ARCADE FIRE

'Arcade Fire' (often known as "'The Arcade Fire'") is an indie rock band from Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 2003 by the husband and wife team Win Butler and Régine Chassagne, the band's work features lush, anthemic arrangements and diverse instrumentation, necessitating a larger personnel than a traditional rock band. Their first release, ''Funeral'' in 2004 received critical acclaim from press and fans worldwide. In the UK, Uncut magazine made it their Album of the Year and it came second in both the NME Album of the Year list and the Album of the Year list published by Mojo magazine. It was followed in 2007 by the equally successful ''Neon Bible''.

Contents

Personnel

History

Formation and early history

''Funeral''

''Neon Bible''

Discography

Albums

EPs

Trivia

Notes and references

See also

External links

Personnel

In addition to founders Butler and Chassagne, other members include Richard Reed Parry, William Butler, Tim Kingsbury, Sarah Neufeld and Jeremy Gara.
Howard Bilerman, who played drums on their debut album, ''Funeral'', has since moved on to other projects. On the 'Funeral' shows the touring band included horn player Pietro Amato and violinist Owen Pallett. Neufeld, Parry, and Amato also play in the instrumental band Bell Orchestre. Pallett, though not listed as a band member on the band's official site or in the album sleeve notes, both plays with the band live and, again according to the album sleeve notes, did the orchestral and string arrangements with Regine for both albums. Other members of the touring band are Marika Anthony-Shaw, a violist/Former Lindsay Place High School Strings Teacher who played on ''Recording a Tape the Colour of the Light'' with Bell Orchestre, as well as horn players Colin Stetson and Kelly Pratt, who bring the Neon Bible touring band to ten on-stage members.

History

Formation and early history

Arcade Fire formed around the husband and wife duo of Win Butler and Régine Chassagne. Starting in mid-2003, the current lineup solidified in late 2003/early 2004, when their first full-length album ''Funeral'' was recorded. Before this an eponymous EP (often referred to by fans as the ''Us Kids Know EP'') had been sold at early shows. The EP was subsequently remastered and given a full release once the band started becoming more prominent. Arcade Fire are known for their enthralling live performances, as well as their use of a large number of musical instruments. In addition to mainstays guitar, drums, and bass guitar, members play piano, violin, viola, cello, double bass, xylophone, keyboard, French horn, accordion, hurdy gurdy and harp and mandolin. With several able musicians, Arcade Fire take most of their instrumental diversity on tour and band members switch instrumental duties throughout their shows. The number of instruments, along with a wide set of musical influences has provided a substantial number of resources on which to draw during the recording process. The promise shown by the band in their live shows allowed them to land a record contract with the independent record label Merge Records.
When asked about the rumour that the band's name refers to a fire in an arcade, Win Butler replied: "It's not a rumour, it's based on a story that someone told me. It's not an actual event, but one that I took to be real. I would say that it's probably something that the kid made up, but at the time I believed him." ^[1] The arcade in question was the Exeter arcade and bandstand in the town square of Exeter, New Hampshire, where both Butlers attended Phillips Exeter Academy preparatory school.

''Funeral''

Their first album, ''Funeral'', debuted in September 2004 in Canada and in February 2005 in the UK. The title of the debut album was chosen because of the deaths of several relatives of band members during recording. These events created a somber atmosphere which influenced songs such as "Une année sans lumière" ("A Year Without Light"), "In the Backseat", and "Haiti", Chassagne's elegy to her lost homeland. "Neighborhood #3 (Power Out)" is based on their experiences of the North American ice storm in 1998.
David Bowie heard the band while on tour and brought them to the attention of label owners. Still without a major label backing, the success of the band and the album ''Funeral'' has been acclaimed as an Internet phenomenon. After a 9.7 rating from Pitchfork, Merge Records sold out their inventory of ''Funeral'' and it became the label's first album in the Billboard 200 chart.^[2] The band booked small clubs for their 2004 tour but growing interest forced many venue changes, far beyond the band's expectations, and continued internationally into mid-2005 throughout the United States, Canada, Europe, and the SummerSonic Festival in Japan. Taking much of the summer of 2005 off, the band made six key festival appearances at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, the Sasquatch! Music Festival, Lollapalooza, Reading Festival in the UK, Electric Picnic in Ireland, and the Lowlands Festival in the Netherlands. ''Funeral'' made many top ten album lists for 2004, with Pitchfork, Filter and No Ripcord crowning it the album of the year. With the release of ''Funeral'' in 2005 in the UK, Japan and Australia, Arcade Fire also made many top lists for 2005. The MTV2 2005 Review hosted by Zane Lowe named ''Funeral'' Album of the Year, and NME named ''Funeral'' Number 2^[3] in their list of 2005's best albums and "Rebellion (Lies)" the best track. By November 2005, ''Funeral'' had gone gold in both Canada and the UK and sold in excess of half a million copies worldwide,^[4] a phenomenal number for an independent release with minimal television or radio exposure. It has also surpassed Neutral Milk Hotel's ''In the Aeroplane Over the Sea'' as the biggest selling Merge Records album to date.

