Billions update

Billions, Arcade Fire's booking agency, today updated their availability status to:

August-September 2010: For strong support

While it is a bit unclear as to what they mean by 'for strong support' one has to assume it means they're looking for a support band that are strong enough to make the show a bit more of a bill.

Billions: Arcade Fire

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

Have the very very best of times everybody... and remember, as you can see above, Elvis is alive.

xx joel

Heartland out now!!

The US iTunes Store has oddly enough put up Owen Pallett's new album Heartland. BUY IT NOW ALL YOU AMERICANS! Wouldn't surprise me if the US Store's mistake will lead to all iTunes Stores soon will have it available for purchase. Will update this post should that happen.

Edit: They've now realised their mistake and taken it down. Though because they've been so careless there are of course much less legal copies of the album out there.

Working for the church while your life falls apart

Gothenburg's Indie Choir (Göteborgs Indiekör) sings 'Intervention' by Arcade Fire.
What better way to end the weekend!

Oh and Final Fantasy is no more. He now wants to be called by his real name Owen Pallett.

Your name is the only word, the only word that I can say

I Blame Coco feat. Robyn - Caesar

Robyn just nails it, as usual.
/Robyn fanboy.

Pic of the day

Paolo Nutini covers Wake Up - again.

Yepp, Paolo Nutini is at it again. Covering Arcade Fire's anthem "Wake Up". Don't really care for it but the inclusion of the trombone adds something more to it than this version he did a few weeks ago.

Favourite track of the now

http://jonsi.com

NEW ARCADE FIRE ALBUM IN MAY!!

I can't think clearly right now about anything! Billboard has let slip that according to their sources Arcade Fire's new album is currently on track for a May release. Aaaaaaaaah!! I can barely type right now... just read the thing here: http://is.gd/5aoQf

THERE WILL BE RIOTS!! RIOTS!!!
AND DANCING!! LOTS OF DANCING!
RIOTS AND DANCING!!
WOOOOOHOOOOOOO!

Arcade Fire Online Store holiday mega sale!

Arcade Fire Online Store

Old news is suddenly new news

It's funny how it works isn't it. It's been known for months Markus Dravs is the main producer on the new Arcade Fire album. Yet when BBC 6 Music runs an 'exclusive' on it the whole media world goes crazy and blows it up like no one knew anything about it... Ah well, at least there's something in this article that's pleasing to hear. Markus Dravs thinks the new songs are 'better'. Markus Dravs was of course also the producer on Neon Bible so the man ought to know what he's talking about.

Dravs aids Arcade Fire
Mumford and Sons reveal Markus Dravs at work on Canadian collective's new album

01/12/2009 | Georgie Rogers

We’ve already knew that a third Arcade Fire album is due in 2010 but we can now reveal the band have been working on it with Markus Dravs, who engineered their last offering Neon Bible.

Not only does Dravs have the likes of Bjork, Coldplay and The Maccabees on his studio CV, he produced Mumford and Sons’ debut Sigh No More, with Marcus Mumford letting slip the news in an interview with 6 Music.

"I don’t know if I’m allowed to say this but yeah, he’s working on the next Arcade Fire record at the moment," he said, with double bassist Ted Dwane interjecting: "Boom there it is."

"There it is, dropped, 6 Music exclusive," added Mumford. "I’m sure that’s public knowledge, because he’s been there for about six months."

The London folk quartet are big fans of Arcade Fire themselves, but said Dravs wasn't giving much away about what's going on, despite Marcus Mumford’s questions.

"I don't know if I'm aloud to say this but yeah, he[Markus Dravs]'s working on the next Arcade Fire record at the moment."

Marcus Mumford

He admitted: "I keep asking Markus how it’s going and he’s like, 'Yeah, it’s okay', and I’m like, 'What are the songs like?' And he goes, 'Better'."

We also asked Marcus from Mumford and Sons to pick his album of the decade and he chose Funeral, Arcade Fire’s first album.

As for why, he explained: "It changed my life. I started listening to it when I was living in China. I always listened to it in Hong Kong non-stop on the tubes and I’d never heard anything like it before.

"It changed my idea of song-writing and sound, and the idea of lots of people making music together in one recording, but it making sense."

"Seeing them live was probably the best gig I’ve ever been to as well," he said and laughed. "Am I sounding really sycophantic right now?"

Arcade Fire’s last release was Miroir Noir in April, a documentary DVD with footage of the recording, release and tour behind their second offering, 2008’s Neon Bible.

BBC 6 Music News: Dravs aids Arcade Fire

Two quickies

• The Irish Times picks Funeral by Arcade Fire as their #1 album of the decade.
• Final Fantasy performs Lewis Takes Action and Midnight Directives from his new album Heartland which of course is due in early January next year.

Lewis Takes Action

Trade your email address for a free mp3 of Final Fantasy's new single "Lewis Takes Action". You can also pre-order the new album Heartland. Can't wait for it to drop down in my mailbox!

You know it's true!

Brief updates

• Mercury Records have confirmed Arcade Fire will release their third album next year.
• If you missed Nico Muhly and Richard Reed Parry with the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony I've got something for you - all you other clever people who did listen to it also of course. First up a recording of the whole thingy that was broadcasted. If you're only interested in Richard's involvement in the concert you're probably best off downloading this. It only features the interview with Richard and his orchestral piece "For Orchestra and Heart and Breath" which you can read more about here. Oh and both of these are mp3 recordings.
  

Arcade Fire tour in June?

Primavera Sound has had a long-running vote on what bands the fans want them to book for next year's festival. The vote is now finished and unsurprisingly Arcade Fire was one of the most requested bands. Though Primavera Sound made it clear Arcade Fire was out of the question this year after apparently they were told by the band/Arcade Fire's management they won't be hitting the roads until June next year at the earliest. Thereby ruling themselves out of the festival, which is held in May. This also rules them out of headlining Coachella, something that's been heavily rumoured they would be doing.

I'm trying very hard here to contain my excitement.

Bell Orchestre - iTunes Live from Montreal

For $9.99 (99 SEK) you can as of today download the live album "iTunes Live from Montreal" by Bell Orchestre after the jump.

Edit: It's now only $5.99 (59 SEK).

Volcan Flamingo

Beirut frontman Zach Condon today announced he's part of a new band called Volcan Flamingo. The other members of the group are Tim Kingsbury of Arcade Fire, Josh Todd of Bark Cat Bark and Julian Koster of Neutral Milk Hotel. Supergroup! The band will release a vinyl limited to 500 copies on the record label 4AD in the summer of 2010.

Edit: This is now unfortunately confirmed to be a made up story :(

This is sweet.

The ending is lovely. Taken from the Seattle Rock Orchestra's tribute show to Arcade Fire's album Funeral which you can read more about here.

