The Arcade Fire
Encyclopedia
Arcade Fire is an indie rock
band based in Montreal, Quebec
, Canada
. 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
. William Butler and Régine Chassagne attended McGill University
, where she studied Jazz. Arcade Fire came to prominence with the release of 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
, the 2011 Juno Award 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. 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. The band's work has also been twice named as a short list nominee for the Polaris Music Prize
in 2007 for Neon Bible
and in 2011 for The Suburbs
, winning the award for The Suburbs.
and Josh Deu began performing in Boston as Arcade Fire before moving to Montreal in 2001, recording the "2001 Demos" prior to their arrival in the city. The earliest Montreal-based incarnation of 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, 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.
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.
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."
was released in September 2004 in Canada and February 2005 in Great Britain. 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.
The album was critically and commercially acclaimed. 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 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 Britain
, and sold over half a million copies worldwide, 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 and the label's biggest selling album to date, surpassing Neutral Milk Hotel
's In the Aeroplane Over the Sea
.
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. 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 British/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 the British 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.
"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
". 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)". The band was nominated for three BRIT Awards
: Best International Group, Best International Album, and Best International Breakthrough Act.
Arcade Fire made an appearance on the BBC show Later with Jools Holland
on May 12, 2005, performing "Power Out" and "Rebellion (Lies)". On December 27, 2005, Funeral was ranked #1 on MTV2
's "50 Greatest Albums of the Year" in the United Kingdom
. On October 22, 2007, Funeral was ranked #8 in Bob Mersereau
's book The Top 100 Canadian Albums
. In late 2009, Pitchfork Media ranked the album #2 in their list of the top 200 albums of the 2000s.
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 (43.5 mi) southeast of Montreal, and spent the early part of 2006 converting it into a recording studio.
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
. 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. 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. Trouser Press
writer Jason Reeher ranked Neon Bible
"among the best indie rock recordings of all time."
Arcade Fire made their first appearance on Saturday Night Live
on February 24, 2007 (Episode 618), performing "Intervention" and "Keep the Car Running". Owen Pallett
was not present as he was recording for his solo project. 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 Haiti
an proverb meaning "An empty sack cannot stand up" in Creole
, this may have been a reference to the extreme poverty of Haiti, the country of origin of Régine Chassagne.
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. However, due to the band's preference not to participate in compilation album
s, 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.
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
. 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
". 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.
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.
Win Butler has been a vocal supporter of Barack Obama
since the end of the New Hampshire Primary. 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. 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. On January 21, 2009, Arcade Fire and Jay-Z
were the musical guests at the Obama Campaign Staff Ball at the DC Armory, at Obama's request. 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. Win Butler denied the claims, but stated that he and Owen Pallett
"may do an instrumental piece or two" for the film.
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. 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.
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. 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 proceeds from licensing the song to the NFL to the charity Partners In Health
.
, to be released on August 2 in the UK and on August 3 in the US and Canada thanks to Merge Records. 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. 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.”
The album was released with eight different covers. Design, Caroline Robert. Photos, Gabriel Jones. Synchronised Artwork by Vincent Morisset.
The first show announced was Oxegen 2010
which took place in Ireland in July. 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."
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
. The Suburbs was released worldwide at the start of August 2010 to extensive critical acclaim comparable to Funeral and Neon Bible. 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)".
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 Award
s 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). Out of the three nominations, they won the award for Album of the Year.
At the 2011 BRIT Awards
, "The Suburbs" won Best International Album, and Arcade Fire won the Award for Best International Group.
In March 2011, Arcade Fire was honored at the Juno Awards of 2011
. They won Group of the Year and Songwriter of the Year for "Ready To Start", "Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)", and "We Used To Wait", all off "The Suburbs". "The Suburbs" also won Album of the Year and Alternative Album of the Year.
On April 19, 2011 it was announced that Arcade Fire will release a deluxe edition of their album The Suburbs featuring the short film Scenes from the Suburbs, by director Spike Jonze
, as well as two new tracks, "Culture War" and "Speaking in Tongues" featuring David Byrne
. Scenes from the Suburbs, which debuted at the Berlin International Film Festival
2011
, has a running time of 30 minutes. The film screened at the SXSW Film Festival 2011 and saw its online premiere on MUBI on June 27, 2011. Writing for the Canadian Press, Nick Patch called the film "a sci-fi puzzler that seems to blend the paranoia of Terry Gilliam
films with the nostalgia of classic Steven Spielberg
flicks."
On June 16, the album was named as a longlisted nominee (one of 40) for the 2011 Polaris Music Prize
. On July 6, the album was named as a shortlisted (one of 10) nominee for the 2011 award. On September 20, 2011, they were awarded the Polaris Prize.
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
and Alex McMaster.
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. The tour lineup for The Suburbs had only one extra touring member, Marika Anthony-Shaw
, with cellist Alex McMaster joining them at the 2011 Juno Awards, along with Owen Pallett, who also joined them for their Saturday Night Live appearance and their 30 June 2011 concert at Hyde Park.
Indie rock
Indie rock is a genre of alternative rock that originated in the United Kingdom and the United States in the 1980s. Indie rock is extremely diverse, with sub-genres that include lo-fi, post-rock, math rock, indie pop, dream pop, noise rock, space rock, sadcore, riot grrrl and emo, among others...
band based in Montreal, Quebec
Quebec
Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
. It consists of the husband and wife duo of Win Butler
Win Butler
Win Butler is the lead vocalist and songwriter of the Montreal-based indie rock band Arcade Fire. His wife Régine Chassagne and his brother William Butler are both members of the band.-Life and career:...
and Régine Chassagne
Régine Chassagne
Régine Chassagne is a Canadian multi-instrumentalist musician and singer, and a founding member of the band Arcade Fire. She is married to co-founder Win Butler.-Life and career:...
, along with Will Butler
William Butler (musician)
William Pierce Butler is a multi-instrumentalist who is best known as a member of the indie rock band Arcade Fire. William plays synthesizer, bass, guitar and percussion. He is known for his spontaneity and antics during performances...
, Richard Reed Parry
Richard Parry (musician)
Richard Reed Parry is a Canadian multi-instrumentalist, composer and member of the indie rock band Arcade Fire, where he plays double bass, celesta, keyboards, drums, guitar, and accordion. He is also a member of the Bell Orchestre, in which he primarily plays double bass and is the de facto...
, Tim Kingsbury
Tim Kingsbury
Tim Kingsbury is a Canadian musician and member of the indie rock band Arcade Fire. He plays bass guitar, guitar, and occasionally keyboards.He spent his early years living in and around Guelph, Ontario. His peers would become indie names such as Gentleman Reg and Jim Guthrie...
, Jeremy Gara
Jeremy Gara
Jeremy Gara is a Canadian drummer originally from Ottawa, Ontario. He currently plays with successful indie rock band Arcade Fire. He has played in many other bands in the past, including "slow-core" band Kepler and math rock band Weights and Measures. He also had a part in the self-titled album...
, and Sarah Neufeld
Sarah Neufeld
Sarah Neufeld is a Canadian violinist and a member of the popular indie rock band Arcade Fire. She is also a member of the post rock band Bell Orchestre, alongside Arcade Fire multi-instrumentalist Richard Reed Parry and former Arcade Fire member Pietro Amato...
