Arcade Fire is a Canadian
indie rock
Indie rock is a subgenre of rock music that originated in the United States, United Kingdom and New Zealand from the 1970s to the 1980s. Originally used to describe independent record labels, the term became associated with the music they produc ...
band, consisting of husband and wife
Win Butler
Edwin Farnham Butler III (born April 14, 1980) is an American-Canadian singer, songwriter, musician, and multi-instrumentalist. He co-founded the Montreal-based indie rock band Arcade Fire with his wife Régine Chassagne.
Early life
Butler was ...
and
Régine Chassagne
Régine Alexandra Chassagne (; born 19 August 1976) is a Canadian singer, songwriter, musician, and multi-instrumentalist, and is a member of the band Arcade Fire. She is married to co-founder Win Butler.
Early life and career
Régine Alexand ...
, alongside
Richard Reed Parry,
Tim Kingsbury and
Jeremy Gara. The band's current touring line-up also includes former core member
Sarah Neufeld and multi-instrumentalists Paul Beaubrun,
Dan Boeckner
Dan Boeckner (; born 5 February 1978) is a Canadian singer, songwriter, guitarist and podcaster. He is best known as one of the frontmen of Wolf Parade, which he helped found in 2003. Since 2013, he has also been a member of the Montreal-based ba ...
and Eric Heigle. Each of the band's studio albums features contributions from composer and violinist
Owen Pallett
Michael James Owen Pallett (born September 7, 1979) is a Canadian composer, violinist, keyboardist, and vocalist. Under their erstwhile moniker of Final Fantasy, Pallett won the 2006 Polaris Music Prize for the album '' He Poos Clouds''. Palle ...
.
Founded in 2001 by friends and classmates Butler and
Josh Deu, the band came to prominence in 2004 with the release of their critically acclaimed debut album ''
Funeral''. Their second studio album, ''
Neon Bible
''Neon Bible'' is the second studio album by Canadian indie rock band Arcade Fire. It was first released on March 5, 2007, in Europe and a day later in North America by Merge Records. Originally announced on December 16, 2006, through the band's ...
'', won them the 2008
Meteor Music Award for Best International Album and the 2008
Juno Award for Alternative Album of the Year. Their third studio album, ''
The Suburbs'', was released in 2010 to critical acclaim and commercial success. It received many accolades, including the 2011
Grammy for Album of the Year, the 2011
Juno Award for Album of the Year
The Juno Award for Album of the Year is an annual award presented by the Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences for the best album released in Canada. It has been awarded since 1975, though it was the award for Best Selling Album from 19 ...
and the 2011
Brit Award
The BRIT Awards (often simply called the BRITs) are the British Phonographic Industry's annual popular music awards. The name was originally a shortened form of "British", "Britain", or "Britannia" (in the early days the awards were sponsored ...
for Best International Album. In 2013, Arcade Fire released their fourth album, ''
Reflektor'', and
scored the feature film ''
Her'', for which band members Will Butler and
Owen Pallett
Michael James Owen Pallett (born September 7, 1979) is a Canadian composer, violinist, keyboardist, and vocalist. Under their erstwhile moniker of Final Fantasy, Pallett won the 2006 Polaris Music Prize for the album '' He Poos Clouds''. Palle ...
were nominated in the
Best Original Score category at the
86th Academy Awards. In 2017, the band released their fifth studio album ''
Everything Now'', which was succeeded by their sixth studio album
''We'' in 2022.
All the band's studio albums have received nominations for
Best Alternative Music Album
The Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album is an award presented to recording artists for quality albums in the alternative genre at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards. H ...
at the
Grammys. ''Funeral'' is widely considered by music critics to be one of the greatest albums of the 2000s.
The band's work has also been named three times as a shortlist nominee for the
Polaris Music Prize: in 2007 for ''Neon Bible'', in 2011 for ''The Suburbs'' and in 2014 for ''Reflektor''.
The band has been described as
indie rock
Indie rock is a subgenre of rock music that originated in the United States, United Kingdom and New Zealand from the 1970s to the 1980s. Originally used to describe independent record labels, the term became associated with the music they produc ...
