If you are not familiar with Arcade Fire, but the name rings it bell, it is probably because they won Best Album Grammy a couple weeks ago, totally ticking off Eminem fans.

I love Arcade Fire, and am both tickled and astounded that Butler was raised Mormon. Check out Youtube if you are not familiar with the band. Here are a couple links, which mention Butler's Mormon background.

http://www.religiondispatches.org/archive/culture/4250/arcade_fire_and_the_suburban_soul/

http://www.pastemagazine.com/action/article/4047/feature/music/arcade_fire

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Win_Butler

He also went to university and has remained in Montreal, Quebec, a sign of good taste in my book. :)

They are scheduled for the UVU Events Center April 11, 2011. It must be a "work the kinks out of the show" date prior to their real tour, but who cares. this is a top drawer group.

And I will be out of town that week. Damn!

Use to run with an iPod and *Funeral* in my ears, pushing me on.

By the time "Wake Up" came 'round I was near sprinting for the rest of the album...my heart and lungs ready to burst...

*Funeral* is in my top 5 Albums (as Albums) of all time. Abbey Road still tops my top, though.

Human

Montreal is a pretty happening town. I've been there a lot of times.

I mean, a lot!

and their music has a lot of post religion underpinnings.

I believe Win grew up in Houston, which isn't exactly marmenty.

and his grandfather was an established Tex musician back in the day. Again, not too marmenty.

But check out the lyrics to Wake Up. It's a post religion arena rock anthem.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pyp34v6Lmcc&NR=1

Perfect.

who was a pretty well known steel guitar player back in the 1950s. That is enough of a Mormon pedigree to be at least familiar with the weirdness of Mormonism.

Win said he and his brother (also in the band) were raised Mormon. Their lyrics always struck me as similar to Tori Amos, in that they "got" the problems with religion. Little did I know he had firsthand experience with Mormonism.

That makes 4 Canadian former Mormon musical performers I am aware of - Corb Lund (performed in Park City last month for Sundance Film Festival), Randy and Tal Bachman, and Win Butler. And only one of them was from the Canadian Morridor in southern Alberta (Lund)

oh god canadian and mormon. he drew the shortest shit stick!!! and their musics shite.

It's funny, when I listened to their first album years ago I remember hearing a line in one of their songs that said, "working for the church while your family dies" and wondering if he was raised Baptist or something.

Now I know he was raised Mormon.

They played a couple of informal concerts in my hometown as they got ready for this current tour. They hadn't played in a year or so and wanted to warm up in front of a crowd.

They were fantastic.

To be fair, I don't think the Butlers were particularly observant or anything. Win Butler has described his family as "martini drinking Mormons", and his interest in religion seems to be largely academic - he studied comparative theology in college.

Does anyone know if Win Butler is still active in the Church like Brandon Flowers from The Killers?

I'm pretty sure Win is out,
&I think Will (his brother/guitarist) might still be in, but then again he writes the lyrics too

Win's been very much out for a long time, yes. He's got a lot of interest in religious imagery and ideas, but he's actually not a believer of any kind. Maybe a hazy agnostic, at best.

I think Will might still be, or was until college at least.

Either way, while they were raised Mormon, I think it might have been kinda half assed at best:

"Since Christian themes keep recurring with Arcade Fire, from the churches they frequent to the title Neon Bible, I ask him about his religious background. He grew up in the Houston suburbs. "My dad's side of the family is really nonreligious and my mom's side is really religious," he says. "Both of my mom's parents are Mormons, but they're musicians, so they were martini-drinking Mormons." Win went to Mormon Sunday school, but he also listened to his father's father, who would cheerfully undermine the church's dogma.

Now, Win says, "There are things about organized religion that I find interesting. I'd probably have a more interesting conversation with the pope than with Howard Stern. I think that people mistake describing something for understanding it — that happens in religion a lot. There's a lot of metaphorical language in the Bible, but I think that the human imagination isn't equipped to deal with the idea of eternal life."