Pages tagged “the new pornographers”

Today is World AIDS Day. Appropriately enough, it's also the day that the line-up was revealed for Dark Was the Night, a compilation release which will benefit AIDS/HIV awareness group, The Red Hot Organization.

Via Pitchfork and the like, it looks like there is now a Jan. 20 release date for A.C. Newman's second solo LP, Get Guilty. The New Pornographers lead singer released his first solo disc, The Slow Wonder to critical acclaim in 2004.

[Above: The New Pornographers.]

Ahhh, the CTA. Gotta love those delays and train station closings, right? The two-hour travel time to Hideout prevented the chance to see The Uglysuit and those that played before them, but nothing cools off an angry commuter like some free watermelon and a playful game of Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes with Tim Fite on a lovely Sunday. His lively hip-hop performance was one of the weekend's many kid-friendly offerings, which also included crafts, a Wee Hairy Beasties performance and a puppet show whose theater was rigged to a bike.

Home to the out-of-place and in-between, the Hideout welcomes locals and musicians of any and all persuasions to the industrial North Branch along the Chicago River year-round. And even after a summer full of stacked festivals rolling through the city (Lollapalooza, Pitchfork Musical Festival and myriad neighborhood fests), the annual Hideout Block Party is one of the most anticipated by Chicagoans.

When busy bee Neko Case hurt her ankle during this spring's New Pornographers tour with Okkervil River, faces fell long from coast to coast. The alt.country enchantress was to miss a number of dates supporting 2007's Challengers, and really, what's a Porno show without its chanteuse?

New Pornographers principal dude A.C. (Carl) Newman says he has plans for his second solo album that, optimistically, could be released this fall. “On my own records, I’m left to my own devices. That can be both good and bad,” Newman told Billboard.

The band is finishing up its U.S. tour in promotion of its latest album Challengers, and is set to play at a handful of summer festivals including the Summer Camp Music Festival in Illinois, The Sasquatch Music Festival in Washington, and the The All Points West Festival at New Jersey's Liberty State Park.

Newman also revealed thoughts about the direction for the next album for the group as a whole, which should be released in 2009. “I think the next Pornographers record will be fairly rock,” he told Billboard. “I think with Challengers we moved as far in this direction as we can go, unless we turn into M. Ward or something.”

Related links:.
NewPornographers.com
Feature:The New Pornographers: Seeing the Light
ACNewman.net

Got news tips for Paste? E-mail news@pastemagazine.com.

Political candidates may talk a big game about working with other countries to improve our world together, but this spring, two bands from opposite sides of the border—Vancouver, Canada's New Pornographers and the Austin, Texas-based Okkervil River—will unite, spreading harmony (three-part and otherwise) across the U.S. of A.

Both bands released acclaimed albums last year, with the NP's Challengers and Okkervil's The Stage Names landing on Best of '07 lists the world over, not to mention in their home countries.

Canada's wordy power-pop heroes saw singer Neko Case morph into a bloodlusty (emphasis on "lusty") siren named Chrysanthemum for a recent episode of Adult Swim mainstay Aqua Teen Hunger Force, while Pornographer Dan Bejar recently collaborated with ladyfriend Sydney Vermont for the Hello, Blue Roses debut album and will drop the latest Destroyer LP, Trouble in Dreams, on March 18 (followed by a tour that will keep him from joining the NPs on this outing).

The just-as-wordy punk-folkies in Okkervil River put out a free online-only EP (Golden Opportunities) stocked with heartbreaking, carefully-chosen covers, many of which were recorded on the road. The Austin Chronicle recently announced that Okkervil River will team up with 13th Floor Elevators frontman Roky Erickson for this year's Austin Music Awards, to be held on March 12 (SXSW eve!).

Check out half of Okkervil River's regular line-up performing "A Hand to Take Hold of the Scene" (off The Stage Names) and "A King and a Queen" (off of 2005's stellar Black Sheep Boy) in a locker room in Belgium for Ukulélé Sessions:

Ukulélé Session Okkervil River
Uploaded by cplesoir

The large bands (6+ members apiece) will happily engage in musical debates throughout April. Cast your vote via "WOO!" in a city near you:

April
9 - Toronto, Ont. @ Phoenix Concert Theatre
10 - Pontiac, Mich. @ The Crofoot Ballroom

11 - Columbus, Ohio @ Newport Music Hall
12 - Munhall, Pa. @ Carnegie Music Hall in Homestead
13 - Ithaca, N.Y. @ The State Theater of Ithaca
14 - Washington, DC @ 9:30 Club
16 - Richmond, Va. @ Toad’s Place
17 - Athens, Ga. @ Georgia Theatre

18 - Nashville, Tenn. @ The Cannery
19 - St. Louis, Mo. @ The Pageant
20 - Chicago, Ill. @ Riviera
21 - Madison, Wis. @ Orpheum
22 - Cleveland, Ohio @ Beachland Ballroom

Okkervil River:
February
5 - London, England @ Scala
7 - Leuven, Belgium @ Stuk
8 - Paris, France @ La Maronquinerie
9 - Amsterdam, Netherlands @ Paradiso
10 - Nijmegen, Netherlands @ Doornroosje
23 - Adelaide, Australia @ Laneway Festival
24 - Melbourne, Australia @ Laneway Festival
26 - Melbourne, Australia @ Corner
27 - Sydney, Australia @ Manning Bar
29 - Perth, Australia @ Perth International Arts Festival

March
1 - Brisbane, Australia @ Laneway Festival
2 - Sydney, Australia @ Laneway Festival
4 - Auckland, New Zealand @ Kings Arms
5 - Wellington, New Zealand @ San Francisco Bath House
12 - Austin, Texas @ Austin Music Hall (w/Roky Erickson)

April
5 - Dallas, Texas @ Granada
6 - Memphis, Tenn. @ Hi-Tone (w/Howlin' Rain)
7 - Bloomington, Ind. @ Buskirk-Chumley Theater (w/Howlin' Rain)

Related links:
TheNewPornographers.com
OkkervilRiver.com
Adult Swim video: Neko Case on Aqua Teen Hunger Force

Got news tips for Paste? E-mail news@pastemagazine.com.

Under-realized power-pop supergroup makes its best album

I've tended to file the New Pornographers away in my mind as essentially a power-pop group with a certain amount of indie-rock clothing, which would tend to trap them in not one but two echo chambers.

Generally, power-pop records are largely known quantities before you even play a single note. And for all its aesthetic and musical virtues as a genre, so often power pop is neither particularly popular nor necessarily packed with power. Save for the odd distorted chord, the ubiquitous chirpy organs and singalong lyrics are more pinkish wafts of fancy than an actual gut-level wallop, and it goes without saying how far the “pop” of today’s airwaves has strayed from the cooing template of The Raspberries or their ‘50s/’60s idols. Like deep blues, it has become a sort of classical form best and most appreciated by music-geeks who can spot the influences and understand the nuances of their repackaging and assimilation into each new song.

And while the potential limits and pitfalls of indie-rock flag-waving are a screed best saved for a longer column, it suffices to say that the tendency toward snarky song titles, self-indulgent and somewhat half-assed performances (notable particularly this year at Coachella, where The New Pornos burned about 10 minutes making fun of a particularly plangent Travis set one stage away), and a general air of inside jokery either forces you to shower the band with compliments to show you’re cool enough to be in the club or else become a total hater and strain to cut them down to size.

As an ersatz supergroup, often The New Pornographers feel like less than the sum of their parts. Neko Case’s overmodest involvement in the group has always been something of a tease or red herring, and their records generally lack that sense of courageous howl against a foreboding wilderness that shakes your corners when you hear one of her solo albums. And while Dan Bejar’s songs are among the more ornate in The New Pornos canon, his work with the group lacks the complexity and intensity of Destroyer’s best work. Even the joyful classicism of Carl Newman’s Zumpano days sometimes seems blunted by the multitude of cooks and apparent overthought.

Still, for all their on-paper flaws and tendency to be overrated for the wrong reasons, The New Pornographers’ records are always enjoyable and consistently work as collections of songs. They’re the sorts of albums you complain about even while you buy them, and up until sometime after the second listen when you’re stuck with the reality that you’d actually like to turn around and listen to the thing again.

For its part, Challengers stands out as a particularly strong effort within a very even catalog. More than the band’s other works, it carries a sense of place, as “Myriad Harbour” offers a lyrical, panoramic freeze-frame of New York while the “heat wave humming in the house of cards” in “Unguided” seems a similarly urban stir, the song unfolding into a zoom-out anthem. There’s a thread of romantic claustrophobia that winds its way through the music’s textures and rhythms, and it zings like a West Village wind on the first snap of autumn. As an album built by, for and about young overthinking urbanites, it has a knowing charisma that’s never cloying, even as it retreads familiar motifs. (“Failsafe” borrows the tremolo rumble from “How Soon Is Now,” and “Mutiny I Promise You” takes the “Louie Louie” riff, spins it 45 degrees and chirps it up before burying it under a sugarburst chorus.)

The New Pornographers’ performances on Challengers are consistently excellent. Newman’s voice has warmed and grown more open while, for her part, Case’s appearances are sparse but dazzling, particularly on the title track, where two apparent lovers contemplate untangling themselves from separate cohabitations against guitar strums and a piano part so warm and open that you know they’ll manage to do it.

Listening to Challengers, one gets the sense that The New Pornographers are shooting higher than even before—there’s even a reassuring polish of darker strains in the American present, with “Adventures in Solitude” unleashing a loving “we thought we lost you … welcome back” to a soldier returning from war and “My Rights Versus Yours” contemplating the exercise of power and the turns of history over a French horn, effortless guitar and a vocoder. It’s a nuanced, artfully constructed record that gets better with each listen and crawls its way out of any box you might choose to put it in.

When you’re dealing with not one, not two, but seven pornographers, you’ve got to give all of them plenty of time to show you what they’re capable of. Without sufficient exposure, viewers could be left disappointed, feeling inadequate and alone. So, how do smart pornographers avoid such reactions and maximize pleasure? They launch a huge tour, of course!

What? What did you think we were talking about?

The merry gang of Canadian misfits known as the New Pornographers are provoking the world with Challengers, their fourth album, which will be released on August 21. The band will make its way all across the United States and its wild, mysterious homeland over the coming months. Looking at the huge list of tour dates below, we can almost certainly guarantee instant gratification.

July:
15 - Chicago, Ill. @ Union Park (Pitchfork Music Festival)
29 - Toronto, Ontario @ Rogers Picnic

September:
13 - Victoria, British Columbia @ McPherson Ballroom
14 - Seattle, Wash. @ Showbox
15 - Seattle, Wash. @ Showbox
16 - Portland, Ore. @ Crystal Ballroom
17 - San Francisco, Calif. @ Warfield Theatre
18 - San Diego, Calif. @ House of Blues
19 - Los Angeles, Calif. @ Henry Fonda Theater
20 - Los Angeles, Calif. @ Henry Fonda Theater
21 - Tucson, Ariz. @ Rialto Theatre
22 - Albuquerque, N.M. @ Sunshine Theater
24 - Boulder, Colo. @ Boulder Theater
25 - Salt Lake City, Utah @ The Depot
26 - Boise, Idaho @ The Egyptian Theatre
28 - Vancouver, British Columbia @ Commodore Ballroom

