>>PREVIEW
THE NEW PORNOGRAPHERS
Saturday, February 18
MacEwan Hall (U of C)
It’s a telling moment when an indie rocker becomes a card-carrying indie rock star. A rusty van is traded for a coach bus, and a tuner is traded for guitar techs. Thousands of salivating new fans outnumber the original batch, who either get more rabid in their approval or jump ship to discover the next best thing. All eyes are locked on the band to see if haughtiness devours the punk attitude and sinks their credibility.
Carl "A.C." Newman, the front man and sensationally clever wordsmith of The New Pornographers, sounds relaxed, free and easy in his temporary digs in Brooklyn’s Italian district. Despite being the leader of one of the most popular "It" bands for the last few years and being thrown Hollywood money for his songs, he doesn’t have his nose in the air.
Fast Forward presents Exhibit A: a pin-up photo of Carl Newman (with fellow Canadian super group star Brendan Canning of the equally magnificent Broken Social Scene). Selling out venues on both sides of the Atlantic, Newman has obviously kept his sense of humour intact.
Twin Cinema is The New Pornographers’s third album and second release on Matador Records, but shines as the most significant recording of the band’s discography. Mass Romantic (2000) and Electric Version (2003) are still impressive years after their original release. However, Twin Cinema clearly shows the band isn’t a one-trick pony that fluked out in ’03 with a catchy sophomore release. Layered with dazzling instrumental brightness and thought-provoking lyrical genius, Twin Cinema confirms Newman and Company’s unwavering staying power.
Also, Newman’s songwriting has become a smidge less abstruse. Without sacrificing lyrical quality, Newman concedes that he’s slowly allowing a protective wall to be chipped away. As a result, listeners are able to share in the intimacy of what he’s writing about – no A.C. Newman decoder ring required.
"There’s definitely more of an effort in the last few years. I mean, I used to be pretty happy to write essentially gibberish that I thought sounded good … Not necessarily gibberish," quickly clarifies Newman, "but I put two thoughts together that were really not connected and so the song didn’t really have a narrative, but I just liked the way it moved and flowed. I think now I’m trying to have more of a narrative. There’s songs on the record that I think are pretty straightforward."
He describes how Twin Cinema was composed during a good time in his life and has a general theme of getting one’s act together. The good times sound as though they’re continuing in his new cheery neighbourhood of charming brownstones. Happy to be one bridge away from the action in Manhattan, Newman is living the indie rock dream.
"It’s nice to be able to walk into Matador anytime and see what’s happening with the label. There’s so much happening, it’s ridiculous," Newman says. "Being able to go to Saturday Night Live. (It’s) actually just kind of surreal. It’s funny because being in New York and being on Matador, it seems kind of ridiculous to expect it, but it’s cliché how many Matador musicians I always see around. It’s kinda like, hey, let’s go to this club, Ira (Kaplan) from Yo La Tengo is deejaying and you’ll run into Daniel (Kessler) from Interpol. This Friday, I’m going to a hockey game with Stephen Malkmus and the Matador people – it’s just really kind of surreal. The part of me that’s a music fan just thinks, my life is kind of odd these days."
While those folks don’t necessarily render him speechless, he admits that he’ll be entirely star-struck around Stuart Murdoch of Belle & Sebastian in the coming months. The New Pornographers will be touring with the pop stars from Glasgow until the end of March. In May, the band will perform at England’s artist-curated music festival, All Tomorrow’s Parties. They’ll appear alongside The Shins, Decemberists, Destroyer, Black Keys, Sleater-Kinney, Dinosaur Jr, Mudhoney and Devendra Banhart.
For this upcoming tour, bandmates Dan Bejar (Destroyer) and Neko Case may or may not make cameo appearances. Even so, The New Pornographers’s live sound has been beefed up by Newman’s niece, Kathryn Calder (Immaculate Machine), on a second keyboard and with Todd Fancey taking full-time guitar duty.
"We’re definitely a better band than we’ve ever been," adds Newman.
By the endlessly extraordinary sounds coming from this outfit, fans have no reason not to believe him. |
Copyright ©2006 FFWD. All rights reserved.