. William Butler and Régine Chassagne attended McGill University
McGill University
Mohammed Fathy is a public research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The university bears the name of James McGill, a prominent Montreal merchant from Glasgow, Scotland, whose bequest formed the beginning of the university...
, where she studied Jazz. Arcade Fire came to prominence with the release of their debut album, Funeral
Funeral (album)
Funeral is the debut full-length album by the Canadian indie rock band Arcade Fire, released on September 14, 2004 in North America by Merge Records and on February 28, 2005 in Europe by Rough Trade Records...
, in 2004 to critical acclaim. The band plays guitar
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
, drums
Drum kit
A drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....
, bass guitar
Bass guitar
The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
, piano
Piano
The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
, violin
Violin
The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....
, viola
Viola
The viola is a bowed string instrument. It is the middle voice of the violin family, between the violin and the cello.- Form :The viola is similar in material and construction to the violin. A full-size viola's body is between and longer than the body of a full-size violin , with an average...
, cello
Cello
The cello is a bowed string instrument with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is a member of the violin family of musical instruments, which also includes the violin, viola, and double bass. Old forms of the instrument in the Baroque era are baryton and viol .A person who plays a cello is...
, double bass
Double bass
The double bass, also called the string bass, upright bass, standup bass or contrabass, is the largest and lowest-pitched bowed string instrument in the modern symphony orchestra, with strings usually tuned to E1, A1, D2 and G2...
, xylophone
Xylophone
The xylophone is a musical instrument in the percussion family that consists of wooden bars struck by mallets...
, glockenspiel
Glockenspiel
A glockenspiel is a percussion instrument composed of a set of tuned keys arranged in the fashion of the keyboard of a piano. In this way, it is similar to the xylophone; however, the xylophone's bars are made of wood, while the glockenspiel's are metal plates or tubes, and making it a metallophone...
, keyboard
Keyboard instrument
A keyboard instrument is a musical instrument which is played using a musical keyboard. The most common of these is the piano. Other widely used keyboard instruments include organs of various types as well as other mechanical, electromechanical and electronic instruments...
, French horn, accordion
Accordion
The accordion is a box-shaped musical instrument of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone family, sometimes referred to as a squeezebox. A person who plays the accordion is called an accordionist....
, harp
Harp
The harp is a multi-stringed instrument which has the plane of its strings positioned perpendicularly to the soundboard. Organologically, it is in the general category of chordophones and has its own sub category . All harps have a neck, resonator and strings...
, mandolin
Mandolin
A mandolin is a musical instrument in the lute family . It descends from the mandore, a soprano member of the lute family. The mandolin soundboard comes in many shapes—but generally round or teardrop-shaped, sometimes with scrolls or other projections. A mandolin may have f-holes, or a single...
, 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
Grammy Award for Album of the Year
The Grammy Award for Album of the Year is the most prestigious award category at the Grammys. It has been awarded since 1959 and though it was originally presented to the artist alone, the award is now presented to the artist, the producer, the engineer and/or mixer and the mastering engineer...
, the 2011 Juno Award for Album of the Year
Juno Award for Album of the Year
The Juno Award for "Album of the Year" has been awarded since 1975, as recognition each year for the best album in Canada. It was also known as Best Album , and Best Selling Album .-Best Album :...
, and the 2011 Brit Award for Best International Album for their third studio album, The Suburbs
The Suburbs (Arcade Fire album)
The Suburbs is the third studio album by Canadian indie rock band Arcade Fire, released in August 2010. Coinciding with the announcement the band released a limited edition 12-inch single containing two tracks from the album, “The Suburbs” and “Month of May”. The album debuted at #1 on the Irish...
, released in 2010 to critical acclaim and commercial success. In earlier years they won the 2008 Meteor Music Award
Meteor Music Awards
The Meteor Ireland Music Awards are a group of music awards in Ireland...
for Best International Album and the 2008 Juno Award
Juno Award
The Juno Awards are presented annually to Canadian musical artists and bands to acknowledge their artistic and technical achievements in all aspects of music...
for Alternative Album of the Year for their second studio album, Neon Bible
Neon Bible
Neon Bible is the second album by Canadian indie rock band Arcade Fire, released in March 2007 on Merge Records. Originally announced on December 16, 2006 through the band's website, the majority of the album was recorded in a church that the band bought and renovated.Neon Bible became Arcade...
. They also received nominations for the Best Alternative Music Album
Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album
The Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album is an award presented to recording artists for quality albums in the alternative rock genre at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards...
Grammy for all three of their studio albums. The band's work has also been twice named as a short list nominee for the Polaris Music Prize
Polaris Music Prize
The Polaris Music Prize is a music award annually given to the best full-length Canadian album based on artistic merit, regardless of genre, sales, or record label...
in 2007 for Neon Bible
Neon Bible
Neon Bible is the second album by Canadian indie rock band Arcade Fire, released in March 2007 on Merge Records. Originally announced on December 16, 2006 through the band's website, the majority of the album was recorded in a church that the band bought and renovated.Neon Bible became Arcade...
and in 2011 for The Suburbs
The Suburbs (Arcade Fire album)
The Suburbs is the third studio album by Canadian indie rock band Arcade Fire, released in August 2010. Coinciding with the announcement the band released a limited edition 12-inch single containing two tracks from the album, “The Suburbs” and “Month of May”. The album debuted at #1 on the Irish...
, winning the award for The Suburbs.
Formation and early work (2001)
Win ButlerWin Butler
Win Butler is the lead vocalist and songwriter of the Montreal-based indie rock band Arcade Fire. His wife Régine Chassagne and his brother William Butler are both members of the band.-Life and career:...
and Josh Deu began performing in Boston as Arcade Fire before moving to Montreal in 2001, recording the "2001 Demos" prior to their arrival in the city. The earliest Montreal-based incarnation of 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
Concordia University
Concordia University is a comprehensive Canadian public university located in Montreal, Quebec, one of the two universities in the city where English is the primary language of instruction...
'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
Win Butler
Win Butler is the lead vocalist and songwriter of the Montreal-based indie rock band Arcade Fire. His wife Régine Chassagne and his brother William Butler are both members of the band.-Life and career:...
and Régine Chassagne
Régine Chassagne
Régine Chassagne is a Canadian multi-instrumentalist musician and singer, and a founding member of the band Arcade Fire. She is married to co-founder Win Butler.-Life and career:...
, singer, guitarist, collaborator and original band co-founder Josh Deu, bassist Myles Broscoe (later of Les Angles Morts, Crystal Clyffs, and AIDS Wolf
AIDS Wolf
AIDS Wolf is a Canadian noise rock band, who debuted on Pasalymany tapes but are currently on Skin Graft Records and Lovepump United.-Name:According to singer Chloe Lum, the name "AIDS Wolf" comes from an urban legend wherein wolves carry AIDS and pass it to house pets who then pass it on to...
), guitarist/drummer Dane Mills (later of Crackpot), and multi-instrumentalist Brendan Reed (later of Les Angles Morts and founding member of Clues
Clues (band)
Clues is an indie pop band from Montreal, Canada formed by Alden Penner, Brendan Reed and Bethany Or. After Or left the band, local musicians Ben Borden, Lisa Gamble and Nick Scribner solidified the lineup.-Formation :...
