The New Pornographers
The New Pornographers are a predominantly
Canadian indie rock group formed in
1997 in
Vancouver,
British Columbia. Their sound is highly influenced by such
power pop bands as
The Cars and
Cheap Trick, although their songs are generally of a greater melodic and harmonic complexity.
Carl Newman, who writes most of the band's material, has said, "When I seriously started to try to write songs, my main influences were, like,
Burt Bacharach,
Jim Webb, and
Brian Wilson. Those were the guys I kinda looked at their music and went, 'What the hell are they doing here?' I was just fascinated by the structures and the harmonics."[
1] The melody of the first and eponymous track on their second album
Electric Version, for instance, begins with an
arpeggiated diminished triad—a rare and strange opening flourish for a pop song.
The band has released three albums to date:
Mass Romantic (
2000),
Electric Version (
2003), and
Twin Cinema (
2005).
The band members include
Daniel Bejar,
Kathryn Calder,
Neko Case,
John Collins,
Kurt Dahle,
Todd Fancey,
Carl Newman, and
Blaine Thurier.
Fisher Rose also played drums on some songs in
Mass Romantic.
The New Pornographers are frequently referred to as a
supergroup—or an indie supergroup—because of the following members' associations:
*
Dan Bejar of
Destroyer;
*
Kathryn Calder of
Immaculate Machine;
*
Neko Case, solo artist, also of
Maow and
cub;
*
John Collins of
The Evaporators;
*
Kurt Dahle of
Limblifter and
Age of Electric;
*
Todd Fancey, solo artist (as Fancey) and
Limblifter;
*
Carl Newman, solo artist (as A.C. Newman), also of
Superconductor and
Zumpano;
*
Nora O'Connor of
The Blacks and
Andrew Bird's Bowl of Fire; and
*
Blaine Thurier, independent filmmaker.Newman, however, doesn't care for the term, explaining: "I'm really tired of that supergroup label, and I wish people would stop using it. None of us were known at all outside of Canada—I just don't think it's accurate." [
2]
The name of the band was supposedly chosen by Newman from a quote attributed to
Jimmy Swaggart, who once called music, "the new
pornography," although Newman did not know of the quote at the time. [
3]
Studio albums
Mass Romantic (2000)
Electric Version (2003)
Twin Cinema (2005) #44 U.S.
Singles
| Year | Song | Album | | 2001 | "Letter From An Occupant" | Mass Romantic |
| 2003 | "All For Swinging You Around" | Electric Version |
| 2003 | "The Laws Have Changed" | Electric Version |
| 2005 | "Use It" | Twin Cinema |
| 2006 | "Sing Me Spanish Techno" | Twin Cinema |
FUBAR: The Album (2002) - "Your Daddy Don't Know"
Matador at Fifteen (2004) - "Graceland"
*
Music of Vancouver*
List of bands from British Columbia*
List of bands from Canada*
The New Pornographers*
Matador Records*
49music, fansite*
The New Pornographers biography at Mint Records*
"A Pretty Good Girlfriend and Even Better Sales", PopMatters interview (10/2005)*
The New Pornographers biography from TrouserPress.com
