Like a blog post with negative comments about Chris Cornell covering a Michael Jackson classic, Sasha Frere-Jones' recent New Yorker article about a lack of funkiness in indie rock has been the gift that keeps on giving, in terms of readers' responses. Writers from the likes of Slate and Playboy have chimed in. And now one of the targets of Frere-Jones' tirade has spoken up. Will Butler of Arcade Fire wrote into Frere-Jones to suggest that his band's music has a more diverse set of influences than the writer attributed to it. Butler includes an MP3 of snippets of Arcade Fire songs compared to sections from other tunes that Butler and the rest of the band might have cribbed from.
The coda of "Wake Up" is obviously harking back to '50s African-American girl groups, but I was surprised to hear how much "My Body is a Cage" sounds like an old blues wail and how "(Antichrist Television Blues)" nicks a bit from zydeco. (Butler also makes the possibly intentionally ridiculous attempt to connect "Neighborhood #3" to the Beastie Boys' "Girls.")
Butler also points out how miscegenation doesn't always have to be across racial lines, but can also come from the mixing of various "white" ethnic sounds. Read what he has to say, and Frere-Jones' response to the response, here.