Arcade Fire presents The Suburbs - the new album!

I'm in no state of mind to write anything elaborate now, I'll try later. I'm shaking of joy! But here you go. This is all you need to really know. Pre-order the new album and have faith in music again.

PRE-ORDER THE SUBURBS >

The available pre-order options and details.

Available the 2nd of August in the UK & the 3rd in the US and Canada

1) Premium digital in 320 kbps MP3, FLAC or Apple Lossless. Delivered via email $7.99

2) CD + premium digital, $12.99

3) Double 12″ vinyl + premium digital (gatefold, 180 g) $24.99

4) Two tracks for instant digital download – “The Suburbs” & “Month of May” (transferred from the acetate master) $1.99

5) CD + Premium digital + Limited Edition Screen Printed Poster (Designed by Wes Winship from Burlesque of North America) $32.99

6) Double 12” Vinyl + premium digital + Limited Edition Screen Printed Poster (Designed by Wes Winship from Burlesque of North America) $44.99

* All pre-orders receive an instant download of both songs Month of May and The Suburbs.

ArcadeFire.com/The-Suburbs

It doesn't get much better than this! My heart is rushing. Thank you, thank you, thank you Arcade Fire!

New Arcade Fire album at the end of July? 38 songs?

Let's start though with a tweet from Australian tv/radio station Triple J's music director Richard Kingsmill.

Arcade Fire's new song is called "Suburbs". We should get it week after next. It will be a 12" vinyl only release believe it or not!

Very much doubt Richard Kingsmill would make up about something like that. Looking forward to that Suburbs single like a mad man.

Quickly moving on to a really interesting article Triple J published a bit later on after that above Kingsmill tweet. I'm just gonna copy/paste it so you can digest it in its entirety.

Arcade Fire prep new album

Details have been trickling out about Arcade Fire's ridiculously anticipated third album. The follow-up to Neon Bible doesn't yet have a title, but the band have set the end of July as a tentative release date.

triple j will get hold of a new song from the Canadian band around June 1. It'll reportedly be called "Suburbs" and will initially be released exclusively on 12" vinyl.

The band worked in the studio with long-time producer Nick Launay, and according to sources close to the band, they've got plenty of material to work with - they reportedly recorded and mixed around 38 songs for the album.

Triple J: Arcade Fire prep new album

So there you have it all people. Inhale-exhale! Inhale-exhale! If it's true the new album is indeed consisting of 38 songs I might just implode or something. Triple album? Could be that those 38 songs are just the number of songs they're choosing from though.

It's good as well to hear Nick Launay is still producing. Have a nice day everybody!

Arcade Fire presents "The Suburbs"

Developments over at Arcade Fire.com.

Could be the title of the new album, could be a new song, could be the title of the short film they've been working on with Spike Jonze. But something is definitely called "The Suburbs" and Arcade Fire are presenting it. First they had a banner up there that said "Arcade Fire presents 'The Suburbs'". Now it only says "Arcade Fire presents", but if you check out the source code you'll still find this post's title in the header.

E-X-C-I-T-I-N-G.

Stay tuned. This post will be updated with more news as/if it happens.

Update
"The Suburbs" has now been removed from the source code as well.

Update #2
Previously been reported the working title for the Spike Jonze and Arcade Fire short film was "Scenes from the Suburb". However, I'm now hearing people in the know claiming the official name of the shooting down in Austin, TX was "The Suburbs". So I'm starting to lean more and more towards The Suburbs is referring to that. I think it's too close after the shooting finished to expect the full thing right now, but a trailer or something like it might perhaps be in line. I really hope the new website launches soon.

Arcade Fire bullets

• Arcade Fire certainly look like they're in the last phases of finishing up the new album after John Russell tweeted they had been mixing their material before they themselves started in that studio.
• The whispers of a September release date are growing stronger.
• Here's a mp3 recording of Arcade Fire at Glastonbury 2007 from my dvd of that same gig.
• Coldplay Attempt Hostile Takeover of The Arcade Fire. "Bono [meaning Bono]", just one of many highlights. I laughed quite a bit at this witty piece. A lot of it has to with the fact the headline is (almost) true.
• It makes me very happy to hear from people all over Europe who are flying in for Arcade Fire's first announced solo show at Dalhalla in Sweden. I know of people from Ireland, England, Italy, Denmark, Germany, France and Finland who are coming over just for this gig. To anyone making the trip over; feel free to drop me a line. Good fun reading about it. Hope the weekend is treating you all well.

Update
Adding Holland to the list. Has to be some Norwegians who'll cross the boarder, right?

Update #2
The Americans want in on the fun as well. Cool!

No May release for the new Arcade Fire album

That's the conclusion you obviously have to draw following what Billboard.com just published.

Arcade Fire, Title TBD (Merge)
Release Date: Second half of 2010

Merge confirms that an Arcade Fire album should be out in the second half of the year

Arcade Fire Album Preview | Billboard.com

Merge is of course Arcade Fire's record label so the info is bound to be accurate.

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!

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

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 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.

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.

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!

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

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.

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!

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.

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!