Over the weekend one of the two Arcade Fire songs to appear on this year’s soundtrack to The Hunger Games big screen adaptation debuted online. The track, “Abraham’s Daughter”, is embedded here:
Speaking to Entertainment Weekly Arcade Fire frontman explained the process he went through when writing “Abraham’s Daughter” for the teen movie. “I tried to put myself in the headspace of how excited I’d be if this film was coming out when I was 15. I still remember hearing Radiohead’s “Exit Music (for a Film)” in Romeo + Juliet when I was that age,” Butler said. “Our whole approach was to get into the world and try to create something that serves the story and the film. There’s something in the story of Abraham and Isaac that I think resonates with the themes in the film, like sacrificing children. So we made a weird, alternate-universe version of that, where it’s as if Abraham had a daughter — kind of a metaphor for [Hunger Games character] Katniss.”
Arcade Fire are also contributing the orchestral “Horn of Plenty” to the T Bone Burnett produced soundtrack which is due for release on the 20th March.
1. Taylor Swift – “Safe & Sound” (ft. the Civil Wars)
2. Taylor Swift – “Eyes Wide Open”
3. Arcade Fire – “Abraham’s Daughter”
4. Kid Cudi – “The Ruler & the Killer”
5. Miranda Lambert – “Run Daddy Run” (ft. Pistol Annies)
6. The Civil Wars – “Kingdom Come”
7. The Decemberists – “One Engine”
8. Glen Hansard – “Take the Heartland”
9. The Low Anthem – “Lover Is Childlike”
10. Punch Brothers – “Dark Days”
11. The Secret Sisters – “Tomorrow Will Be Kinder”
12. Birdy – “Just a Game”
13. Ella Mae Bowen – “Oh Come and Sing”
14. Jayme Dee – “Rules”
15. Carolina Chocolate Drops – “Reaping Day”
16. Neko Case – “Give Me Something I’ll Remember”
We’ve managed to also stumble upon a stream of The Decemberists’ contribution “One Engine” which you can listen to here:
The soundtrack is due for release on the 20th March, just before the movie hits cinemas. For those of you that are curious about The Hunger Games movie and not just the soundtrack check out the trailer here.
The Grammys are over for another year and while many of the winners are unsurprising (Adele won Album of the Year? No way!) the folk, acoustic, country and other Timber and Steel friendly genres were still very well represented. Artists like Bon Iver, The Civil Wars, Alison Krauss & Union Station (above) and Arcade Fire all scored gongs on the night and we couldn’t be prouder.
Best New Artist – Bon Iver Best Alternative Album – Bon Iver, Bon Iver Best Country Solo Performance – Taylor Swift, Mean Best Country Song – Taylor Swift, Mean Best Country Album – Lady Antebellum, Own the Night Best World Music Album – Tinariwen, Tassili Best Folk Album – The Civil Wars, Barton Hollow Best Bluegrass Album – Alison Krauss & Union Station, Paper Airplane Best Americana Album – Levon Helm, Ramble at the Ryman Best Recording Package – Arcade Fire, Scenes from The Suburbs
It’s probably not surprising that producer T Bone Burnett is attracting a bunch of folk-flavoured artists for the soundtrack to the upcoming film adaptation of The Hunger Games. Burnett, best known in the movie world for his work on the O Brother Where Art Thou? soundtrack, has already roped in Taylor Swift and The Civil Wars for a pretty outstanding duet for The Hunger Games and now MTV is reporting Arcade Fire and The Decemberists will also feature.
The Arcade Fire track is reportedly an orchestral piece by Win Butler and Régine Chassagne while The Decemberists have offered up the orginal piece “One Engine”. No word on who else will feature on the soundtrack but it’s looking very promising so far.
Scenes from the Suburbs, the Spike Jonze directed short film made to accompany Arcade Fire’s award winning album The Suburbs is now available to stream for free in all its glory online. Mubi.com appear to have the official embed here.
Arcade Fire can do no wrong it seems. Normally when a band reissues an album mere months after it’s released (now with shiny new cover!) I shake my head and tut at the audacity of it. But the news that Arcade Fire are reissuing The Suburbs has been met with a far more positive reaction – because the new release comes with two brand new songs.
The two new tracks, “Culture War” and the David Byrne (Talking Heads) collaboration “Speaking in Tongues”, have already made their way onto radio and the interwebs and we have a stream of both below. The deluxe edition of The Suburbs will be released on the 27th June and will also come with a DVD featureing Spike Jonze’s short film Scenes From The Suburbs which is currently showing at The Sydney Film Festival.
