Arcade Fire is an indie rock band formed in Montreal, Quebec, Canada in 200… Read Full Bio ↴Arcade Fire is an indie rock band formed in Montreal, Quebec, Canada in 2001. The band consists of Win Butler (vocals, guitar, piano), Régine Chassagne (vocals, accordion, keyboards, hurdy gurdy, drums), Richard Reed Parry (bass, guitar), Tim Kingsbury (bass), and Jeremy Gara (drums). Montreal percussionist Dane Mills performed on the EP and in early live shows. Will Butler (keyboards, guitar) left the band in 2022 to focus on his solo career. The touring band includes horn players and violinists.

The band’s trademark fashion consists in wearing rather formal attire during live events and a use of orchestral instruments. When asked about the rumour that the band's name refers to a fire in an arcade, Win Butler replied: "It's not a rumour, it's based on a story that someone told me. It's not an actual event, but one that I took to be real. I would say that it's probably something that the kid made up, but at the time I believed him." Win Butler and his brother Will grew up in Texas.

Band formation

Arcade Fire formed around the husband and wife duo of Win Butler and Régine Chassagne. Joining together as recently as mid-2003, the current line-up solidified in late 2003/early 2004, when their first full-length album Funeral was recorded. Before this an eponymous EP (often referred to by fans as the Us Kids Know EP) had been sold at early shows. The EP was subsequently remastered and given a full release once the band started becoming more prominent. Arcade Fire are known for their enthralling live performances, as well as its use of a large number of musical instruments. In addition to mainstays guitar, drums, and bass guitar, members play piano, violin, viola, cello, double bass, xylophone, keyboard, French horn, accordion, and harp. With several able musicians, the band take most of their instrumental diversity on tour and members switch instrumental duties throughout their shows. The number of instruments, along with a wide set of musical influences has provided a substantial number of resources on which to draw from during the recording process. The promise showed by the band in its live shows allowed it to land a record contract with Chapel Hill-based independent record label Merge Records.

Funeral

Without a major label backing, the success of the band and the album Funeral has been acclaimed as an Internet phenomenon. After a 9.7 rating from Pitchfork, Merge Records sold out their inventory of Funeral and it became the label's first album in the Billboard 200 chart. An early tip from David Bowie was also influential. The band booked small clubs for their 2004 tour but growing interest forced many venue changes, far beyond the band's expectations, and continued internationally into mid-2005. The MTV2 2005 Review hosted by Zane Lowe named Funeral Album of the Year, and NME named Funeral Number 2 in their list of 2005's best albums and "Rebellion (Lies)" the best track. By November 2005, Funeral had gone gold in both Canada and the UK and sold in excess of half a million copies worldwide, a phenomenal number for an independent release with minimal television or radio exposure. It has also surpassed Neutral Milk Hotel's In The Aeroplane Over The Sea as the biggest selling Merge Records album to date.

Arcade Fire were featured on the April 4, 2005 cover of Time Magazine's Canadian edition, and hailed as a band who "helped put Canadian music on the world map". On April 2, 2006, in Halifax, Nova Scotia, they received the Juno Award for Songwriters Of The Year for three songs from Funeral: "Wake Up", "Rebellion (Lies)" and "Neighborhood #3 (Power Out)". Arcade Fire then planned to begin recording a follow up to Funeral in the winter of 2005-2006, having bought an old church forty minutes from central Montreal which they converted into a studio.

Neon Bible

In mid-December 2006 www.neonbible.com went live containing nothing more than a phone number, 1-866-NEONBIBLE where people can listen to a new track called Intervention. Built in the style of customer support lines, the number has other features including a contest and a chance to talk to a live person at a specific time each week.

Then in January 2007, they finally announced that the new album Neon Bible would be released March 5th in UK, March 6th in US. The announcement was made with a video in the album's website, with guitarist Richard Reed Parry using a gramophone and a paper mask of Parry's own face, and sitting on Win Butler´s chair. After the announcement of the album´s release, the website was updated with a streaming version of "Black Mirror", new art and a few phone messages sounding like the band´s members.

The Suburbs

The band released their third album "The Suburbs" on August 2, 2010 in the UK and August 3, 2010 in the United States. It debuted at #1 in both countries. On February 13, 2011, the album won Album of the Year at the 53rd Grammy Awards.

Arcade Fire recorded a song for The Hunger Games soundtrack (The Hunger Games: Songs from District 12 and Beyond), called "Abraham's Daughter". The song is featured in the movie's end credits. The soundtrack was released on March 20, 2012, debuting at number one on the Billboard 200. It sold more than 175,000 copies in its first week according to Nielsen SoundScan. It's the first theatrical film soundtrack to top the chart since Michael Jackson's "This Is It" debuted at No. 1 on the list. It is also only the 16th soundtrack to debut at No. 1 in the history of the Billboard 200 chart (those soundtracks include film, television, and straight-to-video efforts).

Reflektor

Arcade Fire and Mercury Records confirmed that they would release a fourth album in late 2013. In December 2012, the band's manager Scott Rodger confirmed that Arcade Fire was in the studio working with James Murphy of LCD Soundsystem. The official Arcade Fire pre-order website sets the release date on October 28, 2013. The band announced on January 18, 2013 that they were selling the church they had been using as a studio due to a collapsed roof. Throughout 2013, the band worked on the album in several different recording studios - including Murphy's DFA Records studio in New York. On June 22, 2013, Rolling Stone reported that new material from the album would be released on September 9, 2013.

