Arcade Fire's Exclusive Fans-only Gig at Hackney Empire

I was one of the privileged few who were allocated tickets to last night's Arcade Fire gig at the Hackney Empire - their first non-festival performance in the UK in 3 years and a chance for them to test out new material from forthcoming album The Suburbs in front of a crowd of devout fans (including Florence and the Machine). Tickets were only made available to a selection of those who pre-ordered the new album online a few days before the event. Rather than me describe how amazing it was, have a look at the much more eloquent glowing reviews from the BBC, Guardian and Telegraph.

The monster 18-song setlist played out as follows:
Ready to Start
Modern Man
Neighbourhood #2 (Laika)
No Cars Go
Haiti
Empty Room
Rococo
The Suburbs
Suburban War
Intervention
We Used to Wait
Neighbourhood #3 (Power Out)
Rebellion (Lies)
Month of May
Crown of Love
-encore-
Neighbourhood #1 (Tunnels)
Keep the Car Running
Wake Up

Based on the new material presented last night, "We Used to Wait" and "Rococo" are likely to be my favourite tracks from album number three.

"Neighbourhood #1 (Tunnels)":


"Wake Up":


Win crowdsurfing at the end of "We Used to Wait":

Friday Five: 1st 1/4 2010 Highlights!

You guys, it's already April! That means that a quarter of the year has passed us by. Fortunately for the keen music fan, there has been lots of great new stuff to soak in through our ears. We've already had great new releases by Hot Chip, Owen Pallett (formerly Final Fantasy), Vampire Weekend, Spoon and MGMT (oh what? it's not out till next week...LEAK ALERT). Plus I've stumbled upon new interests, like Das Racist whose reference-laden rap makes me smile. Their mixtape/album is well worth the free download.

And there is so much more too look forward to in the coming months: LCD Soundsystem are releasing LP3, 'This is Happening', on May 18 in North America and Wolf Parade are dropping their next one, 'Expo '86', in June or July (fingers crossed for June). Broken Social Scene have new record, 'Forgiveness Rock Record', coming out May 4 which I'm sure will be another epic based on these tracks. Not to mention every morning I check the interwebs hoping for some piece of information about highly anticipated LP3 by Arcade Fire - tipped to appear later in the summer.

Enough talking, these songs are all objectively great.

LISTEN / TELL YOUR FRIENDS:

LCD Soundsystem - Drunk Girls

MGMT - Flash Delerium

Hot Chip - I Feel Better

Owen Pallett - Lewis Takes Off His Shirt (Dan Deacon Remix)

Das Racist - You Oughta Know

Spoon - I Saw the Light

New Music Monday - Pattern is Movement

I have wanted to post about Pattern is Movement for a while now, and today is the time to drop some knowledge.

Pattern is Movement is Andrew Thiboldeaux and Chris Ward. At first glance, one may easily mistake the duo for a pair of truckers or movers in search for a good burger joint. They just look the part. Yet, this brawny, bearded, and balding duo shouldn't be judged by its appearance, but rather by the character of its music. And lucky for them, Pattern is Movement has created a brand of song that many are labeling as one of the most original sounds around the indie scene today.

With influences ranging from ?uestlove to Radiohead, the boys are responsible for some incredible tracks. My favourite is "Right Away", a song that is catchy and upbeat yet still haunting. Think Arcade Fire on this one.

For those of you in the Toronto or Montreal area, you can see the band this week at the Elmo on Nov 15 or Club Lambi on the 16th. Enjoy the tracks below, as well as this Take Away Show featuring the duo performing on a traffic median.

Watch more Crackle videos on AOL Video

Pattern is Movement - Right Away

Pattern is Movement - Sound of Your Voice

The Corto Maltese

Austin, Texas. The SXSW host has long been regarded as a music hotbed, churning out bands of all persuasions in hopes the world will take notice come festival time. Though the excitement of March isn't breaking news, there are bands from various showcases that happened to slip through the cracks of my playlist. Shuffling aimlessly recently afforded me the pleasure of hearing a band called The Corto Maltese, who've been compared to Arcade Fire by seemingly every journalist who checked out their set. The accuracy of the comparison isn't spot on, but it makes sense. Their arpeggio laced number "Providence" does skip along to deliver a pretty Neon Biblish vibe, with wavering, tense vocals that upon release seem to quell a good deal of anxiety. Wolf Parade fans should definitely give them a try as well.

The Corto Maltese - Providence

- BA

Black Mirror Remixes

Roaming aimlessly through the blog world you may have noticed Arcade Fire remixes popping up more than usual. ArcadeFire.net are providing some vocal tracks for aspiring and established remixers, including BTA favs Team9. "Black Mirror" is a magnificent song in its original form, but when the many instruments are stripped away and Butler's vocals are supplemented with bleeps, blips, and pounding kicks there are interesting results with varying success. Team9's version is (according to Stereogum) what you'd get with Win wailing over a Justice track. Andrew Maury's version has sporadic synthesizers with industrial-tinged percussion. We even have a chilled-out interpretation from Full Source, which has potential but needs more vocal mixing. There are probably a bunch more we haven't heard, so investigate yourself if you like what you hear.

Arcade Fire – Black Mirror (Team9 Remix)
Arcade Fire – Black Mirror (Andrew Maury Remix)
Arcade Fire – Black Mirror (Full Source Remix)

- B.A.

Remix Sunday: Calexico vs. Arcade Fire

Under normal circumstances, covering the Arcade Fire is a big no-no. However, Calexico's take on 'Ocean of Noise' turns out to be a huge yes-yes as they do their thing with typically gentle instrumentation and a multitude o' horns. The track builds from the simplicity of an acoustic guitar backing Joey Burns' sorrowful vocals to a full and powerful composition equalling the tragic grandeur of the original.

