Arcade Fire And Beirut Members Busy

Arcade Fire and Beirut aren't going anywhere, but a number of related projects featuring members and ex-members of those groups are sprouting up these days.

Let's start with Team B, whose self-titled album was largely written and recorded by Kelly Pratt while he was on tour with Arcade Fire and Beirut over the past two years. It features contributions from Arcade Fire's Richard Reed Parry, Beirut's Jon Natchez and Perrin Cloutier, and LCD Soundsystem's Pat Mahoney. The Team B live band feature Pratt, Natchez and fellow Beirut members Tracy Pratt and Jason Poranski, as well as Ryan Smith of Twin Thousands and Stars Like Fleas and Mike Fadem of The Jealous Girlfriends.

The group still don't have a label, but they're selling the album independently and you can hear "On My Mind," "No Purchase Necessary" and "Mystery Man" on their MySpace page.

Clues formed last year and include former Arcade Fire member Brendan Reed and former Unicorns member Alden Penner, along with fellow Montreal musicians Ben Borden, Lisa Gamble and Nick Scribner. They'll release their still-untitled debut album, produced by Mark Lawson (Arcade Fire, Beirut), in the spring on hometown label Constellation Records.

Clues debuted at last year's Pop Montreal festival and are playing shows in the northeast U.S. this week. They'll perform in the Netherlands at the end of the month. You can download "Perfect Fit" here.

Final Fantasy's Owen Pallett, who has contributed to albums by both Arcade Fire and Beirut, released two EPs earlier this fall: Spectrum, 14th Century and Plays To Please. A Final Fantasy LP titled Heartland is in the works, but has no confirmed release date.

David Byrne reported in his tour journal that members of Arcade Fire attended his Oct. 30 show in Montreal and told him that they're in the early stages of beginning a new recording.

Finally, Beirut will release an EP titled March Of The Zapotec on Feb. 17 through group leader Zach Condon's Pompeii Records label. It features six new songs that were partially recorded in Mexico and engineered and mastered by Griffin Rodriguez, who did the same for Holland, a five-track EP credited to Condon's other project, Realpeople.

Here are the songs on March Of The Zapotec:

"El Zocalo"
"La Llorna"
"My Wife"
"The Akara"
"On A Bayonet"
"The Shrew"

Here are the tracks on Holland:

"My Night With A Prostitute From Marseille"
"My Wife, Lost In The Wild"
"Venice"
"The Concubine"
"No Dice"