17 Dots recently had the chance to exclusively sit down with the Arcade Fire to discuss their upcoming follow-up to Neon Bible. The band is currently weighing five different approaches, and 17 Dots brings them to you exclusively below.
| Album Title | Recording Gimmick | Latest Influence | Album Theme | Review Quote | Weeklong Residency |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Three Loaves, Two Fishes | Live album recorded in Red Sea | Psalms | The Second Coming… of the Arcade Fire | “Brilliant, heartbreaking, stunning. The Arcade Fire have done it again.” | Red Lobster |
| Darkness on the Edge of Town | Recorded entirely in the Holland Tunnel | Clarence Clemons | Why busting that guitar on SNL mattered and how you Didn’t Get It | “Stunning, heartbreaking, brilliant. The Arcade Fire have done it again.” | The Stone Pony (personally rebuilt by 5,489 members of the band) |
| American Democracy | Each track was recorded separately in all 50 states | Billy Joel | Ode to CIA-supported South American dictators | “Heartbreaking, stunning, brilliant. The Arcade Fire have done it again.” | Guantanamo Bay, Cuba (Note: residency may be extended indefinitely) |
| Norse Code | Entire album sung in made-up language called “Win-dly” | Colin Meloy | An inspired defense of whaling… by Vikings | “Stunning, brilliant, heartbreaking. The Arcade Fire have done it again.” | The Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ end-zone pirate ship |
| Arcade Fire Tribute to the Arcade Fire | The best band in the world pays tribute to the best band in the universe | Annuals | Perfecting perfection | “Brilliant, stunning, heartbreaking. The Arcade Fire have done it again.” | Wherever they damn well please |
| Pauls Revered | Win Butler plays Robert Johnson’s guitar in the Grand Canyon | Win Butler | A struggling indie band fights for respect | “Heartstunning, brilling, breakiant. The Arcade Fire have done it again.” | “What’s this about a week? We’re lucky to get one gig!” |
HTML and inspiration cribbed from Catfish Stew’s excellent Milton Bradley table.
Ummmm all of the Review quotes are the same. . . in fact wait all of these are quotes from Other Arcade Fire Releases ;-P. I’ve never actually checked AF out, but Maybe I will after the humor of this column.
“The best band in the world pays tribute to the best band in the universe” My favorite of the Ideas. A cover album where you play covers of your own songs (hopefully exactly as you played them on the original albums) BRILLIANT. Then, aftre that, they could do a followup where they cover that album. and so on and so forth.
hi-lar-i-ous.
You know what detracts from the humor, though? That PICTURE! Man, that Win character needs to eat some fresh, leafy vegetables or something.
Stunning, brilliant, hilarious.
But The Stone Pony? They’re welcome to come down for a week, no manual labor required.
why did we — i mean THEY — think the stone pony had closed? silly arcade fire.
I can’t wait to pillage the internet for that Norse Code record. And hopefully their look will follow suit with the viking theme, I’m getting a little bored of that whole “Sound of Music” thing they’re currently doing.
Hey, MiDoJo
You wanna hear a band do a cover album of itself? Listen to Unwritten Law’s “The Hit List” its almost all covers of older Unwritten Law songs, and let me tell you, the originals are 10,000x better.