... anyway I'm watching "Land Of The Dead" because my hardcore kickass girlfriend bought me an aniversary/Easter basket that she put it in ("awwwww" I know right! There is nothing better than a girlfriend who gives you zombie movies for special occasions... then right after that she said "I need you to rub lotion all over me..." Sometimes my life is wayyyyy too perfect lol). But enough about zombies and onto Gorillaz (one of the Gorillaz, 2D, is a zombie so it's not that big of a jump)... They have a new DVD out, and a couple of live shows coming up in New York here... they just released the double A side "El Manana/Kids With Guns" and this is the little gem that popped up as the B side. It's heavily sought after so get it while the gettin's good.


Gorillaz- Stop The Dams


Also as an extra little treat... a few weeks back on my friend Charles and my radioshow (called The Spirit Of Albion) I did a cover of Radiohead's "Creep"... I hadn't intended on doing it so it was pretty spontanious (as you will see when you listen but... I hope you enjoy it)

Brenden from "The Spirit Of Albion"- Creep

The End Is The Beginning Is The End

So I figured I'm always seeing other people's mp3 blogs and wishing I had my own... I keep thinking.. "Oh wouldn't it be fun to post some tracks I played on my radioshow" or "ohhhh this track is super rare I bet someone out there would want it... I mean I would!"... So now I'm just gonna go ahead and do it... this isn't really much of a proper first post but I wanted to put a little treat in it... I was browsing through the Hype Machine the other day and FINALLY found The Streets version of "Dry Your Eyes" with Chris Martin (of Coldplay) on vocals. From what I understand this track was pulled immediately after it was released as Martin's record company did not want him associating with someone who rhymes through whole albums about getting high. I'm not sure if the site that posted it has pulled it yet but here you go... and I'm not sure how long I am going to keep this up... we'll see... I don't have a lot of space on my .mac account...


The Streets feat. Chris Martin- "Dry Your Eyes"