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Post by Lump on Feb 14, 2011 9:38:18 GMT -8
Lordy, can only imagine what a Grammy will do for that.
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Post by Drew on Feb 14, 2011 9:44:22 GMT -8
Say what you will about their music, but do any of us really think that the people in Arcade Fire are anything less than massively egotistical pricks? Absolutely not. If anyone doubts that they're self-righteous and self-important and arrogant, they haven't been paying attention.
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Post by Horned Gramma on Feb 14, 2011 9:45:15 GMT -8
God I just do not understand the appeal.
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Post by Drew on Feb 14, 2011 9:46:01 GMT -8
Although my friend Becky has a funny story about them. She went to Tufts, and they were playing a free show (before Funeral even), and she sat with them at a meal just after playing an Ultimate Frisbee game, and she randomly just started telling them all about her injuries and the playoffs and all this stuff, and they were totally interested and joking around with her and everything. She didn't even end up seeing the show.
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Post by funnygrrl on Feb 14, 2011 9:51:20 GMT -8
Say what you will about their music, but do any of us really think that the people in Arcade Fire are anything less than massively egotistical pricks? Absolutely not. If anyone doubts that they're self-righteous and self-important and arrogant, they haven't been paying attention. Name me a band that is successful that isn't. U2, Radiohead, Kanye( too easy).
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Post by Horned Gramma on Feb 14, 2011 9:57:11 GMT -8
Radiohead don't strike me as pricks, they just seem completely disinterested in their fans. All the environmental activist shit I think makes up for the fact Thom would probably tell a gushing fanboy to bugger off.
I suspect Kanye is actually a real sweetheart; the ego is just part of the act, like Madonna's cone bra. Anyway it's obviously exaggerated.
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Post by Drew on Feb 14, 2011 9:59:33 GMT -8
Of course most hugely successful artists are. Duh. I don't really give a shit unless it makes their music unlistenable (U2). I love Radiohead and Kanye, but I sure as hell wouldn't want to hang out with them.
Win Butler is a pseudo-intellectual, though. Thom Yorke is a fucking poet compared to Win Butler. Butler thinks The Suburbs is a statement, and his lyrics are trite and riddled with cliche. Yorke, if nothing else, is constantly original.
That being said, I don't really pay much attention to lyrics for the most part, and I really love how Arcade Fire sound, so I still like them a lot.
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Post by Horned Gramma on Feb 14, 2011 10:03:35 GMT -8
How on earth can you not pay attention to lyrics drew, what the fuck?
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Post by funnygrrl on Feb 14, 2011 10:06:15 GMT -8
they're self-righteous and self-important and arrogant. That doesn't describe radiohead? Radiohead is one my favourite bands, but they even admit that they are pretentious, but they also talented that they are allowed to be self righteous and arrogant, in fact that's what makes them talented is that fact they won't just put out a sub par album to make money. They want it to be they best.
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Post by alex on Feb 14, 2011 10:10:46 GMT -8
I'm the same way. Not nearly as interested in the lyrics as I am the music.
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Post by thedude on Feb 14, 2011 10:13:01 GMT -8
It's one thing to be disinterested in your fans. Hell, if I was a famous musician, I'd probably be the same way if I had people come up all the time to slobber all over my dick and tell me how great I was.
It's a completely different thing to be massively shitty pricks to the people you work with and that work for you.
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Post by Drew on Feb 14, 2011 10:17:12 GMT -8
they're self-righteous and self-important and arrogant. That doesn't describe radiohead? Radiohead is one my favourite bands, but they even admit that they are pretentious, but they also talented that they are allowed to be self righteous and arrogant, in fact that's what makes them talented is that fact they won't just put out a sub par album to make money. They want it to be they best. I agreed:
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Post by Drew on Feb 14, 2011 10:21:12 GMT -8
How on earth can you not pay attention to lyrics drew, what the fuck? I mostly just gloss over them. It takes me a lot of listens to get what a song is about, and pay attention to everything. I mean, with some people, what they're saying is just so beautiful that that's where most of the pleasure comes from (Joanna Newsom, Iron and Wine, Dylan). But Arcade Fire? I hear a few cliches and I sort of just start turning off the meaning - how it sounds is still important, of course. Albums and songs I really love, I know all the lyrics. So I guess it's not totally true.