Arcade Fire were featured on the April 4, 2005 cover of ''Time Magazine's Canadian edition, and hailed as a band who "helped put Canadian music on the world map". On May 1, 2005, the band performed to approximately 15,000 fans at the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival; their performance is often viewed as the highlight of Coachella 2005. In May 2005, the band signed a short-term publishing contract with EMI for ''Funeral'' and in June, the band released a new single, "Cold Wind", on '', the second soundtrack album to the popular HBO series ''Six Feet Under''. The BBC used the track "Wake Up" on an advertisement for their autumn 2005 season and the tracks "Rebellion (Lies)" and "Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)" on adverts in January 2006. On September 9, 2005, the band appeared on the UK/US TV special ''Fashion Rocks'', where David Bowie joined them for "Wake Up". This recording, as well as recordings by the collaboration of Bowie's "Life on Mars" and "Five Years", were made available on the iTunes Music Store in a virtual live EP. The same trip to New York City took them to the Late Show with David Letterman and a concert in Central Park. The Central Park Show had a surprise appearance by Bowie, and capped a great touring season for the band. On September 11, 2005, Arcade Fire appeared on the long-running BBC music series ''Top of the Pops'', performing "Rebellion (Lies)" — on what was one of the band's first mainstream UK television appearances. The band also performed to a TV audience in Paris for Canal+, and the show was later screened on UK television's Channel 4. The band have scored two number one songs on MTV2 (UK) NME Chart Show, with "Neighborhood #3 (Power Out)" and a three week run with "Wake Up". However, this success followed Rough Trade Records's (the label that distributes Arcade Fire's music in the UK) decision at the last minute not to release "Wake Up" on CD, and only on 7" vinyl.
Arcade Fire's song "Wake Up" was played immediately before the Irish rock group U2 opened their concerts on their 2005-2007 Vertigo Tour; the band would subsequently open three shows for that tour, and at the third show, they appeared on stage during U2's encore to join them in a cover of Joy Division's "Love Will Tear Us Apart".
Arcade Fire's album ''Funeral'' and their single "Cold Wind" were respectively nominated for Grammys in the best Alternative Rock Album and Best Song Written for Television, Film, or Other Media categories (''Six Feet Under, Vol. 2: Everything Ends''). On April 2, 2006, in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Arcade Fire received the Juno Award for Songwriters Of The Year for three songs from ''Funeral'': "Wake Up", "Rebellion (Lies)" and "Neighborhood #3 (Power Out)".^[5] The band was nominated for, but not awarded, three BRIT Awards; Best International Group, Best International Album and Best International Breakthrough Act.
Arcade Fire made an appearance on the BBC show ''Later with Jools Holland'' on May 12, 2005, performing "Power Out" and "Rebellion (Lies)".
On December 27, 2005, ''Funeral'' was ranked #1 on MTV2's "50 Greatest Albums of the Year" in the United Kingdom.

''Neon Bible''