Reissue of the best album ever

On December 15 Merge Records will release a reissue of Arcade Fire's masterpiece album Funeral on 180-gram vinyl (MRG255LP). It's at the moment unclear if there's been any changes to the album, but in all likelihood nothing has been changed, added or altered with. Just pressed on more durable vinyl. Any order will come with a digital download coupon as well.

Preorder: Arcade Fire - Funeral (180-gram vinyl reissue)

Arcade Fire rumour of interest #2

The same guy who only a few days ago told us a couple of exciting things about Arcade Fire's new album has now revealed one more exciting thingy.

Scoop: Arcade Fire's Third Album (Addendum)

You may remember some reliable hearsay on my part concerning the forthcoming Arcade Fire LP. Well, there was one last deeply awesome thing my source reported that I unforgivably left out of that transcriptive post, and here it is:

“One track features harpsichord, which was quite lovely.”

Scoop: Arcade Fire's Third Album (Addendum)

Not sure what a Harpsichord is? Read more about it here. This album's Hurdy Gurdy? Amazing.

Mogwai live film "Burning" teaser

Directed by Vincent Moon and Nathanaël Le Scouarnec. The film will be released sometime early next year. I'm looking forward to it. Oh yes I am.

Awesome 'behind the scenes' video with Arcade Fire

Someone by the name of Ryan Adams has put up a marvellous 'behind the scenes' type of video with Arcade Fire. It's from their 2007 Neon Bible tour. The song is of course Keep The Car Running.

*Edit: The video has now been taken down. It wasn't meant for the world to see just yet.*

Aaaaargh!! Miss them more than I would ever be able to put into words.

The Quietus interviews Richard

This article really angers me. Really cheap move from The Quietus to ask for an interview with Richard about Bell Orchestre and then headline the piece with "Arcade Fire Recording New Songs". And not only that, they ask nearly as much about Arcade Fire as the band they should be asking about.

For shame, The Quietus!

The Box score to be released with the DVD?

Extract from an interview Ain't It Cool News (Beaks) did with Richard Kelly.

Beaks: Were any of these jettisoned scenes scored?

Kelly: Yes. It's funny: Win and Regine loved the chase, but it kept going in and out of the movie. So they were finally like, "You know what? We're going to score it anyway." Just in case there's ever a longer version of the movie, they scored the whole thing.
[Kelly and I now go into a spoiler-heavy discussion of a cue from the end of the film. Basically, I thought a certain piece of music ended abruptly (not in a bad way), and wondered if there was more to that scene. Kelly said there wasn't.]

Beaks: That's interesting. Obviously, I love their score.

Kelly: The band pretty much had final say over how their score was edited. And I was more than comfortable allowing them that. When I cut their score in, Win had a few notes, and Regine had a few notes, but I was more than fine with their notes because they understood the story so well. It was the easiest collaboration. They actually helped keep me sane and emotionally grounded throughout the whole process. They were an extra set of eyes. The saw twelve or fourteen cuts of the movie, and they were constantly there to give me thoughts about the cut. They were really helpful.

Beaks: But if they had final say on how the music was cut, doesn't that mean they had some say on how the actual film was cut?

Kelly: That was something I promised them. I said, "Don't worry. I know you're signing contracts here, but, as a filmmaker, I promise you that you're going to be happy with how the score is cut. And if you're not, let me know." I trusted them with that. And at the end of the day, we were on the same page. We maybe had a short little debate here or there, but I trusted them. It's their music. They understand how to deliver, and they understand story. It was a very specific collaboration with people I have so much respect for as artists. This was not a traditional composer-for-hire situation. It was something where they invested a lot of their time and energy into creating this specific kind of music. They were really proud of it. And they just wanted to make sure that it was used and edited properly - and I don't blame them.

Beaks: So are they film buffs?

Kelly: Mm-hm.

Beaks: Could you, like, reference a cue from a specific Hitchcock film and know they'd pick up on it?

Kelly: When I met Win backstage after their show in September of 2007, before we'd started shooting, I handed him a script and a CD of Bernard Herrmann's VERTIGO. I was like, "If you get a chance, try to read it." I didn't expect to hear back from him; I figured it was just a long shot. But he called me the next day and said, "Regine and I read the script, and we had a really strong emotional connection to it. We think this could be really cool. Keep in touch." So when I wrapped, I sent them the rough cut. I don't think I sent them the three-hour rough cut, because... (Laughs) and that was really an assembly. I shouldn't say "rough cut".

Beaks: It was your "chaos draft".

Kelly: It was the "Talking Fox cut". The "Chaos Reigns assembly". (Laughs) But I think I sent them the two-hour, twenty-five-minute cut. Then they did twelve demos, and they were like, "If you don't like the demos, tell us you don't like them now because we're not going to keep going." And the demos were fantastic; they were so on the money. And then it was just about getting to the finish line, and making sure they were protected. At the end of the day, it was something everyone was happy with.
This was not a regular composer-for-hire job. This was a massive collaboration with an additional artist that had a significant amount of power - which I helped facilitate. They had creative control.

Beaks: Without you giving up control of the film?

Kelly: Right. Normally, when you sign a deal with a studio, they can use the score to sell vacuum cleaners with CGI cartoon characters and dead people; they can score a theme-park ride with it. We wanted to make sure that was not the case ever with their music. I was more than happy to give them as much creative control as possible.

And the score will get released at some point. Right now, they have a new album coming out, so their record label doesn't want to be throwing something else into the marketplace. I think they're going to put the score out in conjunction with the Blu-ray/DVD release, but I'm not sure. That's why I did the prequel music-video thing on YouAreTheExperiment.com. I just wanted to get the music out there, and give people a little taste of it. But they really want people to discover the music as part of the theatrical experience. There's something exciting about having to go to the theater to hear the score, as opposed to just having it on iTunes. You'll be able to get it on iTunes later on. That's actually a really cool philosophy that I agree with them on.

Because the music score business has become such a boutique thing. I don't know of any studio or record label right now that's excited about releasing a film score. The expense of releasing it doesn't even balance out with the income. It's sad, because I love film scores. I have them on my iPod. It's some of my favorite music. I wish there were more people who felt that way.

Beaks: So did they use 70s instrumentation?

Kelly: Yes. The score was recorded over four days in Toronto. It was two days of strings, a day of brass, and a day of percussion. It was recorded at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation in downtown Toronto, and all of the musicians were obviously classically trained. But there was a specific style that they were going for: they wanted it to sound very vintage and raw; they wanted the strings to sound rough around the edges. And they didn't want everything to sound all glossy and... computer smoothed-out.

Beaks: They didn't want Pro Tools.

Kelly: Right. They wanted it to sound like a vintage 1970s score. And a lot of the additional instruments that were used were very specific to the 1970s. They used a lot of Mellotron and stuff like that.

