Win Butler of Arcade Fire wrote a lucid and unpretentious letter in response to Sasha Frere-Jones’ controversial piece that ran in The New Yorker recently regarding race and indie rock. Butler accompanied his letter with an audio response mp3, which included samples of Arcade Fire’s music to support his points:
“Being as I am in the Arcade Fire, I prickle a little bit at your statement that ‘[i]f there is a trace of soul, blues, reggae, or funk in Arcade Fire, it must be philosophical; it certainly isn’t audible.’ In a somewhat … I dunno, is it childish to respond to critics this way? Anyway. I’ve attached an MP3 with parts of our songs that I think steal quite blatantly from black people’s music from all over the globe.”
6 responses so far ↓
1 K // Oct 30, 2007 at 1:46 pm
I think SFJ’s word-a-day calendar had “miscegenation” in it recently.
2 patrick // Oct 30, 2007 at 2:04 pm
the “no cars go” and congotronics comparison is a little bit of a stretch. notwithstanding that, sasha frere-jones is a retard.
3 Thomas // Nov 15, 2007 at 9:15 am
Actually, I was more upset that Arcade Fire’s music contains no middle eastern, asian or South American Indian tribal influences, which I find absolutely appalling.
4 patrick // Nov 15, 2007 at 11:36 am
Thomas, you too take music too seriously.
5 Ben // Jan 13, 2011 at 11:30 am
How can you be appalled? Does it seem necessary to you to include every single fucking genre of music into one band? They have a certain sound. and just because it contains some certain aspects of different music, doesn’t mean it has to contain them all.
6 Anonymous // Aug 28, 2012 at 6:24 am
Ermm. I think Thomas was being facetious.