Where the Wild Things Are Trailer

This trailer was blowing up all over the internet yesterday and for good reason.  This is my favorite book from childhood and along with The Road, my most highly anticipated movie of the year.  Add the Arcade Fire and the result is chills.

Dark Was the Night, New Track from The National

The combination of MMJ, The National, Arcade Fire, David Sitek, New Pornographers and more makes this a highly anticipated release in my neck of the woods. You can stream the new track from The National here.

From DarkWasTheNight.com:

Produced by The National's Aaron and Bryce Dessner, Dark Was The Night will be released on February 17th, 2009. It’s comprised of 31 exclusive tracks and it will be available as a double cd/triple vinyl/download and will benefit the Red Hot Organization – an international charity dedicated to raising money and awareness for HIV and AIDS through popular culture. They are the people responsible for albums including No Alternative, Red Hot and Blue and many more, and this is their 20th year, and this is the 20th release!

TRACKLISTING:

THIS DISC
1 Knotty Pine – Dirty Projectors + David Byrne
2 Cello Song (Nick Drake) – The Books featuring Jose Gonzalez
3 Train Song (Vashti Bunyan recorded, written by Alasdair Clayre) – Feist + Ben Gibbard
4 Brackett, WI – Bon Iver
5 Deep Blue Sea – Grizzly Bear
6 So Far Around the Bend – The National (arrangement by Nico Muhly)
7 Tightrope – Yeasayer
8 Feeling Good (popularized by Nina Simone) – My Brightest Diamond
9 Dark Was the Night (Blind Willie Johnson) – Kronos Quartet
10 I Was Young When I Left Home (Bob Dylan) – Antony + Bryce Dessner
11 Big Red Machine – Justin Vernon + Aaron Dessner
12 Sleepless – The Decemberists
13 Stolen Houses (Die) – Iron and Wine
14 Service Bell – Grizzly Bear + Feist
15 You Are The Blood – Sufjan Stevens

THAT DISC
1 Well-Alright – Spoon
2 Lenin – Arcade Fire
3 Mimizan – Beirut
4 El Caporal – My Morning Jacket
5 Inspiration Information (Shuggie Otis) – Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings
6 With A Girl Like You (The Troggs) – Dave Sitek
7 Blood Pt 2 (based on original song “You are the Blood” by the Castanets) – Buck 65 Remix (featuring Sufjan Stevens and Serengeti)
8 Hey, Snow White (Destroyer) – The New Pornographers
9 Gentle Hour (Snapper) – Yo La Tengo
10 Another Saturday (traditional song) – Stuart Murdoch
11 Happiness – Riceboy Sleeps
12 Amazing Grace (traditional song) – Cat Power and Dirty Delta Blues
13 The Giant Of Illinois (Handsome Family) – Andrew Bird
14 Lua – Conor Oberst + Gillian Welch
15 When the Road Runs Out – Blonde Redhead + Devastations
16 Love vs. Porn – Kevin Drew

Miroir Noir

Arcade Fire's new film/documentary covering the "Neon Bible Archives" here. Download it now, DVD will ship sometime next year.

Arcade Fire + David Fincher = A Trailer That is Too Short

Video: Arcade Fire - "Neon Bible" in an Elevator

AV Club Top 25 of 2007

25. Iron and Wine, The Shepherd's Dog
24. James Murphy & Pat Mahoney, FabricLive 36
23. Fall Out Boy, Infinity on High
22. Bat For Lashes, Fur and Gold
21. Grinderman, Grinderman
20. Rilo Kiley, Under the Blacklight
19. Against Me!, New Wave
18. Ted Leo, Living With the Living
17. Low, Drums and Guns
16. The White Stripes, Icky Thump
15. Les Savy Fav, Let's Stay Friends
14. PJ Harvey, White Chalk
13. Modest Mouse, We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank
12. Jesu, Conquerer
11. Spoon, Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
10. Bloc Party, Weekend in the City
9. Wilco, Sky Blue Sky
8. Tegan and Sara, The Con
7. Amy Winehouse, Back to Black
6. M.I.A., Kala
5. Band of Horses, Cease to Begin
4. LCD Soundsystem, Sound of Silver
3. Radiohead, In Rainbows
2. The National, Boxer
1. Arcade Fire, Neon Bible

That Fall Out Boy album kind of comes out of left field for me. I have to visit with M.I.A. and PJ Harvey. They are popping up on a lot of lists. I think this might be the strongest showing Bloc Party has had on any year end list I've seen.

