Gavin B.

Arcade Fire is one of those bands whose albums come nowhere near capturing their power as a live band. Win Butler's shamanic charisma on stage and the powerful visual appeal of the band don't translate in the cool and clinical setting of the recording studio, where production values and technical precision are the highest priorities.

Some of the video shoots of their live performances capture that magic. When I saw them live the band had so much going on visually and musically with each of the band's performers that my brain went into to full tilt sensory overload. Seeing a band with a percussionist that wore a crash helmet was completely out my realm of musical experience. The concert reminded me of old fashioned tent revival where the true believers were seized by the power of the Holy Ghost. A cd can't capture that kind of "you had to have been there" magic of a band.

Each member of Arcade Fire has a keen sense of personal style and the band dresses ironic anti-fashionista manner that you see worn by young people on the streets of Montreal. Arcade Fire is one of the last North American band with a few members who dress in proper sports coats and ties, which is a very European thing. The clean cut image counterpointed by some band members who causually sloppy manner of art school student or Left Bank bohemian intellectuals. A hard core music fan is usually loathe to admit that style plays big role in his or her perception of a band, but smart bands know that their own fashion sensibility is part of the package.

It sounds shallow of me to admit this but I can't tell you how many albums I've purchased because the cover art was compelling or I liked the back cover photo of the band. Even more shallow is the fact I've purchased a few albums because the name of the band was appealing and Arcade Fire certainly is a compelling visual image. Even being geeky and non-photogenic is a style conscious decision by a band.

The big pitfall is when a band gives a fashion stylist a free hand to endow the band with inauthentic makeover, just because a music producer or a manager thinks a "new look" will sell a lot of records. Arcade Fire seems to have retained control of their image, which is quite a challenge in a world where every band manager and music producer wants to be a Svengali-like mentor over every aspect of the band's public image.

Arcade Fire’s provincial French influence extends into their music. A lot of their fiddle arrangements and accordion playing is steeped in the Gallic folkways tradition of musette music which Americans often think of as French café music.

This 2005 performance in France is a pretty good representation of their live shows. You can see why David Byrne loved Arcade Fire enough to perform a few guest shots with them on their 2005 American tour. Arcade Fire was the sort of band that Byrne wanted the Talking Heads be when he went on hiatus in 1988 and never returned.

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There are two types of music: the first type is the blues and the second type is all the other stuff.
Townes Van Zandt

x Cheez iT

Okay, I was watching the music video for ''Four Winds'' by Bright Eyes. While watching the video, I couldn't help but think of how much Conor Oberst looks like Win Butler. At least in this video anyways. What do you guys think?

Miltamec Soundsquinaez

I think that last post by Gavin B. was really good, and I was hoping someone wouldn't come along and displace it with some really crummy, totally irrelevant to the subject, post...........


Boy, did you take the cake

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Hello, my name is Luka. I live on the 2nd floor.

x Cheez iT

Wait, is that a good thing? TBH, I didn't even read Gavin B's post because it seemed pretty long. I will read it though. Anywho, what do you think of my comparison between Win Butlet and Conor Oberst?

Miltamec Soundsquinaez

The hair and the eyes are similar; Win has more square jaw, Conor has thinner face.

Musically, I don't see many similarities, but maybe their live performances do kind of resemble one another, idk.

My favs on Funeral:

Tunnels
Laika
Une annee sans lumiere
Power Out
7 Kettles
Crown of Love
Wake Up
Haiti
Rebellion
In the Backseat

All the songs in bold are excellent
All the songs not in bold are very good to great......

.......So all in all I'd say it's one of the best CD's I've ever heard.
After a few listens, I realized it's one of those CD's like OK Computer, in the way that I know I'm going to be listening to it, like, 25-30 years from now..........

and Neon Bible will probably be next CD I buy.

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Hello, my name is Luka. I live on the 2nd floor.

FaSho

Neon Bible is one of my favorite albums of all time. Funeral is great as well, but I have to ask, how can someone think it's better then Neon?

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PartisanRanger

I'd ask you the same question in reverse. Tunnels alone is greater than anything in Funeral by levels of magnitude.

midnight rain

What do you want us to say? Like others have said, I think Funeral has the quality aspect while Neon Bible has the quantity. When Funeral's songs are good, they're just better than Neon Bible's good songs. But Neon Bible is more consistent throughout, I'll give it that.

New album out in May apparently by the way.

debaserr

so i heard the two new singles. they seem crappy. http://rockitoutblog.com/2010/05/26/...-month-of-may/

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Last.FM

TheCunningStunt

Two new singles? I heard one of them. I thought it was okay, only listened to it once and it seemed like a good song. Should get better with more listens. Does anyone know when the album is actually due to be released?