), 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
Richard Parry (musician)
Richard Reed Parry is a Canadian multi-instrumentalist, composer and member of the indie rock band Arcade Fire, where he plays double bass, celesta, keyboards, drums, guitar, and accordion. He is also a member of the Bell Orchestre, in which he primarily plays double bass and is the de facto...
, 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
Casa del Popolo
Casa del Popolo is a notable bar, bistro, and music venue in Montreal, on Saint Laurent Boulevard. Its name is Italian for "House of the People".It was established in September 2000 by Mauro Pezzente and his partner Kiva Stemic...
. 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
William Butler (musician)
William Pierce Butler is a multi-instrumentalist who is best known as a member of the indie rock band Arcade Fire. William plays synthesizer, bass, guitar and percussion. He is known for his spontaneity and antics during performances...
(subject of the early Arcade Fire song "William Pierce Butler") and Tim Kingsbury
Tim Kingsbury
Tim Kingsbury is a Canadian musician and member of the indie rock band Arcade Fire. He plays bass guitar, guitar, and occasionally keyboards.He spent his early years living in and around Guelph, Ontario. His peers would become indie names such as Gentleman Reg and Jim Guthrie...
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.
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
Merge Records
Merge Records is an independent record label based in Durham, North Carolina. It was founded in 1989 by Laura Ballance and Mac McCaughan. It began as a way to release music from their band Superchunk and music created by friends, and has expanded to include artists from around the world and records...
, before the end of its first year together.
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."
Funeral (2004–2006)
FuneralFuneral (album)
Funeral is the debut full-length album by the Canadian indie rock band Arcade Fire, released on September 14, 2004 in North America by Merge Records and on February 28, 2005 in Europe by Rough Trade Records...
was released in September 2004 in Canada and February 2005 in Great Britain. 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
Elegy
In literature, an elegy is a mournful, melancholic or plaintive poem, especially a funeral song or a lament for the dead.-History:The Greek term elegeia originally referred to any verse written in elegiac couplets and covering a wide range of subject matter, including epitaphs for tombs...
to her lost homeland.
The album was critically and commercially acclaimed. It appeared on many top ten
Record chart
A record chart is a ranking of recorded music according to popularity during a given period of time. Examples of music charts are the Hit parade, Hot 100 or Top 40....
album lists for 2004 and 2005 (due to delayed international releases), with Pitchfork
Pitchfork Media
Pitchfork Media, usually known simply as Pitchfork or P4k, is a Chicago-based daily Internet publication established in 1995 that is devoted to music criticism and commentary, music news, and artist interviews. Its focus is on underground and independent music, especially indie rock...
, Filter
Filter (magazine)
FILTER, the publication that promises us that "Good music will prevail," is a seasonal American music and off-beat entertainment magazine. It features commentary and photos of up-and-coming musicians and filmmakers ranging from actors to writer-directors...
, and No Ripcord
No Ripcord
No Ripcord is an online music and film magazine based in Sheffield, England.-History:The website was originally created in April 1999 by editor-in-chief David Coleman and A.M. Booth...
crowning it the album of the year. The MTV2 2005 Review named Funeral the Album of the Year, and NME
NME
The New Musical Express is a popular music publication in the United Kingdom, published weekly since March 1952. It started as a music newspaper, and gradually moved toward a magazine format during the 1980s, changing from newsprint in 1998. It was the first British paper to include a singles...
named Funeral second 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
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
and Britain
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, and sold over half a million copies worldwide, a very large number for an independent release with minimal television or radio exposure.
The album became Merge Records
Merge Records
Merge Records is an independent record label based in Durham, North Carolina. It was founded in 1989 by Laura Ballance and Mac McCaughan. It began as a way to release music from their band Superchunk and music created by friends, and has expanded to include artists from around the world and records...
' first in the Billboard 200
Billboard 200
The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists...
chart and the label's biggest selling album to date, surpassing Neutral Milk Hotel
Neutral Milk Hotel
Neutral Milk Hotel was an American indie rock band formed by singer, guitarist and songwriter Jeff Mangum in the early 1990s. The band was noted for its experimental sound, obscure lyrics and eclectic instrumentation....
's In the Aeroplane Over the Sea
In the Aeroplane Over the Sea
In the Aeroplane Over the Sea is the second studio album by American indie rock band Neutral Milk Hotel, released in the United States on February 10, 1998 on Merge Records...
.
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
Guelph
Guelph is a city in Ontario, Canada.Guelph may also refer to:* Guelph , consisting of the City of Guelph, Ontario* Guelph , as the above* University of Guelph, in the same city...
. Taking much of the summer of 2005 off, the band made key festival appearances at the Halifax Pop Explosion
Halifax Pop Explosion
The Halifax Pop Explosion is a music festival that takes place every fall, two weeks after Thanksgiving, in Halifax Nova Scotia, Canada.-History:...
, Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival
Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival
The Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival is a three-day annual music and arts festival, organized by Goldenvoice and held at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, California, in the Inland Empire's Coachella Valley...
, the Sasquatch! Music Festival
Sasquatch! Music Festival
Sasquatch! Music Festival is a music festival held annually at the Gorge Amphitheatre in George, Washington. It is presented by the House of Blues. There is an emphasis on indie rock bands and singer-songwriters, although there are also alternative rock, hip hop and comedy acts...
, Lollapalooza
Lollapalooza
Lollapalooza is an annual music festival featuring popular alternative rock, heavy metal, punk rock and hip hop bands, dance and comedy performances, and craft booths. It has also provided a platform for non-profit and political groups. The music festival hosts more than 160,000 people over a...
, Reading and Leeds Festival in the UK, Electric Picnic
Electric Picnic
The 2005 festival took place on Saturday 3 September and Sunday 4 September. It is best remembered for Arcade Fire's performance which came before their subsequent mainstream success...
in Ireland and the Lowlands Festival
A Campingflight to Lowlands Paradise
A Campingflight to Lowlands Paradise, also known as simply Lowlands, is a music festival, held annually in the Netherlands in August. Lowlands has about 55,000 visitors, over 200 acts and more than ten stages every year which are named according to the NATO phonetic alphabet apart from the Grolsch...
in the Netherlands.
Arcade Fire was featured on the April 4, 2005 cover of Time
Time (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
s Canadian edition. On May 1, 2005, the band performed for 15,000 fans at the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival. In May 2005, the band signed a short-term publishing contract with EMI
EMI
The EMI Group, also known as EMI Music or simply EMI, is a multinational music company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the fourth-largest business group and family of record labels in the recording industry and one of the "big four" record companies. EMI Group also has a major...
for Funeral, and in June the band released a new single, "Cold Wind
Cold Wind
"Cold Wind" is a single by Canadian indie rock band Arcade Fire. The song is not found on any of their studio albums. It was released in August 2005 via Merge Records, and was featured on the television soundtrack album Six Feet Under, Vol. 2: Everything Ends...
", on "Six Feet Under, Vol. 2: Everything Ends
Six Feet Under, Vol. 2: Everything Ends
Six Feet Under, Vol. 2: Everything Ends is a soundtrack album to the HBO drama series Six Feet Under, released in 2005 on Astralwerks...
". The BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
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 British/U.S. television special "Fashion Rocks", on which David Bowie
David Bowie
David Bowie is an English musician, actor, record producer and arranger. A major figure for over four decades in the world of popular music, Bowie is widely regarded as an innovator, particularly for his work in the 1970s...
