Arctic Monkeys keep the attitude

The title of the Arctic Monkeys' incendiary 2006 debut disc, "Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not," offered a hint of what the British band is all about.

The guitar-driven quartet came off as snide, contrarian teens during interviews and performances.

They acted like rock stars out of the gate, and in fact, the Arctic Monkeys were that practically from the band's inception.

Since the early demos circulated on the Web as MP3s, more than 100,000 copies of "Whatever People Say" sold during its first week of release, making it one of the best-selling debuts ever.

During the first American tour, the band possessed the swagger of English ancestors Oasis and the pop-rock precision of the Buzzcocks. Vocalist-guitarist Alex Turner packed the wit of Pulp's cerebral Jarvis Cocker.

"I really don't think we gave a damn," guitarist Jamie Cook said during a telephone interview from London. "People either loved us or they didn't and we couldn't give a toss. We just wanted to make the best music that we could."

The songs, the rollicking "View From the Afternoon," the sensual "I Bet You Look Good on the Dance Floor" and the clever "Mardy Bum," have a punk-rock common denominator. That hasn't changed. The Arctic Monkeys, performing Tuesday at Disco Rodeo, are still sonically adventurous. Their third album, "Humbug," was produced by Josh Homme of Queens of Stone Age and Them Crooked Vultures.

Riffs and rhythm dominate, but Homme helped add some atmosphere to the band's lean sound.

"The key thing that Josh provided was a push," Cook said. "He encouraged us to explore and take some chances, but to still be true to our sound. We might seem like we come from different worlds, but the connection between us and Queens of the Stone Age, who we love, is that both bands don't care about huge mass commercial appeal. That just doesn't matter to us. We didn't get into music to become these big stars."

Arctic Monkeys, which include bassist Nick O'Malley and drummer Matt Helders, think their work has been validated now that the iconic Tom Jones has covered "I Bet You Look Good on the Dance Floor."

"I'm a big fan of Tom Jones," Cook said. "I thought that was the coolest thing when I found that he was covering the song. It's was like, 'We've officially made it.' But really when you add up that with working with Josh Homme and all the albums we've sold, we've done all right, especially considering that we're still pretty young.

"The cool thing is that we got here by being uncompromising. We just do what we want to do, which doesn't make us that different than when we started."