Arcade Fire

Freelance Whales

Observatory

Local Record Review: 'Songs We All Are Singing' by the Devious Means

http://thedeviousmeans.com/The Devious MeansSongs We All Are SingingWe here at the Weekly have covered the Devious Means a few times -- here's a short introduction from a few months back -- though it seems we're a little late with an actual review of their second EP, which appeared back in ... More >>

Local Record Review: 'We're Just Really Excited to Be Here' by Countless Thousands

Beat Blvd. is Heard Mentality's weekly review of local releases. If you're an OC musician or band with something new to offer--vinyl single, full-length album, CD, cassette--we want to hear from you! Send copies, along with any photos and PR material, to Beat Blvd., c/o OC Weekly, 2975 Red Hill A ... More >>

Cymbals Eat Guitars

Alex's Bar

Local Record Review: 'Reassemble/Reappear' by Copia

Beat Blvd. is Heard Mentality's weekly review of local releases. If you're an OC musician or band with something new to offer--vinyl single, full-length album, CD, cassette--we want to hear from you! Send copies, along with any photos and PR material, to Beat Blvd., c/o OC Weekly, 2975 R ... More >>

Watch Bonnaroo from Home

Musical festival season is in full swing, and that means you're either already on a plane to attend this weekend's Bonnaroo Music Festival or staying at home and wishing you were there. This year, the likes of Eminem, Arcade Fire, Robert Plant and Lil Wayne are part of the star-studded lineup in Man ... More >>

Record Stores Revinylize OC

The vinyl boom is fueling a resurgence of record retailers

Coachella 2011: Hits and Misses

[Mental Notes] Kanye kills it, Duran Duran's '80s dance party and more

Coachella Day Three: I'm Going to Miss Seeing Half-Naked People Everywhere

Memories...​The day is only half over and I'm already nostalgic for Coachella 2011: Getting all choked up about the balloon rain at Arcade Fire and swapping celebrity sightings from Danny DeVito to Rihanna.

Last Night at the Glass House: Broken Social Scene

Jacob Khan​Broken Social Scene's set clocked in at a robust, marathon-length two-and-a-half hours. By night's end, the nugget of wisdom once uttered by TV bufoon George Costanza rang through my mind like a gong: Leave on a high note. 

Little Scream: 'Just Thinking of Elliot Smith Helps Me Write Better Songs'

​Montreal's Little Scream renews my faith in music. Singer/songwriter Laurel Sprengelmeyer (who looks like a young Susan Sarandon, apparently) is touring to support her debut, The Golden Record, a gorgeous set of folk/pop songs that she named after the 1977 Voyager space-shuttle time-cap ... More >>

Bon Iver to Release New Album This Year

Lilledeshan Bose​Rolling Stone says that Bon Iver's follow up to the awesome 2007 debut For Emma, Forever Ago will be out in June. In the interview published today, frontman Justin Vernon says that for this set, holing up in the woods of Wisconsin to write songs of heartbreak wasn't really feasibl ... More >>

Godspeed You! Black Emperor

Fox Theater Pomona

Arcade Fire: A Bunch of Grammy-Winning Nobodies?

Tumblr​Dear America: allow me to introduce Arcade Fire. They're an indie rock band from Montreal. As I've been reading responses on Arcade Fire's Grammy win, I've realized that there are much fewer people who actually know the band and their music than I had thought.

Arcade Fire Win Album of the Year in a Shocker

Andrew Youssef/OC Weekly​Surprisingly, The Suburbs by Arcade Fire won album of the year for the 53 Grammy Awards last night. Shocked? We are, too. They beat out Lady Antebellum's Need You Now, Lady Gaga's The Fame Monster, Eminem's Recovery and Katy Perry's Teenage Dream. The Grammys seemed to get ... More >>

[UPDATED Fingerprints, Origami Vinyl and The El Rey Venues Are Confirmed Ticket Outlets] Arcade Fire Set to Announce Secret SoCal Show

Andrew Youssef/OC Weekly​UPDATE, FEB. 3, 2011, 9:00 A.M: Editor's note-- Fingerprints, Origami Vinyl and the El Rey are confirmed ticket outlet locations for the Arcade Fire show. Find out more details after the jump.UPDATE, FEB. 2, 2011, 11:20 P.M.: Editor's note--Three locations will be sel ... More >>

Coachella Tickets Sell Out, Scalpers and Gal on Craigslist 'Willing to Do Anything' Come Out to Play

Vickie Chang/OC WeeklyThe crowd during Arcade Fire's set, Coachella 2007.​So it's true: Coachella 2011 has officially sold out, and the scalpers, resellers, flippers and general assholes have come out in droves on the Internet.

Rumored Headliners for Coachella 2011

Andrew Youssef/OC WeeklyArcade Fire​The Coachella lineup will soon be announced, but rumors are already circulating about who is headlining this year. We have some theories, but nothing is confirmed as of yet. The guessing game will continue on, and it's encouraged by the festival through many int ... More >>

Local Record Review: Big Bad Wolf

​ Big Bad Wolf Big Bad Wolf www.soundcloud.com/bigbadwolfmusic The quintet of fellows who make up Big Bad Wolf--who'll be celebrating the release of this free EP at a Gypsy Lounge show this Thursday in Lake Forest--clearly have ambition when it comes to their work, no bad thing at all. Their self ... More >>

WTF of the Week: The Grammy Noms

Christopher Victorio/OC WeeklyEminem, nominated for 'Recovery'​WTF:Despite the fact that the way the world listens to music has changed radically over the past decade, the Grammys ostensibly continue to reward bands based on a model en vogue 50 years ago. This year's list of nominees reflects that ... More >>