AV Club's write up on Arcade Fire pretty much hits the nail right on the head. Win Butler and The Boss are on the current cover of Spin and you can read the beginning of their mutual interview here. Arcade Fire is about as epic as it gets...

Arcade Fire Interview on NPR

It wouldn't be a week without some mention of The Arcade Fire. Win and Regine were interviewed on today's Fresh Air.

[Listen]

The Arcade Fire & The National @ Radio City Music Hall, 5/9/07

No, David Bowie did not make an appearance during the first night of his Highline Festival. I think only about 2% of me is disappointed. It was a great show. The National stuck to the same 10 songs but this time in a different order. Matt Berninger hurt his leg or ankle during "Abel" and despite limping through the rest of the set it definitely didn't affect the quality.

The crowd was pretty dull for the most part but it's understandably tough for a band to slay RCMH throughout an entire set. The place just feels huge (and really is with over 5K capacity). TAF let it all out, as always, and "Power Out" and "Rebellion (Lies)" were more than enough to wake a sleeping giant.

Setlist:

"Keep the Car Running"
"No Cars Go"
"Haiti"
"Black Mirror"
"Neighboorhood #2 (Laika)"
"In the Back Seat"
"My Body is a Cage"
"The Well and the Lighthouse"
"Ocean of Noise"
"Neighboorhood #1 (Tunnels)"
"(Antichrist Television Blues)"
"Neighboorhood #3 (Power Out)"
"Rebellion (Lies)"
-----
"Intervention"
"Wake Up"

The Arcade Fire & The National @ United Palace, 5/7/07

I don't think I've ever seen a better 1-2 punch. See you guys again at Radio City on Wednesday.

The National were on at 8pm sharp.
Setlist (same as DC):

"Start a War"
"Mistaken for Strangers"
"Slow Show"
"Secret Meeting"
"Abel"
"Squalor Victoria"
"Apartment Story"
"Fake Empire"
"Mr. November"
"About Today"

The Arcade Fire came on around 9:15.
Setlist:

"Black Mirror"
"No Cars Go"
"Neighboorhood #2 (Laika)"
"Haiti"
"Black Wave/Bad Vibrations"
"Neon Bible"
"Windowsill"
"The Well and the Lighthouse"
"Ocean of Noise"
"Keep the Car Running"
(Antichrist Television Blues)
"Neighboorhood #3 (Power Out)"
"Rebellion (Lies)"
-----
"Neighboorhood #1 (Tunnels)"
"Intervention"

Arcade Fire @ D.A.R. Constitution Hall, 05.04.07

The first lady is hooked. They made a fan out of her. Tons of energy on that stage tonight. I will provide more later. Nibble on the setlist:

"Black Mirror"
"No Cars Go"
"Neighboorhood #2 (Laika)"
"Haiti"
"Black Wave/Bad Vibrations"
"Neon Bible"
"Windowsill"
"The Well and the Lighthouse"
"Ocean of Noise"
"Neighboorhood #1 (Tunnels)"
"Neighboorhood #3 (Power Out)"
"Rebellion (Lies)"
"Keep the Car Running"
-----
"Intervention"
"Wake Up"

Arcade Fire: Next Single, Tonight

Arcade Fire's next single will be "Intervention" and is set for release on May 21 as a download and on 7-inch vinyl. [NME]

Arcade Fire is playing D.A.R. Constitution Hall tonight. The National is opening. Doors are at 8 PM. [DAR]

Arcade Fire & The National Conduct Not-So-Secret Meetings In Select Cities Or How I Came To Discover Win Butler Was a Cormac McCarthy Fan

[The National: Official Site]

From Arcade Fire's Official Site:

Hi!

Just wanted to let you all know that the surjery (sic) was successful, and I am recovering nicely. Thank you for all of your thoughts and emails...

I will probably start singing again this week some time to try and get ready for the shows in North America.

It has been a blessing in disguise to be forced to stay home and read, and sleep (pick up Cormac Mcarthy's [sic] "The Road" if you are feeling like a little post apocalypse...don't let the Oprah Book Club Sticker scare you away)...Regine and I have even started working on some new songs...

anyway see you all soon

luv
Win

Let me get this straight. You throw down ridiculous live performances. Put out monster albums. Land a monster opening act (The National) for your NYC, DC and PA shows. Mock Oprah's Book Club. And dig on Cormac McCarthy? I'm with you, Arcade Fire. My ears will always be open.

I haven't cracked into The Road yet (I'm waiting for it to go paperback status), but No Country For Old Men was a damn good read.