The Sydney Film Festival is set to hit the NSW capital this June showcasing some of the best in local and international film. But what probably will excite Timber and Steel readers the most is the inclusion of Spike Jonze’s (Being John Malkovich) short film Scenes From The Suburbs, a collaboration with Canadian group Arcade Fire.
Scenes From The Suburbs will only show once during the Sydney Film Festival, on the 12th June at Event Cinemas in conjunction with Alex Munt’s LBF. The film originally premiered at South By Southwest and, according to the official blurb, “follows suburban kids during one summer when military control of their town makes the lazy days more aimless than ever”.
More information and tickets are available from the Sydney Film Festival web site. Check out the trailer for Scenes From The Suburbs below:
When reviewing an album, one can attempt to do so via a couple of methods: have a few listens, and write a reflection of first impressions; or, sit on it for a while. Have a listen now and then, let the songs mature, and fit in with what’s going on around you, until suddenly a hook takes hold, and there’s no going back.
The latter is where we’ve found ourselves regarding The Wild Frontier’s Until The Day Breaths. To catch yourself singing a song, sans music, whilst going about your day… you have no choice but to go back and revisit an album. The culprit is “The Thing I’ve Been”, a cruising song reminiscent of Dave Graney’s cool swoon, the opaque tone of The National, and the wine red velvet depth of a Nick Cave ballad. Throughout the album, The Wild Frontier’s sound and song writing has been likened to that of Lambchop, Tom Waits, Johnny Cash, Beach House, Arcade Fire, and the afore mentioned Nick Cave.
In fact, it would be easy to rest solely upon the Nick Cave contrasts of Christopher Mayes’ vocals throughout this album, if it weren’t for the diversity of his, and the voices featured on Until The Day Breathes. From the opening track, “For You”, we are greeted by the gorgeous voice of pianist Philippa Vaughan… fitting comparisons, without any exaggeration, include Hope Sandoval (Mazzy Star), Jennifer Charles (Elysian Fields), and Martha Wainwright. It’s the sort of voice that makes you put a song on repeat just to hear again.
From the ethereal, to the apocalyptic imagery of “The Heavens Are on Fire”, and the banjo driven, Johnny Cash/June Carter inspired “My Friend Called Tom”; Christopher and Philippa share vocals on the album, with the occasional addition of guitarist and co-founder David Mackie adding a subtle and understated element to the vocal trio. Teamed with Stephen Mansfield on bass, and Leon Spencer on drums, this Sydney based five piece have produced a rich, complete collection of earthy, dramatic, and passionate songs about darkness and light.
Having released their album in October 2010, the momentum of this album has been steadily growing both locally and overseas.
This year’s award season has really belonged to one band: Arcade Fire. So it’s no surprise that the Canadian band swept the floor when it came to their home country’s premier music celebration, this year’s Juno Awards. Arcade Fire managed to take home (deep breath) Album of the Year, Group of the Year, Songwriter of the Year and Alternative Album of the Year.
But is wasn’t just the “kids” getting in on the Juno action. The legendary Neil Young also walked away with a few awards of his own including Artist of the Year, The Allan Waters Humanitarian Award and Adult Alternative Album of the Year for his latest long-player Le Noise. On the final award Young told reporters backstage “I’m an adult. There’s no alternative. It’s just me.”
Congratulations to all the Juno winners. For a full list of winners (and to check up on how Justin Bieber went – we know you’re dying to know) head to the official Juno website.
Those who read Timber & Steel religiously would know that we tend to follow the Canadian music scene pretty closely. It’s not just the quality of music permeating the great northern land that we’re interested in, it’s the fact that there’s an overwhelming proportion of musicians blending folk influences amongst others, and creating new, however less traditional, breeds of folk. Although the majority of the exciting movements in Canadian music aren’t so much recognised in the mainstream frontier (which is no doubt the same in every country), the Juno awards aren’t completely void of excitement, as we hope to show. Check out a full list of nominees here.
There’d be very few readers out there now that aren’t well versed in Arcade Fire. If you hadn’t heard of them before, you’d have probably heard their name connected with their recent Grammy success. There’s no doubt that these guys are indie-rockers first and foremost, but their weaving of traditional influences and instrumentation into their music has made them a T&S friendly act, right from the get-go. This year they’ve been nominated for Album of the Year, Group of the Year, Songwriter of the Year and Alternative Album of the Year.
