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December 27, 2006

Merge's Accidental Arcade Fire Leak

The mailbox lit up yesterday with missives from charitable iTunes consumers purchasing what was meant to be "Intervention," but was instead an unintentional holiday treat. Win explained on the Arcade Fire site:

"Intervention" was supposed to be uploaded to iTunes as a charity single benefitting Partners In Health on the 28th of December, but someone at Merge uploaded the wrong song 2 days too early ... The song that people have downloaded from the US side of iTunes is called "Black Wave/Bad Vibrations," and it is the next track on the record after "Intervention." I guess it is sort of charming that we can send the wrong song to the whole world with a click of a mouse...oh well. The real "Intervention" will be up soon, and there will be a paypal link up on arcadefire.com for those who have downloaded the songs without paying but still want to give some money to www.PIH.org.
Like artists don't have enough to worry about with their record labels facilitating pre-release proliferation. Win next spoke to the MySpace-informed compilation process for (and pending leak of) Neon Bible.

We decided to try and get a couple of songs out to people before the record leaks (which is inevitable as the Christmas cold I can feel coming), but keep in mind that the record is very much meant to be heard as a whole. That is why we leaked over 100 songs on MySpace as fake band names over the last year and then made a compilation of the 11 most popular songs and called it Neon Bible! You will all hear the whole record in due time, and I am sure it will all make sense.
So have faith, Fire fans! Fake friends on MySpace can't be wrong. He's obvs joking, but god how great would it be if Neon Bible = eyeliner emo?

Posted at 10:45 AM
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31 Comments

that's what happened to ani difranco, but instead someone uploaded her entire cd onto itunes to download about 3 weeks before it's actual release.

Posted by: aria at 12/27/06 11:38 AM | Reply
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You can still get it on iTunes now...it's not bad, def. sounds like Power Out, same beat...

Posted by: derek at 12/27/06 12:11 PM | Reply
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i think it's positively fantastic, but i'm also an AF fanboy.

Posted by: will at 12/27/06 12:55 PM | Reply
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Oh? the new Arcade Fire album sounds exactly like the old one? why... I never would have guessed!

Posted by: Cap'n Guthrie at 12/27/06 2:02 PM | Reply
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I like it! I prefer Intervention, but it's still a really good song.

Posted by: Allison at 12/27/06 2:31 PM | Reply
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yee i got that mug. it's graet.

Posted by: doggie at 12/27/06 2:32 PM | Reply
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ummm, its an ok song before 1:32, afterwards i really like it. I think they should stop experimenting with regine doing lead vocals, she just can't compete with win.

Posted by: joe at 12/27/06 3:24 PM | Reply
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If anyone's curious, you get "Black Wave/Bad Vibrations" if you purchase "Intervention" on the Canadian ITunes as well.

Posted by: Quinn at 12/27/06 3:56 PM | Reply
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can anyone please post said song =(

Posted by: dk at 12/27/06 6:18 PM | Reply
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about the request for the song, you should really buy it -- the proceeds go to charity.

Posted by: blahhh at 12/27/06 9:30 PM | Reply
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about the request for the song, you should really buy it -- the proceeds go to charity.

Posted by: blahhh at 12/27/06 9:31 PM | Reply
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I repeat, can someone post said song? I tried to buy it, but Itunes told me that the song in question had been removed. So. I can't buy it anymore! Anyone?

Posted by: Jarrett at 12/27/06 10:13 PM | Reply
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Scratch thaaaaat... = p

http://ul54.rapidshare.com/files/9074885/Intervention.mp3

(I think, anyway. I haven't finished the dl of the song. Here's hoping!)

Posted by: Jarrett at 12/27/06 10:16 PM | Reply
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download from above post if you feel like being really pissed off

Posted by: bryan at 12/27/06 11:18 PM | Reply
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Win should sing when Regine sings.

When Win takes over, it gets really Springsteen. 'Eating in the ghetto off a hundred dollar plate'.

Posted by: Joe at 12/28/06 12:07 AM | Reply
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My link is the real deal. Good song!

Posted by: Jarrett at 12/28/06 12:29 AM | Reply
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"it's not bad, def. sounds like Power Out, same beat..."

Your definition of "same beat" is strange and mysterious.

The beat for Power Out's nearly disco. It's all four on the floor kick drum, hit hat and snare.

The front half of Black Wave/Bad Vibrations isn't four-on-the-floor at all. The back half has almost no hi hat at all, and certainly isn't dance-y the way Power Out is. Win's half of the song is all toms and kick drum with the occasional cymbal hit.

PS: The back half of this song is going to be EPIC live.

Posted by: Alex at 12/28/06 3:17 AM | Reply
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Revision: There's maybe some snare towards the very end of the song. Sounds like it's being played with brushes or something maybe.

Posted by: Alex at 12/28/06 3:45 AM | Reply
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I have a feeling the word accidental should be in quotes in the title of this post.

Posted by: jonathan at 12/28/06 12:52 PM | Reply
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So much better than Intervention, thank God.

Posted by: asjwoods at 12/28/06 4:09 PM | Reply
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the above link is a live recording from kcrw, not the studio recording i was led to believe it was. still sounds pretty good.

Posted by: scuba steve at 12/28/06 4:30 PM | Reply
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The Baddest Boys In The Blogosphere got the new one herrrr: http://badmintonstamps.com/zarchive0612.html#884

Posted by: SkinnySlim at 12/28/06 6:37 PM | Reply
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We actually pulled the song. I was somehow oblivious to the "charity" part here and people started calling us dicks. I guess we're not so bad after all.

Posted by: SkinnySlim at 12/28/06 9:00 PM | Reply
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i'm going to second jonathan here and agree there should be quotes around 'accidental'...

Posted by: kg at 12/29/06 2:42 AM | Reply
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the background vocals in the second part of the song are very vespertine-era bjork

regine out-clevers herself a little bit with the chord changes in her section, and then cant find a good way to transition from the end of one verse to the start of the next, i think.....nothing necessarily wrong with jagged transitions, except when they seem lazy

Posted by: dude at 12/29/06 10:03 AM | Reply
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am I the only person who likes Regines parts more?

Posted by: Neil at 12/30/06 3:05 AM | Reply
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The Arcade Fire need to pull up their
fucking socks, cause Win's half of "Black Wave/Bad Vibrations" is the
only interesting part of both new tunes and
even that is lacking.

Posted by: md at 01/02/07 5:49 PM | Reply
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no, you're not.


9 times out of 10, when regine sings it's absolutely haunting.

you guys remember "in the backseat"?

hell yea.

Posted by: alex at 01/11/07 2:05 AM | Reply
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These guys just want Win Butler's babies. Qweerz.

Posted by: guy at 01/21/07 4:30 PM | Reply
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guys....did anyone notice the whole album leaked on friday.....I DID... :)

Posted by: unknown at 01/27/07 4:18 AM | Reply
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Wow. You 'fans' are really picky. Regine shouldnt do this, this has the same beat, only Win should sing, etc. What made funeral great over and above great tunes and arrangements was the overall feel of the cd, including Regine's vocals. One of the best bands to come along in a long time and people think they know better than the group how to do the music. Get with it!

Posted by: Fitz (57 yr old old fart) at 02/01/07 8:56 PM | Reply
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