MP3: The National - "Secret Meeting" (Remix)

Arcade Fire: Cancellations, New Single

All links, misnomers and news from the 'Fork.
Cancellations:

"Alas, yesterday (Saturday, March 24) in Oslo, Norway, Win Butler finally succumbed to the illness that has been dogging him for months, and the Arcade Fire decided to cancel the rest of their European tour. In an entry titled 'heavy heart' posted in his diary on the band's website, Butler explains that he 'ha[s] been suffering from a sinus and bronchial infection for the last 3 months, and last night in Stockholm I finally pushed my voice and body farther than they are able to go.'"

New Single:

"On May 5, Merge Records will release the first U.S. single off the Arcade Fire's epic sophomore LP. "Keep the Car Running" comes backed with 'Broken Wind'-- which is not to be confused, of course, with 2005 seven-inch cut 'Cold Wind' UPDATE: THE SONG IS CALLED 'BROKEN WINDOW', NOT 'BROKEN WIND'. MERGE SENT OUT THE WRONG TRACK NAME. WE WEREN'T MAKING A GRADE SCHOOL JOKE, WE SWEAR!-- and arrives with typically lavish packaging on 7" vinyl."

Lefsetz: The Pearl Jam Paradigm

Lefsetz is still tripping on Arcade Fire, makes an interesting reference to Pearl Jam:

"Call it the Pearl Jam paradigm. After Ten, the band decided to do no more videos, no hype. Sure, their record sales trailed off, but FIFTEEN YEARS LATER they can still sell out arenas. Do you want to still be able to work as a musician and not have a day job fifteen years on? Then I’d suggest you watch your publicity. The more ubiquitous you are, the shorter your career.

"As for Arcade Fire… There are much worse offenders.

"But as Pearl Jam proved, fuck the casual fan. It’s the HARD CORE you’re interested in.

"Of course, at first it’s hard to get anybody to pay attention, but once you’ve got traction, pull back on the reins!"
[Sales-Week Ending-3/11/07]

Arcade Fire's Neon Bible in at No. 2

Album sales really are a joke now, huh? Not one album sold more than 100,00 copies. How many people live in the United States, 300 million? And this includes digital sales. Anyway, Neon Bible, hits the charts at Number 2 with 92,000 units. Both very respectable totals for the band considering their Funeral peak was 131. Unfortunately, and much as I suspected, they didn't quite reach The Shins status. [Read more]

Interview w. Arcade Fire's Win Butler @ The Onion's AV Club

Great stuff...and, of course, the lowdown on The Black Donnelly's:

AVC: Is it true that you refused to license a song for NBC's The Black Donnellys even though Crash director Paul Haggis asked you personally?

WB: That was actually a tough decision, because that's a pretty good show, compared to most of the crap on TV. We watched the pilot, and for primetime TV, it's actually quite good. The whole conclusion was completely built around "Rebellion," and I was like, "Oh no, you guys are fucked! What are you gonna do now?" Every cut was lyrically tied. The whole premise of the show gets revealed in the last four minutes to "Rebellion." We all kind of liked the show, but at the same time, it's still our song, and the song doesn't have anything to do with that. It'd be kind of depressing to have one of my favorite songs of ours be associated with this thing it's completely unrelated to. It's more about the context. This show was like a really good TV version of Goodfellas. If it was actually Goodfellas and that hadn't come out yet, I might've said yes. If it was the fucking Godfather, the best film I've ever seen, of course they could use our song.

Slow Going

Not much to report these days. Maybe everyone is prepping for SXSW. I really need to go one of these years. In fact, InMyTree and I made a pact. It's going to happen sooner or later.

I may try to see "300" tonight. Reviews are not surprisingly mixed. I'm still shocked by how much money it made in it's opening weekend. The all-time record for box-office releases in March? The 3rd best debut ever for an R-Rated movie. That probably gives Frank Miller a green light on just about anything for the forseeable future. It looks like he's on tap to direct "The Spirit". He's also involved in an adaptation of "Ronin" and "Sin City 2".

There's an interview with Patrick Carney, one of the best drummers in the business, over at Pitchfork.

I think the ongoing discussion of where the Arcade Fire will be playing in NYC is close to being confirmed. I read something on the UsKidsKnow forums yesterday that it's more and more likely that all 3 shows will be at The United Palace. I'll be there in a couple weeks to see Bloc Party. We'll see. The official message says: "Please do not email this site regarding the NYC shows in May. Just keep an eye on this site in the coming weeks for any updates & info regarding the venues and on-sales."

