fwiw, three of the deaths happened after the songs were written

7/27/2010 9:11:31 PM

Well, I guess that's one take on artistic inspiration...

This new !!! is surprisingly good. I like it.

7/27/2010 9:12:51 PM

I thought this would have already been posted, and it may be somewhere else on the board, but....

RE: The Suburbs

http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/reviews/nm4z

Quote :

"And The Suburbs is their most thrillingly engrossing chapter yet; a complex, captivating work that, several cycles down the line, retains the magic and mystery of that first tentative encounter. You could call it their OK Computer. But it’s arguably better than that."

bold statement there..... of course, I have OKC in my top 5 all time, so I'm a bit biased.

7/28/2010 4:45:57 AM

haha what

7/28/2010 4:52:36 AM

srsly

7/28/2010 6:24:00 AM

iknorite

7/28/2010 7:58:24 AM

I've been listening to the suburbs all last night and this morning and it is growing on me a good bit. but that^? wow. granted I assume they're saying that its relatively better than their own "OK Computer". Not actually better than OK Computer.

[Edited on July 28, 2010 at 9:39 AM. Reason : jj]

7/28/2010 9:38:32 AM

Suburbs is a great album and keeps getting better with each listen(for me).

But OK Computer?!? smh.

7/28/2010 10:36:49 AM

that Miniature Tigers album is pretty catchy

7/28/2010 12:01:51 PM

^word

7/28/2010 12:08:58 PM

if anyone is interested, schoolkids is having a midnight release party next monday night for the new arcade fire. we'll also be giving away a bunch of arcade fire & merge shit.

7/28/2010 3:48:10 PM

Quote :

"I assume they're saying that its relatively better than their own "OK Computer". Not actually better than OK Computer."

That's what I thought initially as well. (b/c he says, "you could call it their"), but then the last sentence maid no sense paired with that and where I drew the implication from.


[Edited on July 28, 2010 at 5:34 PM. Reason : .]

7/28/2010 5:31:44 PM

first run though and the af doesn't grab me really.

idk.

i mean it's ok, but there's nothing that exciting.

to people talking about it getting better on subsequent listens, i find myself doing this often with bands that i expect a good album from. then i talk myself into liking it the more i listen to it.

if it was a band i didnt expect a good album from, i wouldnt give it so much effort. i end up trying to like something that just may actually not be that awesome for me. not exactly objective.

and this whole "their old stuff was better" jazz has been around for generations. it's not exclusively a hipster thing, but rather just about anyone who likes to think they're on the music forefront. im sure you can find the same behavior in like, jazz fans... it's definitely there in blues circles. idk, this whole hate on "hipsters" thing is irritating, people need to realize that it's no more than another manifestation of the cyclic nature of pop culture.

im not making a lot of sense, but whatever.

7/28/2010 6:16:31 PM

^ Made sense to me. You might be right about being more prone to liking albums that we give more of a chance to and give more listens to, but I don't think this proves that the albums we give more of a chance to aren't good, objectively. I think it might actually mean that some of the ones we didn't give the time of day to may be better than we think. If that makes any sense.

As far is not being objective, it's debatable whether there is any objectivity in the appreciation of music. Especially with a release as high-profile as this one. Ultimately, you might just have to take people's opinions for what they are.

7/28/2010 6:51:08 PM

i remember the midnight release for neon bible

it consisted of brad asking me if i wanted the regular or deluxe edition

and when i asked the difference, he just said

"dude, flipbooks"

7/28/2010 7:22:39 PM

^haha, that's funny. kinda miss brad here...we used to have days when we worked together and just played dylan or neil young or the band records literally all day. our manager, ric, absolutely fucking hates all three of them so he would just shake his head and playfully chide us all day about them. fun times.

7/28/2010 7:47:53 PM

how the fuck could you hate dylan, young and the band?

christ.

7/28/2010 10:04:57 PM

haha, believe me, that's what i tell him. every time i ask why (or how), he always says that he's heard all their albums too many times. he's older.

7/28/2010 10:08:42 PM

Hey, Ric, Tell Me Why you hate Neil Young

7/28/2010 10:55:43 PM

is it just me or do Tomboy (Panda Bear) and Rococo (Arcade Fire) sound eerily similar and came out within weeks of each other?

7/28/2010 11:26:22 PM

also i didnt believe whoever said AF would sound like Springsteen but i'll be damned if Modern Man doesn't fit perfectly

7/28/2010 11:28:59 PM

you don't think antichrist tv blues sounds like springsteen?

7/29/2010 5:40:06 AM

i absolutely hate Bruce Springsteen and all of his music.

7/29/2010 8:14:48 AM

^^ never been a huge AF fan, so ive never heard all of neon bible

7/29/2010 10:09:58 AM

^^ gtfo

7/29/2010 10:18:58 AM

Quote :

"i absolutely hate Bruce Springsteen and all of his music."

agreed, except for Nebraska-- great album. I've tried and tried, but I just can't get into Springsteen.

