Deep in the Internet abyss, past the viral videos and all the insufferable memes lies Common Ground, a haven where one can find solace and camaraderie through a shared passion for music.
That was the reaction from Arcade Fire’s twitter after taking home the Grammy for Best Album and man, was this award deserved. I apologize if I’m a little all over the place, but I’m honestly too excited to write. I screamed when they announced the award. I’ve only ever screamed while watching TV one other time in my life (that came when Zach Parise of Team USA scored with 24 seconds left in the Gold Medal game in the 2010 Winter Olympics to tie it up against Canada, however, let’s not talk about how that ended…). Not only did I scream at the top of my lungs, but I also jumped on top of my friend, and paraded through my room. I actually missed the English portion of the victory speech thanks to my excitement.
Yes.
God, I’m happy. So many times I thought to myself while watching artist after artist getting rewarded for mediocrity that there was no way The Suburbs would pull through. I lost more and more faith after seeing the band lose the “Best Alternative Music Album” and “Best Rock Performance By a Duo or Group with Vocals” to the Black Keys. Now, I love the Black Keys, but Suburbs absolutely deserved to come away with some hardware. If you’ve read my review of the album then you know that I adored The Suburbs. It’s just beautiful. To quote myself, ”The Suburbs is much more emotionally-wrenching than any of Arcade Fire’s previous albums. The lyrics are those of a band at its strongest, showing more emotional meaning than Funeral while being less overtly political than Neon Bible.” Seeing them live at the front of the pit at Madison Square Garden August 2nd certainly helped them cement their reputation in my book. Not only can they compose beautiful music, but they have a knack for unbridled performances. This was especially true tonight; for all the hate “Month of May” seems to get, it is still a great song that’s even better live. Tonight’s performance of the rocker was simply superb and the encore of “Ready To Start” was also pretty fantastic. Just purely emotional, almost cathartic, performances.
Now who expected this outcome when the nominees were announced? How did Eminem, Lady Antebellum, Lady Gaga, or Katy Petty not end up winning? No, I don’t think they deserved it, but this is the Grammys after all and indie bands, even indie mega-stars like Arcade Fire, aren’t expected to win. I just can’t help but feel like justice was served tonight in Los Angeles.
For all that is said about the death of the album, what does The Suburbs mean? Is this the revival of the album? Is this what contemporary music needs or am I just getting ahead of myself?
While Michela also vocally rejoiced in the unprecedented, but proper and fitting, win of Arcade Fire, to avoid repetition with her reaction, here is a summary of the rest of the awards:
Other winners included Lady Antebellum who snatched up both “Record of the Year”, “Country Album of the Year” and “Song of the Year” through her success of “Need You Now”, a pop-country mix that has dominated Top 40 radio. While Cee Lo Green won for "Best Urban/Alternative Performance", Justin Beiber was surprisingly shut out, despite being one of the most advertised acts of the night.
The Black Keys: Lookin' Sharp Boys
Mirroring their fortunately astute appreciation for quality music that honored Arcade Fire, the Recording Academy donned The Black Keys with “Best Alternative Music Album” for Brothers and with “Best RockPerformanceBy A Duo Or Group with Vocals” for “Tighten Up” off the same record. Neil Young won “Best Rock Song” with “Angry World” and Them Crooked Vultures, the latest project by Led Zeppelin’s John Paul Jones, won “Best Hard Rock Performance” with “New Fang”.
Cee Lo and Paltrow.
Besides for Arcade Fire, the night’s performances were mixed. Muse delivered a solid performance of “Resistance”, the title track of the album that won them “Best Rock Album.” While the novelty of the Bob Dylan, Mumford & Sons, and The Avett Brothers trio held promise and the latter two delivered in their solo sets, Dylan’s incomprehensible aged grumbles spoiled their collaborative “Maggie’s Farm”. Miranda Lambert’s “The House That Built Me” was surprisingly moving and secured her win of “Best Female Country Vocal Performance”. The performances by Bieber, Usher, Rihanna, and Eminem were predictably derivative (save for Dr. Dre’s appearance). Yet, the fun from the colorful Lady Gaga and the Elton-John-esquejaunt by Cee Lo Green and Gwyneth Paltrow did manage to recover mainstream’s Grammy effort.
The Grammy's are an annual opportunity to yell "YES!" and REALLY?!" at the television set out of passion for the music that connects to our human experiences and speaks to our very souls. The Grammy's honored that tradition tonight and in the Recording Academy's recognition of those not always heard on radio airwaves, several underdog artists were given the chance to sing directly to us.
Listen up folks – literally. The Coachella Festival slated for April 15-17 in Indio, CA has released its lineup. The directors of the three-day extravaganza again seem to be attempting to cater to both indie and mainstream audiences, a trend becoming increasingly evident over the past few years. Check out the list which includes Arcade Fire,Mumford & Sons, The Black Keys, Cold War Kids, The National, Morning Benders, Nas, Black Joe Lewis, Sleigh Bells, Titus Andronicus, and more Common Ground favorites. Also included...Cee Lo Green.
