Q&A: Arctic Monkeys
Kool Haus, September 15. All ages. $33.50. LN, RT, SS. See listing.
It’s time to start listening to Arctic Monkeys again. With this week’s release of AM, the ever-evolving British indie rockers are five albums deep. A departure from the band’s garage rock beginnings, AM boasts heavy bass lines, making it sexier and even more addictive than previous offerings. Lead singer and chief lyricist Alex Turner conjures an after-midnight haze in which drunk dials and booty calls culminate in heartbreak and longing.
This is a very sexy album. What sound did you have in mind for AM?
We put a song out about a year ago called R U Mine? We were experimenting a little more with vocal production and contemporary R&B-sounding backing vocals and melodies.
I read that Dr. Dre was an influence. Were you listening to rap while writing?
We always are really. It was even an influence on the first record, but I guess it wasn’t so conspicuous. There’s a bit of that 70s rock ‘n’ roll thing to it as well. It’s a clash between colours from both those rainbows.
What’s your process for writing lyrics?
It’s sort of like waiting for a delivery. You know when you get a window, like between 3 and 5 someone’s going to deliver your dishwasher? I wait for a window and hope something will come to me. This time I had a dartboard set up in me back garden. I’d throw a dart and it would help me arrive at conclusions for lyrics.
How did recording punk-rock poet John Cooper Clarke’s I Wanna Be Yours come about?
He was one of my inspirations when I first picked up a pen. We had a demo, like a drumbeat and a bass line on a 4-track recorder, and I was just sitting there one day and started singing I Wanna Be Yours. I thought, why not do someone else’s lyrics for a change?
Why did you choose to record the album in L.A.?
We’ve been living there for this past year, so it kind of just made sense. We got a long-term lease on a cheap studio that was a bit banged up and we learned to love the place. We went out to the Joshua Tree to get the juices flowing. That’s a very special place for us now – magic in the desert.
Do you have a favourite song from AM?
I’m quite happy with the words on Arabella. That may be me finest hour lyrically on this new album. But it’s hard to pick a favourite kid.
Diana Cina
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
Lee’s Palace, September 28. $22.50, SE. See listing.
Remember back in the mid-2000s when trendy band names weren’t sans vowels or rendered in caps-lock, but long and whimsical? The Brooklyn-based Clap Your Hands Say Yeah sure do, and they’re reliving those glory days this fall with a quick and dirty North American tour. They’ll play tunes from their new EP, Little Moments, an electro-pop collection that swaps guitar for the most basic synth lines, and from their upcoming full-length due this January, plus classics from their 2005 debut. The band’s downsized from five members to two, so it will be interesting to see how they recreate their sound live.
Samantha Edwards
Arcade Fire
Release date: October 29
Arcade Fire’s last album, 2010’s The Suburbs, turned them into arena-rocking Grammy winners, but part of their charm is that they’ve never lost their gawky, approachable demeanour. Still, that hasn’t stopped the Montreal indie darlings from playing the enigmatic 21st-century hype game this time around. My inquiry into new album details gets redirected three times before ending up in the inbox of a Universal rep who stays mum, leaving me to follow the shadowy trail of @-replies, blurry Instagrams, salsa club show reports and disco-Bowie song leaks. What we do know (at press time): it’s probably called Reflektor, might be a double album, is maybe produced by LCD Soundsystem’s James Murphy and gets released October 29 on Merge.
Richard Trapunski
Franz Ferdinand
Kool Haus, October 24. $38.50, HS, RT, SS, TF. See listing.
Scottish four-piece Franz Ferdinand’s fourth album, Right Thoughts, Right Words, Right Action, is earning the indie rockers lots of positive press, and with big choruses and punchy guitars, it’s no wonder. The most interesting thing, however, is their return to the pep-step sound of the eponymous album that broke them. Not that the sonic territory explored on their 2005 and 09 releases wasn’t welcome, but having just 11 songs of that original upbeat, beloved-by-radio dance rock simply wasn’t enough.
Julia LeConte
