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Tuesday, March 21, 2006

How to build an Arcade Fire...



Ok, Ok ...so it's not new news (sorry Gary Gnu), but is something special. Thanks to JOE, for reminding me that I should listen to this a few more times. The Arcade Fire has been in my cd collection for a few months now, but I haven't gotten around to mentioning them on here. Perhaps this is because they have gotten a lot of press in the underground arena, or perhaps I’m just lazy.

Here is a great review of the album by David Moore over at Pitchfork. I love the opening paragraph of the review (I think it’s some of the best Rock writing I’ve seen), so I’ve included it here, be sure to check out the complete review if you are familiar with the album…

How did we get here?

Ours is a generation overwhelmed by frustration, unrest, dread, and tragedy. Fear is wholly pervasive in American society, but we manage nonetheless to build our defenses in subtle ways-- we scoff at arbitrary, color-coded "threat" levels; we receive our information from comedians and laugh at politicians. Upon the turn of the 21st century, we have come to know our isolation well. Our self-imposed solitude renders us politically and spiritually inert, but rather than take steps to heal our emotional and existential wounds, we have chosen to revel in them. We consume the affected martyrdom of our purported idols and spit it back in mocking defiance. We forget that "emo" was once derived from emotion, and that in our buying and selling of personal pain, or the cynical approximation of it, we feel nothing.