Just for the hell-of-it MP3: Here's another of the Bloc Party b-sides that I'm enjoying at the moment.

MP3: Bloc Party - "Cain Said to Abel"

You can listen to the Bravery's first single, "Time Won't Let Me Go" on their site. Sounds just like their old stuff. I'll pass.

Finally: Eddie and Keith Richards at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in NYC last night. (Photo credit: REUTERS/Lucas Jackson)

Recapping the Past Seven Days

I've fallen behind on some posts so here it goes:

* I caught some Spring Training action down in Tampa last weekend. Saw Philly and Cleveland on Friday including a home run from Ryan Howard that seemed to travel 500 feet. The Phillies have a great new stadium in Clearwater. Caught the Yankees and Pirates on Saturday at Legends Field which was pretty uneventful outside of a very awkward moment when Arod tried to startle/scare/tackle Derek Jeter in front of the fans during warmups. It looked so phony. Man, I hate him.

* I went to see the Thermals and the Big Sleep on Sunday night at Bowery Ballroom. What a great fucking show. I can't remember the last time I saw such an energetic crowd at a show. On a Sunday night, no less! Hutch Harris has this dorky machismo that's just as much humorous as it is great rock n roll. I ordered Fuckin A the next day. As for The Big Sleep, they put on a good show but I still think they need to incorporate more vocals.

* I watched the Dixie Chicks documentary, Shut Up and Sing. It doesn't really matter how you feel about the Dixie Chicks music (I don't know any of it), the film's importance is on the value of free speech. I think the impact of the film would have been slightly greater had it been completed after the Grammy's (they swept Best Album, Record, and Song) but then again this isn't really about how the Dixie Chicks got the last laugh. If only it were that simple. The issue is far more serious and it's one that I do have strong opinions on. I strongly recommend it. And yes, RHCP fans, Chad Smith does appear in the film.

* Funny line from a recent Bob Lefsetz blog post on The Arcade Fire:

I mean who cares if the band is on an indie label if the act is sold JUST LIKE it's on a major label.

Why the fuck does the Arcade Fire need a gargantuan story in the "New York Times Magazine"? Is this really gonna reach the target audience? Or SNL... Is that really the cutting edge anymore? Shit, everywhere I turn there's a story on Arcade Fire, the hype is deafening, and in many instances, the band is complicit, can't they say NO?

This after the band made a concerted effort NOT to have their song played on The Black Donnelly's. I guess they can say "NO." You're off on this one, Bob.

Arcade Fire Reviews

Well, the supposed reviews that matter are up for Neon Bible. It looks like the backlash that I was sure to find hasn't really gained any momentum. Perhaps David Fricke was a bit harsh, after all? What was almost certainly the most anticipated review, Pitchfork gave it the coveted Best New Music score of 8.4. I was guessing something closer to a 7.9 so this is a pleasant surprise. Stylus gave the album an A although there is a somewhat embarrassing comparison to Grey's Anatomy. Both reviews should place the Metacritic score amongst the (albeit early) year's best. Personally, I think the album is phenomenal; the impact is truly felt once listened to it as a whole. I'm curious to see the impact on album sales. I don't think they'll quite match the strong sales opening for The Shins although it could be close. Hell, it could hit number one with less sales. What's the competition?

UPDATE: Credit where credit is due: my deluxe edition from Amp Camp was waiting for me in the mail when I got home yesterday. Nicely done. I'm also getting a kick out of these random notes they include in the package. This one said: ":( Neoooooon Bible!!!" Not really sure why that deserved a smiley face.

There's more:
New York Times article
Popmatters Interview
Metro D and Neon Bible: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

More from The Black Donnelly's

After my post on The Black Donnelly's on Tuesday, we got a comment from Joe - who runs the solid blog Headless Ponch - regarding an alternate choice of song during the show's pivotal scene. The intention, we've learned, was Arcade Fire's "Rebellion (Lies)". Stereogum private eyes confirmed Joe's comments with two posts of their own (the idea of which, I'm guessing they aped from someone else as they're apt to do without credit). Regardless, their blog clout has enabled them to uncover an interesting backstory regarding Haggis' willingness to take "No" for an answer from Acrade Fire. The version that aired, of course, was Snow Patrol's "Open Your Eyes" and even though I am finding this band more and more irritating, the song kind of works. But after seeing the Pilot version with "Rebellion (Lies)" Haggis' vision becomes that much clearer.