Tag: arcade-fire

Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains), by Arcade Fire.

We’ve established that my family are big Arcade Fire fans, yes? Yes. This song is one Regine sings, mostly, which makes it even more of a favorite, especially when we’ve seen them live.

“Dead shopping malls” is such a specific and visceral image for anyone my age, but “mountains beyond mountains” always takes me back to the dawn of our neighborhood shopping mall, and the fake (?) Spanish-adjacent tile-adjacent roof of the Macy’s towering over our old grocery store and library, and their parking lots which were previously the center of the errand universe. That mall lives, of course, because Miami, but others from just a few years earlier died in its wake, long before Amazon and everything else that would come.

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I think this qualifies as some sort of emo acoustic cover, so I put on the hat.

Here Comes The Night Time, by Arcade Fire.

Spent the weekend at a soccer tournament, a zoo, a hotel room jam-packed with my immediate family, and a sun shining like 20% more brightly than expected, so now also sunburnt, which makes the idea of “night time” when anything is going to happen juuuuust mildly humorous.

This song is one of a dozen off Reflektor that I really enjoy. It feels wrong to not play the Part 2 part here — or is the problem that I just left off the fast part entirely and that’s why the ending was confusing for me?

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OK, so I got a new webcam, and it came with free software that lets me record with it directly, selecting the audio source I want to use and everything, and it’s just so downright civilized? I could’ve been using this for months? And months? Could improve the quality of the last 90-something days of this project, although it sounds like there are some audio foibles to this method maybe idk.

Took two tries to record any audio at all. btw this is like six minutes long.

Rebellion (Lies), by Arcade Fire.

Needed to get some feelings out, and this song is a great vehicle for that sort of thing. We’ve seen Arcade Fire live now three times, and Lies is a feature every time, with Will Butler careening around the stage smashing a drum, and an arena’s worth of people singing along to the hard and easy parts.

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As demonstrated here, my voice is better at the easy parts than the hard parts, but this was a fun one. Left both the phone track and the microphone track in this time, because it sounded a little richer, and added, uh, more vocals. Plus the MIDI bass synth and imitation Will Butler drum thing.

Crown of Love, by Arcade Fire.

This song is one that stuck in my head for years. I remember hearing it live the first time we went to see Arcade Fire in person, at the arena in DC, after putting on our facepaint/glitter at the hotel, being told by guys in t-shirts that my seersucker looked uncomfortably warm… was that the show Antibalas and Dan Deacon opened? I think it was. Anyway…

“the only thing you keep changing
is your name.
my love keeps growing,
still the same,
like a cancer,
and you won’t give me a straight answer.”

…kills me.

This song deserves all the usual orchestration and whatnot, but it was time to sing this for the dog, who has been a pain in the butt for a couple days.

My Body Is A Cage, by Arcade Fire.

This song was on the list early on. As noted earlier in the project, Arcade Fire is a family favorite. I end up mumbling this to myself on days my back aches, or my feet, or my knees, or I’m just feeling my age, but I can still dance with the one I love.

I’ve also just learned there’s a Peter Gabriel cover of this, and it’s shown up in video game and television soundtracks, because of course it has. (It’s a bangin’ arrangement, too.)

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Had to have some sort of organ, had to have a little guitar solo. The ending is a bit “hmm, don’t quite have the range for this” and then the main recording cut out a little early. It’s almost like storing 129 songs-worth of video on your laptop is unwise.

City With No Children, by Arcade Fire.

The first appearance in this project of the third band the whole family agrees on, Arcade Fire. We’ve seen them live three times now, once with the kids, and they never disappoint.

The Suburbs is the album I take most personally — I remember hearing the first single (it was Month of May) in the middle of the afternoon as a non sequitur during some other show on NPR while I was driving back and forth to the hospital after our second child was born. And when they get to the kids out on their bikes after dark, I know which kids and which neighborhood I’m imagining.

This song is a banger, but there are a lot of bangers on this album. It was easy enough to play, although I’m starting to wonder if my wrist is sore because I’m playing guitar every day, or if my wrist is sore because I’ve been playing guitar every day except for a couple after I sprained it, like, 33 songs ago.

Added, um, some synths and stuff and the smashy drums. It’s all a muddy mess because I still don’t know how to record the rhythm guitar and vocal when I play loud.