Beaks: If I were to place the score anywhere in Herrmann's oeuvre, I'd say it's definitely reflective of his 1970s collaborations with Scorsese and De Palma.

Kelly: Yes. Definitely.

http://www.aintitcool.com/node/42994

Ah, the memories.

Quite possibly the best interview to date, on camera, with Arcade Fire.

Arcade Fire rumour of interest

A very reliable and hard-to-please source of mine recently had a chance to drop by the studio and hear early versions of songs from Arcade Fire’s forthcoming third LP, and he promised to give me a sense of what to expect. These are some phrases he used:

“Fuller”

“More strings”

“More upbeat than Neon Bible”

“There’s a lot of Neil Young in Win’s voice”

“If these tracks were any indication, the album will be very, very good”

YVYNYL - Scoop: Arcade Fire's Third Album

There you have it. Is it true? Who knows, but this is enough to get me excited! You know, as if I wasn't already... Neil Young huh? WOW!

Richard Kelly talks about working with Win, Régine & Owen

So it seems it's definitely Merge Records, Arcade Fire's record label, that don't want the score out there just yet now that the new Arcade Fire album is only a few months away. Unfortunate but can't say I blame them since they are such a relatively small record label and certainly rely on good sales for the new album from Arcade Fire.

Do They Know It's Hallowe'en?

Oh yes, it's that time of the year again when I traditionally post this video. Happy Halloween y'all!

The song was released back in October 2005 to benefit UNICEF (and to poke fun at the patronizing attitude of "Do They Know It’s Christmas?"). The band called themselves North American Hallowe'en Prevention Initiative which consisted of an impressive list of artists:

Win Butler & Régine Chassagne (Arcade Fire)
Beck
Feist
Devendra Banhart
Thurston Moore (Sonic Youth)
Roky Erickson
Peaches
Dntel
Syd Butler (Les Savy Fav)
David Cross
Elvira, Mistress of the Dark
Karen O of Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Jenny Lewis & Blake Sennett (Rilo Kiley)
Dan Boeckner & Spencer Krug (Wolf Parade)
Steve Jocz of Sum 41
Nick Diamonds and J’aime Tambeur (Islands)

Juilliard-trained string players on LP3

Yeah, so says Richard Reed Parry in this interview with Eye Weekly about tonight's concert with Nico Muhly and the KWSO.

Juilliard-trained string players! ...still, my heart!

You Are The Experiment

Last night Warner Bros. launched the website You Are The Experiment where you can listen to score music by Win Butler, Régine Chassagne and Owen Pallett. Works really well I think. Here are some mp3s from those videos - www.megaupload.com/?d=HQS57DAT

Bits & Bobs

• Richard was recording string arrangements for the forthcoming Arcade Fire album in New York it was revealed in this article.
• RockFeedback TV: Bell Orchestre - On Stage @ The Garage, London
• The Box director Richard Kelly blogs about Arcade Fire

Peter Gabriel to cover My Body Is A Cage

Peter Gabriel to release orchestral covers album

For his first LP in seven years, the former Genesis frontman will 'radically reinterpret' songs by Radiohead, Arcade Fire and Bon Iver

Sean Michaels
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 28 October 2009 11.59 GMT

Peter Gabriel is release an orchestral covers album, his first LP in seven years. Scratch My Back is a "song swap", according to one of Gabriel's collaborators, where the singer and a host of "extremely legendary artists" will cover each other's material.

Gabriel recorded the album at George Martin's Air Lyndhurst studios in London, working with Bob Ezrin, producer of Lou Reed's Berlin, Pink Floyd's The Wall and Gabriel's self-titled 1977 record. "The songs are not simply covers," composer John Metcalfe told BBC 6 Music. "They are major reinterpretations of some famous stuff. It's quite radical."

Metcalfe describes his role as "reinterpreting the music of the songs [Gabriel] has chosen to cover". "[It's] quite onerous, as some of the songs are among the best known in the last 40 years," he said. "The album will be acoustic, using only orchestral instruments (no guitars, drums or world instruments), and range in size from sparse chamber music to a much fuller orchestral sound."

Though Scratch My Back won't be released until spring 2010, fans had their first taste of the project at this summer's Womad festival, when Gabriel performed Paul Simon's The Boy in the Bubble with a string section. "There [is material from] some all-time great singer-songwriters and bands," Metcalfe said, "and then there are some bands that are very, very well known from the last 10 years, and one or two more recent bands and singers as well."

Scratch My Back has been described as a tit-for-tat affair, with Gabriel covering artists like Paul Simon and then, presumably, Paul Simon covering a Peter Gabriel song. But the logistics of this have not been confirmed, and it's not clear whether this means it will be a double album.

Fans on Peter Gabriel message-boards have pounced upon a Scratch My Back track-list posted by a Japanese distributor. While the page offers few details – and gives a bizarre release date of 18 November – it does list 13 track titles. Among these are songs by Radiohead, Arcade Fire, Lou Reed, Bon Iver, David Bowie, Neil Young and Elbow.

It seems a plausible track-list, at least for the project's first volley, but as to whether or not it's legitimate? John Metcalfe isn't saying. "I'm not allowed to say who [is included], just yet, but there are some very, very famous singers and bands involved," he said. "There should be something in there for everybody."

Alleged Scratch My Back track-list:

1. Heroes (David Bowie)

2. Street Spirit (Radiohead)

3. The Book of Love (Magnetic Fields)

4. Flume (Bon Iver)

5. My Body Is a Cage (Arcade Fire)

6. Listening Wind (Talking Heads)

7. I Think It's Going to Rain Today (Randy Newman)

8. Après Moi (Regina Spektor or Eartha Kitt)

9. Waterloo Sunset (The Kinks)

10. The Boy in the Bubble (Paul Simon)

11. The Power of the Heart (Lou Reed)

12. Philadelphia (Neil Young)

13. Mirrorball (Elbow)

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2009/oct/28/peter-gabriel-orchestral-covers-album

Could at the very least be interesting to see how the man interprets these songs. Will ofcourse get back on this when I know more.

Mondo Sonoro lists their favourite albums of the 2000s

...and at the very top of that list they've put Funeral by Arcade Fire. If you understand Spanish you can read the magazine here. For us others there's always this great magazine cover photo to look at.

Oh and Funeral was also voted the best album of the decade by the listeners of popular Dublin and Irish radio station Phantom 105.2, not surprising if you know just how popular Arcade Fire is over there.

CBC Radio 2 to the rescue

As previously reported here and here Nico Muhly and Richard Reed Parry together with the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony are today (Oct 29th) performing in Koerner Hall at The Royal Conservatory of Music, Toronto. For all us who can't be there CBC Radio 2 comes to the rescue. On November 25th The Signal will broadcast the concert. Fantastic news.