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
ITunes Store
The iTunes Store is a software-based online digital media store operated by Apple. Opening as the iTunes Music Store on April 28, 2003, with over 200,000 items to purchase, it is, as of April 2008, the number-one music vendor in the United States...
in a virtual live EP. The same trip to New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
took them to the Late Show with David Letterman
Late Show with David Letterman
Late Show with David Letterman is a U.S. late-night talk show hosted by David Letterman on CBS. The show debuted on August 30, 1993, and is produced by Letterman's production company, Worldwide Pants Incorporated. The show's music director and band-leader of the house band, the CBS Orchestra, is...
and a concert in Central Park
Central Park
Central Park is a public park in the center of Manhattan in New York City, United States. The park initially opened in 1857, on of city-owned land. In 1858, Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux won a design competition to improve and expand the park with a plan they entitled the Greensward Plan...
. 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
Top of the Pops
Top of the Pops, also known as TOTP, is a British music chart television programme, made by the BBC and originally broadcast weekly from 1 January 1964 to 30 July 2006. After 25 December 2006 it became a radio program, now hosted by Tony Blackburn...
, performing "Rebellion (Lies)
Rebellion (Lies)
"Rebellion " is a song by Canadian indie rock band Arcade Fire. It was the fourth single released from the band's debut album, Funeral. The single was released in both CD and DVD formats with the song "Brazil" as the B-side. The single peaked at number 19 on the UK singles chart, the band's best...
". The band also performed to a TV audience in Paris for Canal+, and the show was later screened on the British television's Channel 4
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
. The band scored two number one songs on MTV2
MTV2
MTV2 is a cable network that is widely available in the United States on digital cable and satellite television, and is progressively being added to analogue cable lineups across the nation...
(UK) NME Chart Show, with "Neighborhood #3 (Power Out)" and a three week run with "Wake Up". This success followed Rough Trade Records
Rough Trade Records
Rough Trade Records is an independent record label based in London. It was formed in 1978 by Geoff Travis who had opened a record store off Ladbroke Grove...
's last-minute decision to release "Wake Up" only on 7"
vinyl.
"Wake Up" was played immediately before the Irish rock group U2
U2
U2 are an Irish rock band from Dublin. Formed in 1976, the group consists of Bono , The Edge , Adam Clayton , and Larry Mullen, Jr. . U2's early sound was rooted in post-punk but eventually grew to incorporate influences from many genres of popular music...
opened their concerts on their 2005–06 Vertigo Tour
Vertigo Tour
The Vertigo Tour was a worldwide concert tour by the Irish rock band U2. Launched in support of the group's 2004 album How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb, the band visited arenas and stadiums from 2005 through 2006. The Vertigo Tour consisted of five legs that alternated between indoor arena shows in...
; 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
Joy Division
Joy Division were an English rock band formed in 1976 in Salford, Greater Manchester. Originally named Warsaw, the band primarily consisted of Ian Curtis , Bernard Sumner , Peter Hook and Stephen Morris .Joy Division rapidly evolved from their initial punk rock influences...
's "Love Will Tear Us Apart
Love Will Tear Us Apart
"Love Will Tear Us Apart" is a song by the British post-punk band Joy Division. It was written in August and September 1979, and debuted when the band supported Buzzcocks on their UK tour in September and October 1979. It is one of the few songs in which singer Ian Curtis played guitar...
". 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
Cold Wind
"Cold Wind" is a single by Canadian indie rock band Arcade Fire. The song is not found on any of their studio albums. It was released in August 2005 via Merge Records, and was featured on the television soundtrack album Six Feet Under, Vol. 2: Everything Ends...
" were nominated for Grammys in the Best Alternative Rock Album
Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album
The Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album is an award presented to recording artists for quality albums in the alternative rock genre at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards...
and Best Song Written for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media
Grammy Award for Best Song Written for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media
The Grammy Award for Best Song Written for Visual Media has been awarded since 1988 and is awarded to songs written for films, television, video games 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
Juno Award
The Juno Awards are presented annually to Canadian musical artists and bands to acknowledge their artistic and technical achievements in all aspects of music...
for Songwriters Of The Year for three songs from Funeral: "Wake Up", "Rebellion (Lies)", and "Neighborhood #3 (Power Out)". The band was nominated for three BRIT Awards
Brit Awards
The Brit Awards are the British Phonographic Industry's annual pop music awards. The name was originally a shortened form of "British", "Britain" or "Britannia", but subsequently became a backronym for British Record Industry Trust...
: Best International Group, Best International Album, and Best International Breakthrough Act.
Arcade Fire made an appearance on the BBC show Later with Jools Holland
Later with Jools Holland
Later... with Jools Holland is a contemporary British music television show hosted by Jools Holland. A spin-off of The Late Show, it has been running in short series since 1992 and is a part of BBC Two's late-night line-up, usually at around 11pm to 12 midnight...
on May 12, 2005, performing "Power Out" and "Rebellion (Lies)". On December 27, 2005, Funeral was ranked #1 on MTV2
MTV2
MTV2 is a cable network that is widely available in the United States on digital cable and satellite television, and is progressively being added to analogue cable lineups across the nation...
's "50 Greatest Albums of the Year" in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
. On October 22, 2007, Funeral was ranked #8 in Bob Mersereau
Bob Mersereau
Bob Mersereau is a Canadian arts journalist.Mersereau is a music columnist and longtime arts reporter for CBC Television in New Brunswick. Since 1982, he has been a reporter on the East Coast music scene for CBC Radio, CBC Television, and the Telegraph-Journal...
's book The Top 100 Canadian Albums
The Top 100 Canadian Albums
The Top 100 Canadian Albums is a book by Bob Mersereau, published in 2007 by Goose Lane Editions.Mersereau acknowledged that the list will cause heated debate among music fans across the country. "The important part is to talk about Canadian music and enjoy it", he said...
. In late 2009, Pitchfork Media ranked the album #2 in their list of the top 200 albums of the 2000s.
Neon Bible (2006–2008)
Funeral (album)
Funeral is the debut full-length album by the Canadian indie rock band Arcade Fire, released on September 14, 2004 in North America by Merge Records and on February 28, 2005 in Europe by Rough Trade Records...
and the beginning of recording sessions for Neon Bible
Neon Bible
Neon Bible is the second album by Canadian indie rock band Arcade Fire, released in March 2007 on Merge Records. Originally announced on December 16, 2006 through the band's website, the majority of the album was recorded in a church that the band bought and renovated.Neon Bible became Arcade...
, the band purchased a defunct church in the small Quebec town of Farnham
Farnham, Quebec
Farnham is a town located in the province of Quebec, Canada. It is part of the Brome-Missisquoi regional county municipality, in the administrative region of Montérégie. The population as of the Canada 2006 Census was 7,809, making it the second most populated community in the RCM.- History :The...
, approximately 70 kilometres (43.5 mi) southeast of Montreal, and spent the early part of 2006 converting it into a recording studio.
The first track officially released from Neon Bible was "Intervention
Intervention (song)
"Intervention" is a song by Canadian indie rock band Arcade Fire. It is the third single released from the band's second full-length album, Neon Bible. The single was released to digital retailers on December 28, 2006, and was released as a 7" vinyl in the UK under Rough Trade Records on May 21,...
" in December 2006 on iTunes
ITunes
iTunes is a media player computer program, used for playing, downloading, and organizing digital music and video files on desktop computers. It can also manage contents on iPod, iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad....
