With their unique sonic blueprint and theatrical flair, Canadian collective Arcade Fire have ascended to indie rock royalty status. Frontman Win Butler got the band together in 2003 when he met his future wife, vocalist Régine Chassagne, singing jazz standards at an art exhibit, and soon a songwriting partnership and a serious relationship bloomed. Butler recruited his brother, William, to play synthesizer and add percussion, which resulted in a driving, anthemic mélange of pop sensibilities, art-rock intensity and subtle punk and classical music overtones.

Following the release of their self-titled EP in 2003, Arcade Fire signed to the influential indie label Merge Records. After experiencing the deaths of the Butlers' grandfather, Chassagne's grandmother and multi-instrumentalist Richard Reed Parry's aunt, in 2004 the group released their first full-length album, the appropriately titled Funeral. The album put Arcade Fire on the critical and commercial map and earned them a spot opening for U2 and a GRAMMY nomination for Best Alternative Music Album.

Arcade Fire's similarly lauded follow-up, the GRAMMY-nominated Neon Bible, was released in 2007, followed by 2010's The Suburbs, their most ambitious effort to date. Steeped in adolescent longing and set amid the subdivided enclaves of their youth, The Suburbs is an unabashed, unapologetic concept album. The album proved to be a huge success, with the band earning the prestigious Album Of The Year at the 53rd GRAMMY Awards in 2011 and closing the 53rd GRAMMY telecast in grand fashion with a performance of "Ready To Start," which was nominated for Best Rock Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocals. Arcade Fire's lineup is rounded out by drummer Jeremy Gara, multi-instrumentalist Tim Kingsbury and violinist Sarah Neufeld.