,
art rock,
dance-rock
Dance-rock is a dance-infused genre of rock music. It is a post-disco genre connected with pop rock and post-punk with fewer rhythm and blues influences. It originated in the early 1980s, following the decline in popularity of both punk and disc ...
,
and
baroque pop. They play guitar, drums, bass guitar, piano, violin,
viola
; german: Bratsche
, alt=Viola shown from the front and the side
, image=Bratsche.jpg
, caption=
, background=string
, hornbostel_sachs=321.322-71
, hornbostel_sachs_desc=Composite chordophone sounded by a bow
, range=
, related=
*Violin family ...
, cello,
double bass
The double bass (), also known simply as the bass () (or by other names), is the largest and lowest-pitched bowed (or plucked) string instrument in the modern symphony orchestra (excluding unorthodox additions such as the octobass). Similar i ...
,
xylophone
The xylophone (; ) is a musical instrument in the percussion family that consists of wooden bars struck by mallets. Like the glockenspiel (which uses metal bars), the xylophone essentially consists of a set of tuned wooden keys arranged in ...
,
glockenspiel,
keyboard,
synthesizer,
French horn
The French horn (since the 1930s known simply as the horn in professional music circles) is a brass instrument made of tubing wrapped into a coil with a flared bell. The double horn in F/B (technically a variety of German horn) is the horn most ...
,
accordion,
harp,
mandolin and
hurdy-gurdy
The hurdy-gurdy is a string instrument that produces sound by a hand-crank-turned, rosined wheel rubbing against the strings. The wheel functions much like a violin bow, and single notes played on the instrument sound similar to those of a vi ...
, and take most of these instruments on tour; the multi-instrumentalist band members switch duties throughout shows.
History
2001–2003: Formation and early work
Win Butler
Edwin Farnham Butler III (born April 14, 1980) is an American-Canadian singer, songwriter, musician, and multi-instrumentalist. He co-founded the Montreal-based indie rock band Arcade Fire with his wife Régine Chassagne.
Early life
Butler was ...
and
Josh Deu founded Arcade Fire in
Montreal
Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple ...
around 2001, having first met at
Phillips Exeter Academy as high school students. Butler and Deu's musical ideas began to develop and the first incarnation of the band was born while they were attending
McGill University and
Concordia University, respectively.
["Joshua Deu interview"/](_blank)
Madeline, 'Deu discusses past with Arcade Fire, ''The Ultraviolet'', November 13, 2010 (Deu currently is a Visual Arts instructor at Marlborough School (Los Angeles)
Marlborough School is an independent college-preparatory secondary school for grades 7 through 12 at 250 South Rossmore Avenue in the Hancock Park neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. Marlborough was founded in 1889 by New England educator M ...
) The duo began rehearsing their material at McGill where they met
Régine Chassagne
Régine Alexandra Chassagne (; born 19 August 1976) is a Canadian singer, songwriter, musician, and multi-instrumentalist, and is a member of the band Arcade Fire. She is married to co-founder Win Butler.
Early life and career
Régine Alexand ...
, a music student whom they asked to join them. Deu recalls, "Win and I played guitar. Everyone played guitar. We had no music to show her, but she ended up saying yes to joining us, and I don't know why. Maybe there was a little spark with Win."
Halfway through 2001, the band consisted of Butler, Chassagne, Deu, multi-instrumentalist Tim Kile (later of
Wild Light), bassist Myles Broscoe (later of Les Angles Morts, Crystal Clyffs, and
AIDS Wolf
__NOTOC__
AIDS Wolf was a Canadian noise rock band, founded in Montreal in 2003, by the graphic arts team of Chloe Lum (aka Special Deluxe) and Yannick Desranleau (aka Hiroshima Thunder), otherwise known as Seripop. They were joined by Myles Brosco ...
), guitarist/drummer Dane Mills (later of Crackpot) and multi-instrumentalist
Brendan Reed (later of Les Angles Morts and founding member of
Clues), who lived with Butler and Chassagne in Montreal's
Mile End neighbourhood at the time and was a collaborator with them on song-writing and arrangement (2001–2003). During a party in 2001, the band recorded a live Christmas album, ''A Very Arcade Xmas'', which they are rumored to have hand-distributed to their friends as a Christmas gift.
