Arcade Fire

[Captain Crieff]

@arcadefire

Next year, one week in June

 

[Tash]

Glasto, fricking awesome!

[Black Rose]

Headliners of Other Stage or even Pyramid Stage

[Black Rose]

Earl's Court = Amazing

 

Although owing to an incident at Broxbourne delaying my train from Hertford East, I arrived a tad later (came in mid-way through Lorde)

 

[KKOPPI]

Pinkpop was their best concert ever. Just from 'Ready to Start' till the end where they had to stop because of the bad weather I've never seen anything more close to bliss in music. The extra dimension, the big unknown amazing mistery, it all comes together on that heavenly timeless second half of the performance.

[Lodder]

Pinkpop was their best concert ever. Just from 'Ready to Start' till the end where they had to stop because of the bad weather I've never seen anything more close to bliss in music. The extra dimension, the big unknown amazing mistery, it all comes together on that heavenly timeless second half of the performance.

 

True. It was so amazing to see them play and to see the dark clouds getting closer and closer!

[Judith86]

Just bought tickets for their gig in Hyde Park the day after Coldplay's at RAH. At least I have tickets for that one gig...

[the_escapist]

Selling 2 tickets for Barclays Center, August 23, NYC. Section 9, Row 4. $250. Send me a PM if interested.

[I ran away]

Just began listening to this band, I got curious because I saw an interview where Chris said it was one of the main influences for X&Y and have been meaning to check them out ever since.

 

And have to say: WOW ! Very talented band, very cool stuff ! Multi-instrumentation and versatility at its best !

 

EDIT: Just read it in this thread. Did Win Butler really accuse Chris of copying him instrumentation-, clothing- and manner-wise during the Viva Era ? Is this blog post allegdly written by him http://chrismartinstolemyband.blogspot.de/ real or fake ?

[Alien Radio]

Hahaha it's fake, someone wrote that as a joke. Though Arcade Fire's influence is really obvious throughout Viva.

[beastwars]

Probably the best band on this planet at the moment

[gai]

Probably the best band on this planet at the moment

 

well, radiohead is still around and active :)

[beastwars]

well, radiohead is still around and active :)

 

IMO they are even better than Thom&co

[gai]

ah, i see. not in my book.

[lennyrott1]

Surprised nobody has posted in here for almost two years? Maybe I'm on the wrong thread :)

 

Was curious what people are thinking about the new album, Everything Now? In a lot of ways it reminds me as Coldplay's LP5 (MX), because it's production is much cleaner and the beats more peppy. As a major fan of all their other records, I am pretty disappointed in some of the tracks, but definitely still a decent album.

[I ran away]

My favorite Arcade Fire album is Funeral (Tunnels, Wake Up, In The Backseat...), but I like some songs off their other records as well (notably that masterpiece Supersymmetry, but also No Cars Go, Intervention...). I have to say that I listened to Everything Now and didn't like it, it sounds too dance-oriented to me. The lead single Everything Now has an ABBA vibe and is still okayish imho but for the rest it's too electronic-dancey for my taste.

Seems like Arcade Fire have arrived in their "MX/AHFOD phase", lol. I hope they'll go in other directions again in the future.

[karvi22]

I only listened to the last album twice but I didn't like it so much. The only song I find pretty cool is Everything Now... anyway, I need to listen to it more times so then I can talk about it more properly.

[Captain Crieff]

Everything Now is a great song so I was looking forward to the album but hmmmm. I like Put Your Money on Me and Maybe We Don't Deserve Love, Signs Of Life is okay too. The rest is.. weird. I always have that with Arcade Fire though, love some songs and others, meh ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[beastwars]

I think Everything Now is a good album, I like all the songs except for Peter Pan. It's clearly different to the other four albums but I don't really get all the hatred it's getting. I can see why there are comparisons with Mylo but I find them wrong

[arushofjacktothehead]

I haven't heard everything on Everything Now yet but from what I've heard ('Everything Now', both 'Infinite Content' s & 'Electric Blue') I can say I am enjoying this. But is it anywhere near as good as I'm finding Reflektor to be?

 

Not by a long shot, aha.

[TheLostColdplayer]

Hi guys,

I'm a bit shocked by the recent revelations about Arcade Fire... Those allegations about WB's behaviour kind of shuttered my love for that band, at least from a human point of view. I've read too many stories about him to be able to see them with the admiration and respect I felt until yesterday, when I read the Pitchfork article and the subsequent comments on fansites.