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Post by funnygrrl on Feb 14, 2011 10:22:34 GMT -8
Of course most hugely successful artists are. Duh. I don't really give a shit unless it makes their music unlistenable (U2). I love Radiohead and Kanye, but I sure as hell wouldn't want to hang out with them. Win Butler is a pseudo-intellectual, though. Thom Yorke is a fucking poet compared to Win Butler. Butler thinks The Suburbs is a statement, and his lyrics are trite and riddled with cliche. Yorke, if nothing else, is constantly original. That being said, I don't really pay much attention to lyrics for the most part, and I really love how Arcade Fire sound, so I still like them a lot. I have to respectfully disagree, I loved a lot of the lyrics on suburbs, especially, month of may. The suburbs is not a statement, its about looking at the past, it's about growing up, hanging out in the neighbourhood. It really resonated with me. It's that Emotional attachment that makes this album so good.( for me) I could care less who win butler is if the band are not nice people, You asked HG what the appeal is of Arcade Fire, is that they are very good musicians , are pretty good lyrically( not the best mind you but pretty good), and are outstanding live. What else do you want?
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Post by Drew on Feb 14, 2011 10:41:55 GMT -8
Some AF lyrics from Sprawl II (my favorite track):
"They heard me singing and they told me to stop Quit these pretentious things and just punch the clock"
I'm sorry, but that's the world from a 14 year old's point of view. That's almost "dance like nobody's watching." It's "follow your dreams." Or, even worse, it's the teenager who says he doesn't want to get a 9-5 job, or work for the man. Life is much more complicated than that.
In Rococo they use an obscure reference, chanting as if to prove they know what it means, in order to say, "kids these days, they're so modish and fickle." They also inject an image: "The wind is blowing all the ashes around." That is tired language. That shit does not fly as "emotional" or "resonant" We don't respond to tired language like that. We respond to newness, that makes us think about the world in a way we hadn't previously.
There are good spots, no doubt.
Funeral was an album borne out of true emotion, and the immature writing is a part of its mode. Immature writing is a gimmick - it only works in certain situations, and only once. Here it comes off as laziness.
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Post by Horned Gramma on Feb 14, 2011 10:50:45 GMT -8
The lyrics are a huge part of why I can't stand Arcade Fire. It's like bad high school poetry.
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Post by Lump on Feb 14, 2011 11:23:46 GMT -8
I totally saw an interview with Deerhoof, where Greg Saunier talks about how nice Radiohead are. But then again, Radiohead truly respects Deerhoof enough to bring them on tour with them, so it's probabl ydifferent between that and a fanboy.
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Post by bradberad12 on Feb 14, 2011 11:52:05 GMT -8
I only have one anecdotal story with Arcade Fire, and unfortunately it doesn't make Arcade Fire out to be that nice. Good friend of mine was the booking manager at a little university pub (Clark Hall Pub) at my university for a year. He booked Arcade Fire in the fall of 04', a month or so after the release of Funeral. The pub only fits about 100 people, and they packed the place full of rich university students that probably drank a whole lot that night as well. My friend, who is a savvy guy, booked them I believe either on a flat rate, or as a percentage of the total ticket sales. Anyways, after the show Win claimed he and the band deserved half of all the tip money the barstaff earned; claiming the place would have been dead had the band not been there. My friend showed Win the signed contract and told him to GTFO (according to his version of the story). Mr. Arcade Fire was not pleased I can see how struggling artists, which at the time they arguably still were, would try to earn as much money off of each show as possible, however this seemed a little snakish to me.
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Post by funnygrrl on Feb 14, 2011 12:11:28 GMT -8
Drew, I can't argue with the lyrics, because in a large part lyrics are up to interpretation, It's what you think the lyrics are saying, when they become emotional it means you identify your preceived meaning of a lyric.
But just taking a lyric and saying that it is no good is pointless. I could do the same thing with any album ever made.
We don't know the context of the lyric. It is what we think of the lyric.
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Post by interstateeight on Feb 14, 2011 12:23:46 GMT -8
Thom Yorke is a poet, but drew doesn't pay attention to the lyrics.
And I know Radiohead is a sacred icon around here, but be careful, drew. Every band looks stupid when you pull a bad lyric from their catalog.
"She looks like the real thing She tastes like the real thing My fake plastic love"
Yeah that's the kind of shit I wrote when I was 17.
"Whatever makes you happy Whatever you want You're so fucking special I wish I was special"
Oh come on, that's what I wrote when I was 14!
Etc. etc. I have shit to do, but my point is clear: Don't play that game, because nobody wins but Explosions in the Sky.
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