CBC News has put up a good article in which they talk to both Nico Muhly and Richard Reed Parry about how this concert came about.

Further more local people can go to the concert for free! Call 416.408.0208 and use promo code 72737 (max 2 tickets each).

Clip from The Box

Possibly some of Win, Régine and Owen Pallett's score music in that clip. I'm so torn about whether to go see this movie or not. Nothing really appeals to me about it except hearing the score in its right context.

Land Of Talk - It's Okay

Fabulous video accompanying one of my favourite songs off Land Of Talk's fantastic album Some Are Lakes from last year. An amazing band and Elizabeth Powell is an equally amazing lead singer. Highly recommend you check them out if you haven't already done so.

http://www.landoftalk.com

Arcade Fire, currently not in Montreal

Several sources claim Arcade Fire have for the last three weeks been in New York recording their new album. Just last night Matthew Morales tweeted this:

RT @mateomorales: Studio time.....Arcade Fire is in the building once again

After some detective work I think I can fairly safely say they're recording in The Magic Shop studio which is located in the Soho area of Manhattan.

Arcade Fire is so 2010

Not that we ever doubted 2010 would be the year when Arcade Fire would return to the spotlight but now it's confirmed by Billions, their booking agency. On their website they've updated Arcade Fire's availability status from "Unavailable" to "2010: TBA". Even these small pieces of news has me ridiculously excited!

Richard Kelly reveals The Box score will be released

Richard Kelly used his twitter to deny rumours the score by Win Butler, Régine Chassagne and Owen Pallett won't be released. This is what director of The Box tweeted.

I want to clarify a few things about THE BOX score by Win Butler, Regine Chassagne and @OwenPallett...

The band is hard at work recording the new Arcade Fire album.

They will release the score at some point, when it does not conflict with their album release schedule for their record label.

We all hope that their fans will discover the score the old-fashioned way: sitting in a dark movie theater on 11/6/09.

Until then, you can hear a sample of the score at www.thebox-movie.com - more information forthcoming:)

So even though I'm somewhat disappointed it won't be released in the coming weeks it's comforting to know it will at least be released sometime in the future.

Arcade Fire on Facebook

As of today you can become a fan of Arcade Fire on Facebook right here.

Richard's Scrapbook 2009-10-18

For Heart, Breath and Orchestra

Thursday, October 29, at 8:00pm
Koerner Hall at The Royal Conservatory of Music, Toronto

For Heart, Breath and Orchestra is the third in a series of compositions which use automatic/involuntary muscles in the human body (specifically the lungs and the heart) as the performance parameters. All of the notes are read from a score, but the tempos at which they are played are governed by either the heart rate or breathing rate of the individual players, or the conductor. During the performance, many of the performers wear stethoscopes which enable them to play in synch with their own heartbeats.

But you guys who follow this blog already knew about this event since I made a post about it almost a month ago. I'd have loved to been able to go see this!

Owen Pallett can't contain himself! Nor can I.

RT @owenpallett: Can't contain it.  I just completed 10 days on the best album I've ever had the pleasure of working on.

10 days ago:

RT @owenpallett: Arcade Fire have some pretty gorgeous microphones right here. It'd be so easy to slip one into my bag.

Just saying. Aaaah! Tonight I will dream sweet sweet dreams about marvellous Arcade Fire sounds. Sounds so amazing I won't be able to hear my wake up call!

Spike Jonze is a legend!

Spike Jonze wrote the whole Where The Wild Things Are script to Arcade Fire's album Funeral. No word of lie! Read the man's own words for yourselves in this interview by Mr. Beaks for Ain't It Cool News.

Beaks: Given your commercial-directing background, I'd like to think they would've craved your marketing input.

Jonze: And they really did. They really allowed us to be involved. They didn't have to, but they did. The initial trailer... that Arcade Fire song ["Wake Up"] was something I'd used along the way in cutting stuff. Before we shot the movie, I cut together this mood piece; I used footage from E.T., RATCATCHER and THE BLACK STALLION, and cut together this mood piece to the song. I showed it to the crew to give them a sense of the tone and the feeling of the film before we shot. It was a way to get everyone to the same place. I wrote the whole script to Arcade Fire's FUNERAL, and I listened to that song a lot. That record is thematically very connected to the film. So it seems so perfect that we got to put that in the trailer.

Spike Jonze And Mr. Beaks Howl About WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE!!!

Astonishing! Like if you against all odds didn't plan on seeing Where The Wild Things Are before... I mean, now you have to. Not seeing it is not an option any more. I don't have to remind you guys of this trailer, right? I'm just gonna do it anyway.

Paolo Nutini covers Wake Up

Yeah, you read that right. He did a session for BBC Radio Scotland today where he for his last song of the session covered Arcade Fire's anthem "Wake Up". Sounded something like this.

[MP3] Paolo Nutini - Wake Up (live)

I've never wanted the Where The Wild Things Are version of Wake Up more than I do now...

Album of the Year: The Antlers - Hospice

I'd be very surprised if Hospice by The Antlers doesn't end up being my favourite album of 2009. It took me quite some time to 'get it' but once I did it was even more rewarding. At the moment "Wake" is my very favourite track on this fantastic record. Listen to it below.

Epic last couple of minutes! I can't really put my finger on what it is that makes the record so amazing, but everyone owe it to themselves to get their hands on it and be blown away. Maybe not instantly blown away, but with time it grows and grows... and grows!

First taste of The Box score!

Win Butler, Régine Cassagne and Owen Pallett have made the score for Richard Kelly's new movie The Box. Last night the official website was launched and playing in the background is a piece of music taken off that score. It sounds incredible! My mind is racing through all sorts haunting landscapes. So, head over to http://thebox-movie.warnerbros.com and listen to the music and check out the pretty cool website. Then when your mind has been blown you download the song here.

[MP3] Win Butler, Régine Chassagne and Owen Pallett - The Box (Website Theme)

UPDATE: As if needed, here's confirmation it's indeed their score music.

RT @owenpallett: Website for "The Box" is up here: http://thebox-movie.warnerbros.com and there's a Mellotron and an orchestra and Regine's angelic singing.

Arcade Fire turned down Twilight

Last week's issue of Rolling Stone magazine had a little blurb about the Twilight 2: New Moon soundtrack. The guy who booked all the bands for the soundtrack said that for the most part he was super happy about everyone who signed up to do songs for the album, and that only two bands declined their request to perform on the compilation. Those bands who refused were apparently Kings of Leon and Arcade Fire.

Phew. Thank something you hold very dearly for that!!

(Thanks Anna for spotting that blurb)

Where The Wild Gremlins Are

Hilarious! Who knew Gremlins 2, Arcade Fire's Wake Up with a touch of Where The Wild Things Are could be this amazing together. Top marks!

Where are your friends tonight?

