Arcade Fire‘s follow-up to their best-selling third album “The Suburbs” is not due out until the end of 2013, but the Canadian troupe previewed some new material at a secret show in Montreal last weekend.
According to The Vine (via Pitchfork), the group played to a group of about 100 people at Breakglass Studios, using the pseudonym Les Identiks. With a “no phone, video, photo” policy in place, the band reportedly treated the lucky handful of fans to a set that included two extra percussionists and a new, 7-8 minute song that opened the set.
In late October, drummer Jeremy Gara told Ottawa radio station CKCU that the band’s fourth album was in the works, but that the collective had “no deadlines” in mind. “We’re not that far into a record, but we’ve been working for a few months now,” he says. “We are under no pressure from record labels or management or whatever to do anything on any sort of schedule. We’re just working. We have no deadlines. It’s kind of coming along.”
When pushed for a ballpark release date, Gara added, “I can’t make a promise, but definitely next year,” says Gara. “The goal is to work through Christmas and get something finished around springtime, and then who knows how long it takes to get something out. But I’d say later next year, if I can ballpark.”
“The Suburbs,” Arcade Fire’s 2010 album, won the Album of the Year Grammy at the 2011 ceremony.