John Legend and the Roots Cover Arcade Fire

​According to Pitchfork, you can now buy the John Legend and the Roots cover of Arcade Fire's "Wake Up" on Amazon. It's selling for $1.99 today only, or you can listen to the stream below. The cover is an outtake from Wake Up!, a set of classic soul covers that the two acts collaborated on. The a ... More >>

Plants and Animals

House of Blues

Arcade Fire at the Shrine Auditorium Last Night

Andrew Youssef/OC Weekly​Arcade FireOctober 7, 2010Shrine AuditoriumClick here to see the slideshow!Some concerts can be electrifying, exhilarating, or even spine tingling. Arcade Fire surpassed all those descriptors with a performance that could only be described as Arcade Firesque. The seated Sh ... More >>

Local Record Review: Brook Lee Catastrophe from Long Beach

Beat Blvd. is Heard Mentality's weekly review of local releases. If you're an OC musician or band with something new to offer--vinyl single, full length album, CD, cassette--we want to hear from you! Send copies, along with any photos and PR material, to Beat Blvd., c/o OC Weekly, 2975 Red Hill Ave. ... More >>

Arcade Fire Toys with Your Emotions with Interactive 'We Used to Wait' Video

​Arcade Fire's video for "We Used to Wait" integrates your childhood stomping grounds into their visuals and personalizes your experience.It's hard not to feel manipulated and slightly thrilled (it actually intensifies the usual feeling you get when listening to an Arcade Fire song) when you see v ... More >>

Whee! Arcade Fire Announce LA Stops

www.myspace.com/arcadefireofficial​Now that The Suburbs is a bonafide hit (it debuted at No. 1), Arcade Fire has announced that its coming to Southern California. The band will be at the Shrine Auditorium in LA on Oct. 7 and 8. To be clever, though, the band should've scheduled ... More >>

3hree Things: Colour Revolt's New Record, 'The Cradle'

Watch out for 3hree Things every Tuesday, where Riley Breckenridge, drummer of Orange County's favorite local alt-rock band Thrice, gives his take on life in Southern California, being an OC native and, of course, music.I mentioned in a June 3hree Things that I thought 2010 had been a ... More >>

Young the Giant

Detroit Bar

For the ADD Set: 30 Seconds From Every Song on the New Arcade Fire Album

www.myspace.com/arcadefireofficial ​[via Pitchfork] The Suburbs, Arcade Fire's third LP, is set for release on Aug. 3 on Merge. Obviously, no one on the Internetz can wait, which is why Seattle radio station The End has provided you with 30 second snippets of every song from the record streaming ... More >>

Arcade Fire's Back: New Songs Album Release Date

​Our favorite tortured Canadians are back, finally. Yesterday, BBC's Radio 1 leaked two new songs from Arcade Fire. The band just released a double A-side 12″ single, and the BBC played both songs --"The Suburbs" and "Month of May"--twice on air. They do not disappoint, and I'm looking forward t ... More >>

Release the Sounds: The Steelwells, 'Shallow on the Draft' EP

​This week's "Release the Sounds" begins with a very simple question: If you were in an indie rock band that was going to be stranded on a ship in the middle of the ocean, what would you bring?It's an odd question, but a good one to meditate before absorbing Shallow on the Draft the latest EP from ... More >>

The Colourist; As Tall As Lions

Detroit Bar

Fun

Fingerprints

[Locals Only] The Colourist Are Already Local Favourites

To Do This Weekend 6/5 - 6/7

Paula Poundstone, Friday, 6 p.m.You probably recognize her name from NPR's Wait Wait Don't Tell Me line up--or from watching early '90s stand up comedy videos (she's the one wearing the vests all the time), either way come and see this funny lady/stand-up comic/mother/writer perform at the Coach Ho ... More >>

Clues (ex-Arcade Fire and Unicorns)

Dustry Rhodes and the River Band

[CD Review] Various artists, 'Dark Was the Night' (4AD)

Incoming: Plain White T's, Autolux Headed to Glass House

Hey there, readers. The Plain White T's, of the inescapable 2007 hit "Hey There, Delilah" are coming to the Glass House on March 31; tickets are $15 and go on sale at noon on Monday (2/23). Autolux are also coming to the Glass House, on April 5--which, given their previously announced Detroit Bar on ... More >>

High Beams

Dear and the Headlights

[CD Review] El Perro Del Mar, 'From the Valley to the Stars' (TCG)

The Police, Daft Punk, and DethKlok Among The Top National Concerts of '07

Village Voice Media presents the Top Concerts of 2007 featuring: Paul McCartney, Morrissey, Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings, Interpol, Mavado, Rage Against the Machine, Queens of the Stone Age, Jah Cure, Arcade Fire, the Good, the Bad and the Queen, and other not as famous bands! (Compiled from na ... More >>

Celebrity Fave-Raves Edition

The year in music

The Worst Things in Music This Year

Freelancer Ben Westhoff (you may recognize the name from "The Efron Scandal") posted this provocative list on our sister paper Pitch Weekly's blog. We reprint it here because this is a time of giving (said the atheist). By BEN WESTHOFF 1. Worst Album: Arcade Fire, Neon Bible This cerebral garbag ... More >>

Hits!

The Noize Music

Hits!

Music Revolution

Three Hot Nights

I could never understand why the biggest Southern California music festival is in the middle of the desert. To me, enduring triple-digit temperatures to catch the Pixies reunion just seemed like pure sadism on behalf of Goldenvoice. Nevertheless, Coachella always draws a crowd. And this year, the fe ... More >>

Our Musical Neighbors to the North

Bedouin Soundclash

Hong Kong Six

Aloud and Alive In 2005

Our favorite bands of next year, predicted this year