Given that Coldplay have been close friends with AF in the VLV and MX eras, is there anyone out there who got into AF thanks to Coldplay and now is feeling a bit uncomfortable like me?

[lennyrott1]

Yeah I got into Coldplay first and then slowly started getting into Arcade Fire. Once I started to realize their similarities and that Coldplay toured with them during the LVL era, it made me become a huge fan.

I also feel uncomfortable and I'm sorry this was a shock to so many including me. I don't want to tell anyone how to feel, but I personally have always tried to seperate my opinions about the art and the artist unless the art itself is specifically harming people. For example, Kanye's behaviour is totally unacceptable sometimes, but I love his art, especially when he raps about universal feelings and problems. Unfortunately there's many problematic people in music, especially in the "classic rock" days that straight up did criminal things but were never held accountable. It's terrible.

For me, AF's music has been really positive and cathartic over the years, so I'm going to still enjoy it when I can. However, it's definitely worse now because I'll never not think of how terrible Win treated people. TBH I never was a fan of the band's personalities & have always thought Win seemed concieted, but I never expected him to be a predator. Hopefully he can be held accountable and I don't blame people if they want to stop listening to the band in order to stop supporting him financially. 

[TheLostColdplayer]

Yeah, I followed a path similar to yours. I am a big fan of VLV and MX (the "midplay" era, ahah) and when I discovered that Coldplay mentioned several times AF as an influence during that period, I started listening to them and fell in love with their first records. Their music is cathartic, as you said, and was about extracting the best from difficult experiences. After MOTS showed the most poppy side of Coldplay, I started searching for something more acoustic and organic and so I got into AF. And it changed so much my approach to music and what I like in a composition.

Months ago I was even planning to go to their concert in Milan this September, but then decided to postpone it to focus more on other things. Now I feel that maybe that choice was the right one after all, I don't know how it might be to be going to one of their concerts after all of this.

I mean, I also think that art and artist should be kept separate and I will continue to enjoy listening to their early records (they were not what they are today after all), but more recent stuff might be a different thing. For instance songs like "Porno" or the album EN sound different knowing that who wrote them ended up spending his evenings in bars where teenagers met searching for young women. And Reflektor, with its critique of the social media stuff and the artificiality of modern life. It all seems so unreal. I mean, why did he do it? Even if everything he did was entirely legal, nothing will change in my perception. It's so incoherent with what I thought and with the message of their music. Why?

[lennyrott1]

Asking myself the same questions. I think people can believe social media is bad or that men are toxic, but to actually participate in those cultures themselves. At the risk of sounding sympathetic to Win, which I'm most definitely not, I think people that engage in predatory behaviour are trying to exercise power and assert dominance while being very much aware of how bad it is deep down. I hate when people say "oh he just didn't know better" because I think people know when they are hurting someone else, they just don't care. I mean even reading the details it sounds like Win asked people not to talk about his approaches -- so he knew the whole time. 

So looking back at some of his lyrics, I wonder if he's processing that behaviour somewhat and writing about his own problems, or if he's just a character when he writes music and pretends to be this disaffected hipster guy that totally gets it and is an ally when in real life, outside the studio, he is the problem. 

[TheLostColdplayer]

Yes, totally agree.

I think that he clearly knew what he was doing, that it was bad for everybody -- including him -- , but continued doing it. Perhaps, the point here is that we are not talking about some drunk machist rockstar having affairs with groupies. We are talking about a guy who was widely perceived as honest, clean and family loving; and music publications contributed to this image (in this respect he was far more lucky than our Chris, who has always been criticised for the most diverse reasons). Win was considered a beautiful example of frontman, one who despised materialistic views and tried to go at the heart of things. And maybe he really was, until recently. Yes, I also felt some narcissism in his behaviour, but I thought it was part of his character, a trait many famous people develop, unfortunately. It did not prevent me from thinking he was a honest guy, who sincerely believed what he said in his songs.

Also, it seems that the rumors had already been circulating for years before the Pitchfork article. Stories were told both in New Orleans and Montreal about him going to bars and sleeping with young women. But many who heard these accounts just thought they were fake. I would certainly have done the same. I still struggle to believe it.

But I still have a tiny tiny bit of hope that he might try to redeem himself  and the band in some way. Perhaps with a long conversation in which he discusses in details his actions, apologising, without trying to justify them. Perhaps with a charity single, a song about what happened, with proceedings going to some association dealing with abuse and its awareness. I don't know. I can't believe the story of such a beloved band could end in this disgusting and creepy way.