This little beauty was the B-side for the Arcade Fire's Intervention 7" single released here in the UK way back in May. Enjoy.

Calexico - Ocean of Noise

- a.m.p.m.

The Fire Is Out

Until recently Arcade Fire's modus operandi was to play multiple nights at medium-sized venues rather than arena shows, but 2007 was the year the band really blew up and putting in festival appearances was pretty much obligatory. The mind-boggling Neon Bible tour made it possible for massive crowds to see Montreal's best-known band do their thing at High Line, Reading, Leeds, Glastonbury, Oxegen, Roskilde, T in the Park and Austin City Limits (among other festivals). And touring on a twin bill with LCD Soundsystem proved such a boon that the two groups released a split 7" featuring two covers: LCD Soundsystem playing Joy Division’s 'No Love Lost', and Arcade Fire playing Serge Gainsbourg’s 'Poupee de Cire, Poupee de Son'.

However, rumour has it that the close of this year's festival season marks the end of the band's "big" shows. In fact, it may be some time before any of us gets to see Arcade Fire anywhere after fans down under catch the band at Big Day Out in early '08. As Brooklyn Vegan reported, Win Butler announced to the crowd at last week's Randall Island show the band wouldn't be back to play NYC for a couple of years, and the band had expressed a desire to avoid stadium shows. After nearly a year of non-stop touring, who can blame them?

Although I have immensely enjoyed seeing the Fire in intimate venues in both Canada and the UK, their Reading show was insane and it would be a shame if they were permanently done with the festival circuit. Maybe an invite from Coachella might change their mind?

Almost forgot, this is just about the coolest thing ever. Click on everything.

- a.m.p.m.

Arcade Fire - Rebellion (Lies) (Live At Reading Festival 2007)

Arcade Fire - Poupee de Cire, Poupee de Son (Serge Gainsbourg cover)
LCD Soundsystem - No Love Lost (Joy Division cover)

from one modern day icon to the next.

part of my new job is to peruse music blogs. it's pretty rad.

i found this little gem from i guess i'm floating out of nowhere, rhode island. the blog itself is quickly becoming one of my favourites.

the track is from a BBC Radio 1 live studio session august 16th with the foo fighters. They pulled out a very respectable rendition of arcade fire's "keep the car running", which left the host of the show excreting lubrication in excessive amounts.

the foo's have a new record, echoes, silence, patience & grace, due out september 25th. the first single, "the pretender", is available for download below.

Foo Fighters - Keep the Car Running (Arcade Fire cover) (YSI)
Foo Fighters - the Pretender (YSI)

- bbbykmbrly.

Reading Videos Available Online

For those of you interested in seeing just what went on at Reading this year, the BBC is offering video coverage from the majority of the big-name acts online here. Entire sets from Klaxons, Albert Hammond Jr, Interpol, CSS, Arcade Fire, Gossip, Bloc Party, LCD Soundsystem, Patrick Wolf and many others are available, as are individual acoustic tracks including the Hold Steady's rollicking 'Chips Ahoy' and Peter Bjorn and John's iconic 'Young Folks'.

You can also check out photos of the festival site and crowds, 360 degree pictures and crowd reaction video interviews here.

Hurry, though; they're only available for viewing online until September 3rd.

- a.m.p.m.

The Hold Steady - Chip Ahoy!

June Tunes

Summer's almost here, again. It feels like I was just saying that at the end of April, but now I'm saying it again about the summer course on Bollywood cinema I'm taking for two and a half more weeks. That combined with a bi-weekly commute to the camp I work at make for a lot of traveling and iPod charging.

Here are some tracks that have been in high rotation recently:

Kanye West - Stronger (feat. Daft Punk)

Justice - Phantom Pt. 2

The New Pornographers - My Rights Versus Yours
Handsome Furs - Dead+Rural
LCD Soundsystem - No Love Lost (Joy Division cover)
- LCD was solid-sounding live and played most of Sound of Silver along with a couple older tracks, like Movement, Yeah and Daft Punk (obviously).
Feist - Sea Lion Woman
Arcade Fire - Antichrist Television Blues
- I agree with Bowie that these guys are the best band in the world. I had a brutal seat but it was so worth it.

-Andrew W.

Wake Up Call

I caught Arcade Fire last Wednesday at Brixton Academy and they were - you guessed it - amazing. The venue was buzzing with feverish energy for the band's first performance of a four-night stint here in London and a strong performance by opener Patrick Wolf only left the crowd pining for what everyone had shown up for: the most heavily touted indie band in the world. How things have changed since I first saw Win & Co in Montreal two years ago when touring in support of their debut album. That night they opened a mind-blowing show with my then-favourite song, 'Wake Up'. This time it was the closing song to one of the best shows I've seen since my arrival in London. How appropriate.

Arcade Fire - Wake Up (live)

-Andrew M

Gonna Work It Out

Okey dokey. Neon Bible, Arcade Fire’s new album, is to be officially released tomorrow. If you don’t know who Arcade Fire is, or why every indie kid and music aficionado in general is going gaga over the Montreal collective’s latest offering, I guess you’ve been living under a rock for some time now. So get out from under your rock, find a record store, and buy Neon Bible tomorrow. You won’t be disappointed, promise. BBC Radio 1 will not stop raving about the quality of the album, the Observer has accorded Neon Bible a perfect 5-star review, and Pitchfork has blessed it with a solid 8.4 rating.
And just when did the band go from being called “The Arcade Fire” to simply “Arcade Fire”? Perhaps it’s all a clever ruse to garner A-list status in record shop alphabetical filing systems. Hmmmm . . .

Arcade Fire – Ocean of Noise
Arcade Fire – Keep the Car Running

-Andrew M