Arcade Fire: no news for a couple years

Ten months after the release of Neon Bible and 122 shows, the real news about Arcade Fire is that there will be no news for two years. Win Butler first announced the lapse during their US tour in October, and he then blogged on the Arcade Fire website:

“We won’t be back for a couple years, meaning that we are very much looking forward to real life, writing songs, drinking coffee and dreaming about sounds.”

Merge Records confirmed with Puddlegum that the rumors were true, and Us Kids Know recently posted:

“Putting an end to speculation, the band have recently confirmed that the show in Tokyo on February 11th marked the end of the Neon Bible tour. In just over a year, they played a total of 122 shows (including 33 festivals) in 75 cities and 19 countries across the globe. There are currently no plans for any further shows or activity this year.”

UPDATE: One day after we posted this story, Pitchfork Media announced that Arcade Fire will support Obama in his bid for the Presidency, playing two shows in the hotly contested state of Ohio. (Read more)

Near the end of the Neon Bible tour, Arcade Fire released another interactive video, this one for Black Mirror on Rorrimkcalb.com. A remix of the song plays in six tracks, vocals in the first track, and viewers can mute or unmute the tracks as the video plays. Win wrote, “Seems like a kind of fitting way to finnish off, since Black Mirror was the first release all these months ago.” The first interactive video was for Neon Bible at the scrambled and amusing Beonlineb.com.

What is the band doing during this hiatus?
Win Butler and his wife Régine Chassagne, who is also a band member, will be involved in supporting Partners in Health. Their particular interest is in improving conditions in Haiti; Régine Chassagne’s family emigrated from Haiti during Jean-Claude Duvalier’s dictatorship.

Richard Reed Perry and Sarah Neufeld are working on a new album with their instrumental band, Bell Orchestre. Arcade Fire’s touring member, Pietro Amato, is also a member of Bell Orchestre.

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