Video: Arcade Fire - Born In The USA (at Obama Staff Ball 2009)

Pull out the summer blanket and don't eat too much egg salad. It's time to celebrate Independence Day with The Umbilical Chord.

Interested in something new from Arcade Fire? Arcade Fire frontman Win Butler was relieved to hear the band wasn't nominated for a Grammy Award this year after having had a really bad time the last two years he attended, when he was forced to eat $70 hot dogs. Holy mackenzie! $70 hot dogs! Barack Obama staffers were rewarded for all their hard campaign work with a special concert courtesy of Jay-Z and the Arcade Fire. "Donnie Darko" and "Southland Tales" writer/director Richard Kelly, recruited the Arcade Fire [...]

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One of the most popular series of B Lists , Digging Deep, has gone missing since I took the reigns of Hidden Track. It's been nearly two years since the last time we scoured YouTube for fun covers of popular songs. This time around we'll be breaking up our list of ten videos into two parts to help speed up your load times. Better late than never, here's part one of the fifth edition of The B List - Digging Deep... 1. Arcade Fire treated President Barack [...]

Screaming Females had quite a week announcing their debut full length, releasing the cover art, being mentioned in Spin , and having their front woman Marissa Paternoster named the 17th Hottest Woman in Indie Rock (one place ahead of Karen O!). I'm most excited about the album announcement as Power Move will be released in mid-April on Don Giovanni Records! Now if they'd just post a song or two from the album that would make my day!!! The band will also be hitting the road in a couple of weeks to start getting people all [...]

It's sort of old news already but here's a youtube clip demonstrating a perfect example of why not to song along next to the camera when you're taping. Arcade Fire covering Bruce Springsteen's Born In The USA from the Obama Staffers Ball.

Here's the Arcade Fire covering Bruce Springsteen's "Born in the USA". Thank God someone videotaped this, although fair warning they happen to sing along very loudly. Can't really blame them though:

Arcade Fire opened for Jay-Z (!) at Obama's staff ball on Wednesday, and the band trotted out a cover of Bruce Springsteen's "Born in the U.S.A." And thanks to a magical invention called YouTube, here's video proof--the band reimagine the song as a string-lead production (instead of the sorta cheesy synths of the original), with Win Butler and the rest of the band working on guitars, mandolins, and accordions. This clip doesn't contain the whole song (but 2:30 of it) and features a bit too much crowd singing, but overall, you get the picture--this mostly Canadian band is glad that [...]

It was slightly strange to hear yesterday that the Arcade Fire had played Bruce Springsteen's "Born in the U.S.A. at the private event for Obama staffers. It is, of course, one of the most famously misunderstood songs to be regularly trotted out in a political context (and much of the confusion stems from Springsteen's own political ambiguity in the 1980s), and I couldn't help but wonder what angle AF might take on it when performing it at a private celebration for people working in politics. On the one hand, they could [...]

Not the best Arcade Fire performance, but a damn sight cheerier than 'Windowsill', even if that guy singing during the chorus can't seem to decide what key the song is in.

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Guys, this is the most double edged sword ever. On the one hand, here's a pretty decent quality video of the Arcade Fire doing what sounds like a pretty awesome cover of Springsteen's "Born in the U.S.A." However, the cameraman or nearby buddy just loves to sing along with the chorus, making it actually kind [...]

Last night Arcade Fire played the Obama Staff Ball , the final official inaugural event and a celebration of the thousands of folks who campaigned tirelessly for the President. One year ago, Win Butler blogged , "Barack is the first candidate in my lifetime to strip some of the bullshit away." In that spirit, last night's setlist include a mandolin-led cover of Bruce Springsteen's no bullshit "Born In The U.S.A.," the anti-Vietnam anthem once clumsily co-opted by Ronald Reagan (CAMPAIGN SONG FAIL). It was a fitting goodbye to the Bush era, and a lot of fun to watch [...]

At the Obama staff victory ball.