Listen to two new Arcade Fire songs, 'Ready to Start,' 'We Used to Wait'

Are the Canadian rockers trying to say something about radio?

By Katie Hasty Tuesday, Jun 15, 2010 1:46 PM

Arcade Fire

Yesterday, two new Arcade Fire songs started making the rounds: "Ready to Start," the first official U.S. single and "We Used to Wait," the first official U.K. single.

The Canadian rockers farmed the tracks out to Seattle's KNDD (107.7 The Edge) and to BBC 1's Zane Lowe's radio show, respectively. The tracks are culled from the band's forthcoming album "The Suburbs," due Aug. 13.

Both stations posted streams of the songs: oddly, the band and its label Merge request that KNDD take down the stream, yet Lowe has even gone on to post a high quality stream of it, and not just a radio rip.

The Edge isn't a non-commericial, college or necessarily "indie" station, as its owned by major radio company Entercom. While they can't host a stream, they are continuing to play it on air.

As previously reported, the double A-side single "The Suburbs" / "The Month of May" was first "discovered" in a record store in Glasgow and somehow made its way to Lowe's show last month.

Katie Hasty
Managing Editor

After five years as a columnist and editor at Billboard, Katie Hasty joined HitFix in 2009 for music and film reporting out of New York. The Midwest native has worked as a writer, music promoter and in A&R since 1999 and performs with her band Numbers And Letters.