by LORRAINE CARPENTER

"Rock music generally, and rock shows specifically, have become an illegitimate art form that needs to justify itself," says the Arcade Fire's singer, Win Butler. "I'm talking about indie as well as mainstream rock. Is there a reason it's being made, or is it just out of habit?"

With melodies soaring skyward, danceable beats made with typewriters and tap shoes, an audacious blend of horns, keys, strings and woodwinds, and emotive, off-kilter vocals not unlike J. Mascis in duet with Björk, Montreal's the Arcade Fire offer more than a few reasons to tap into their tunes.

The band's core, all in their early to mid-20s, consists of Butler, Régine Chassagne, Dane Mills, Brendan Reed and Tim Kingsbury, a cast whose musical leanings are as varied as their origins. Trained in jazz, Chassagne also moonlights in a medieval group, and she's the band's token Montrealer. Butler (Chassagne's husband-to-be) was raised in Houston, TX, Reed in Williamsburg, VA, while Mills (of Aum Supreme) and Kingsbury (of Snailhouse) hail from Brockville and Guelph, Ontario. When asked to define their sound, they typically drop the names Debussy, the Pixies, New Order, Bob Dylan and Motown.

"It's hard to be specific," says Butler. "It's a work in progress, it's a mess, but it's an exciting mess with a ton of creative potential."

With their eponymous debut album, taped in a fixer-upper barn on the Butler family property in Maine ("we spent as much time doing carpentry as recording"), the Arcade Fire hope to trap the essence of their live spectacle.

"Going to shows is usually painful for me," says Butler. "Nobody cares if the audience enjoys it or not, or if they're comfortable. That's why we're opening our own CD release [between the other two acts], 'cause that's the best spot. People aren't exhausted, they have fresh ears, they haven't been pummelled for three hours, so they're open to be surprised, to be receptive. We just want to make it pleasant." n

CD launch with the Parka 3 and Big Gold Hoops & Kosher Dill Spears at Casa del Popolo on Saturday, March 29, 9:30pm

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