. Proceeds from this release were dedicated to Partners in Health
Partners In Health
Partners In Health is a Boston, Massachusetts-based non-profit health care organization dedicated to providing a "preferential option for the poor". It was founded in 1987 by Dr. Paul Farmer, Ophelia Dahl, Thomas J. White, Todd McCormack, and Dr...
. 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
Peer-to-peer
Peer-to-peer computing or networking is a distributed application architecture that partitions tasks or workloads among peers. Peers are equally privileged, equipotent participants in the application...
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
Canadian Albums Chart
The Canadian Albums Chart is the official album sales chart in Canada. It is compiled every Wednesday by U.S.-based music sales tracking company Nielsen Soundscan, and published every Thursday by Jam! Canoe and Billboard, along with its sister charts the Canadian Singles Chart and the Canadian BDS...
and the Irish Album Charts, and number 2 on the U.S. Billboard
Billboard (magazine)
Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...
Top 200 charts and the UK Top 40 Album Chart for the week of March 12, 2007. The album was also number 1 on the Rock and Indie album charts. The first proper single, "Black Mirror
Black Mirror (song)
"Black Mirror" is the first single by Canadian indie rock band Arcade Fire in the US from their second album Neon Bible ....
", reached the #1 spot on CBC Radio 3
CBC Radio 3
CBC Radio 3 is a radio station that consists of two parts devoted to Canadian arts and music: a radio service which is available on Sirius Satellite Radio and streaming audio, and several daily and weekly podcasts from the CBC Radio 3 website...
's R3-30
The R3-30
The R3-30 is a weekly record chart show on CBC Radio 3, which counts down the week's top indie rock singles as determined by airplay , listener feedback , and other criteria . The show, hosted by Craig Norris and produced by Pedro Mendes, airs at 11 a.m Eastern time The R3-30 is a weekly record...
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
Q (magazine)
Q is a popular music magazine published monthly in the United Kingdom.Founders Mark Ellen and David Hepworth were dismayed by the music press of the time, which they felt was ignoring a generation of older music buyers who were buying CDs — then still a new technology...
. Paste
Paste (magazine)
Paste is a monthly music and entertainment digital magazine published in the United States by Wolfgang's Vault. Its tagline is "Signs of Life in Music, Film and Culture."-History:...
voted it one of the five best albums of 2007. Trouser Press
Trouser Press
Trouser Press was a rock and roll magazine started in New York in 1974 as a mimeographed fanzine by editor/publisher Ira Robbins, fellow Who fan Dave Schulps and Karen Rose under the name "Trans-Oceanic Trouser Press" ...
writer Jason Reeher ranked Neon Bible
Neon Bible
Neon Bible is the second album by Canadian indie rock band Arcade Fire, released in March 2007 on Merge Records. Originally announced on December 16, 2006 through the band's website, the majority of the album was recorded in a church that the band bought and renovated.Neon Bible became Arcade...
"among the best indie rock recordings of all time."
Arcade Fire made their first appearance on Saturday Night Live
Saturday Night Live
Saturday Night Live is a live American late-night television sketch comedy and variety show developed by Lorne Michaels and Dick Ebersol. The show premiered on NBC on October 11, 1975, under the original title of NBC's Saturday Night.The show's sketches often parody contemporary American culture...
on February 24, 2007 (Episode 618), performing "Intervention" and "Keep the Car Running". Owen Pallett
Owen Pallett
Michael James Owen Pallett is a Canadian composer, violinist, keyboardist, and vocalist from Toronto, Ontario. He won the 2006 Polaris Music Prize for the album He Poos Clouds....
was not present as he was recording for his solo project. 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 Haiti
Haiti
Haiti , officially the Republic of Haiti , is a Caribbean country. It occupies the western, smaller portion of the island of Hispaniola, in the Greater Antillean archipelago, which it shares with the Dominican Republic. Ayiti was the indigenous Taíno or Amerindian name for the island...
an proverb meaning "An empty sack cannot stand up" in Creole
Haitian Creole language
Haitian Creole language , often called simply Creole or Kreyòl, is a language spoken in Haiti by about twelve million people, which includes all Haitians in Haiti and via emigration, by about two to three million speakers residing in the Bahamas, Cuba, Canada, France, Cayman Islands, French...
, this may have been a reference to the extreme poverty of Haiti, the country of origin of Régine Chassagne.
On July 10, 2007, Neon Bible was named to the shortlist for the 2007 Polaris Music Prize
Polaris Music Prize
The Polaris Music Prize is a music award annually given to the best full-length Canadian album based on artistic merit, regardless of genre, sales, or record label...
. Patrick Watson was announced as the winner at a gala ceremony on September 24, 2007. However, due to the band's preference not to participate in compilation album
Compilation album
A compilation album is an album featuring tracks from one or more performers, often culled from a variety of sources The tracks are usually collected according to a common characteristic, such as popularity, genre, source or subject matter...
s, they were the only nominee not to have a track on the Polaris promotional compilation 2007 Polaris Music Prize
2007 Polaris Music Prize
The 2007 edition of the Canadian Polaris Music Prize was presented on September 24, 2007 in Toronto.The winning album was Patrick Watson's Close to Paradise....
. 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.
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
Vincent Moon
Vincent Moon is an independent filmmaker from Paris mainly known for his field work music videos of indie rock related musicians as well as some notable mainstream artists like Tom Jones, R.E.M. or Arcade Fire. Besides making music videos he also makes experimental films and documentaries...
. The band toured Australia and New Zealand for the first time in early 2008 as part of the 2008 Big Day Out
Big Day Out
The Big Day Out is an annual music festival held in several cities in Australia and New Zealand in late January. It started in Sydney in 1992, spread to Adelaide, Melbourne and Perth by 1993, with the Gold Coast and Auckland joining in 1994...
festival. On October 14, 2007, Win Butler
Win Butler
Win Butler is the lead vocalist and songwriter of the Montreal-based indie rock band Arcade Fire. His wife Régine Chassagne and his brother William Butler are both members of the band.-Life and career:...
and Régine Chassagne made a surprise guest appearance at a Bruce Springsteen
Bruce Springsteen
Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen , nicknamed "The Boss," is an American singer-songwriter who records and tours with the E Street Band...
show in Ottawa
Ottawa
Ottawa is the capital of Canada, the second largest city in the Province of Ontario, and the fourth largest city in the country. The city is located on the south bank of the Ottawa River in the eastern portion of Southern Ontario...
, playing "State Trooper" and "Keep the Car Running
Keep the Car Running
"Keep the Car Running" is a song by Canadian indie rock band Arcade Fire. It is the second single released from the band's second album, Neon Bible in the UK . This song was #22 on Rolling Stones list of the 100 Best Songs of 2007...
". The band committed to give Partners in Health
Partners In Health
Partners In Health is a Boston, Massachusetts-based non-profit health care organization dedicated to providing a "preferential option for the poor". It was founded in 1987 by Dr. Paul Farmer, Ophelia Dahl, Thomas J. White, Todd McCormack, and Dr...
$1.00, £1.00, or €1.00 of every ticket sold on its 2008 European and North American tours.
