Arcade Fire is an indie rock band based in Montreal, Quebec. It consists of the husband and wife duo of Win Butler and Régine Chassagne, along with Will Butler, Richard Reed Parry, Tim Kingsbury, Jeremy Gara, and Sarah Neufeld. Arcade Fire came to prominence when they released their debut album Funeral in 2004 to critical acclaim. The band plays guitar, drums, bass guitar, piano, violin, viola, cello, double bass, xylophone, glockenspiel, keyboard, French horn, accordion, harp, mandolin, and hurdy-gurdy. Most of their instruments are taken on tour, and the multi-instrumentalist band members switch duties throughout shows.
Arcade Fire has won numerous awards, including the 2011 Grammy for Album of the Year and the 2011 Brit Award for Best International Album for their third studio album, The Suburbs, released in 2010 to critical acclaim and commercial success.[1] In earlier years they won the 2008 Meteor Music Award for Best International Album and the 2008 Juno Award for Alternative Album of the Year for their second studio album, Neon Bible. They also received nominations for the Best Alternative Music Album Grammy for all three of their studio albums.
Formation and early work (2001)
Win Butler and Josh Deu began performing in Boston as the Arcade Fire before moving to Montreal in 2001, recording the "2001 Demos" prior to his arrival in the city. The earliest Montreal-based incarnation of the Arcade Fire, began performing in the summer/fall of 2001, almost entirely in lofts and art galleries one of the earliest shows took place at a Christian music festival, Inside Out Soul Festival, and later at a Montreal's battle of the bands (other early shows took place at Concordia University's Faculty of Fine Arts VAV Gallery; later the group played the 2001 Christmas party of that faculty's MFA programme). At that time, the band consisted of future husband and wife Win Butler and Régine Chassagne, singer, guitarist, collaborator and original band co-founder Josh Deu 1999-2003 ("Tunnels" "Power out" "Headlights look like diamonds" etc..) bassist Myles Broscoe (later of Les Angles Morts, Crystal Clyffs, and AIDS Wolf), guitarist/drummer Dane Mills (later of Crackpot), and multi-instrumentalist Brendan Reed (later of Les Angles Morts and founding member of Clues), who lived with Butler and Chassagne in Montreal's Mile End neighbourhood at the time and was a collaborator with them on song-writing and arrangement (2001-2003).
The initial Montreal structure of the band began to dissolve in the summer of 2002, when they travelled to Butler's family ranch in Maine to record their self-titled EP. Tension between Butler and Broscoe led the latter to exit the band following the recording session. Richard Reed Parry, who had been enlisted to help the band record, began to collaborate with them during the sessions and would go on to join the band shortly afterwards. In the winter of 2003, the band celebrated the release of its EP with a show at Montreal's Casa del Popolo. Before a crowd packed beyond capacity, the band's set ended (in the middle of an encore) with an argument between Butler and Reed, who quit the band on-stage. Mills told gathered friends in the crowd immediately thereafter that he considered the band to have broken up, as such resigning from the band as well. Following the on-stage implosion, Win's brother William Butler (subject of the early Arcade Fire song "William Pierce Butler") and Tim Kingsbury were brought in to replace Reed and Mills so that the band could continue, and they set out to promote the self-titled EP. The eponymous release (often referred to by fans as the Us Kids Know EP) was sold at early shows. After the band achieved fame, the EP was subsequently remastered and given a full release.[2]
The promise shown by the new band in its early live shows allowed them to land a record contract with the independent record label, Merge Records, before the end of its first year together.[3]
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."[4]
Funeral (2004–2006)
Main article: Funeral (album)
Funeral was released in September 2004 in Canada and February 2005 in the UK. The title of the debut album referred to the deaths of several relatives of band members during its recording. These events created a somber atmosphere that influenced songs such as "Une année sans lumière" ("A Year Without Light"), "In the Backseat", and "Haïti", Chassagne's elegy to her lost homeland.[5]
The album was critically and commercially well-received. It appeared on many top ten album lists for 2004 and 2005 (due to delayed international releases), with Pitchfork, Filter, and No Ripcord crowning it the album of the year. The MTV2 2005 Review named Funeral the Album of the Year, and NME named Funeral second[6] in their list of 2005's best albums, and "Rebellion (Lies)" the second best track. By November 2005, Funeral had gone gold in both Canada and the UK, and sold over half a million copies worldwide,[7] a very large number for an independent release with minimal television or radio exposure. The album became Merge Records' first in the Billboard 200 chart[8] and the label's biggest selling album to date, surpassing Neutral Milk Hotel's In the Aeroplane Over the Sea.[9]
The band booked small clubs for their 2004 tour, but growing interest forced many venue changes, far beyond the band's expectations, and the tour continued into mid-2005 throughout the United States, Canada, Europe, the SummerSonic Festival in Japan, and the Hillside Festival in Guelph. Taking much of the summer of 2005 off, the band made key festival appearances at the Halifax Pop Explosion, Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, the Sasquatch! Music Festival, Lollapalooza, Reading and Leeds Festival in the UK, Electric Picnic in Ireland and the Lowlands Festival in the Netherlands.
