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...