Arcade Fire have announced a new single in reliably cryptic fashion.
The band updated their website over the weekend to include this postcard:
Despite messageboard rumours and the odd mention by satellite sources of the group (David Byrne wrote of the band mixing in New York, Mumford and Sons made note of their producer - who also worked with the Arcade Fire on
Neon Bible - working with the band) details on the Arcade Fire's new album have been scant since the end of touring for
Neon Bible.
Then a few weeks ago it was reported that the band are working with video director Spike Jonze on a secretive ''project'. The news was broken by
Joel's Arcade Fire Blog, who went on to uncover a banner at arcadefire.com claiming "Arcade Fire presents 'The Suburbs'. The banner was quickly removed, and Joel postulated that 'The Suburbs' was likely to be the title of the project the band were working on with Jonze. Then late last week, a reader uncovered a new listing on Amazon.com for the Arcade Fire titled 'The Suburbs'/'Month of May'. Joel wrote that a label rep denied the listing. And yet now comes this statement from the band:
Howdy yall - Just finishing up pressing our new 12". Should be in stores in the next couple weeks. God willing. Good luck with finals. See you this summer! AF
What all this means? Who knows. But with the band's appearance at multiple European summer festivals due to kick off in Sweden on June 30 - as well as news of this vinyl release - means new music from the band is imminent.