One Time At Band Camp . . .The Arcade Fire took us water skiing

I like The Arcade Fire. The feeling was good from the start from the low-fi bio-degradable packaging. Their 2004 debut Funeral contained no liner notes, which surprised me. But I did love the “MADE IN CANADA” sticker proudly displayed on the back of the disc.

The Arcade Fire has made quite a stir as of late. Their experiential live show is supposed to be quite the thing to see. And the band has kept it interesting even doing things like setting up to play in the middle of night on the sidewalk in Union Square, for no one.

I’m not quite sure what to make of The Arcade Fire. Perhaps my inability to classify them is the ultimate compliment. When people have asked me what they’re like all I can muster is something like “Rusted Root only cool” or “Talking Heads but not dorks.” I guess my only hesitation going into The Arcade Fire was that there was a bit of a “band-camp” vibe to them. Maybe they were a little too mousy, a little too Cedar Cultural Arts Center, 10-sided dice—for me. I could smell the incense.

I was told Funeral was a concept album. And I must say I’m not quite sure what the concept is perhaps it’s a funeral story? Something else? All I know is half the songs are titled “Neighborhood,” and I’m not quite sure what the story is. I owe it to myself to print the lyrics and try to figure this part out. But I must say I enjoy the CD.

The Arcade Fire has a very cinematic vibe to their music. It sounds like music from a commercial. I’m personally a huge fan of the wind chime epic guitar sound (Copyright The Edge), and songs like “Rebellion (Lies)” have this in spades with a nice drum beat from Howard Bilermon to pull you along for the ride. The Arcade Fire seem to be their best when plodding along,. My favorite stuff on Funeral is when it’s almost as if they’ve harnessed the music. Lush songs with a pulsating drum beat, the chime of the guitar, and even a little hint of rusty alt-country jangle in there. I could cut an iMovie or slide show to Funeral.

The only thing that surprised me is the music sounds very flat on CD. The promise of The Arcade Fire was this full-bodied sonic experience, and I must say it doesn’t come across on the disc itself. Suppose this is why the live show is such a big deal. Because on the CD the music sounds a lot more 2-D than it should. Specifically Win Butler’s vocal is pushed into the instrumentation too much. He rarely gets a chance to preside over tracks and for that reason most of his words are totally lost in the wake of the music.

The water ski wake of the music is probably the best description of what I really like about my initial discoveries on Funeral. You really feel that on tracks like “Rebellion (Lies),” “Neighborhood #3 (Power Out), and the last forty five seconds of the otherwise sleepy “Une Annee Sans Lumiere.” The Arcade Fire is at their best on these head bobbing songs where the music is in a hurry to go somewhere. It’s a ride. And I bet at a live show it’s an over the top magic carpet ride. I can see the Roy Wilkins crowd pulsating in my head when I listen to the last minute build of a song like “Crown of Love.”

The Arcade Fire do that a lot, take a song and give you a completely new song for the last minute. It’s pretty cool. Sort of like they’re saying, “don’t like this. . .will just stick around, it gets better.”

The only song I was familiar with off Funeral was “Wake Up” which U2 used to open their Vertigo tour. It’s a great song filled with anticipation. “Wake Up” may be the most complete, or should I say finished sounding track on Funeral. Butler’s lead vocal gets up on top of the music for once, and everyone and everything seems to be in the right place. Not easy when you have nearly a dozen musicians chipping in. Even “Wake Up” takes a turn at the end adding a ‘50s bee-bop groove for the last minute.

There’s something a little new age, spiritual, or maybe fantasy based about The Arcade Fire. The music has an evening, memory sound to it. The only thing similar for the blog has been Interpol. It’s a heavy sound.

Clearly The Arcade Fire is original. Just listen to a song like “Crown of Love,” a gem. The catchy sing-a-long “If you still want me, please forgive me,” the string arrangement, and the vocal build up to a passionate scream. Then for the last minute it turns into a disco explosion. Awesome.

Can’t say much for any of Regine Chassagne’s vocal. I basically would skip any of the songs she sings. And with nine off and on members in the band, I think The Arcade Fire could trim here. But that could be a problem as she’s married to lead singer Win Butler. When Regine is singing you should expect Mazzy Star, Natural Born Killers weird tracks, that don’t sound very nice.

I’m also less interested when The Arcade Fire slow things down (“Neighborhood #4 (7 Kettles)) or start sounding a bit like the B52s or even Talking Heads like they do on “Neighborhood #2 (Laika).”

In summary, The Arcade Fire is a band for the future. I do intend to catch a live performance. If I did, I suspect I would be completely hooked. But without that there’s still a hint of the weird lady doing the “drug dance” barefoot at the outdoor concert, and the dimension of the music doesn’t come through on the CD like it should. I’m guessing the budget wasn’t there for the big production in 2004. With this talent, I suspect The Arcade Fire will keep getting bigger and bigger –and the music will too.