MissingPerson's Official Lovely Non-Threatening Arcade Fire Joy Parade.

[MissingPerson]

http://www.annarbor.com/news/ann-arb...urch/index.php

[PlayaDelWes]

Originally Posted by MissingPerson

http://www.annarbor.com/news/ann-arb...urch/index.php

40 comments and no mention of irony

[MissingPerson]

Not big indie fans down Michigan way, by the sounds of it.

[MissingPerson]

So this appears to be the closest we're going to get to a release of the Where The Wild Things Are version of Wake Up.

It's still not full length, but it's still lovely and it's not a trailer rip.

[MissingPerson]

Bit more of the Butler/Chassagne/Pallett score can be heard in this clip from The Box, which is the first thing about this film that doesn't suck or blow to a physically distressing extent.

[ArcadeParade]

is it really going to be awful? I was going to go see it primarily to hear the score..maybe bad idea?

[MissingPerson]

I don't know. I'm less than confident about it, put it that way.

The script draft I read had some good ideas, but most of them came from the original little moral dilemma. The stuff Kelly's built on top then were too knowingly odd, and all the weird little elements don't quite gel together coherently. There's a few too many show-off moments too, there's a bit of insultingly pretentious Sartre stuff in there that I can only hope to God they didn't film.

English reviews so far have been rough, but for reasons best known to themselves the French seem to be loving it. A bit more forgiving to indulgence, perhaps? Anyway, at the very least, I absolutely love the film's website, so at least there's that.

I'll probably end up seeing it just for the score. But I'm not proud of it.


EDIT:

Advance word from Empire is very good indeed. That does put a spin on things, I must say.

[MissingPerson]

Arcade Fire Guy agrees, Radiohead is the answer.

Interview with Richard. Awesome photo.

[MissingPerson]

So apparently Win's voice has a "Neil Young" thing going on for the new album.

I swear to Christ, at this stage, they're gunning for Salah on purpose.

[rage patton]

Originally Posted by MissingPerson

So apparently Win's voice has a "Neil Young" thing going on for the new album.

I swear to Christ, at this stage, they're gunning for Salah on purpose.

This made me laugh out loud.

[cormaic]

Does this mean my dream of Arcade Fire covering 'Ride My Llama' might just finally come true?

[MissingPerson]

I hope so, if for no reason other than the pleasing image that idea suggests.

[Alchemy]

I got my Merge Companion today. Arcade Fire!

[MissingPerson]

Is it good? Artworky type stuff, right?

[MissingPerson]

Speaking of Merge...

Interview with Richard Kelly. Transcribed the way he speaks, more or less. The guy has a tedious voice, never finishes a sentence, and misuses the words "Necessarily" and "You know" to a dreadful extent.

What was it like, working with Arcade Fire?

Working with Win and Regine and Owen Pallett from the band Arcade Fire was one of the best experiences of my entire career. It was kind of a dream come true to get them to commit to doing the score. Um... I didn't expect them to agree, to say yes, because they've been approached by a lot of people to do music for movies but...

I kinda went to them after a concert at the Hollywood Bowl with a script, and with a CD of Bernard Hermann's Vertigo, and I'm like "Would you guys be interested in doing a kind of nostalgic score, in the style of Bernard Hermann, and something about it clicked for them. And there was a window in their schedule, and it all just kind of...

It was a long courtship, and a long kind of process of trying to get them to really commit to doing it, but it was something they really, I felt, wanted to do. It was an opportunity to create that kind of music that, you know, unless it's for a movie, you know, when else are you going to get the chance to create 80 minutes of lush orchestration, and horns and kind of antiquated, interesting film score like that? So it was amazing. It was absolutely one of those once in a lifetime experiences.

As for their new album, I don't know anything about it other than they're in the middle of recording it right now and I'm sure it'll be amazing. They kind of go off into Recording Land so they're very much in the thick of it right now. I don't know if they're finished yet, I know they've been working with Markus Dravs, who engineered our score, and he did their last two albums, he did Coldplay's last album. He's a brilliant guy as well.

For you, working with them, was it a little different, we're you a little more intimidated about giving them notes, or was it a very collaborative process like your previous films?

It was very collaborative because I gave them the script before we even started shooting, so they had plenty of time for it to marinate in their minds, and then they did about 12 demo tracks, which were like rough... almost like the equivalent of a charcoal sketch for an artist, where they laid down the themes, about 12 of them, and they sent 'em to me, and that was sort of their way of saying "Hey, here's what we're thinking." It was only 12 of ultimately, what ended up being about 30 or 40 themes that they did, but that was like a way to kind of... for them to reach back to me and say, you know "The contract isn't signed yet, we did these 12, what do you think, are we in the ballpark?"

And it was I was like "Are you kidding me? This is amazing. You nailed it, I'm so happy, I have two notes which are negligible, can we keep moving forward?"

It was that kind of process. They're very idealistic artists, in the wonderful Canadian sense, where they really are all just about the art. They don't ever work on a schedule, they're not used to having anyone give them notes, so if anything my notes were just so miniscule because they really understood the material. They behaved like film composers that have been doing this for twenty years, they really did. They're that adaptive, they're that intuitive. So it was never a question of like "Oh, these are rock stars who don't understand the film scoring process."