If you ask me, one of the very very best songs of the 2000s! Mindblowingly awesome in every way.

LCD Soundsystem has a new album coming out sometime this coming spring. One of those 2010 albums I absolutely can't wait to hear. Already excited about what James Murphy can come up with this time around. Hope they'll tour with Arcade Fire again.

Paquin on the new Arcade Fire album

Marcus Paquin who remastered Arcade Fire's self-titled EP is now an engineer in the ongoing studio sessions for the forthcoming album. He very briefly gave his thoughts about LP3 to Montreal Gazette.

"It’s going to be wonderful," he said of the Arcade Fire disc. "It’s been an amazing experience."

Very reassuring to hear he's happy with how things are going. Read the entire article here about his band Silver Starling which, as I've said before, also is Marika's other project.

Final Fantasy - "Heartland" album details

Press release from Domino

Heartland exists. The third Final Fantasy full-length and the first for Domino, it is the product of nine months of work in four countries. Heartland is a fully orchestral record, designed to exist simultaneously as an album, a 45-minute piece of orchestral music and a set of songs for looped violin and voice. Heartland will be released by Domino on Monday the 11th of January 2010. Owen Pallett explains:

"The songs themselves form a narrative concerning a farmer named Lewis and the fictional world of Spectrum. The songs are one-sided dialogues with Lewis, a young, ultra-violent farmer, speaking to his creator."

"The album was compositionally modeled upon the principles of electronic music. The principles of analog synthesis informing symphonic writing, like an inversion of a Tomita record. These songs, too, were designed to be as dense with polyphony as the Final Fantasy live shows can become. While writing it, I kept an image in my head of putting so many notes on the page that the paper turned black."

"This record encapsulates a whole year of work for me, and was difficult to see through, but immensely proud of the results. I hope you enjoy it."

Work began in earnest in November 2008, when Pallett and Arcade Fire drummer Jeremy Gara flew to Reykjavik to work at The Greenhouse, Valgeir Siggurdsson's studio (Björk's Medulla, Bonnie "Prince" Billy's The Letting Go) with engineer Mio Þórrison at the board. The orchestra was recorded January 2009, in Prague, with the Czech Symphony. Other guests include Matt Smith (Nifty), Reg Vermue (Gentleman Reg) and Nico Muhly. Rusty Santos, who produced Animal Collective's Sung Tongs and mixed Panda Bear's Person Pitch, was taken on as mixer.

He and Owen worked together in Toronto and New York over the summer of 2009 putting the finishing touches on Heartland.

Heartland tracklist:
1. Midnight Directives
2. Keep The Dog Quiet
3. Mount Alpentine
4. Red Sun No. 5
5. Lewis Takes Action
6. The Great Elsewhere
7. Oh Heartland, Up Yours!
8. Lewis Takes Off His Shirt
9. Flare Gun
10. E Is For Estranged
11. Tryst With Mephistopheles
12. What Do You Think Will Happen Now?

Heartland will be available on CD (WIGCD252), LP (WIGLP252) and digitally (WIG252D).

On tour with The Mountain Goats:
04/11/2009 USA Grand Rapids, MI (Ladies Literary Club - Calvin College)
05/11/2009 USA Chicago, IL (The Metro
06/11/2009 USA Madison, WI (High Noon Saloon)
07/11/2009 USA Minneapolis, MN (Cedar Cultural Centre)
10/11/2009 USA Seattle, WA (The Showbox)
11/11/2009 USA Portland, OR (The Wonder Ballroom)
14/11/2009 USA San Francisco, CA (The Fillmore)
15/11/2009 USA Los Angeles, CA (Henry Fonda Theatre)
18/11/2009 USA Austin, TX (Antone's)
19/11/2009 USA Dallas, TX (Granada Theater)
20/11/2009 USA Nashville, TN (Mercy Lounge)
21/11/2009 USA Atlanta, GA (The Variety Playhouse)
23/11/2009 USA Orlando, FL (The Social)
24/11/2009 USA St. Augustine, FL (Cafe Eleven)
27/11/2009 USA Washington, DC (9:30 Club)
28/11/2009 USA Philadelphia, PA (Theater of Living Arts)
29/11/2009 USA Boston, MA (Wilbur Theater)
01/12/2009 USA New York, NY (Webster Hall)
02/12/2009 USA Brooklyn, NY (The Bell House)

Final Fantasy will be returning to the UK and Europe for more shows in 2010.

Pitchfork claims it's a concept album and it does seem likely doesn't it! Also very cool Jeremy has been helping out with the percussion. Januari 11 can't come soon enough! I've said it before and I'll say it again: 2010 > 2009.

Volcano Choir - Island, IS

Strangely captivating video to a lovely song. Lifted off their debut record Unmap. Volcano Choir is of course the side project of the extremely talented Justin Vernon, more commonly known as Bon Iver.

[MP3] Volcano Choir - Island, IS (via JAGJAGUWAR)

www.myspace.com/VolcanoChoir

Bell Orchestre: Live at La Tulipe, Montreal

Download this wonderful Bell Orchestre show at La Tulipe in Montreal (April 19, 2009) which is now streaming over at CBC Radio 2.

01 Bucephalus Bouncing Ball
02 Air Lines/Land Lines
03 Dark Lights
04 Icicles/Bicycles
05 Water/Light/Shifts
07 The Gaze

Bell Orchestre - 2009-04-19 - La Tulipe, Montreal, QC [MP3].zip

Stream "No Cars Go (Jason Forrest Remix)"

As previously reported Merge Records are releasing a remix album on November 17th they've named Score! 20 Years of Merge Records: The Remixes. Now the full album is streaming over at their website. Most excitingly for me was of course listening to Jason Forrest's absolutely brilliant remix of "No Cars Go" by Arcade Fire. Form yourselves an opinion on it right here.

Love this remix to tiny tiny pieces! Dark but at the same time fun and playful.

Bell Orchestre visits FlyTV

Nico & Richard

Oy, you lucky Toronto people. Don't miss this!

Nico’s Choice
Thursday, Oct 29, 2009
8:00 PM
Koerner Hall
Genre: Pop, Classical: Orchestra


Nico Muhly and Richard Reed Parry with the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony, Edwin Outwater, conductor He's composing for an opera (for the MET), writing film scores (for The Reader ) and working with rock's most engaging musicians (Bjork, Grizzly Bear, Antony and the Johnsons)... all at the ripe age of 27! Meet Nico, hear some of his favourite music, and meet his friend Richard Reed Perry (from Arcade Fire), who is composing a new piece specially for the KWS.

The Royal Conservatory: Nico's Choice

Score! 20 Years of Merge Records: The Remixes

I'm dead tired so just going to quote Pitchfork on this one. Hope the remix of No Cars Go is a cracker!