The initial Montreal structure of the band began to dissolve in the summer of 2002, when they travelled to Butler's family farm on Mount Desert Island, Maine to record their
self-titled EP. Tension between Butler and bassist Myles Broscoe led the latter to exit the band following the recording session.
Richard Reed Parry, who had been enlisted to help the band record, began to collaborate with them during the sessions and would go on to join the band shortly afterwards. Around the same time, Joshua Deu left the band to resume his studies; he continued to collaborate on the visual aspects of the band.
In the winter of 2003, the band celebrated the release of its EP with a show at Montreal's
Casa del Popolo. Before a crowd packed beyond capacity, the band's set ended (in the middle of an encore) with an argument between Butler and Reed, who quit the band on-stage. Mills told gathered friends in the crowd immediately thereafter that he considered the band to have broken up, as such resigning from the band as well. Following the on-stage implosion, Butler's brother
Will Butler (subject of the early Arcade Fire song "William Pierce Butler") and
Tim Kingsbury were brought in to replace Reed and Mills so that the band could continue, and they set out to promote the self-titled EP. The eponymous release (often referred to by fans as the ''Us Kids Know EP'') was sold at early shows. After the band achieved fame, the EP was subsequently remastered and given a full release.
Howard Bilerman joined the band on drums in the summer of 2003, and they began to play shows together, and record the album that would end up becoming ''
Funeral''. The promise shown by the new band in their early live shows allowed them to land a record contract with the independent record label,
Merge Records, before the end of their first year together.
When asked about the rumour that the band's name refers to a fire in an arcade, Win Butler replied: "It's not a rumour, it's based on a story that someone told me. It's not an actual event, but one that I took to be real. I would say that it's probably something that the kid made up, but at the time I believed him."
2004–2006: ''Funeral''
''
Funeral'' was released in September 2004 in Canada and February 2005 in Great Britain. The title of the debut album referred to the deaths of several relatives of band members (prominently the Butlers' grandfather, composer/arranger
Alvino Rey
Alvin McBurney (July 1, 1908 – February 24, 2004), known by his stage name Alvino Rey, was an American jazz guitarist and bandleader.
Career
Alvin McBurney was born in Oakland, California, United States, but grew up in Cleveland, Ohio. Early i ...
) during its recording. These events created a somber atmosphere that influenced songs such as "Une année sans lumière" ("A Year Without Light"), "In the Backseat", and "Haïti", Chassagne's
elegy
An elegy is a poem of serious reflection, and in English literature usually a lament for the dead. However, according to ''The Oxford Handbook of the Elegy'', "for all of its pervasiveness ... the 'elegy' remains remarkably ill defined: sometime ...
to her homeland.
It received widespread critical acclaim and topped many year-end and decade-end lists. According to the website
Metacritic
Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...
, the album had the second most appearances on end-of-decade Top 10 lists, only behind
Radiohead's ''
Kid A''.
In the updated version of
''Rolling Stones 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, it was ranked at #151.
The album was critically and commercially acclaimed. It appeared on many
top ten album lists for 2004 and 2005 (due to delayed international releases), with
Pitchfork
A pitchfork (also a hay fork) is an agricultural tool with a long handle and two to five tines used to lift and pitch or throw loose material, such as hay, straw, manure, or leaves.
The term is also applied colloquially, but inaccurately, to ...
, ''
Filter
Filter, filtering or filters may refer to:
Science and technology
Computing
* Filter (higher-order function), in functional programming
* Filter (software), a computer program to process a data stream
* Filter (video), a software component tha ...
'', No Ripcord, and The MTV2 2005 Review crowning it the album of the year. ''
NME
''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming, and culture website and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a 'rock inkie', the NME would become a magazine that ended up as a f ...
'' named ''Funeral'' second in their list of 2005's best albums. NME also named "
Rebellion (Lies)" the second best track.
By November 2005, ''Funeral'' had gone gold in both Canada and the UK, and sold over half a million copies worldwide, a very large number for an independent release with minimal television or radio exposure. The album became
Merge Records' first in the
''Billboard'' 200 chart and the label's biggest selling album to date, surpassing
Neutral Milk Hotel's ''
In the Aeroplane Over the Sea
''In the Aeroplane Over the Sea'' is the second studio album by American rock band Neutral Milk Hotel, released on February 10, 1998, by Merge Records. The music is predominantly indie rock and psychedelic folk, and is characterized by an inte ...