If anything they understood it so well, they were just really cautious about going too far, and giving too much music until they knew that the cut was box (?) and that everything was cool with the studio, and all that kind of stuff. They were really smart, and really cautious, and really thoughtful. And at the end of the day, it was the easiest collaboration I've ever had, probably, and I've had easy collaborations with the composers of all the movies. It's always a real pleasure for me to work with composers, so long as they understand the movie.

When will the score be released?

The score will be released when the band decides that they want to release it. We were able to put a lot of stuff out on the official website (www.theboxmovie.com, www.youaretheexperiment.com) as a way to like... you can hear a good chunk of the score there.

I think it's just a question of when their record label - you know, they have an album coming out imminently - and I think it's just a question of, when you're a record label you don't necessarily want to have a competing or a pre-emptive album to put into the marketplace prior to... in the months prior to when their big album is coming out. So I think it's kind of just an issue of that, where they're just sort of holding back and they kinda want people to go to the theatre and experience it in the cinema. Then hopefully, at some point, it'll absolutely be released. I think it's all about their record label, and when they're kind of feeling like they've got their album positioned and everything. I think that's their main priority.

This was a project they did as sort of a labour of love, and it's not necessarily about trying to conflict with their most important job, which is being rock stars and working on their rock album. So, at some point it's definitely going to come out, I just can't give an exact date as of now. But in the meantime, we would definitely encourage people to come see it on the big screen and visit the website if they want a sample of it.

[boarderwoozel3]

Originally Posted by MissingPerson

So apparently Win's voice has a "Neil Young" thing going on for the new album.

I swear to Christ, at this stage, they're gunning for Salah on purpose.

Might as well. He's got an entirely irrational distain for them stemming from their popularity and (well deserved) acclaim.

[MissingPerson]

I look forward to their forthcoming album, Hipster Floridian Gaybash Jamboree.

[Alchemy]

Originally Posted by MissingPerson

Is it good? Artworky type stuff, right?

Yeah, it's really cool. It's a little book with full-color pages of people holding up the albums in their hands, with the album nearly filling the entire page. It has everything, I assume, from the first tape Merge released, to those two 20th Anniversary albums they released. There is a list on the back that identifies all the artwork in the year they were released.

It also came with a button and a sticker.

[Dale Gribble]

Originally Posted by boarderwoozel3

Might as well. He's got an entirely irrational distain for them stemming from their popularity and (well deserved) acclaim.

I would be surprised if Salah's actually heard their music.

[Still-ill]

Originally Posted by Dale Gribble

I would be surprised if Salah's actually heard their music.

Let's slip him this then:

Arcade fire original song

[seandlr]

Originally Posted by MissingPerson

So apparently Win's voice has a "Neil Young" thing going on for the new album.

I swear to Christ, at this stage, they're gunning for Salah on purpose.

This Neil Young thing is hard for me to picture. I hope it turns out well.

[MissingPerson]

Everyone who's heard any of it seems very excited indeed about it.

For the Neil Young thing to make sense, it's worth bearing in mind some of the really really old stuff. The whooping and hollering and whatever only came later - for their very early tracks, Win's vocals were a lot more conventional and a lot closer to his natural voice. Lot less frantic, less forceful.

It's worth saying the band don't think their older stuff is very good and have more or less disowned it. I think this is kind of a shame in some cases. Some of the pre-Funeral tracks do indeed blow, but Sonata is great, and could be gorgeous.

[seandlr]

Originally Posted by MissingPerson

Some of the pre-Funeral tracks do indeed blow, but Sonata is great, and could be gorgeous.

I'm relieved that I'm not alone. And w/ "Accidents" I can sense the Neil Young-ness, its just that its not what i"m hoping for. I want the power that Funeral possesses, something Neon Bible lacked. But I guess we'll see.

[MarkO]

Originally Posted by MissingPerson

So apparently Win's voice has a "Neil Young" thing going on for the new album.

I swear to Christ, at this stage, they're gunning for Salah on purpose.

I'll buy 10 copies.

[MissingPerson]

Originally Posted by Still-ill

Let's slip him this then:

Arcade fire original song

Well played.

[ArcadeParade]

such a shame, accidents..cars and telephones..


I have an urge to go to Montreal if they start there. I went when NB came out, and the FEELING I have from that trip is still with me. Listening to neon bible wasting my day away anticipating the show ahead...ok think I am totally going, I am realizing this as I write

[MissingPerson]

Cars & Telephones, definitely, yes.

I'd love to do the Montréal thing. I'm pretty sure the overpowering urge to try the accent would get me killed though.

I just don't think I can stand watching the posts and reading the tweets and getting the texts and whatever, coming back from the people who are there, hearing the music.

And then the most nightmarish bit of all; when the youtubes start arriving. "Here's me and Jeremy, having a laugh. Private joke. Here's me and Will. He told me I was special. He had my name tattooed on his arm, after. And here's me and Richard, writing a song together. He wept, softly, such was it's beauty. Then they played a song and for a moment I could see all the fabric of the universe, and I understood at last that all was well.

Fucking cold though."

[MissingPerson]

[emtgreg]

hahahhahah

[MissingPerson]

Probably the only even vaguely entertaining Hot Press article ever though.