As you may already know, the indie-rock super stars, Arcade Fire, have been nominated for three Grammys this year. Their 2010 album, The Suburbs, faces competition from Katy Perry, Lady Gaga, Eminem, and Lady Antebellum in the Album of the Year category. The Suburbs is also up for Best Alternative Music Album while the track "Ready To Start" has been nominated for Best Rock Performance by A Duo or Group With Vocal. On top of these honors, the band has also been given the nod to perform at 53rd Grammys (February 13th, 8pm).
In other Arcade Fire news, the band will debut Scenes From the Suburbs, a short film directed by Spike Jonez at the Berlin International Film Festival, taking place February 10-20. The film has been referred to as "a science-fiction B-movie companion piece for the record" and in an interview with Pitchfork, lead vocalist Win Butler said "my brother [William Butler] and I and Spike wrote it together, which was really fun– it was like total amateur hour.” Enjoy a clip from the film:
What do you get when you cross Bob Dylan, Wanda Jackson, and Jack White? An innovative combination of vintage old and vibrant new - classic black with a splash of girly pink – a marriage evident in Wanda Jackson’s new music video released on Tuesday. Covering Dylan’s 2006 “Thunder on the Mountain”, the rockabilly star joined forces with Jack White and his Third Man Record team to produce The Party Ain’t Over out January 25th. Take a look at the rip-roaring fun here:
Back on the 11th of December the Cold War Kids played a few songs over at Jack White's Third Man Records in Tennessee. Now, a few videos of the act making their way to the band'sYoutube/Vevo page. Here's the unreleased "Skip The Charades." You can also check out a performance of "Louder Than Ever"from that show. Also check out the new "Louder Than Ever" music video.
Gregg Allman, famed founder of the band that bears his name, released his latest album Low Country Blues on Tuesday, his first in fourteen years. Produced by the legendary T Bone Burnett, the album consists of eleven covers and one original. Mostly blues interpretations,the tracks seem to connect Allman again to his Nashville roots, albeit in more relaxed arrangements than those he always played with his “brothers”. You can listen to the album on Rolling Stone.
The Denver based DeVotchKa releases 100 Lovers March 1st on Anti- Records. The diverse band achieved some acclaim in 2004 with "How It Ends." They also provided the majority of the music for the Little Miss Sunshine Soundtrack which was nominated for Best Compilation Soundtrack at the Grammys in 2006. Anyway, the bandonce again draws from an eclectic mixture of musical influences on their new track "100 Other Lovers." Listen to it here on Stereogum.
~ More News and Notes ~
- The energetic funk revival band, Black Joe Lewis & the Honeybears is set to release Scandalous on March 15th. . This is Sugarfoot, off their 2009 debut, Tell 'Em What Your Name Is!
- In an odd turn of event, The Dire Straits' classic radio anthem, "Money For Nothing" has been banned in its uncensored form in Canada. Read more about it at Rolling Stone.
- A Grateful Dead videogame in which "players will explore a Grateful Dead-themed world." Read about it at Rolling Stone.
- Robin Pecknold of Fleet Foxestweetedthat their second LP "is done and mastered." He later went on to tweet, "that happened a little while ago. Announcements soon, but no turning back now I guess.”
- The Strokes are set to release their first album since 2006 later this year. Angles will drop March 22nd in the USA
- Common Ground writer, Lucien Flores has begun contributing to the Daily Free Press' new blog. Here he weighs in on the three bands that he most wants to see live at Coachella.
Arcade Fire has a knack for setting my imagination wild. To me, 2004’s modern classic Funeral felt like a raging fire spreading through a small and wintery Canadian town whereas 2007’s Neon Bible was more of a late night walk through post-9/11 New York City. The Suburbs projects an image of Win Butler taking a mid-afternoon drive through his old hometown, past his old house, high school, and park while lamenting the loss of his childhood.While the Suburbs may not be the best of Arcade Fire’s three albums (Funeral still reigns supreme), it is certainly a whole new masterpiece. Whereas Funeral gave us moments of reflection in songs such as “Neighborhood #1” (Tunnels),” The Suburbs further reflects on the past, childhood, and all that’s changed as we grow older.
Right from the start, The Suburbs is different from any other Arcade Fire album. The opening track (“The Suburbs”) with its playful shuffle and musical cheerfulness serves as a perfect musical counterpoint to Neon Bible’s closer, “My Body Is A Cage.” Whereas the latter built into a bombastically brilliant catharsis with its constant church organ, “The Suburbs” sounds surprising simple and reserved for Arcade Fire, however, not any less beautiful. Under the track’s guise of musical cheeriness lies a much bleaker exploration of returning home after years away. Arcade Fire’s chief lyricist, Win Butler reflects upon his roots in the suburbs of Houston; such a return isn’t a lavish celebration, but rather a dreary journey into childhood, when life was simpler. Throughout the course of the album, Butler remembers those who have since forgotten him and those dreams that have been long unfulfilled.
