Arcade Fire have won the Canadian Polaris Prize 2011 for their third album, ‘The Suburbs’. Back in June, the longlist for the prize was announced. Polaris is a not-for-profit organisation that honours, celebrates and rewards creativity and diversity in Canadian recorded music (rather like the British Mercury prize).
The ten records that made it into the shortlist were as follows:
Arcade Fire – The Suburbs Austra – Feel It Break Braids – Native Speaker Destroyer – Kaputt Galaxie – Tigre Et Diesel Hey Rosetta! – Seeds Ron Sexsmith – Long Player Late Bloomer Colin Stetson – New History Warfare Vol. 2: Judges Timber Timbre – Creep On Creepin’ On The Weeknd – House Of Balloons
This week saw the announcement of the 2011 Coachella line up. The festival, which takes place in Indio California, has steadily risen to become one the biggest music events of the year; with well over 200,000 attendees expected over its three days. With festival goers braving desert temperatures of over 100 ºF, the Coachella team has a battle on their hands to ensure they keep the audience’s attention. Thankfully, they’ve once again assembled a stellar line up of musical delights, pulling in some of the world’s biggest artists. Taking the headline slots this year will be Kings Of Leon, Arcade Fire and Kanye West. 2010 was a huge year for all three – with West and Arcade Fire gaining huge plaudits from critics and fans alike for ‘My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy’ and ‘The Suburbs’ respectively. While Kings Of Leon’s ‘Radioactive’ divided the opinions of critics, it did nothing to reduce their status as one of the world’s most successful bands.
Coachella will also boast an appearance from New York indie Gods, The Strokes, who will rival Animal Collective as the hipster’s choice at this year’s Coachella. Another highlight is a rather unexpected set from the reunited Death From Above 1979, who join a parade of Coachella acts on the comeback trail, Bright Eyes, Big Audio Dynamite, Suede, Lauryn Hill and Duran Duran to mention a few.
The presence of Sasha, Magnetic Man, Sven Väth and Axwell all high up on the bill, plus appearances from likes of A-Trak, Green Velvet, Andy C and Trentmøller, also ensures that there’ll be plenty for dance fans to investigate across the board.
This year’s festival takes place between 15th- 17th April, for the full line up and ticket info head to the official Coachella site.
It’s been a good month for Canadian alternative rockers Arcade Fire. Their new, more stripped down sound has been embraced by music fans the world over with their latest album going to number 1 in the USA, UK and Canada – a feat which firmly puts Arcade Fire in the rock music A list. Added to that, videos of their recent performance at Madison Square Garden – directed by former Monty Python Terry Gilliam no less – have also been turning heads racking up 100,000’s of views in little over two weeks.
The band now looks set to take their expansive live show on the road with the announcement that they will play a series of dates in the USA. This comes after the band sold out their dates at London’s huge O2 in little than over 10 minutes. Those wishing to see the band in the UK can still get day tickets for the Reading and Leeds festival next week which will also showcase performances from Queens Of The Stone Age, Blink 182 and Guns And Roses – if Axl shows up of course!
Arcade Fire will play the following American dates:
St. Paul, MN Roy Wilkins Arena (September 22) Winnipeg, MB MTS Centre (23) Saskatoon, SK Credit Untion Centre (25) Calgary, AB Stampede Corral (26) Vancouver, BC Pacific Coliseum (28) Seattle, WA Key Arena (29) Portland, OR Memorial Coliseum (30) Berkeley, CA Greek Theatre (October 2) Big Sur, CA Henry Miller Library (5) Los Angeles, CA Shrine Auditorium (7) Los Angeles, CA Shrine Auditorium (8) Mexico City, MX Palacio de los Deportes (10) Monterrey, MX Banamex Theater (12)
With their third album ‘The Suburbs’ collecting rave reviews and tipped to top both the US and UK charts next week, Arcade Fire have cemented their position as one of the most important bands in the world today.
‘The Suburbs’ is packed with reflections on the effects that passing time has on our lives and is another impressive collection of songs. Different singles have been chosen for different territories. The comforting and mellow title track –also the record’s centrepiece- was released as a limited edition 7’ weeks ago and has been heavily played in Europe since; whereas ‘Ready To Start’ - one of the album’s most epic moments – is ready to hit the airwaves in the States.
The Canadians have been taking the media by storm, embarking on a huge promotional effort that included a live show at New York’s Madison Square Garden that was broadcast in full last Thursday via youtube with Terry Gilliam on direction duties. The videos shown are taken from that gig.
Arcade Fire are back. The Canadian band’s debut, ’Funeral’, was included in every best of noughties list worth its salt and their follow-up, ‘Neon Bible’, successfully broke them into rock’s major league. Now Arcade Fire are about to unveil their third work, ‘The Suburbs’, scheduled for the release on August 2nd.
In the meantime, a double A-side 12” single ‘The Suburbs/Month Of May’ is about to hit the stores worldwide. The highly anticipated tracks showcase two different sides of Arcade Fire: ‘The Suburbs’ is a pleasant indie pop fare lushly arranged in the tradition of their first opus –many have noticed a similarity in style and subject with their classic ‘Neighborhood’. Whereas ‘Month Of May’ explores the rockier, more epic side of the collective.
More details about the 12” and a pre-order offer for the album can be found here. Arcade Fire will also be one of the headliners at this year’s Reading & Leeds Festivals to be held on August 27-29th.
The Montreal based Arcade Fire released their debut album in 2004 to a cacophony of critical praise – and quite rightly so. Taking in a wide range of influences including pop, post-punk, opera and disco; ‘Funeral’ is a staggering, assured debut. Fronted by husband and wife Win and Géraldine Butler, the album was influenced by the deaths of several band members’ relatives. Naturally the influence of these events had an effect on the band and their music and ‘Funeral’ gave them an outlet for this grief and frustration. It would be unfair to categorise the album as a depressing listen, however it’s clear the events had an influence on Butler’s reflective lyrics.
With tracks as varied as the rabble rousing ‘Wake Up’, to the slow burning ‘Crown Of Love’- a track that starts out as a lush orchestral number and gives way to a storming disco beat – the album isn’t never predictable and entices the listener back again and again. While the band would go on to release another album in the decade, 2007’s ‘Neon Bible’, it’s ‘Funeral’ that stands up as their essential album. The band have recently confirmed that they’ve completed work on their third album, due for release in May 2010.