Arcade Fire was featured on the April 4, 2005 cover of Time's Canadian edition. On May 1, 2005, the band performed for 15,000 fans at the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival.[10] 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 "Six Feet Under, Vol. 2: Everything Ends". 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/U.S. television special "Fashion Rocks", on which David Bowie joined them for "Wake Up". This recording, as well as recordings of the band's collaboration on 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 featured a surprise appearance by Bowie. On September 11, 2005, Arcade Fire appeared on the long-running BBC music series Top of the Pops, performing "Rebellion (Lies)". 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 scored two number one songs on MTV2 (UK) NME Chart Show, with "Neighborhood #3 (Power Out)" and a three week run with "Wake Up". This success followed Rough Trade Records's last-minute decision to release "Wake Up" only on 7" vinyl.[11]
"Wake Up" was played immediately before the Irish rock group U2 opened their concerts on their 2005–06 Vertigo Tour; Arcade Fire subsequently opened three shows for that tour, and at the third in Montreal, Canada, appeared on stage during U2's encore to join in a cover of Joy Division's "Love Will Tear Us Apart".[12] Additionally, the Dan Patrick Show, a daily national sports talk show in the US, plays the song as a lead-out every Friday to signify the end of their show. The song was also heard numerous times during the Super Bowl telecast on February 5, 2010.
Funeral and the single "Cold Wind" were nominated for Grammys in the Best Alternative Rock Album and Best Song Written for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media categories (Six Feet Under, Vol. 2: Everything Ends), respectively. 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)".[13] The band was nominated for three BRIT Awards: Best International Group, Best International Album, and Best International Breakthrough Act.[14]
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. On October 22, 2007, Funeral was ranked #8 in Bob Mersereau's book The Top 100 Canadian Albums.[15] In late 2009, Pitchfork Media ranked the album #2 in their list of the top 200 albums of the 2000s.[16]
Neon Bible (2006–2008)
Arcade Fire performing in support of Neon Bible at the United Palace Theater on May 7, 2007
During the downtime between Funeral and the beginning of recording sessions for Neon Bible, the band purchased a defunct church in the small Quebec town of Farnham, approximately 70 kilometres (45 miles) outside of Montreal, and spent the early part of 2006 converting it into a recording studio.[17]
The first track officially released from Neon Bible was "Intervention" in December 2006 on iTunes. Proceeds from this release were dedicated to Partners in Health.[18] An error resulted in a second song, "Black Wave/Bad Vibrations", appearing on iTunes for a short time. The album was leaked to peer-to-peer networks on January 26, 2007, and was officially released March 5, 2007 in the UK and March 6 in North America. Neon Bible premiered at number 1 on the Canadian Albums Chart and the Irish Album Charts, and number 2 on the U.S. Billboard Top 200 charts and the UK Top 40 Album Chart for the week of March 12, 2007.[19] The album was also number 1 on the Rock and Indie album charts. The first proper single, "Black Mirror", reached the #1 spot on CBC Radio 3's R3-30 chart for five consecutive weeks, from March 22 to April 19, 2007, and was the first single by any band ever to spend more than two weeks atop the chart. The album 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. Paste voted it one of the five best albums of 2007.[20] Trouser Press writer Jason Reeher ranked Neon Bible "among the best indie rock recordings of all time."[21]
Arcade Fire made their first appearance on Saturday Night Live on February 24, 2007 (Episode 618), performing "Intervention" and "Keep the Car Running".[22] Owen Pallett was not 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 "An empty sack cannot stand up" in Creole, this was a reference to the extreme poverty of Haiti, the country of origin of Régine Chassagne.[23]