On June 26, 2006, Win Butler announced on the band's journal that work had been progressing on their new album and the band had committed 15 tracks to tape, using a wide variety of new instruments. These apparently include a pipe organ, and some recording took place in the living room of Win and Régine.^[6] Butler also announced on his online diary, Win's Scrapbook, that the new album would be self-produced, saying that "after trying to decide if we should work with any producers we kind of realized that we already know how we want things to sound so we should just run after that sound as fast as we can and not rely on someone else to guide the good ship Arcade Fire." He also said the band were working with the engineers Scott Colburn and Marcus Dravs.
The first track officially released from ''Neon Bible'' was "Intervention" in December 2006 on iTunes. An error resulted in a second song, "Black Wave/Bad Vibrations", being on iTunes for a short time. The album was leaked to Peer to Peer channels on January 26, 2007 and was officially released March 5, 2007 in the UK, and March 6 in North America. ''Neon Bible'' premiered at No 1 on the Canadian Albums Chart & The Irish Album Charts and No 2 on the U.S. ''Billboard'' Top 200 charts & The UK Top 40 Album Chart for the week of March 12 2007.^[7] The album was also No 1 on the Rock and Indie album charts. The first proper single, "Black Mirror", was announced in January 2007. "Black Mirror" was the first track to ever reach No 1 spot on CBC Radio 3's R3-30 chart for five consecutive weeks, from March 22 to April 19, 2007. In the UK, the first single is "Keep the Car Running". The album has gained much critical acclaim (even being mooted as a strong contender for album of the year,) and because of its success saw the band proclaimed the most exciting act on the earth by British music magazine Q.
A tour in support of the new album was announced in December 2006. A five night residency in London, UK, took place from January 29 to February 2, 2007: three nights at St Johns Smith Square and two nights at Porchester Hall, both unusual venues for a "rock" or alternative band, as both venues are associated with classical, sit down concerts. These dates sold out within two minutes of going on sale. ^[8] On 20 January, the band played a mostly secret show at a church in the Mile End neighborhood in their hometown of Montreal, Quebec, and between February 6, 2007 and February 10, 2007, the band played five shows at Ukrainian Federation in Montreal. These shows marked the first public performances of the band in their hometown since November of 2005 when they supported U2 at the Bell Center, and the first headlining shows in Montreal since April 2005, a three-night stand at the Corona Theatre. Starting February 13, 2007, Arcade Fire performed five sold-out performances at Judson Memorial Church in New York City to promote ''Neon Bible''.^[9]
Arcade Fire played on ''Saturday Night Live'' on February 24, 2007, performing "Intervention" and "Keep the Car Running". ^[10] Owen Pallett wasn't present because he was recording for his own project, Final Fantasy. During the performance one of Win Butler's guitar strings broke prompting him to rip the strings from his acoustic guitar and smash it on the floor until it shattered. On this guitar, "sak vide pa kanpe" was written in duct tape across the front. A Haitian proverb meaning "that which is empty cannot stand up" in Creole, this was a reference to the extreme poverty of Haiti, the country of origin of Régine.
Arcade Fire's European tour was scheduled to take place between March 3, 2007 and April 3, 2007, and included dates at the London Brixton Academy and the Paris Olympia.^[11] Win and William Butler appeared in an interview on the BBC TV ''Culture Show'' programme about the band, shown on April 20, 2007. Part of the show was recorded at the Brixton Academy where the band played the title track from ''Neon Bible'' and a previously unheard version of The Clash's "The Guns of Brixton", performed as a tribute to the venue. On March 24 the band announced on their website that they were canceling the rest of their 2007 European tour due to Win suffering from "a sinus and bronchial infection."
Arcade Fire's North American tour lasted from April 26 to June 2, 2007. David Bowie selected Arcade Fire as one of the first acts for the High Line Festival in New York. The festival was curated by Bowie himself, and ran from May 9 to May 19, 2007.
From June 22 to August 26, they toured the Summer European festival circuit. They were second headliners at the Reading and Leeds Festivals, and they also played the Glastonbury Festival, the Oxegen Festival in Ireland, Roskilde Festival, T in the Park in Scotland and the Super Bock Super Rock, in Lisbon, Portugal. They headlined the Latitude Festival closing night in Suffolk, England on July 15, 2007.
On July 10, 2007, ''Neon Bible'' was revealed as being on the shortlist for the 2007 Polaris Music Prize. The winner will be announced at a gala ceremony on September 24, 2007.^[12][13][14]
The Neon Bible tour continues in September 2007, with 25+ dates scheduled in North America and Europe through mid-November.

Discography

Main articles: Arcade Fire discography

Albums

''List of studio albums:''

EPs

''List of EPs:''

Trivia

★ Win Butler suggested to the band Devotchka to cover the Siouxsie and the Banshees single : "The Last Beat Of My Heart". ^[15].

★ The band have performed covers of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs song "Maps", for BBC Radio 1, and a version of the Talking Heads song "This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody)". David Byrne has been a noted fan of the band, and has joined them on stage (in 2005 at Irving Plaza, NYC); like David Bowie, he has been spotted at many of their early gigs. They have also covered "Distortions" by Clinic and "State Trooper" by Bruce Springsteen. David Bowie has joined them onstage for performances of "Wake Up" and "Five Years".