Arcade Fire further helped PIH, when it recorded "Lenin" on Red Hot Organization
Red Hot Organization
Red Hot Organization is a not-for-profit, 501 3, international organization dedicated to fighting AIDS through pop culture.Since its inception in 1989, over 400 artists, producers and directors have contributed to over 15 compilation albums, related television programs and media events to raise...
's latest album, Dark Was the Night
Dark Was the Night
Dark Was the Night is the twentieth compilation release benefiting the Red Hot Organization, an international charity dedicated to raising funds and awareness for HIV and AIDS...
. 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.Win Butler has been a vocal supporter of Barack Obama
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...
since the end of the New Hampshire Primary. Arcade Fire performed two free concerts for Obama in Cleveland and Nelsonville, Ohio
Nelsonville, Ohio
Nelsonville is a city in northwestern Athens County, Ohio, United States. The population was 5,230 at the 2000 census. Hocking College is located in Nelsonville.-Geography:...
on March 2, 2008 and March 3, 2008 before the state's March 4 primary. The band, with Superchunk
Superchunk
Superchunk is an American indie rock band from Chapel Hill, North Carolina, consisting of singer/guitarist Mac McCaughan, guitarist Jim Wilbur, bassist Laura Ballance, and drummer Jon Wurster. Formed in 1989, they were one of the bands that helped define the Chapel Hill music scene of the 1990s...
, performed another two free concerts for Obama on May 1 in Greensboro, North Carolina
Greensboro, North Carolina
Greensboro is a city in the U.S. state of North Carolina. It is the third-largest city by population in North Carolina and the largest city in Guilford County and the surrounding Piedmont Triad metropolitan region. According to the 2010 U.S...
, and on May 2 in Carrboro, North Carolina
Carrboro, North Carolina
Carrboro is a town in Orange County in the U.S. state of North Carolina. The population was 19,582 at the 2010 census. The town, which is part of the Durham-Chapel Hill metropolitan statistical area, was named after North Carolina industrialist Julian Shakespeare Carr.Located near Chapel Hill and...
before the state's May 6 primary. On January 21, 2009, Arcade Fire and Jay-Z
Jay-Z
Shawn Corey Carter , better known by his stage name Jay-Z, is an American rapper, record producer, entrepreneur, and occasional actor. He is one of the most financially successful hip hop artists and entrepreneurs in America, having a net worth of over $450 million as of 2010...
were the musical guests at the Obama Campaign Staff Ball at the DC Armory, at Obama's request. 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
Richard Kelly
Richard Kelly or Kelley may refer to:*Richard Kelly , founder of the Tuam Herald newspaper in 1837*Richard Kelly , American film director, known for 2001's Donnie Darko...
film The Box. Win Butler denied the claims, but stated that he and Owen Pallett
Owen Pallett
Michael James Owen Pallett is a Canadian composer, violinist, keyboardist, and vocalist from Toronto, Ontario. He won the 2006 Polaris Music Prize for the album He Poos Clouds....
"may do an instrumental piece or two" for the film.
In December 2008, Pitchfork
Pitchfork Media
Pitchfork Media, usually known simply as Pitchfork or P4k, is a Chicago-based daily Internet publication established in 1995 that is devoted to music criticism and commentary, music news, and artist interviews. Its focus is on underground and independent music, especially indie rock...
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. 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.
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
Spike Jonze
Spike Jonze is an American director, producer and actor, whose work includes music videos, commercials, film and television...
film Where the Wild Things Are
Where the Wild Things Are (film)
Where the Wild Things Are is a 2009 American fantasy drama film directed by Spike Jonze and adapted from Maurice Sendak's 1963 children's book Where the Wild Things Are. It combines live action, performers in costumes, animatronics, and computer-generated imagery...
, which was released on October 2009. 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
The Dan Patrick Show
The Dan Patrick Show is a syndicated sports talk show hosted by former ESPN personality Dan Patrick. It is currently produced by DirecTV Sports Group and is syndicated by Premiere Radio Networks. The three-hour program broadcasts live every day beginning at 9 a.m. Eastern/6 a.m. Pacific time on Fox...
and the Petros and Money show—frequently used the song as "bumper" music. The National Football League
National Football League
The National Football League is the highest level of professional American football in the United States, and is considered the top professional American football league in the world. It was formed by eleven teams in 1920 as the American Professional Football Association, with the league changing...
featured this recording in commercials throughout the broadcast of the 2010 Super Bowl. The band donated the proceeds from licensing the song to the NFL to the charity Partners In Health
Partners In Health
Partners In Health is a Boston, Massachusetts-based non-profit health care organization dedicated to providing a "preferential option for the poor". It was founded in 1987 by Dr. Paul Farmer, Ophelia Dahl, Thomas J. White, Todd McCormack, and Dr...
.
The Suburbs (2010–present)
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 SuburbsThe Suburbs (Arcade Fire album)
The Suburbs is the third studio album by Canadian indie rock band Arcade Fire, released in August 2010. Coinciding with the announcement the band released a limited edition 12-inch single containing two tracks from the album, “The Suburbs” and “Month of May”. The album debuted at #1 on the Irish...
, to be released on August 2 in the UK and on August 3 in the US and Canada thanks to Merge Records. The album is produced by Markus Dravs
Markus Dravs
Markus Dravs is a music producer, programmer, engineer, and mixer.After hearing Brian Eno's collaboration with David Byrne "My Life in the Bush of Ghosts", he decided to get into engineering....
, who worked on previous album, 2007's Neon Bible and was engineered by Marcus Paquin, who has also previously worked with the band. A track-by-track review ahead of The Suburbs
The Suburbs (Arcade Fire album)
The Suburbs is the third studio album by Canadian indie rock band Arcade Fire, released in August 2010. Coinciding with the announcement the band released a limited edition 12-inch single containing two tracks from the album, “The Suburbs” and “Month of May”. The album debuted at #1 on the Irish...
release by The Quietus
The Quietus
The Quietus is a British online rock music and pop culture magazine, focusing on arts news, reviews, and features. The site is an editorially independent publication led by John Doran and a group of freelance journalists and critics, some of whom have worked for other media outlets...
website said, “The progression is similar to the one William Blake
William Blake
William Blake was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his lifetime, Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of both the poetry and visual arts of the Romantic Age...
takes us through in Songs of Innocence and Experience
Songs of Innocence and Experience
Songs of Innocence and of Experience is an illustrated collection of poems by William Blake. It appeared in two phases. A few first copies were printed and illuminated by William Blake himself in 1789; five years later he bound these poems with a set of new poems in a volume titled Songs of...
that suggests forward momentum and maturity.”
The album was released with eight different covers. Design, Caroline Robert. Photos, Gabriel Jones. Synchronised Artwork by Vincent Morisset.
The first show announced was Oxegen 2010
Oxegen 2010
Oxegen 2010 was the seventh Oxegen festival to take place since 2004. It took place on the weekend of Friday 9 July, Saturday, 10 July and Sunday, 11 July at Punchestown Racecourse near Naas in County Kildare, Ireland. Eminem, Muse and Arcade Fire headlined...
which took place in Ireland in July. The band announced that they will play songs from the new album in their headline performance at the Reading and Leeds Festivals
Reading and Leeds Festivals
The Reading and Leeds Festivals are a pair of annual music festivals that take place in Reading and Leeds in England. The events take place simultaneously on the Friday, Saturday and Sunday of the August bank holiday weekend, sharing the same bill. The Reading Festival is held at Little John's Farm...
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."