On July 10, 2007, Neon Bible was named to the shortlist for the 2007 Polaris Music Prize. Patrick Watson was announced as the winner at a gala ceremony on September 24, 2007.[24][25][26] However, due to the band's preference not to participate in compilation albums, they were the only nominee not to have a track on the Polaris promotional compilation 2007 Polaris Music Prize. Some media initially reported that the Polaris committee had snubbed the band by excluding them, leading the band and the committee to issue a joint press release confirming that the band chose not to have a track included on the album.[27]
The Neon Bible tour continued into September 2007 with 25+ dates scheduled in North America and Europe through mid-November. In Paris the band did a Take-Away Show video session shot by Vincent Moon.[28] The band toured Australia and New Zealand for the first time in early 2008 as part of the 2008 Big Day Out festival. On October 14, 2007, Win Butler and Régine Chassagne made a surprise guest appearance at a Bruce Springsteen show in Ottawa, playing "State Trooper" and "Keep the Car Running".[29] The band committed to give Partners in Health $1.00, £1.00, or €1.00 of every ticket sold on its 2008 European and North American tours.[30]
Arcade Fire further helped PIH, when it recorded "Lenin" on Red Hot Organization's latest album, Dark Was the Night. Sales from DWTN generated over $850,000 in money donated to AIDS related charities—$300,000 of which was given to PIH on Arcade Fire's behalf.
2008–2010
In February 2008, Win Butler announced on the band's journal that the Neon Bible tour had come to an end, after one year of touring and a total of 122 shows (including 33 festivals) in 75 cities and 19 countries.[31]
Win Butler has been a vocal supporter of Barack Obama since the end of the New Hampshire Primary.[32] Arcade Fire performed two free concerts for Obama in Cleveland and Nelsonville, Ohio on March 2, 2008 and March 3, 2008 before the state's March 4 primary.[33][34] The band, with Superchunk, performed another two free concerts for Obama on May 1 in Greensboro, North Carolina, and on May 2 in Carrboro, North Carolina before the state's May 6 primary.[35] On January 21, 2009, Arcade Fire and Jay-Z were the musical guests at the Obama Campaign Staff Ball at the DC Armory. Butler thanked President Obama for his stated intent to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay, and repeatedly thanked the Obama staffers for their work during the election.
The band was rumored to be working with producer Markus Dravs on the soundtrack for the Richard Kelly film The Box.[36] Win Butler denied the claims, but stated that he and Owen Pallett "may do an instrumental piece or two" for the film.[37]
In December 2008, Pitchfork reported the band set up the website miroir-noir.com to foreshadow the release of a concert film with the same title, reporting, "Miroir Noir will feature live footage from the Neon Bible tour." The upcoming film was directed by Vincent Morisset.[38] It was made available to pre-order on December 15, 2008 with the digital version available to download immediately, and the DVD shipping March 31, 2009.[39][40]
A re-recorded version of the band's song "Wake Up" from their 2004 debut album, Funeral, has been used for the trailer of the Spike Jonze film Where the Wild Things Are, which was released on October 2009.[41] The song "Wake Up" has also become popular on sports radio talk shows in the U.S. In 2009, two nationally syndicated shows—The Dan Patrick Show and the Petros and Money show—frequently used the song as "bumper" music. The National Football League featured this recording in commercials throughout the broadcast of the 2010 Super Bowl. The band donated the proceedings from licensing the song to the NFL to the charity Partners in Health.[42]
The Suburbs (2010–present)
Main article: The Suburbs (Arcade Fire album)
On May 27, 2010 it was announced that a new double-sided 12" single would be released the same day, with the full album, called The Suburbs, to be released on August 2 in the UK and on August 3 in the US and Canada thanks to Merge Records.[43] The album is produced by Markus Dravs, who worked on previous album, 2007's Neon Bible and was engineered by Marcus Paquin, who has also previously worked with the band.[44] A track-by-track review ahead of The Suburbs release by The Quietus website said, “The progression is similar to the one William Blake takes us through in Songs of Innocence and Experience that suggests forward momentum and maturity.”[45]
