Arctic Bits, Andre Bits, Alpha Bits

Keeper: Arctic Monkeys – Still Take You Home - These guys are taking the cyberworld by storm with only one formally released single to their credit. But lots of their songs have been floating around on the internet, helping the band gain an adoring audience. Arctic Monkeys are from merry old England and the band is made up of mostly 19 year old boys (the old man of the group is 20). Their website features lots of photos of the band performing live but doesn’t tell you much about the boys otherwise. But just Google “Arctic Monkeys” and you’ll learn about their meteoric rise through the wonders of cyberspace. Chances are you’ll find a few of their other tunes to download as well. Download a video of them performing their single “I Bet You Look Good on the Dance Floor” just for the fun of it.

Keeper: Andre Ronnback – Cause You Never Know When Love Hits You – I found Andre Ronnback by once again poking (with a very long sharp stick) through the collection of songs at 15 Megs of Fame. Andre is from Skelleftea, Sweden, and he's the guy in the middle of the picture. I can't resist putting up a picture of Skelleftea as well because, well, it’s an awful purty place, ain’t it? Anyway, Andre states in his bio at 15 Megs that he records his songs on his computer in his apartment. I suspect, however, that he recorded some of the songs with his band, Small Garment, since a few of the songs also appear on the band’s website (which you must visit and translate for me if you know Swedish). Andre’s songs might be a bit naïve (I blame a lot of that on limited English skills) and a lot repetitious (“Warmth In A Sunny Day” and “Warmth In A Beautiful Summer Night” are basically the same song although you’d never guess it from the titles, would you?), and some are definitely better than others – but there’s something about Andre I like so I’m gonna stick up for him no matter what. Andre will probably never hit "the big time" and maybe that's just as well. We wouldn't want the nasty media and all those starry-eyed fans descending upon Skelleftea and trashing it up, would we? Certainly not.

Keeper: Morningwood – Nth Degree – Morningwood features Richard Steel (former guitarist with Spacehog) and singer Chantal Claret, who sports the exact same hairdo I had in 1980. Ok, mine was a lot frizzier on top, sort of like Roseanne Rosanna-Danna, but it was 1980 and I bet you looked pretty funny back then too. “Nth Degree” sort of sounds like something from a children’s show but I find that rather comforting. And yes, I'm aware that the band's moniker is a euphemism for something that should not be in a children's show. Morningwood, however, knows how to promote themselves by having Chantal spell out the name of the band in the song numerous times. Perhaps Chantal was once a cheerleader. Perhaps she simply enjoys the alphabet.

Keeper: The Exit – So Leave Then – I posted a song from The Exit in my very first post but I didn’t say much about them at the time. I’m quickly becoming a huge fan of these three guys. Their song “Don’t Push” gets a lot of play in the Big Bad Bit jukebox and I was very excited when I found “So Leave Then.” I absolutely love this song – could the bass player and drummer be any tighter? You must march (in a cyber kind of way) straight to amazon.com to buy the CD. I’m going to do it and you should too. Come on, we’ll hold hands and do it together!

Big Bad Bit Site News: I rely on the high-speed connection I have at work to search the web, download songs, and blog my way into your musical hearts. I only have an excruciatingly slow dial-up connection at home and a computer that I share with Significant Other, which makes trying to do any of this at home impossible. As I've mentioned recently, things have been much busier for me at work lately so there's been less time for me to do more important things like search the web, download songs, and blog my way into your musical hearts. So I bought myself a laptop the other day. And I'm scheduled to have cable high-speed internet access installed at home on Wednesday. You'll soon see Big Bad Bit updated more frequently and on a more regular basis - bit by bit.