“We draw inspiration from traditional American roots music,” Andrew Carroll, the lead singer and main lyricist, tells me, “and writing about things that actually mattered.”

“For me there is an element of that spaghetti western sound. I love the grandiose cinematic quality of that. I wanted to do something new with it, add a texture. Living in Los Angeles, you can drive out to the desert and just be struck by how grand and inspiring it is.”

The gunslinger runs afoul of parched travellers on “Over Edgeware” off the recent full-length album The Sun as It Comes, providing soaring vocals paired with the refuge of inviting weary travellers in. It’s like the feeling of live shows, an urgent guitar-driving, drum-pounding affair, where feet are in motion and shoulders are swaying. Everything is left on the stage, an exhausting effort, but the one the audience needs.

If you dig deep enough into the annals of band concerts, you’ll find a disposition for covering bands from the 70s: Neil Young, Pink Floyd, Bob Dylan, etc. The attachment is warranted, each of these artists deeply moved to say something impactful with their music, to leave an impression on listeners around the world. “He [Neil Young] would write deeply personal songs, but then turn around and write a protest song with a relevant social message.” Andrew says, and then his bandmate and harmony partner, Jessi Williams, chimes in, “Even his love songs weren’t as cheesy, and this is an artist that was receiving radio play.”

With that same spirit and intimacy, you can tell that each The Lonely Wild song is carefully constructed. This isn’t just a band that likes playing music for the attention, this is a band that likes music for the music: “This was the early days of the internet,” says Carroll, “and I would spend the time to research bands, and it would take two hours to download a song.” You put a lot in.

“The sound came before the name” – the band name chosen at the last minute after performing as “Andrew and some of his friends” — “I found myself listening to Ennio Morricone scores, going to record stores, and grabbing lesser known records (The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly his most famous). It came up subconsciously initially, and then at some point I was actively inserting the sound in with my modern interpretation. Now I’m trying to veer off a little bit to avoid being pigeonholed into a genre.”

There is the meta-struggle for most bands. The sound is unique: it doesn’t need to fear genre if nothing exists that’s too similar. But it still comes up. “I try to think about if the music I’m writing now sounds like The Lonely Wild, but I have to stop myself from going in that direction. Of course it’s going to sound like our band if we’re the ones up there playing it.”

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Just a couple of years ago, the band was being hailed as the biggest indie band in the world, despite being on a significant label and being critically acclaimed—David Bowie was already mentioning that Funeral was one of his favourite albums. Now the band is performing two shows in Brooklyn on the 18^th and 19^th, in anticipation of their upcoming album release on the 29^th, and in utter disregard of the CMJ music festival. This marketing ploy is poorly timed and an unnecessary distraction to CMJ, a festival designed to promote and create buzz behind struggling and upcoming bands. The timing of the show is unnecessary and only creates the idea that Arcade Fire only cares about Arcade Fire.

In contrast, we have the fiercely independent The Lonely Wild who are playing five shows during CMJ so that people will take notice, attempting to get the maximum exposure. Their most recent album was produced on the backing of personal savings accounts and (hopefully) help from friends. Their shows are sweat and blood affairs, a band leaving everything on stage but leaving the crowd wanting more. The new album is a modern interpretation of spaghetti western scores, the loner gunslinger walking into a peaceful town and completely changing the tone. This is a band that would be happy to play beyond the set time.

Another band (which we’ve written about here) played a midnight show at a larger venue at CMJ, giving all fans something to be proud of and continue to root for. Wild Cub saw a venue change, playing the midnight show at Terminal 5. This is a band that is defying expectations, incubated in the countrified air of Nashville, they’re instead bringing out a frenzy of synth and guitar with electricity shooting through the front man. When their set is over, they glibly state that they’ve played through everything they’ve written, everything they know. As with the Lonely Wild you have a band who starts off with the presumptions of a label or geographic anchor, and defies so brilliantly that it spawns a unique sound.

CMJ is the willingness of bands to play as often as possible and wherever. Streets of Laredo, progeny of New Zealand inhabitants of Brooklyn, are your Bob Dylan comparison with a fiercer foot stomping drive. They played a handful of shows, from appropriate venues to sit down lounges. “We’re going to get you dancing regardless of the space,” they quipped during their set at the Living Room’s Googie Lounge. Their songs are both infectious dance ditties, and impassioned pleas. They have something more to say beyond being the Streets of Laredo.

Which is why the self-serving spectacle that is Arcade Fire is no longer welcome as an indie band. Their double dipping allows them to tread over bands in need of exposure while remaining free of enmity. At the conclusion of their hour long set (no openers, no band following) to which people paid near exorbitant amounts, Win Butler, the front man came on stage to awkwardly apologize for being too smelly to play anymore shows. This is where you flocked to Brooklyn, and it’s unfortunate to see what Arcade Fire has become.

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