In the title track, Butler seems to long for the past (“but in my dreams we're still screamin' and runnin' through the yard”) even though as a child he was desperate to get out of the suburbs. “The Suburbs” also contains one of the most beautiful moments of the album in which Butler longingly pleads, “So can you understand? Why I want a daughter while I'm still young, I wanna hold her hand and show her some beauty before this damage is done. But if it's too much to ask, it's too much to ask, then send me a son.” Win Butler realizes that he is growing older, having just entered his 30s, and while he longs for his childhood spent in the suburbs, he also wants to move on to the next phase of his life: parenthood.
“Suburban War” appears halfway through the album and serves as a microcosm for the whole record. Lyrically striking, the track recalls friendships long gone as Butler continues the image of driving through his suburb, remarking how his ever-changing hometown seems so distant to him (“This town’s so strange - they built it to change and while we sleep, we know the streets get rearranged”). Butler laments those years long ago “with my old friends it was so different then,” however there can be no return to the fondly-remembered past. “Suburban War” slowly builds, climaxing in a crashing and tom-tom banging spree in which Butler croons, “all my old friends, they don’t know me now.” Here, Bulter copes with the inescapable reality that as we grow older, we lose touch with those who we once loved. Despite this, Butler can never forget those who have had such a strong place in his life (“Now the cities we live in could be distant stars and I search for you in every passing car”).
Arcade Fire Standing Around a Car. Fitting?
In the beautiful closer, “The Suburbs (Continued)”, the band transforms the cheerful shuffle of the title track into a melancholy reflection on the passing of time. In this song, Win Butler whispers that “If I could have it back, all the time that we wasted, I'd only waste it again, If I could have it back, you know I would love to waste it again.” These despairingly beautiful lyrics, combined with the grandioso string arrangement give magnificence to Butler’s message that time wasted is time well spent.
However, this album isn’t just a sad lament of childhood and all things past, it is still very much a great rock record. After the final chords of “The Suburbs” play, we are instantly grabbed into the anthemic “Ready To Start” which pounds into listeners the painfulness and awkwardness at the end of a relationship in which one isn’t quite ready to “still be friends.” “Rococo” is a unique track that sounds like a tongue-in-cheek jab at “modern kids” and the so-called ‘hipster’ culture. “Empty Room” is a hectic and fun romp complete with spiraling string arrangements that transitions wonderfully into “City With No Children.” The album makes of a bit of a somber change with the string-heavy “Half Light I,” however, before the album can continue along this calmer pace, Arcade Fire brings us back with the electronic-ish “Half Light II (No Celebration).” The unexpected, Queens-of-the-Stone-Age sounding, “Month of May,” may be disliked by many, yet, it is a fun change-of-pace rocker that while not adding to the overall meaning of the album, certainly doesn’t detract from it. The Suburbs shines again with “We Used to Wait,” a track driven by piano and drums that eloquently builds and crashes before “Sprawl (Flatland)” picks up the audience and once again drives them through Win Butler’s hometown. The melancholy “(Flatland)” leads to the most cheerful song yet, “Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)”, a synth-heavy throwback to ABBA and the disco years in which Régine Chassagne reflects on a childhood spent “living in the sprawl.”
Win Butler and Régine Chassagne:
Music's Best Couple?
Overall, The Suburbs is much more emotionally-wrenching than any of Arcade Fire’s previous albums. The lyrics are those of a band at its strongest, showing more emotional meaning than Funeral while being less overtly political than Neon Bible. While the lyrics may be radiant, the music is still very strong. Even so, The Suburbs sounds more subdued than previous efforts. The songs of The Suburbs are not nearly as extravagant (especially the harmonies and string arrangements) and yet, it doesn’t detract. Arcade Fire turned down their lavishness for this record in order to further the sense of remorse, regret, and reflection of a past that can no longer be attained.
Pros:
-Amazing beautiful musical arrangements and lyrics that heighten the band’s mournful loss of childhood.
-While some may complain about the length of the album (clocking in at just over an hour), I personally love the dedication Arcade Fire showed by releasing such a sprawling record. Honestly, while some songs may not be as strong as the others, not one of the songs is outright bad.
-Effectively continues Arcade Fire’s sonic development. All of their three albums are marvelous which sounding unique in their own ways.
Cons:
-“The Suburbs (Continued)” is such a beautiful piece of music that I would love to continue for another minute or two.
-Songs such as “Wasted Hours” or “Deep Blue” could be further developed.