Everything Now

Arcade Fire's first announced its fifth record, "Everything Now," on May 31, 2017 when it released the record's title track and lead single. The album's release came July 27, 2017. In the weeks leading up to the album's release, the band released three additional lead singles, "Creature Comfort," "Signs of Life," and "Electric Blue." Upon the week of its release, "Everything Now" reached #1 on the Billboard 200 chart, becoming the band's third-straight and third overall #1 record.

WE

On October 21, 2020, Butler was interviewed for the Broken Record podcast, where he commented about Arcade Fire's sixth album. The band had been writing for a year before the COVID-19 lockdown. In March 2022, fans received postcards marked with the band's logo; the postcards included the note "We missed you", musical notations, as well as an image of an eye with the word "Unsubscribe" written below. Those same images began to appear in signage around London as well as on the band's social media pages, indicating the earliest signs of a new album. On March 14, the band announced a new song titled "The Lightning I, II" would be released on March 17.

On March 17, 2022, Arcade Fire announced that the album would be titled WE and be released on May 6, 2022. Later that week, Will Butler announced he had amicably left the band in 2021 shortly after the completion of WE.

Following the release of WE on May 6, 2022, Arcade Fire announced the group’s first world tour since 2018, starting in August 2022. They again appeared on Saturday Night Live on May 7, 2022, playing "Unconditional I (Lookout Kid)", "The Lightning I, II", and "End of The Empire II" over the closing credits.

Month of May
Arcade Fire Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

One, two, three, four

Gonna make a record in the month of May
In the month of May, in the month of May
Gonna make a record in the month of May
When the violent wind blows the wires away

Month of May, it's a violent thing

In the city, their hearts start to sing
Well, some people sing, it sounds like they're screaming
Used to doubt it but now I believe it

Month of May, everybody's in love
And the city was sent from above
And just when I knew what I wanted to say
The violent wind blew the wires away

We were shocked in the suburbs
Now the kids are all standing with their arms folded tight
Kids are all standing with their arms folded tight
Well, some things are pure and some things are right
But the kids are still standing with their arms folded tight

I said some things are pure, and some things are right
But the kids are still standing with their arms folded tight

So young, so young
So much pain for someone so young
Well, I know it's heavy, I know it ain't light
But how you gonna lift it with your arms folded tight?

First they built the road
Then they built the town
That's why we're still driving around
And around and around and around and around
And around and around and around and around
And around and around and around and around

2009, 2010 wanna make a record how I felt then
When we stood outside in the month of May
And watched the violent wind blow the wires away

If I die in the month of May
Let the wind take my body away, yeah
Wish I may or wish I might
But meet me down there with my arms folded tight

Start again in the month of May
Start again in the month of May
Come on and blow the wires away
Come on and blow the wires away

Start again in the month of May
Start again in the month of May
Come on and blow the wires away
Come on and blow the wires away

Start again in the month of May
Start again in the month of May
Come on and blow the wires away

Come on and blow the wires
The wires away

Overall Meaning

The lyrics to Arcade Fire's song "Month of May" are full of powerful imagery and symbolism. The song begins with the repetition of the phrase "Gonna make a record in the month of May," which sets the stage for the rest of the song. The month of May, according to the song, is a "violent thing" in the city, with the wind blowing wires away and people's hearts starting to sing. The song contrasts this with the suburbs, where people are "shocked" and the kids have their arms folded tight.

As the song continues, it becomes clear that the month of May represents a time of change and upheaval. The wind blowing the wires away is symbolic of old structures and ways of thinking being destroyed, paving the way for something new to be built in their place. The kids in the suburbs, with their arms folded tight, represent resistance to this change, clinging to the old ways even as they crumble. The lyrics encourage listeners to embrace this change and start again in the month of May.

Overall, "Month of May" is a song about the tension between tradition and progress, and the need for change to move forward. The month of May serves as a powerful symbol of this transition, with its violent winds blowing away the old and making way for the new.

Line by Line Meaning

Gonna make a record in the month of May
We're going to record our music during May

In the month of May, in the month of May
We're recording our music in May

When the violent wind blows the wires away
We're recording during a time when there are strong winds that might disrupt the recording process

Month of May, it's a violent thing
May is a tumultuous month

In the city, their hearts start to sing
People in the city become energized and excited during May

Well, some people sing, it sounds like they're screaming
Some people express their excitement loudly

Used to doubt it but now I believe it
I didn't understand the excitement before, but now I do

Month of May, everybody's in love
May is a time when people are happy and falling in love

And the city was sent from above
The city feels like it has a divine purpose

The violent wind blew the wires away
The strong winds disrupted the recording process

We were shocked in the suburbs
We were surprised by something that happened in the suburbs

Now the kids are all standing with their arms folded tight
People are skeptical and cautious

Well, some things are pure and some things are right
Some things are morally right and good

So much pain for someone so young
Young people are experiencing a lot of pain

But how you gonna lift it with your arms folded tight?
You can't solve problems if you're not willing to take action

First they built the road
They built the infrastructure

Then they built the town
They built the city around the road

2009, 2010 wanna make a record how I felt then
We want to capture how we felt during those years

If I die in the month of May
If I were to die during May

Let the wind take my body away, yeah
I want to be carried away by the wind

Wish I may or wish I might
I wish for something that may or may not happen

But meet me down there with my arms folded tight
If I die, I'll still be skeptical and cautious

Start again in the month of May
We'll try again next May

Come on and blow the wires away
Hope that the strong winds won't disrupt the recording process next time

Start again in the month of May
We'll keep trying until we get it right

Come on and blow the wires
Let's hope for the best and not let strong winds get in the way

The wires away
So that we can finally make our music and record it

Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Written by: Jeremy Gara, Regine Chassagne, Richard R Parry, Tim Kingsbury, William Butler, Win Butler

Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind

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