That picture above is the cover of Score! 20 Years of Merge Records: The Remixes. The idea behind the compilation is simple: Artists-- Merge and non-Merge alike-- remix songs that have come out on Merge during the past two decades. So we get Jason Forrest tweaking the Arcade Fire's "No Cars Go", John McEntire of Tortoise and the Sea and Cake remixing Spoon's "The Ghost of You Lingers", Caribou reworking Polvo's "Kalgon", and the Junior Boys working their magic on Lambchop's "The Nashville Parent". Four Tet, Xiu Xiu, and the Blow also contribute remixes. The tracklist is below.


Like the Merge 20th anniversary covers compilation, The Remixes is part of Merge's Score! subscription box set. But also like The Covers, you'll be able to buy The Remixes even if you didn't have the foresight to subscribe to the Score! series. The compilation is due on November 17, and it'll be available on both digital download and limited edition CD. As with everything else in the Score! series, proceeds from The Remixes will go to benefit the charities listed here.


Score! 20 Years of Merge: The Remixes:


01 Polvo: "Kalgon (Caribou Remix)"
02 Pram: "Mother of Pearl (Barbara Morgenstern Remix)"
03 Guv'ner: "Baby's Way Cruel (Four Tet Remix)"
04 Portastatic: "Drill Me (The Blow's I Was So There Remix)"
05 Spoon: "The Ghost of You Lingers (John McEntire Remix)"
06 Arcade Fire: "No Cars Go (Jason Forrest Remix)"
07 The 6ths: "Volcana! (Xiu Xiu's I Hope Your Train Crashes Remix)"
08 The Rosebuds: "Bow to the Middle (+/- Remix)"
09 Caribou: "Irene (Hands Off Cuba Remix)"
10 The Magnetic Fields: "Washington DC (Mark Robinson Remix)"
11 Lambchop: "The Nashville Parent (Junior Boys Remix)"

Pitchfork: Merge Announce Remix Comp Details

St. Vincent - Marrow

Like, I can't even pretend to be cool about it... *swoon to the nth degree!*

Mac McCaughan covers 7 Kettles

Footage of Mac McCaughan covering "Neighborhood #4 (7 Kettles)" has made it's way to youtube. He's ofcourse a founding member of Superchunk and to that co-founder of Merge Records, Arcade Fire's record label, together with Laura Ballance who's sitting next to him.

Pretty good acoustic cover. This song was part of their session at Quail Ridge Books & Music in Raleigh, NC in support of "Our Noise: The Story of Merge Records" which you can read more about here. Their book actually tells among lots of other things some behind-the-scenes stories about Arcade Fire. The purchase genes immediately starts twitching... Might be worth buying.

Waiting is pain. Pain is waiting.

That people was Arcade Fire... Enough said.

The new Arcade Fire Store officially launched

As I told you guys earlier Arcade Fire has launched their new online store. Today it was officially announced with an e-mail being sent out to all fans who have signed up to receive updates from Arcade Fire. Check your inboxes! A pretty cool offer was presented as well.

Arcade Fire's New Online Store!

Arcade Fire is happy to announce the launch of the new Online Store. To show our appreciation for signing up to our online store newsletter, we are offering you a 15% discount at checkout, excluding PIH charity items. Just enter the promotional code MIROIRNOIR at checkout to receive this special offer (valid until October 31, 2009). Feel free to share and forward this code to your friends. Also check out the Partners in Health charity bundle on the store.

More info and stuff in the newsletter.
Let the spending spree begin by jumping over to the Arcade Fire Store.

Sunset Rubdown - Black Swan

Savage song. It can ofcourse be found on their latest album Dragonslayer. Highly recommended!

Interview with Bell Orchestre

Bell Orchestre this last weekend kicked off their shortish European tour by playing at the Electric Picnic festival in Ireland. RTÉ 2fm was on site to catch up with Sarah, Mike and Richard from the band. There's a little Arcade Fire update towards the end as well.

He was really good to work with!

Haha! A really really thorough answer there Sarah. Brilliant. As to the Arcade Fire bit there it pretty much confirms what I wrote on here the other day. Don't expect anything to be released this year.

Fine poetry by Owen Pallett

In what I believe is a response to Wayne Coyne's continued bullshitting about Arcade Fire, their old touring crew and whatnot Owen Pallett, aka Final Fantasy, came up with this stinging poem.

Win
You drink too much gin
You're never gonna win
Seven deadly sins
My cat's name is Lynn.

Regine
You're a teen dream
You look so serene
But I'm not so keen
On your touring machine.

Relax
Take a load of your backs
The future of music
Is confetti machines
And CD backing tracks.

Ouuuuch, Coyne! Ouch! Needless to say I love the last last three lines. The sarcasm detector is just going haywire. But not only that, the amount of CD backing tracks used by The Flaming Lips is nothing short of embarrassing for a band which easily could afford to have some people doing all that live.

Thanks Owen for brighten up an otherwise cloudy day.

Online store redesigned!

Arcade Fire have redesigned their online store. So jump over to www.arcadefirestore.com and check it out. Looks pretty slick and most definitely much more user friendly. This will no doubt cause someone out there to go all "OMGZ! OMG! NEW ALBUM OUT ANY SECOND!!", you know, the usual crap. Should that happen and rumours starts flying... Well, just chill. Bell Orchestre have, as I said in an earlier post (although in Swedish back then), set out to tour the west coast in the US as late as in November which in all likelihood rules out any potential release date on this side of the new year.

- How 'bout a new hoodie, Joel?
- You're so clever, Joel!

Silver Starling at Osheaga Festival

Ghosts


Love & A Broken Heart

Great to see Marika so prominent. The self-titled album is out September 22nd. Look out for it.

Bye Swedish! Hello Canadaish!

Thought I'd give it a go to see how it turns out. There are many reasons behind the change, but the one thing that really stands out is the fact most things written about Arcade Fire are in English and I've always felt kinda weird about mixing Swedish and English in my posts. Hope you fellow Swedes out there don't mind too much. xx joel

Marikas band

Silver Starling, så heter Marikas band som hon spelar i när hon inte flänger runt över hela vårt jordklot med Arcade Fire. Här nedan framför de "Ghosts" live.

...oh no-oh, I won't believe in ghosts... Tycker det låter riktigt bra och catchy. Ska bli kul och höra deras debutalbum med samma namn som gruppen - släpps den 22:a september borta i Kanada.

www.myspace.com/SilverStarlingmusic

Bell Orchestre - Who Designs Nature's How

01 Water / Light / Shifts (Tim Hecker Remix)
02 The Stars In His Head / Bernard 33 - Dark Lights (Colin Stetson Remix)
03 Icicles / Bicycles (Kid Koala Remix)
04 Quintet (H tel-de-Ville Remix)
05 As Seen Through Windows (Mad Professor Remix)
06 Stripes (Susumu Yokota Vs H tel-de-Ville Remix)
07 Airlines / Landlines (Deadly Stare)

Den tycker jag ni bör skaffa. Förslagsvis här.

