In little under 2 hours, triple j will broadcast the brand new Arctic Monkeys album Humbug in full. Tune it at 8pm for your 60min fix before anyone else in the world (yep, this is a worldwide radio premiere!)

WE’VE already listened to Humbug, and guarantee ya it’s dark, heavy, sweaty, swaggering, and exactly the type of thing you’d expect a few Brit lads to stumbling out of the Mojave Desert with Josh Homme to have concocted…

If you miss the full broadcast, don’t fear as Humbug is the feature album on triple j all week.

Winter’s premier festival Splendour In The Grass has come and gone for 2009. Weren’t there? Well you missed out didn’t you! So what were the highs? The surprises? The low lights? Just keep reading and I’ll give you my two cents.

Manchester Orchestra
Leader Cheetah
Yves Klein Blue
Miami Horror
You Am I
Paul Dempsey
Bob Evans
more more more…

Read the rest of this entry »

At last we have the visuals! And they’re totally apt: dark, stormy, dramatic, and featuring Poseidon-esque ghouly giant band members towering out of crashing waves and craggycliffs scaring the living cr*p out their diminutive sailing counterparts. Watch it on Babelgum.

Take a gander at the making-of too, and you’ll recognise the director as Richard Ayoade (AKA Marurice Moss from The IT Crowd – the credits of which were done by my fave animation gurus, Shynola, who just did the new Coldplay vid):

Ayoade is a talented guy: as well as being a stand-up comedian, he also directed the Monkeys’ clip for Fluorescant Adolescant, plus the 2007 Arctic Monkeys Live at the Apollo DVD, The Last Shadow Puppets clips for Standing Next To Me and My Mistakes Were Made For You, Vampire Weekend’s Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa, Kasabian’s Vlad The Impaler, and the Yeah Yeah Yeah’s Heads Will Roll.

CONNECTSHAWWWNS!

Ladies and Gentlemen… It’s TURNER AND HOMME GENIUS.

I may have fleetingly mentioned an affinity for Homme projects in the past… but this is everything of which I could have dreamed – and more. Crying Lightning, the first single from Arctic Monkeys‘ third album Humbug is a menacing, swaggering, helluva tune, straight out of Lullabies to Paralyze with a lick of O’Malley Monkeys bass.

Humbug was produced by Josh Homme in the Mojave Desert and LA and James Ford in Brooklyn. If the single is anything to go by, the album will terrify your hamster: the percussion is thundering – stepped up ten notches from Brianstorm. The guitars whine and wail and howl like the wind at your nan’s window on a stormy night. Alex Turner’s trademark contempt-filled, breakneck, spitting yet plummy vocals are on fire.

It’s yummmm.

The Aussie premiere of Crying Lightning (other than blasting on repeat in our office) will be on radio today, and the track available on iTunes Australia to buy after 9am. The album Humbug is available August 21. For the massive fans (hands up) you can pre-order the album in bundle form with a collectible limited edition poster, from www.arcticmonkeys-store.co.uk

(post update – you can now listen to Crying Lightning in full on www.myspace.com/arcticmonkeys)

Track listing is as follows:

1. My Propeller
2. Crying Lightning
3. Dangerous Animals
4. Secret Door
5. Potion Approaching
6. Fire And The Thud
7. Cornerstone
8. Dance Little Liar
9. Pretty Visitors
10. The Jeweller’s Hands

Arctic Monkeys (note, no The) announced their new album title… Oh, and Alex Turner has really long hair.

image courtesy of myyuht

The new album set for a late August release is titled Humbug and produced by James Ford (Klaxons, The Last Shadow Puppets) in NYC and Joshua Homme (Queens of the Stone Age frontman) in the Cali Desert… Sounds like a super-hybrid of stoner-blues-rock, psych-pop, and classic Monkeys stomping dance rock. This could get confusing.

The band are taking control of the artwork for this album – drummer Matt Helders has redesigned their logo as a start.

The lads have spilled a few more beans in an interview in this week’s issue of NME. Go fetch.