7/29/2010 10:43:45 AM

it's my decided opinion that anyone who doesn't like "the promised land" doesn't like pop songs

7/29/2010 10:47:42 AM

Quote :

"i absolutely hate Bruce Springsteen and all of his music."

holy crap, someone that gets it!

7/29/2010 11:00:17 AM

anyone else enjoy the local bands Martha Ann Motel or Gambling the Muse? just heard them on the local lunch and have been trying to hear more since

7/29/2010 12:51:33 PM

martha ann motel sounds like gin blossoms without being catchy

gambling the muse is good if you're into the sedate end of the alt-country thing, though

7/29/2010 12:57:59 PM

^hahaha that's actually a very good comparison to MAM. and yeah, i'm into that side of the alt-country spectrum as well the genre as a whole.

7/29/2010 1:23:20 PM

Quote :

"is it just me or do Tomboy (Panda Bear) and Rococo (Arcade Fire) sound eerily similar and came out within weeks of each other?"

it's just you. both awesome songs though.

7/29/2010 9:33:51 PM

they're not really similar at all, but every time i listen to "city with no children" i always think of "street fighting man" by the rolling stones

[Edited on July 29, 2010 at 9:44 PM. Reason : .]

7/29/2010 9:44:27 PM

^yeah, that riff definitely sounds like a keith richards riff. sooooo catchy

7/31/2010 2:15:43 PM

i lurv this wavves

7/31/2010 2:45:57 PM

^me, too. think i like the wavves more than the best coast. not that they need to be compared with one another.

7/31/2010 3:20:18 PM

i burned them to the same cd, cute huh

[Edited on July 31, 2010 at 3:22 PM. Reason : need to go buy them though. well when KotB comes out]

7/31/2010 3:22:05 PM

haha that's hilarious

the "hipster love" compilation

[Edited on July 31, 2010 at 4:04 PM. Reason : fyi we already have KotB on sale on cd and lp if you want it]

7/31/2010 4:00:03 PM

nah i live in greenville

8/1/2010 4:52:54 AM

Quote :

"that Miniature Tigers album is pretty catchy"

hell yes it is. "bullfighter jacket" is one of the catchiest tunes i've heard in a while. going to try to catch them at 506 later this month.

[Edited on August 1, 2010 at 4:04 PM. Reason : -]

8/1/2010 3:44:52 PM

That Arcade Fire is so underwhelming to me, and this is coming from a guy whose favorite band is Low. And there was a certain type of slickness to it I didn't favor.

But that brings me to my favorite album this year so far, the pretty slick summer pop debut album from Gold Motel. Check it out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ts-bT5y3QBg&feature=player_embedded

8/1/2010 5:40:33 PM

The Pitchfork review of The Suburbs compares it to an '80s Springsteen album (The River) no later than the second paragraph.

MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH

(Not that it really means anything other than I'm not insane.)

8/2/2010 11:17:07 AM

http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/14516-the-suburbs/

8/2/2010 11:40:03 AM

You win, vb, haha...I will say that before that review came out, I spoke to somebody else about it who also compared it to The River but in a different context. He was talking about it more in the sense of their career arcs. Born To Run was Bruce's masterpiece, which he followed up with the less well-received but still really good Darkness on the Edge of Town, and then next came The River, another really good record that was maybe a slight step up from its predecessor.

I often wonder how we'll see certain bands ten or twenty or thirty years from now, and I wouldn't be surprised if how most critics view those three Boss albums is similar to how critics view Arcade Fire's first three records in the future.

[Edited on August 2, 2010 at 1:19 PM. Reason : .]

8/2/2010 1:18:35 PM

im late to the sleigh bells party, but this is probably one of the most obnoxious things i've ever heard. nice funkadelic sample on 'rill rill' though

8/2/2010 7:11:23 PM

made up an arcade fire drinking game tonight. take a shot any time win butler says "kids," "town," or any variation of those words.

[Edited on August 3, 2010 at 3:32 AM. Reason : .]

8/3/2010 3:32:14 AM

may or may not be relevant, but the suburbs is selling for 3.99 on amazon.


http://tinyurl.com/23yvle2

[Edited on August 3, 2010 at 8:05 AM. Reason : link to amazon...]

8/3/2010 8:00:32 AM

Not sure how I feel about the vinyl sequence. I thought having "Sprawl II" be the last thing before the reprise was pretty important.

In other news, whoever is mastering the Merge stuff for vinyl lately is doing a fantastic job. Libraries and The Suburbs both sound HUGE.

8/3/2010 11:59:40 AM

I can't wait to see Régine get all cutesy during Sprawl II when (and if) they play anywhere in NC

8/3/2010 2:56:24 PM

new walkmen album sounds pretty good.

8/3/2010 10:20:18 PM