Thread by @EsotericCD

[*rumbling in the distance*]

[*sound of pebbles being shaken loose from mountainside*]

"Hey pa! You hear that? Storm's a-comin'!"

"Son, that ain't just any storm. That there's a TWEETstorm. Go get yer mama out from the fields & tell her it's time for some Game Theory."

Have finally submitted my op-Ed/review on Arcade Fire's new LP EVERYTHING NOW (short version: it's good).

So we'll begin shortly.

Beware.

You thought I had foresworn music game theory tweetstorms? You let a mere four month lapse lull you into complacency?

VAE VICTIS: I shall now explain why Arcade Fire the most interesting band making music in N. America over past 15yrs

For those unaware of Arcade Fire, a simple analogy: imagine a Francophone reincarnation of The Band, but indie-rock vs. roots-country...

...all the other traits are there, updated for 21st century: instrument-swapping, communal feel, Canadian/US heritage interplay (Haiti too!)

...also, Win Butler (lead singer/songwriter of Arcade Fire) apparently a driven fellow, but not a credit-hogging jerk like Robbie Robertson.

Of course, the way most people remember them (and should) is via this...but we'll get there later on:

Who were Arcade Fire? Well, at start they were kind of a mess. Basically Win Butler+buddy Josh Deu playing folky guitars, w/a pickup band.

Butler an American (Houston suburbs) gone to McGill U (Montreal) for same reason middle-class kids always go: it's neat and sorta different.

I mention that b/c it figures prominently in lyrics: Butler is appealing in his willingness to write on what he knows and has lived.

Butler met quirky jazz-singer while puttering around Montreal w/band. Convinced her to join. Her name: Regine Chassagne. They're married now

This is really the start of Arcade Fire (2001), but nobody in band is too fond of early demos that have leaked out.

You can understand why: entire reels circulate, and while occasionally interesting, it's mostly ropey folk interspersed w/halting rock moves

Legend has it that, when band played in early Montreal scene, they couldn't really...well, *play*. These things take time.

Without getting too far into the mess of how Arcade Fire finally assembled a working lineup, by 2002 that time had come.

FUNERAL commonly thought of as AF's debut, but story really begins w/ARCADE FIRE EP (2002). Most of the band is there; so is the talent.

AF haven't developed the signature Godspeed You! Black Emperor-ish orchestral sound yet, but the *mystery* is there:

Instrumental approach is there, too: any weapon at hand. Keys, guitars, hurdy-gurdies, accordions, all went into mix

What fascinates about EP is it's the most transitional work of their career. Their awkward folk roots still present.

And yet, a mere 2 tracks later, this remarkable piece points directly to fully-formed band that emerged on FUNERAL.

"Headlights" is one of the first songs where AF's influences seem less 'Broken Social Scene' than RIVER-era Springsteen.

And yet it has that strange cadence, that haunted yelp best captured by Regine's wail, that marks it as their first mature work.

No one song encapsulates AF's transition from gawky adolescence to its maturity better than final track of the EP:

It begins as a somewhat clunky folk tune set to banjo. Then halfway through, it becomes...well, it becomes FUNERAL:

By chance, I got a copy of ARCADE FIRE EP pretty early on, early 2004. A friend living in Toronto had seen them live & bought it at the show

He raved about it. I listened to it and was pretty impressed myself. But they just seemed like another neat band from Canada at the time.

(this was the first time I could remember there being a Canadian 'scene' - Broken Social Scene and Godspeed You! Black Emperor two others.)

Nothing--absolutely nothing--prepared me or anyone else for what came next: the most epochal rock LP released in the '00s not named KID A.

But that is a story for tomorrow.

Tomorrow is today, so let me explain why the most emotionally & musically compelling LP of the '00s earns every bit of its hype & then some.

Only time I ever saw AF was in summer '04. Pure chance. Friend gave me EP so I knew them, & they were playing small club in DC. Opening act.

The truth: they didn't go over that great. I think most there to see headliner (anyone remember Unicorns?) or just to catch latest scene.

But what I'll always remember is that they opened w/this & it really didn't sound like final version. It was ANGRY:

"Wake Up," early on, felt more like a "f*** you, we wrote a great song" opening confrontation w/an indifferent audience. Now it closes shows

My primary memory other than that was they only played 1-2 songs from EP, everything else was new. Notable: a song w/"LAAAIIIKA" in chorus.

I remember (erm, perhaps ruinously drunk at the time...) thinking, "huh, they wrote a song about the Russian cosmonaut dog? Nah, I'm drunk."

Turns out I was right. And this was one that really stayed the same from transition from that early show to FUNERAL: