Or so it said in the photo credit:

Maybe this was one of those situations where two artists take each other's press photos, we thought, sort of like what happens with some author couples. You know, "Hey, Win, take a picture of me by this wall." "OK." Maybe it was something like that, we thought! Something nice.

Imagine our disappointment when we opened the Arts & Leisure section of the New York Times this morning and discovered the very same photograph, this time credited to "Jake Walters," some guy whose name we did not recognize. Apparently a mistake had been made somewhere at the Observer— understandable since the Arcade Fire is deservedly pretty much all anyone can think about lately. As it happens, though, the truth about Jake Walters and that James Murphy photo he apparently took is no less stunning than the fantasy.

Turns out that until the mid-90s, Jake Walters served as a personal assistant to the great, mysterious Morrissey. He is described in the Sunday Times of London as a "diminutive skinhead former boxer with what insiders describe as a 'checquered past,' and what's more, he and Morrissey are rumored to have been romantically involved.

Win Butler has probably never even kissed Morrissey, or heard the Smiths b-side that Walters is supposed to have inspired.

UPDATE: Jake Walters writes in, saying: "I can't really see what is so funny about it. Win is now a leading fashion and portrait photographer and I am the new lead vocalist with Arcade Fire."

It was kind of in the moment, but it kind of fit with the song ["Intervention"], too. About halfway through the song, my string broke, and I was cutting my finger. At one show in London, a couple of strings broke, and the last half of the song, I was kind of miming playing the guitar. I thought it was a cool image with the song, like an emperor's-new-clothes thing—this obviously destroyed guitar and me still strumming along. I hated that guitar, to be honest. It was time for that guitar to leave this world, and what better way to go?

Win Butler of Arcade Fire [A.V. Club]
Earlier: Arcade Fire Invents Frightening New Rock Music Technique On 'SNL'
Arcade Fire's "Neon Bible": Transcendent Or Extraordinary?

• New Time cover accurately predicts general reaction to magazine's redesign, contents. [Drudge]
  
• Canada's second-most famous lawyer (after Rachel Sklar) is already fucking up Conrad Black's defense. [Guardian]
  
• Even though his postings are less and less frequent, Dylan Stableford is still an idiot. On the other hand, ludicrous cut-and-paste jobs like the one linked here have a deeper arc than his actual prose. [MediaBistro]
  
• Sam Zell's bid for Tribune - much like our interest in anything having to do with this fucking story - appears to be "losing momentum." [Chicago Tribune]
  
• Adorable Adam Reilly piece assumes people know/give a shit about who broke a story first. [Boston Phoenix]
  
• "What Arcade Fire is to rock and Dana Vachon to yuppie lit, [Jonathan] Cohn is to health care journalism—i.e., he can't possibly live up to expectations." Hahaha! You know, for an old person, Mickey Kaus is almost sort of hip, in a neoliberal Jon Friedman kind of way. [Slate]
  

Pitchfork, you'll remember, gave Funeral, the band's debut, a score of 9.7 (out of ten), a seal of approval that many credit with making the record a success. How would they treat the follow-up? Would they lavish equal praise or do an about face to show that they've made the band, and they can break it?

As it turns out, they lean more toward the praise end of the scale, giving Bible a more-than-respectable 8.4 (out of ten) and calling it "large enough to take on the whole world." (ALERT: The review also includes the words and phrases "incantatory," "magnitudinous," and "operates on spring-loaded tension and measured release.")

And somehow the Times is even more effusive about the album: "It is regal and beautiful, with mournful anthems and bombastic orchestration that suits the urgency of the lyrics."

So there you have it. Whether or not you think that, actually, the record is kind of flat, having maybe two great songs, and the gang is pretty much saying, "Yeah, we really like Echo & The Bunnymen, you got a problem with that?," you've been issued your marching orders. This album will change your life whether you like it or not, and anyone who says different can expect a firm smackdown. Much like we're expecting.

The Arcade Fire: Neon Bible [Pitchfork]
New CDs [NYT]
Earlier: Gawker's coverage of Arcade Fire

One Very, Very Indie Band [NYT]