The Ongoing History of New Music Encore Presentation: Deconstructing the Arctic Monkeys

I love trying to figure out why things are the way they are. It’s this weird obsession I have with understanding, you know?

Take a guy like Jack White, for example. If you go deep into his background, you have a much better understanding of why the way he is and why his music sounds the way it does. Another example would be the Beastie Boys. How did they grow into what they became? Check their background. And if you look at Green Day’s upbringing, you really begin to get them.

The same goes for Kurt Cobain, Dave Grohl, Eddie Vedder and hundreds of others. They all had life experiences unique to them and crucial to the music they ended up making.

Here’s another name: the Arctic Monkeys. You may, like me, have found something…different about these guys. They rock pretty good, but their songs are constructive in a distinctive fashion. And lyrically, they’re above and beyond so many bands.

They started so young, too–just teenagers. And the they way they became famous was completely antithetical to the way you’re supposed to do things in the music business. To say that their career arc is unusual is an understatement. Let’s see if we can’t deconstruct the band to see what makes them tick.

Songs heard in this episode:

Arctic Monkeys, Why’d You Only Call Me When You’re High

The Longpigs, She Said

Pulp, Common People

John Cooper-Clarke, I Wanna Be Yours

The Streets, Fit and You Know It

Arctic Monkeys, Fluorescent Adolescent

The D4, Ladies Man

Arctic Monkeys, R U Mine

Playlist maker Eric Wilhite has put everything into a handy playlist.

Don’t forget that you can get the podcast version of this podcast through iTunes or wherever you get your on-demand audio.

The Ongoing History of New Music can be heard on the following stations:

• 102.1 The Edge/Toronto – Sunday night at 7
• Live 88-5/Ottawa
• 107.5 Dave-FM/Kitchener
• FM96/London – Sunday night at 7, Monday night at 11
• The Drive/Kingston
• Power 97/Winnipeg (Sunday nights at 11)
• 98.1 The Bridge/Lethbridge – Saturday night at 6, Sunday morning at 10am
• Rock 97.7/Grand Prairie – Sunday nights at 6.
• 92X/Calgary
• Sonic 102.9/Edmonton
• The Zone/Victoria
• The Fox/Vancouver
• Live 105/Halifax
• NEW! WAPS/WKTL The Summit/Arkon, Canton, Cleveland, Youngstown

We’re still looking for more affiliates in Calgary, Kamloops, Kelowna, Regina, Saskatoon, Brandon, Windsor,  Montreal, Charlottetown, Moncton, Fredericton, and St John’s and anywhere else with a transmitter. If you’re in any of those markets and you want the show, lemme know and I’ll see what I can do.