This young lady might just be the most exciting artist on this list. As an old-time folk lover, you can easily hear a traditional Irish-like sound in there, which is only thinly veiled by a more contemporary and alternative exterior. She has a fantastic voice, and is one hell of an autoharpist. She’s been nominated for New Artist of the Year.
Broken Social Scene are in the same boat as Arcade Fire, being an outright indie-rock group with a folky twist. This collective is undoubtedly Canadian music royalty, including members of Stars, Apostle of Hustle, The Weakerthans, Metric, Jason Collett and Feist. They utilise strings, woodwind and brass instruments to achieve large, glorious and layered sounds. They’ve been nominated for Group of the Year and Alternative Album of the Year.
Del Barber is a roots artist with a strong American folk influence, and enough of an indie stripe to have been pedalled by younger audiences. He has a couple of albums, but to be honest, this is the first time I’ve checked him out. I’ve been very impressed with what I’ve heard so far, and intend to keep a close eye on him. He has been nominated for Solo Roots & Traditional Album of the Year.
This Vancouver-based acoustic singer-songwriter is making really interesting pop songs with lavish arrangements. Her fresh interpretation of Tori Amos-like alt-pop is really refreshing, and has earned her nominations for New Artist of the Year and Songwriter of the Year. Definitely T&S friendly. Earlier in the week, editor Evan Hughes credited me with publishing the first female nipple on Timber & Steel, so by posting the video below, I’m really hoping to build somewhat of a rep. for “bringing the sex”, so to speak. It’s a great song, though…
We’ve been covering Rutledge’s goings on here at Timber & Steel ever since he won my heart with the live version of “Don’t Be So Mean, Jellybean” on his myspace (seriously, go check it out!). He’s signed to Six Shooter Records, who give us some great Canadian acts, and you won’t regret spending the time to get to know him, especially his latest album The Early Widows, for which he’s been nominated for Solo Roots & Traditional Album of the Year. He’s made a couple of short films/acoustic performance videos. An older one is embedded below, but follow this link for another really good one.
This is a really cool act, and I’m glad I came across them. They play traditional Quebecois folk music, and yes that’s exactly how it sounds- French, Celtic music. Confused? Canada loves them. They’re nominated for the Group Roots & Traditional Album of the Year.
Luke Doucet is a country styled singer-songwriter who has been a landmark on the Canadian roots-music landscape for some time. He’s released 8 records on Six Shooter Records (solo and with his band Veal), the latest of which has been nominated for Adult Alternative Album of the Year. Watch him perform a song about an ex-girlfriend with his wife, Melissa McClelland, below. So awkward.
Old Man Luedecke has recently finished a decent tour of Australia which saw him wowing crowds across the eastern states and Tasmania with his traditional, quick-picking banjo stylings. I’ve heard people say that he was one of the highlights at Woodford Folk Festival, and I’m not surprised. Old Man Luedecke‘s laid back country charm allows him to really engage with the listener. He’s no stranger to the Juno Awards either, taking out the Solo Roots & Traditional Album of the Year in 2009. And he’s been nominated for the same award again for his latest album, My Hands Are On Fire and Other Love Songs.
Owen Pallett is a very rare talent. His brand of indie-folk is often compared to Andrew Bird and Sufjan Stevens, and with good reason. Pallett is a fantastic instrumentalist and vocalist who masterfully uses loop-pedals to create swirling layers of full and textured compositions that have all the power of a small orchestra. He has recently toured Australia as well, and played alongside Sufjan Stevens as part of Sydney Festival at The Opera House. His first release under his name (he previously released material as Final Fantasy), Heartland, has been nominated for Alternative Album of the Year. I hope he wins.
Royal Wood is a creator of classic, organic, and usually acoustic pop music. From what I’ve heard of him, he favours the piano as his fundamental instrument. He’s a little bit Lior, in that his sound is obviously very derivative, but unique and personal enough to an extent that allows people to become very loyal to it. He’s been around for a while, and i look forward to checking out his past works. He’s been nominated for the Songwriter of the Year award.
I was surprised to see Said The Whale nominated for New Group of the Year, mainly because I thought they were already an established act. They’ve certainly been gracing my iTunes for some time. Regardless, they do deserve some accolades swung their way. They’re an indie-rock band, who utilise acoustic instruments a lot of the time. I’m a folk lover, and they do something for me. Embedding is disabled for my favourite folk track of their’s, but you can follow this link to view it, or take your chances on the video below.
timberandsteel
mackajay
Evan Hughes
KTBell
sarahtuz
Haz
miladyred
chordsandcandles
Thom Owen Miles
JDX
Serena Skye
tunesinbloom
julesstenton
catherineelaine