October:
11 - Edmonton, Alberta @ Edmonton Event Center
12 - Calgary, Alberta @ MacEwen Hall
13 - Calgary, Alberta @ MacEwen Hall
14 - Missoula, Mont. @ University Theater
15 - Winnipeg, Manitoba @ Garrick Center
16 - Minneapolis, Minn. @ First Avenue
17 - Milwaukee, Wis. @ Pabst Theatre
18 - Chicago, Ill. @ The Metro
19 - Chicago, Ill. @ The Metro
20 - Buffalo, N.Y. @ Riviera Theatre
21 - Toronto, Ontario @ Phoenix Concert Theatre
24 - New York, N.Y. @ Webster Hall
25 - New York, N.Y. @ Webster Hall
26 - Philadelphia, Pa. @ Trocadero
27 - Washington, D.C. @ 9:30 Club
31 - New Orleans, La. @ House of Blues

November:
01 - Houston, Texas @ Warehouse Live
02 - Dallas, Texas @ House of Blues
03 - Austin, Texas @ Emo's (Fun Fun Fun Fest)
05 - Denver, Colo. @ Gothic Theatre

Related links:
TheNewPornographers.com
MatadorRecords.com
Pitchfork's tour announcement

Got news tips for Paste? Email news@pastemagazine.com.

(Above: A.C. Newman. Photo by Andy Argyrakis.)

Vancouver supergroup the New Pornographers returned to Chicago with a sold out show at Metro, selling out weeks in advance (unlike its last visit two years ago, which did not), proving the band’s sugared indie pop is a quickly spreading flavor. Its addictive properties are easy to understand; songs center around sturdy guitar melodies while keyboards swirl, tambourines shimmy and the rhythms keeps listeners toe-tapping and head-bobbing. Add the sun-kissed harmonies of bandleader A.C. “Carl” Newman, alt.country swooner Neko Case, and drummer Kurt Dahle, and the catchiness of the band’s songs is undeniable.

The octet—rounded out by co-founder Dan Bejar, keyboardist Kathryn Calder, bassist John Collins, guitarist Todd Fancey and synth/melodica/harp player Blaine Thurier—performed a 90-minute set comprising songs from all three of its albums. Opening with “Twin Cinema,” titled after its latest effort, the band set the sunshine tone that permeated the show. Its most recent material shone brightly with the Newman-led “Use It” and the romped-up “Sing Me Spanish Techno,” bursting with sing-along harmonies and infectious melodies. “The Bleeding Heart Show” grew from midtempo storytelling into a celebratory finale.

With her passionate siren calls, Case passionately colored Newman’s softer vocals. This is not to say his singing lacks power; Newman hits falsettos with ease and his vocals fit the music perfectly. It’s just that Case’s leads—“These Are The Fables,” “The Laws Have Changed” and “All For Swinging You Around,” and the show-closing “Letter From An Occupant”—pack such a lasting punch. Bejar, whose group Destroyer opened the show, also sang a handful of songs. His gritty vocals added another dimension to the potent vocal potion, bringing extra swagger to songs like “Testament To Youth In Verse” and the jaunty, urgent “Jackie, Dressed In Cobras.”

Although vibrant, upbeat emotions pervaded, the band evoked a more meditative approach on “Streets Of Fire,” where the acoustic- and melodica-infused beginning tumbled into swelling riffs and fired-up beats. Chimey vocals peppered the dramatic “Falling Through Your Clothes” and the stomping “Slow Descent Into Alcoholism,” its chugging bass line and percussion crescendos indicating these indie popsters can rock out with the best.

The audience ‘s cheers brought the New Pornographers out for two encores; one focusing on Electric Version, the other on Mass Romantic. Though almost any of the show-stopping Twin Cinema songs could’ve served during the encore, the band had already pulled the gems out earlier in the set. With the one-two-three punch of “The Body Says No,” “Jackie” and the joyous “Letters From An Occupant” the group exited; leaving fans’ indie-pop jones fully sated.