New Release Tuesday: !!!, Arcade Fire & Okkervil River

Arcade Fire Neon Bible (Merge)

Unless you live under a rock, you're well aware that Neon Bible's official release date is today. As expected, the web is ablaze with commentary and reflection on the band's sophomore effort, and for the most part, it's been a lot of good news. A relief, considering the album's reference to the John Kennedy Toole novel of the same name. The book is a sort of exercise in temporal disillusionment, taking place on a train going to an unknown location and consisting of a series of reflections spanning 20 years of the protagonist's life. If Arcade Fire likens their latest work to the novel's plot, it's a mistake, since the album is anything but loosely affiliated memories. That being said, the author's relationship to his work, published after Confederacy of Dunces (posthumously). Writing it at the tender age of 16, Toole felt that the book was immature and unfit to be published: he spent most of his short life trying to rewrite Confederacy, not worrying about Neon Bible. What his personal woes concerning what ended up being his sophomore effort have to do with the band's album is anyone's guess. Anyway, we'll have a proper review of the music very soon.

Neon Bible
Arcade Fire Official
Arcade Fire MySpace
Juno Award Winning Guitarist Announces Neon Bible (YouTube)

!!! Myth Takes (Warp)

!!! (pronounced 'Chk Chk Chk' or any three repetitive sounds) deliver with Myth Takes, an impressively produced dance album that begs to be played at full volume. As Warp indicates, the album features "post-punk bass patterns, spaghetti western guitars, African polyrhythms, spaced out disco and vintage Philly soul," and honestly, whenever we hear that there might be African polyrhythms, we bite. Hard. The band's newly designed animated website features the work of Fenshu & Luce Moreau, and contains many secret surprises and features a player that samples the album for you.

!!! Official
!!! MySpace
!!! Moblog
!!! "Heart of Hearts" (YouTube)

Okkervil River Definitive Black Sheep Boy (Jagjaguwar)

Jagjaguwar is releasing a definitive Black Sheep Boy, a two-discer featuring the original album, the 7-song Black Sheep Boy Appendix EP, the song "The Next Four Months" (originally released on the "For Real" CD single), the "For Real" video as well as a new video of a magical alternate slower take of "No Key, No Plan". The appendix album is a sort of alternate take on the original work's themes and moods, aiming to "exhaust and destroy both." Sheff et al signed to Virgin/EMI Europe earlier this year, and will be playing shows locally during SXSW, and we highly recommend catching them here at home.

Okkervil River Official
Okkervil River MySpace
Okkervil River mp3s on Jagjaguwar