Last weekend practically unheard-of Grammy-winning Canadian band the Arcade Fire came to town to play some shows and get some haircuts. A Gossip Wolf source says multi-instrumentalist Will Butler popped by Poetry Magazine‘s offices for lunch with the mag’s editor, his old friend Christian Wiman (not to be confused with the more ubiquitous Christian women). A likely cover story, Butler! This Wolf can just picture him hand-delivering a lengthy loose-leaf poem for submission, all about the price of fame and Hipster Puppies as a metaphor for the death of the soul.
True story: Last week this Wolf got a hand-delivered note in our Dumpster-mailbox from Marc “Bubblebath” Arcuri, drummer and singer for the English Softhearts, an excellent scuzzy punk band that broke up in 2003. But according to Arcuri’s note, the group ain’t done! Dude has patched things up with Softhearts guitarist Rich “Styrofoam” Salamander, he says, and they recently recorded a new album called End It. They’ll release the record themselves this summer, which is also when they’ll return to the stage: they’re set to play this year’s Bitchpork fest, an annual convergence of DIY bands that neatly coincides with the Pitchfork Music Festival. Arcuri tells Gossip Wolf that after the set the band might “break up immediately, depending on how it goes.”
Art-rock act the Race is officially finito, according to front man Craig Klein. The group’s activity tailed off over the past three years because Klein’s partner in crime, drummer Kevin Duneman, had moved to Bloomington, Indiana, to work for mega-indie label Secretly Canadian. But Klein is still busy, working with singer and fashion designer Kim Mackin on a new electro-pop band called Down There. They’ve played three shows so far and are 20 songs into recording their debut double album at Klein’s home studio. Telefon Tel Aviv‘s Josh Eustis is helping mix the record, which the duo hopes to turn into a full-blown musical. Now that’s confidence! —Jessica Hopper and J.R. Nelson
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