Independence Is No Solution

Åh, vad jag inte skulle gjort för att ha kunnat vara på plats i Annedalskyrkan under Way Out West förra helgen. Genial cover.

Världens bästa band.

Arcade Fire, jag saknar er något obeskrivligt mycket. Kommer bli kliniskt tokig snart om ni inte blir klara med den nya skivan snart!

BRUUUUUUUUUUUCE!!!!

Har ännu idag rysningar från detta!! Fortfarande ingen som har en tidsmaskin?
4:30 och framåt... oj oj oj!

Ny låt från Radiohead

Inatt så kom det en ny låt från ingenstans, These Are My Twisted Words. Älskar när sådant här händer. Speciellt när det är Radiohead som ligger bakom. Går på repeat. Jag kan inte annat än att återigen bli förundrad av deras förmåga att göra fantastisk musik. Hoppa över till Stereogum och tanka hem - mp3:an finns längst ner i artikeln. Eller streama den nedan.

Beeeeeeep!

Inte något jag brukar lyssna på om man säger så men jag kan inte få Addeboy vs Cliff - Beep My Beep ur skallen min. Om jag postar den här så kanske någon annan drabbas också?

Det är som ni säkert hörde David Sandström som tillsammans med Erika Moeld lånat ut sina röster till den här låten åtminstone jag har väldans svårt att sitta still till. Beep, vilket beat!

Ny skiva från Final Fantasy!

RT @owenpallett: Heartland, it exists. It's coming out on Domino in the first week of 2010.

En länk för att backa upp detta med: http://is.gd/2aNQD. 2010 kommer bli fruktansvärt mycket bättre än 2009.

Where The Wild Things Are - trailer 2

Även denna gången har de använt den nyinspelade versionen av Wake Up. Första trailern blev ju en makalös succé, jag är inte säker på att denna kommer bli lika uppskattad. Känns i alla fall inte lika stark i mitt tycke. Den första trailern vann ju något enormt på att det knappt var någon dialog alls och framförallt inte under låtens gång. Inte så denna gång...

Filmen ser dock onekligen extremt lovande ut. Jag tror inte man ska underskatta den exponering som detta gett Arcade Fire. Jag vet att väldigt många fått upp ögonen för Arcade Fire enbart genom att de hörde Wake Up i första trailern och att försäljningen av deras musik på iTunes sköt i taket strax efter att trailern släpptes.

Radiohead - Harry Patch (In Memory Of)

Ladda ner den för endast några kronor: http://download.waste.uk.com.
All vinst går till Royal British Legion. Patch gick nyligen bort 111 år gammal och var förstås den sista överlevande såväl som kvarlevande brittiska soldaten från Första Världskriget.

I am the only one that got through
The others died where ever they fell
It was an ambush
They came up from all sides
Give your leaders each a gun and then let them fight it out themselves
I've seen devils coming up from the ground
I've seen hell upon this earth
The next will be chemical but they will never learn

Sån fantastiskt vacker låt och jag är ju dessutom en sucker för stråkar så den här låten träffar mig rätt i hjärtat av många orsaker. Känns rätt att avsluta detta inlägg med en rad från Harry själv.

Irrespective of the uniforms we wore, we were all victims.

SUNSET RUBDOWN

03 sep Malmö, Sweden - Debaser
04 sep Göteborg, Sweden - Parken
05 sep Stockholm, Sweden - Strand

Nu blir det åka av!

Det är mycket Final Fantasy nu, jag vet...

...men han är ju en av vår nutids musikaliska genier så det kan väl aldrig bli för mycket av Final Fantasy. Eller hur! Här är en rykande färsk inspelning från Black Cab Sessions.


Och här framför Owen Pallett en ny grym cover av "Dance, Dance, Dance". Lykke Li dansar (tror jag)!

Nu ska jag dansa, dansa, dansa hela vägen till middagsbordet!

Lewis Takes Off His Shirt

En soundboard-inspelning av Owen Palletts nya låt "Lewis Takes Off His Shirt".

[MP3] Final Fantasy - Lewis Takes Off His Shirt (at Hillside Festival 2009) [V0, LAME 3.98]

Avundsjuk på alla Way Out West:are

Owen Pallett är helt fantastisk!

Se Final Fantasy på Way Out West alla ni som ska dit! Det är inte en uppmaning, det är en order.

Régine! Nja.. inte riktigt va.

Mycket snygg klänning. Extra supernördpoäng till mig...

Win om Merge

Merge, Arcade Fires skivbolag, fyller 20 år och därför har Pitchfork intervjuat några av deras favoritband som ligger på just Merge. Arcade Fire var givetvis ett av dem.

WIN BUTLER, ARCADE FIRE

Pitchfork: When did you first hear of Merge Records?

Win Butler: I grew up in the suburbs of Houston, and there's not a lot of independent music. [Laughs.] I went to boarding school in New England, and I definitely remember hearing Superchunk in high school. I was living in Boston, and it was the first time I had been living in a city or whatever where there was an actual college radio station that played music. Around the same time, I remember hearing Neutral Milk Hotel and the Magnetic Fields. It was one of my first experiences where it didn't seem to me that the independent thing was a production choice or, like, "We don't have money so this is how we sound" sort of thing. These songs were as good as any songs you'd ever heard. It was musically as good as anything. When we were looking for a label years later, it was really the only label I was super-interested in, so it was a dream come true.

Our drummer at the time, Howard [Bilerman], had known Mac and Laura. He used to let them crash at his place in the Superchunk days. I get the impression that he would document shows back in the day. [Ed.: Bilerman recorded Clambakes Vol. 4: Sur La Bouche: Live in Montreal 1993.]

Pitchfork: How many labels did Arcade Fire send their demo to?

WB: I don't think really anything came out of us mailing our demo to people. I remember a guy from Saddle Creek hearing the demo a year after Funeral came out. They found it in the stack, and he thought, "Oh, no, what have I done?" We played this weird show in Boston with Devendra Banhart and Xiu Xiu; this acoustic show where we happened into this opening slot. Through that, there was this label called Absolutely Kosher that we were talking to a lot. There's a local label that put out the Unicorns record, alien8, that we were talking to. We were pretty close to going with them before everything happened with Merge.

Pitchfork: How did the Merge deal finally happen?

WB: We just drove down to North Carolina. It's kind of a big decision, and we had been really close to signing to alien8, so we wanted to make sure we were doing the right thing. We drove down and met everyone, and it was this kind of instant… For everyone in the band, I think, it was obvious what the right thing to do was. My understanding of how they decided to sign us was that we sent them some rough mixes of songs on Funeral while we were working on them. It didn't have anything to do with the EP. It was more like, "These are the songs we're working on now." They were playing them around the office and there were a lot of people who were really into it and pushing Mac and Laura, like, "Oh, you gotta sign these guys." It had nothing to do with any kind of hype or anything like that. It was way before any of that, and it was just a bunch of people connecting to our music. We could really tell that was the case. It was very comforting.

