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"The Arcade Fire is an indie rock band from Montreal, Quebec, Canada comprising band members Win Butler, Régine Chassagne, Richard Reed Parry, William Butler, Tim Kingsbury, Sarah Neufeld, and Jeremy Gara. Howard Bilerman, who played drums on the album Funeral, has since moved on to other projects. As of May 2005, the touring band includes horn player Pietro Amato and violinist Owen Pallett. Pallett has also opened for their shows, appearing as the one-man band Final Fantasy.
The Arcade Fire formed around the husband and wife duo of Win Butler and Régine Chassagne. Starting in mid-2003, the current lineup 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. The Arcade Fire is known for its 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, double bass, xylophone, keyboard, French horn, accordion, and harp. With several able musicians, The Arcade Fire takes most of its instrumental diversity on tour and band 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 the independent record label Merge Records.
Their first album, Funeral, debuted in September 2004 in the USA and in February 2005 in the UK, and was highly acclaimed by critics. The title of the debut album was chosen because of the deaths of several relatives of band members during recording. These events created a somber atmosphere which influenced songs such as 'Une année sans lumière' ('A Year without Light'), 'In the Backseat', and 'Haiti', Chassagne's elegy to her lost homeland.
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 throughout the United States, Canada, Europe, and the SummerSonic Festival in Japan. Taking much of the summer of 2005 off, the band made three key festival appearances at the Coachella Music Festival, the Sasquatch! Music Festival, and Lollapalooza. Funeral made many top ten album lists for 2004, with Pitchfork, Filter and No Ripcord crowning it the album of the year."
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