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
Terry Gilliam
Terrence Vance "Terry" Gilliam is an American-born British screenwriter, film director, animator, actor and member of the Monty Python comedy troupe. Gilliam is also known for directing several films, including Brazil , The Adventures of Baron Munchausen , The Fisher King , and 12 Monkeys...
. The Suburbs was released worldwide at the start of August 2010 to extensive critical acclaim comparable to Funeral and Neon Bible. During the 2010 tour Arcade Fire are giving a tribute to Jay Reatard
Jay Reatard
Jimmy Lee Lindsey Jr. , better known by the stage name Jay Reatard, was an American musician from Memphis, Tennessee. Lindsey was signed to Matador Records...
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
Chris Milk
Chris Milk is an American music video director and photographer. He has directed videos for Kanye West, U2, Green Day, Courtney Love, Audioslave, Modest Mouse, Gnarls Barkley and Arcade Fire. He also has numerous television commercials to his credit...
, 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
The Suburbs (Arcade Fire album)
The Suburbs is the third studio album by Canadian indie rock band Arcade Fire, released in August 2010. Coinciding with the announcement the band released a limited edition 12-inch single containing two tracks from the album, “The Suburbs” and “Month of May”. The album debuted at #1 on the Irish...
and showcases capabilities of HTML5 and Google's Chrome browser. On November 13, 2010, Arcade Fire made their second appearance on Saturday Night Live
Saturday Night Live
Saturday Night Live is a live American late-night television sketch comedy and variety show developed by Lorne Michaels and Dick Ebersol. The show premiered on NBC on October 11, 1975, under the original title of NBC's Saturday Night.The show's sketches often parody contemporary American culture...
, performing "We Used to Wait" and "Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)".
On January 13, 2011 it was announced that Arcade Fire would perform at the 53rd Grammy Awards
53rd Grammy Awards
The 53rd annual Grammy Awards were held on February 13, 2011, at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. They were broadcast on CBS with a rating of 26.6 million viewers. Barbra Streisand was honored as the MusiCares Person of the Year two nights prior to the telecast on February 11. Nominations were...
in February 2011. The band was nominated for Grammy Award
Grammy Award
A Grammy Award — or Grammy — is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry...
s in three categories: Album of the Year
Grammy Award for Album of the Year
The Grammy Award for Album of the Year is the most prestigious award category at the Grammys. It has been awarded since 1959 and though it was originally presented to the artist alone, the award is now presented to the artist, the producer, the engineer and/or mixer and the mastering engineer...
, Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal
Grammy Award for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal
The Grammy Award for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal was awarded between 1980 and 2011.The award was discontinued after the 2011 award season in a major overhaul of Grammy categories...
, and Best Alternative Music Album
Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album
The Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album is an award presented to recording artists for quality albums in the alternative rock genre at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards...
(for The Suburbs). Out of the three nominations, they won the award for Album of the Year.
At the 2011 BRIT Awards
2011 BRIT Awards
The 2011 BRIT Awards was held on Tuesday 15 February 2011.It was the 31st edition of the British Phonographic Industry's annual pop music awards. The award ceremony was held at The O2 Arena...
, "The Suburbs" won Best International Album, and Arcade Fire won the Award for Best International Group.
In March 2011, Arcade Fire was honored at the Juno Awards of 2011
Juno Awards of 2011
The Juno Awards of 2011, honours Canadian music industry achievements in the latter part of 2009 and in most of 2010. The awards presented in Toronto, Ontario, Canada during the weekend of 26 and 27 March 2011. A week of related events on 21 March 2011...
. They won Group of the Year and Songwriter of the Year for "Ready To Start", "Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)", and "We Used To Wait", all off "The Suburbs". "The Suburbs" also won Album of the Year and Alternative Album of the Year.
On April 19, 2011 it was announced that Arcade Fire will release a deluxe edition of their album The Suburbs featuring the short film Scenes from the Suburbs, by director Spike Jonze
Spike Jonze
Spike Jonze is an American director, producer and actor, whose work includes music videos, commercials, film and television...
, as well as two new tracks, "Culture War" and "Speaking in Tongues" featuring David Byrne
David Byrne
David Byrne may refer to:*David Byrne , musician and former Talking Heads frontman**David Byrne , his eponymous album*David Byrne , Irish footballer*David Byrne , English footballer...
. Scenes from the Suburbs, which debuted at the Berlin International Film Festival
Berlin International Film Festival
The Berlin International Film Festival , also called the Berlinale, is one of the world's leading film festivals and most reputable media events. It is held in Berlin, Germany. Founded in West Berlin in 1951, the festival has been celebrated annually in February since 1978...
2011
61st Berlin International Film Festival
The 61st annual Berlin International Film Festival was held from February 10 to February 20, 2011, with actress Isabella Rossellini as the President of the Jury. The Coen Brothers film True Grit opened the festival. 300,000 tickets were sold in total during the event, to 20,000 attendees from 116...
, has a running time of 30 minutes. The film screened at the SXSW Film Festival 2011 and saw its online premiere on MUBI on June 27, 2011. Writing for the Canadian Press, Nick Patch called the film "a sci-fi puzzler that seems to blend the paranoia of Terry Gilliam
Terry Gilliam
Terrence Vance "Terry" Gilliam is an American-born British screenwriter, film director, animator, actor and member of the Monty Python comedy troupe. Gilliam is also known for directing several films, including Brazil , The Adventures of Baron Munchausen , The Fisher King , and 12 Monkeys...
films with the nostalgia of classic Steven Spielberg
Steven Spielberg
Steven Allan Spielberg KBE is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, video game designer, and studio entrepreneur. In a career of more than four decades, Spielberg's films have covered many themes and genres. Spielberg's early science-fiction and adventure films were seen as an...
flicks."
On June 16, the album was named as a longlisted nominee (one of 40) for the 2011 Polaris Music Prize
2011 Polaris Music Prize
The 2011 edition of the Canadian Polaris Music Prize was presented on September 19, 2011. The winner was Arcade Fire, for the album The Suburbs.For the 2011 award, the prize was increased to $30,000 for the winning musician.-Shortlist:...
. On July 6, the album was named as a shortlisted (one of 10) nominee for the 2011 award. On September 20, 2011, they were awarded the Polaris Prize.
Personnel
In addition to founders Win ButlerWin Butler
Win Butler is the lead vocalist and songwriter of the Montreal-based indie rock band Arcade Fire. His wife Régine Chassagne and his brother William Butler are both members of the band.-Life and career:...
and Régine Chassagne
Régine Chassagne
Régine Chassagne is a Canadian multi-instrumentalist musician and singer, and a founding member of the band Arcade Fire. She is married to co-founder Win Butler.-Life and career:...
, members include Richard Reed Parry
Richard Parry (musician)
Richard Reed Parry is a Canadian multi-instrumentalist, composer and member of the indie rock band Arcade Fire, where he plays double bass, celesta, keyboards, drums, guitar, and accordion. He is also a member of the Bell Orchestre, in which he primarily plays double bass and is the de facto...
, William Butler
William Butler (musician)
William Pierce Butler is a multi-instrumentalist who is best known as a member of the indie rock band Arcade Fire. William plays synthesizer, bass, guitar and percussion. He is known for his spontaneity and antics during performances...