★ Win Butler has expressed displeasure at the popularity of internet-distributed MP3s labeled ''2001 Demos'' and another called ''Arcade Fire Christmas Album''. The demos do not represent the work of the current band, and the "Christmas Album" was taped at a holiday party with friends who played carols in a parody of Arcade Fire style, and only part of the band was present.

★ In 2005, both Win and Regine contributed to the UNICEF benefit song, "Do They Know It's Hallowe'en?".

★ They have the same manager as Björk^[16].

★ When performing singular songs on television (on talk shows, for example) the band often tried to add something unique to each performance: on the 2005 MuchMusic Video Awards, a marching band played 'dead' until the closing chorus, in which all the players got up and escorted Arcade Fire members off-stage and along the edge of the crowd while playing the closing of the song. On talk shows, band members who don't have as much or any singing to do during a song will be especially eccentric on stage.

★ Following the release of Arcade Fire's second album, Neon Bible, the band took the top 8 spots on Last.fm's weekly top 10 tracks chart, knocking The Postal Service's Such Great Heights out of the Top 10 for the first time since the site began.

★ Arcade Fire are very popular in Ireland. Funeral spent over 4 months in the Irish top 30 albums, yet never went higher than 16. Their performance at the second annual Electric Picnic in Stradbally, County Laois, was widely considered a highlight of the festival. Neon Bible entered the Irish album charts at #1, while tickets for their forthcoming Dublin gig at the Big Top, Phoenix Park sold out in six minutes.

★ The song "Rebellion (Lies)", from the CD ''Funeral'', has been used as the background music in a three-minute-long video to promote Centrist French presidential election candidate François Bayrou in his largest public meeting so far, in Paris-Bercy in front of 17,000 people in April 2007.

★ The song "Wake Up" is currently played at New York Ranger home games before the team takes the ice for games and English football club Aston Villa home games as the teams enter the playing field.

★ The band recently did a live acoustic cover of The Clash's "The Guns of Brixton" for a BBC2 Culture Show Session

★ The band played "Keep the Car Running" on BBC1 chatshow "Friday Night with Jonathan Ross" on 29 June. The performance finished with Win Butler smashing a BBC camera lens with the neck of his mandolin. Host Jonathan Ross congratulated Regine on looking very pretty before acknowledging that the lens was broken.

★ The Foo Fighters covered "Keep the Car Running" off the ''Neon Bible'' on BBC Radio 1.

Notes and references

1. Schreiber, Ryan, "Pitchfork Feature: Interview: The Arcade Fire", ''Pitchfork'', February 14, 2005.
2. Pitchfork e-zine tells indie fans what's hot and not
3. NME defends album of year poll, The Guardian, December 2, 2005. Though ''Funeral'' ranked 2nd after Bloc Party's ''Silent Alarm'', the Londonist blog charged that ''Funeral'' (and other music) had been artificially marked down. They later retracted their post.
4. Exclusive - Arcade Fire duet with Bowie released
5. Songwriter Of The Year (sponsored by SOCAN)
6. Arcade Fire Spills Droplets of Album Info
7. Arcade Fire's Neon Bible Debuts at #2
8. "Arcade Fire promise more tickets for UK gigs", "NME", December 8, 2006. Accessed July 23, 2007.
9. Testing Faith in a Church
10. http://snlarc.jt.org/ep.php?i=200702248
11. Return To The Neighbourhood - Arcade Fire album, single and tour
12. Arcade Fire, Feist on Polaris short list
13. Feist, Fire get Polaris noms
14. Arcade Fire, Feist And The Dears Among Polaris Nominees
15. this Devotchcka biography mentions the Win Butler from Arcade Fire anecdote for the siouxsie cover
16. http://www.quest-management.com

See also

★ Canadian rock

★ Music of Canada

★ English-speaking Quebecer

External links

★ Official Site

★ Official Fan Site

★ Neon Bible - the new album

★ Merge Records' Arcade Fire Bio

★ "Chemistry at Work: Arcade Fire Provokes Real Emotion" CBC Radio 3 Session; story by Helen Spitzer, photography by Joanne K.

★ NYT Magazine article on The Arcade Fire

★ Artist Page on Music Emissions

★ Arcade Fire at Rolling Stone

★ Fan Site Of The Arcade Fire