The album was released with eight different covers. Design, Caroline Robert. Photos, Gabriel Jones. Synchronised Artwork by Vincent Morisset.[46]
The first show announced was Oxegen 2010 which took place in Ireland in July.[47] The band announced that they will play songs from the new album in their headline performance at the Reading and Leeds Festivals in August 2010, with Win Butler noting "We're really looking forward to playing the new songs live... [it's] like an inventor emerging from his basement after a year's work."[48]
In July 2010, Arcade Fire announced they would be broadcasting their August 5 concert at Madison Square Garden live via YouTube. They later announced the video would be directed by Terry Gilliam.[49] The Suburbs was released worldwide at the start of August 2010 to extensive critical acclaim comparable to Funeral and Neon Bible.[50] During the 2010 tour Arcade Fire are giving a tribute to Jay Reatard performing the cover of "Oh, It's Such a Shame". Win Butler confessed to Zane Lowe that the band wanted Jay Reatard to support the band on this tour but he unfortunately passed away. The Suburbs went on to debut at number one in the US (on the Billboard 200), selling 156,000 units in its first week. It was also number one in the UK and Canada.
In August 2010, Arcade Fire and Google released an interactive music video (http://www.thewildernessdowntown.com/), written and directed by Chris Milk, which allows you to enter the address where you grew up and the video is then geopersonalised. This video utilizes the band's song "We Used To Wait" off The Suburbs and showcases capabilities of HTML5 and Google's Chrome browser. On November 13, 2010, Arcade Fire made their second appearance on Saturday Night Live, performing "We Used to Wait" and "Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)".[51]
On January 13, 2011 it was announced that Arcade Fire would perform at the 53rd Grammy Awards in February 2011. The band was nominated for Grammy Awards in three categories: Album of the Year, Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal, and Best Alternative Music Album (for The Suburbs).[52] Out of the three nominations, they won the award for Album of the Year.[53][54][55]
At the 2011 BRIT Awards, "The Suburbs" won Best International Album, and Arcade Fire won the Award for Best International Group.[56]
Personnel
In addition to founders Win Butler and Régine Chassagne, members include Richard Reed Parry, William Butler, Tim Kingsbury, Sarah Neufeld and Jeremy Gara. Touring lineups have included Marika Anthony-Shaw, Colin Stetson, Kelly Pratt, Owen Pallett, Pietro Amato.[
Howard Bilerman, who played drums on Funeral, has since moved on to other projects. During the Funeral shows, the touring band included horn player Pietro Amato, violinist Owen Pallett, and during the first year cellist Mike Olsen. Neufeld, Parry, and Amato also play in the instrumental band Bell Orchestre. Neufeld and Amato also play in The Luyas. Pallett, though not listed as a band member on the band's official site nor in the album sleeve notes, has been a member of their touring lineup, and, according to the album sleeve notes, co-wrote the orchestral and string arrangements with Régine Chassagne for both albums. Other members of the touring band are Marika Anthony-Shaw – a violist and former Lindsay Place High School strings teacher who played on Recording a Tape the Colour of the Light with Bell Orchestre and Set Yourself on Fire by Stars – as well as horn players Colin Stetson and Kelly Pratt, who have also played with Beirut. These musicians bring the Neon Bible touring band to ten onstage members, much like the first Funeral lineup.
Discography
Main article: Arcade Fire discography
- Funeral (2004)
- Neon Bible (2007)
- The Suburbs (2010)
Arcade Fire in a Nutshell | |
Origin | |
Years active | 2003–present |
Sonovox, Merge, City Slang, Spunk | |
Associated acts | Bell Orchestre, The New International Standards, Owen Pallett, CLARK the band |
Website | |
Members | |
Past members | |
Howard Bilerman Josh Deu Brendan Reed Tim Kyle Dane Mills Myles Broscoe Martin Prete | |