''.
The band booked small clubs for their 2004 tour, but growing interest forced many venue changes, far beyond the band's expectations, and the tour continued into mid-2005 throughout the United States, Canada, Europe, the SummerSonic Festival in Japan, and the Hillside Festival in
Guelph
Guelph ( ; 2021 Canadian Census population 143,740) is a city in Southwestern Ontario, Canada. Known as "The Royal City", Guelph is roughly east of Kitchener and west of Downtown Toronto, at the intersection of Highway 6, Highway 7 and Wel ...
. Taking much of the summer of 2005 off, the band made key festival appearances at the
Halifax Pop Explosion
The Halifax Pop Explosion was a music festival and conference that occurred every fall, typically two weeks after Thanksgiving, in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. The term "Halifax Pop Explosion" also came to be adopted in the 1990s as the name o ...
,
Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, the
Sasquatch! Music Festival,
Lollapalooza,
Vegoose
Vegoose was an annual Halloween music and arts festival that took place in 2005, 2006, and 2007 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Unlike the Bonnaroo Music Festival — put on by the same organizers, Superfly Productions and AC Entertainment — Vegoose does ...
Festival,
Reading and Leeds Festival in the UK,
Electric Picnic
Electric Picnic is an annual arts-and-music festival which has been staged since 2004 at Stradbally Hall in Stradbally, County Laois, Ireland. It is organised by Pod Concerts and Festival Republic, who purchased the majority shareholding in ...
in Ireland and the
Lowlands Festival in the Netherlands.
Arcade Fire was featured on the April 4, 2005 cover of ''
Time
Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, ...
s Canadian edition. On May 1, 2005, the band performed at the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival. In May 2005, the band signed a short-term publishing contract with
EMI
EMI Group Limited (originally an initialism for Electric and Musical Industries, also referred to as EMI Records Ltd. or simply EMI) was a British Transnational corporation, transnational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate founded in March 1 ...
for ''Funeral'', and in June the band released a new single, "
Cold Wind", on ''
Six Feet Under, Vol. 2: Everything Ends''. The
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
" on an advertisement for their autumn 2005 season, and the tracks "Rebellion (Lies)" and "
" on adverts in January 2006. On September 9, 2005, the band appeared on the British/US television special "Fashion Rocks", on which
joined them for "Wake Up". This recording, as well as recordings of the band's collaboration on Bowie's "Life on Mars" and "Five Years", were made available on the
in a virtual live EP. The same trip to New York City took them to the ''
. The Central Park show featured a surprise appearance by Bowie. On September 11, 2005, Arcade Fire appeared on the long-running BBC music series ''
'', performing "Rebellion (Lies)". The band also performed to a TV audience in Paris for
. The band scored two number one songs on
" and a three-week run with "Wake Up". This success followed
's last-minute decision to release "Wake Up" only on 7"
vinyl.
"Wake Up" was played immediately before the Irish rock group
; Arcade Fire subsequently opened three shows for that tour, and at the third in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, appeared on stage during U2's encore to join in a cover of
". Additionally, ''
'', a daily national sports talk show in the US, plays the song as a lead-out every Friday to signify the end of their show. The song was also heard numerous times during the Super Bowl telecast on February 5, 2010.
''Funeral'' and the single "
categories (''Six Feet Under, Vol. 2: Everything Ends''), respectively. On April 2, 2006, in
for Songwriters Of The Year for three songs from ''Funeral'': "Wake Up", "Rebellion (Lies)", and "Neighborhood #3 (Power Out)". The band was nominated for three
: Best International Group, Best International Album, and Best International Breakthrough Act.
Arcade Fire made an appearance on the BBC show ''
'' on May 12, 2005, performing "Power Out" and "Rebellion (Lies)". On December 27, 2005, ''Funeral'' was ranked No.1 on
's "50 Greatest Albums of the Year" in the United Kingdom. On October 22, 2007, ''Funeral'' was ranked No.8 in