Pitchfork: You mentioned the groundswell of support for Funeral in the office. That must have been an encouraging sign that these people were going to work for you?

WB: It was really cool, and the other really striking about the office at Merge was that so many people we talked to that worked there had moved to Chapel Hill just hoping that they could work at Merge. They made the leap and moved there, not knowing if they would have a job or anything. [Laughs] "You know, what? I'd really like to work for Merge, so I'll move to this town and see what happens. That's part of what's really special about what Mac and Laura have created. They have made this outpost, and people from all over say, "I wonder what's happening there."

Pitchfork: Why is that? What do they have or encourage?

WB: The best analogy I can make is that Régine [Chassagne] and I were just on a trip in rural Louisiana, and we were driving between Houston and New Orleans. Down there, there are a lot of radio stations that play a lot of French-Acadian music. It would be some beautiful oldies song I'd never heard, and then slick modern country song. Then you'd listen to the lyrics, and the lyrics would actually be pretty good. Then there would be French-Acadian song, but it was still really interesting to listen to because it's an expression of someone's musical taste and their personality. You're driving through the countryside, and more radio used to be that way. It was this positive experience of the radio for the first time in a long time. That's how I see Merge: It's really just an expression of their tastes and things that they like. It permeates the company in a way.

Pitchfork: You played the Cave, the tiny underground music venue in Chapel Hill, just after Merge signed you. Do you remember that show?

WB: Of course. It was before the record had come out. That was our first real tour in the States opening for the Unicorns, which was really a great time. We wanted to play in Chapel Hill, and the Unicorns had a show in South Carolina. We booked that show at the Cave, and the Unicorns went on to South Carolina. We met up again in Atlanta or something like that.

I remember nearly hitting my head on the ceiling several times. So many times in Arcade Fire, I remember playing in Providence, R.I., and my friend Hilary and my parents showed up, and there was some old hippie couple. And we played our whole set, just like, "Oh, whatever." We'd still really bring it even if we were playing for four people. [Laughs] We were still in that mentality. We were excited to just be playing for the Merge people even though there were only probably 15-20 people there. We wanted them to see us and get what we did.

Pitchfork: And do you feel like that night accomplished that connection?

WB: Definitely. It was pretty great. And we all stayed at all people in the label's houses. There were a lot of us. I think we really connected with everyone that was working there.

Pitchfork: Two shows later in Chapel Hill (and I suppose your last show here that wasn't for Barack Obama), you thanked Christina Rentz, Merge's publicist, from the stage. Why?

WB: The whole deal really took us by surprise. In a lot of ways, it was a learning situation for all of us. On that tour, the first headlining tour, Martin and Christina-- who were setting up our interviews at that point-- it was non-stop. A cell phone would ring in the van, and we'd be driving from show to show in the van and passing the phone around the van. It was basically like one foot in front of the other. For them, it was kind of the same thing: "Holy crap, what do we do here? Let's try and figure it out." In a way, we all kind of learned and grew together and figured out what worked and what didn't work.

Pitchfork: Correct me if I'm wrong, but I imagine people with a lot of money approached you about releasing the record after Funeral. Why stay with Merge?

WB: We were definitely approached by pretty much everyone. There was nothing that came even close. We were never that interested in leaving in the first place, but there aren't that many real labels out there. It's the same as the radio stations. There's only a handful of them still working and kicking in the spirit of how it's supposed to be. We were never tempted to leave Merge. It already worked, and we already were happy. There's a perception in a way that it's all about pushing something, but 95% of the whole process was saying, "No. No. No. No. Yes. No. No." A lot of it was trying to filter through the noise and all the chaos, and it really felt like partners in a way that we weren't going to get with another label. We were both in the same storm. When I think of a major-label situation, they're taking you out and trying to push you in all these avenues where your music wouldn't actually go. With Merge, it's very much been like we're following how people respond to the music, instead of vice versa.

Pitchfork: Articles: XX Merge

Thom Yorke - All For The Best

En av de bästa låtar jag hört i år. Geniet har slagit till igen. Spåret finns med på den kommande skivan Ciao My Shining Star: The Songs of Mark Mulcahy.

Money Changes Everything

[MP3] Arcade Fire - Windowsill > Money Changes Everything (LIVE)

Arcade Fire-tastiskt! Money Changes Everything är förstås en gammal Cyndi Lauper låt.

Broken Social Scene lever!!

Oooh underbara Kanada, nu paddlar jag snart över dammen! Vill så ofantligt gärna se dem live.

Jeremy's scrapbook 2009-07-08

cryptacize
if you're lucky enough to be in the path of the rest of their tour, do yourself a favour / favor and go see cryptacize play a show.

i LOVE them. holy smokes.

Kan bara instämma. Nya skivan Mythomania är jättebra. Skaffa den och se dem live om ni kan.

www.myspace.com/cryptacize
www.asthmatickitty.com/cryptacize

Tres cool!

Will & Régine

En rolig och lite konstig intervju med Will och Régine från 2007.

Del 1 av 2:


Del 2 av 2:

Allt med dem känns så genuint. Det finns aldrig ett förprogrammerat svar eller sätt att agera. Älskar hur Régine blir helt till sig när Will talar om för intervjuaren att de ska se M.I.A. senare. Genuint.

Hur snart är snart?

Fått lite frågor om vad jag tror Win menar när han säger att vi kan förmodligen förvänta oss en ny skiva och turné från Arcade Fire snarare än vad vi fans tror. Så jag tänkte att det är lika bra att jag skriver lite om det.

Från tidigare erfarenheter är Arcade Fires definition av 'snart' lite annorlunda mot vad åtminstone min är... Att Win nu säger att han är sugen på att spela live och vill få ut nya skivan ganska snabbt är givetvis positivt men vad det innebär rent konkret är svårt att säga. Jag tror inte man ska förvänta sig någon ny skiva förrän någon gång efter nyår fortfarande. Februari-Mars kanske. Däremot när det gäller liveframträdanden så kan det möjligtvis dyka upp några enstaka spelningar för att bekanta sig med de nya låtarna. Men räkna inte med något innan nyår. Ett ytterligare argument för det är att Bell Orchestre, där ju Richard och Sarah spelar, har en turné längs USAs västkust inplanerad så sent som i November.

Lite annan kuriosa om nya skivan är att det sägs från säkra källor att Win och Régine skrivit upp mot 40(!) nya låtar. Ibland undrar jag om de är för kreativa för deras eget bästa!