, Tim Kingsbury
Tim Kingsbury
Tim Kingsbury is a Canadian musician and member of the indie rock band Arcade Fire. He plays bass guitar, guitar, and occasionally keyboards.He spent his early years living in and around Guelph, Ontario. His peers would become indie names such as Gentleman Reg and Jim Guthrie...
, Sarah Neufeld
Sarah Neufeld
Sarah Neufeld is a Canadian violinist and a member of the popular indie rock band Arcade Fire. She is also a member of the post rock band Bell Orchestre, alongside Arcade Fire multi-instrumentalist Richard Reed Parry and former Arcade Fire member Pietro Amato...
and Jeremy Gara
Jeremy Gara
Jeremy Gara is a Canadian drummer originally from Ottawa, Ontario. He currently plays with successful indie rock band Arcade Fire. He has played in many other bands in the past, including "slow-core" band Kepler and math rock band Weights and Measures. He also had a part in the self-titled album...
. Touring lineups have included Marika Anthony-Shaw
Marika Shaw
Marika Anthony-Shaw is a Canadian violist/violinist who is a touring member of the band Arcade Fire and played viola on their second album Neon Bible and most recent album The Suburbs. Prior to her current role, she was an Orchestra teacher at Lindsay Place High School...
, Colin Stetson
Colin Stetson
Colin Stetson, born in Ann Arbor, Michigan and currently based in Montreal, Quebec, is a bass saxophone player and touring member of Arcade Fire, Bell Orchestre and Bon Iver...
, Kelly Pratt
Kelly Pratt (musician)
Kelly Pratt is a multi-instrumentalist best known for his brass work in the bands Beirut and Arcade Fire.-Biography:Born in Lexington, KY, Pratt has been a member of Beirut since the band's relocation to Brooklyn, playing in the live band and on the recordings...
, Owen Pallett
Owen Pallett
Michael James Owen Pallett is a Canadian composer, violinist, keyboardist, and vocalist from Toronto, Ontario. He won the 2006 Polaris Music Prize for the album He Poos Clouds....
, Pietro Amato
Pietro Amato
Pietro Amato is a Montreal French horn player. He plays with three bands: Torngat, Bell Orchestre, and The Luyas. Amato is also involved with Arcade Fire providing studio contributions and occasional touring....
and Alex McMaster.
Howard Bilerman
Howard Bilerman
Howard Bilerman is a Canadian recording engineer, producer, and Grammy nominated musician. He is a former member of the band Arcade Fire, having recorded & drummed on their debut album, Funeral, as well as records by Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra & Tra-La-La Band, Vic Chesnutt, Basia...
, who played drums on Funeral
Funeral (album)
Funeral is the debut full-length album by the Canadian indie rock band Arcade Fire, released on September 14, 2004 in North America by Merge Records and on February 28, 2005 in Europe by Rough Trade Records...
, has since moved on to other projects. During the Funeral shows, the touring band included horn player Pietro Amato, violinist Owen Pallett
Owen Pallett
Michael James Owen Pallett is a Canadian composer, violinist, keyboardist, and vocalist from Toronto, Ontario. He won the 2006 Polaris Music Prize for the album He Poos Clouds....
, and during the first year cellist Mike Olsen
Michael Olsen (musician)
Michael Olsen is a multi-instrumentalist, producer, engineer, composer and arranger living in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.He has collaborated live on tour and on records with bands and artists such as: The Arcade Fire, K-OS, Jim Guthrie, Kevin Hearn, The Constantines, Gentleman Reg, Great Lake...
. Neufeld, Parry, and Amato also play in the instrumental band Bell Orchestre
Bell Orchestre
Bell Orchestre is a six-piece instrumental band from Montreal, Quebec, Canada.In late 2003, they recorded their first album, at the same time and in the same studio that Arcade Fire recorded Funeral. However, Arcade Fire's popularity was just beginning to break when they asked Bell Orchestre to...
. Neufeld and Amato also play in The Luyas
The Luyas
The Luyas are a Canadian indie rock band formed in 2006 from Montreal, Quebec, Canada.-History:The Luyas did their first live performance in December 2006...
. 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
Marika Shaw
Marika Anthony-Shaw is a Canadian violist/violinist who is a touring member of the band Arcade Fire and played viola on their second album Neon Bible and most recent album The Suburbs. Prior to her current role, she was an Orchestra teacher at Lindsay Place High School...
– 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
Set Yourself on Fire
Set Yourself on Fire is the third album by Canadian indie rock band Stars. It was released in 2004 on the Arts & Crafts International record label in Canada and the United Kingdom, and in 2005 in the United States....
by Stars – as well as horn players Colin Stetson
Colin Stetson
Colin Stetson, born in Ann Arbor, Michigan and currently based in Montreal, Quebec, is a bass saxophone player and touring member of Arcade Fire, Bell Orchestre and Bon Iver...
and Kelly Pratt
Kelly Pratt (musician)
Kelly Pratt is a multi-instrumentalist best known for his brass work in the bands Beirut and Arcade Fire.-Biography:Born in Lexington, KY, Pratt has been a member of Beirut since the band's relocation to Brooklyn, playing in the live band and on the recordings...
, who have also played with Beirut
Beirut (band)
Beirut is an American band which was originally the solo musical project of Santa Fe native Zachary Francis Condon, and later expanded into a band. The band's first performances were in Wollaston, United Kingdom, in May 2006, to support the release of their debut album, Gulag Orkestar...
. These musicians bring the Neon Bible touring band to ten onstage members, much like the first Funeral
Funeral (album)
Funeral is the debut full-length album by the Canadian indie rock band Arcade Fire, released on September 14, 2004 in North America by Merge Records and on February 28, 2005 in Europe by Rough Trade Records...
lineup. The tour lineup for The Suburbs had only one extra touring member, Marika Anthony-Shaw
Marika Shaw
Marika Anthony-Shaw is a Canadian violist/violinist who is a touring member of the band Arcade Fire and played viola on their second album Neon Bible and most recent album The Suburbs. Prior to her current role, she was an Orchestra teacher at Lindsay Place High School...
, with cellist Alex McMaster joining them at the 2011 Juno Awards, along with Owen Pallett, who also joined them for their Saturday Night Live appearance and their 30 June 2011 concert at Hyde Park.
Discography
- Arcade Fire EP (2002)
- FuneralFuneral (album)Funeral is the debut full-length album by the Canadian indie rock band Arcade Fire, released on September 14, 2004 in North America by Merge Records and on February 28, 2005 in Europe by Rough Trade Records...
(2004) - Neon BibleNeon BibleNeon Bible is the second album by Canadian indie rock band Arcade Fire, released in March 2007 on Merge Records. Originally announced on December 16, 2006 through the band's website, the majority of the album was recorded in a church that the band bought and renovated.Neon Bible became Arcade...
(2007) - The SuburbsThe Suburbs (Arcade Fire album)The Suburbs is the third studio album by Canadian indie rock band Arcade Fire, released in August 2010. Coinciding with the announcement the band released a limited edition 12-inch single containing two tracks from the album, “The Suburbs” and “Month of May”. The album debuted at #1 on the Irish...
(2010)
See also
- List of awards and nominations received by Arcade Fire
- Canadian rockCanadian rockCanadian rock describes a wide and diverse variety of music produced by Canadians, beginning with American style rock 'n' roll in the mid-20th century. Since then Canada has had a considerable impact on the development of the modern popular music called rock...