New Pornographers

Doing a small tour late this year w/Bejar doing Mass Romantic and Twin Cinema on back-to-back nights.

https://www.thenewpornographers.com/#tour

AC Newman is kind of annoying on the burd app

really wish that tour was coming my way, i would be at twin cinema night for sure

Sounds dumb but I wish they were playing a smaller NY venue than Webster hall

is Kathryn Calder not on this tour? i am seeing blurry photos that have a woman on keys at stage left and it doesn't look like her. anyone know?

So the new single.

Tried getting a discussion going over here: new New Pornographers

Upon first listen I like the one song that is available as a single.

I will always adore the first four albums, but tbh the album I play the most these days is Whiteout Conditions.

Same, mostly, although every time I reset I shore up my appreciation for at least one more of the other albums.

In order of how frequently I still play them (maybe slightly more objective than ranking by “favorite”? At least it spares me agonizing over placing Electric Version so low)

Whiteout Conditions
Mass Romantic
Challengers
Electric Version
Twin Cinema
In the Morse Code of Brake Lights
Brill Bruisers
Together

I would put Twin Cinema higher and bump Brill Bruisers a place but yeah.

Twin Cinema's my favorite. I underrated WC.

Brill and Together are a tier unto themselves. The only reason I rate BB higher is “war on the east coast”

"War on the East Coast" is my fave NP song.

Agree that the new single is solid.

that and Backstairs are my fav 2

Together is their weakest and is still pretty good. The last three albums have been consistent and sometimes great, but they still blend in together in my head (though I voted for Brill Bruisers in the ILX Teens poll). I'm going to re-listen today to sort them out.

i prefer the jap movie

I hadn't listened to In the Morse Code of Brake Lights for two years, it turns out it was pretty strong. I haven't missed Bejar on the last two albums because I found his songs on Brill Bruisers were the weak links. Sequencers really gave them a shot of energy that they seemed to be losing on Challengers and Together.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rPYlH1626M

I like

Sounds good so far.

Official tomorrow?

lol why on earth is this thread marked NSFW

Certain picture of Neko maybe?

Ooh this is a very vibey record. Most of the albums post-Twin Cinema have had more buried hooks than the first three, and take repeated listens (or distracted listening) to really sink in. This one's doing that too but in a fresh way.

lol why on earth is this thread marked NSFW

― obsidian crocogolem (sleeve), Thursday, March 30, 2023 11:16 AM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

naughty artist name

The name Old Pornographers was taken.

The Old Weird Cartographers.

Professor Clank and the Old Weird Cartographer Society

lol

“Pontus Pilate” could almost be a Radiohead tune circa amnesiac

This is slack -- the tempos, that is.

I have a kneejerk allergy to saxophones in rock music, and as much as I try to overcome that, I can already tell I’m just not going to come back to this album as much as I do their others.

The saxes are meh too. I prefer Goon Sax.

Believe we even have a thread about that
(xp)

New Pornographers Are Alright If You Like Saxophones

not normally one for horns in general when it comes to rock music – but i feel like it *really* works on the title track.

Really like the sax, it gives me a Psych Furs vibe, which is a very good thing.

Not as sleazy.

Going to see the New Pornographers tonight. Have been a fan since Twin Cinema. Very surprised that they’re playing an old theater right in my backyard in suburban CT. This place seems to mostly host tribute bands, but over the years one of my favorites shows up: X, Paul Westerberg, Conor Oberst, and now the New Pornos. Here are the top 20 songs I’m hoping to hear tonight:

1. Falling Down the Stairs of Your Smile
2. The Bleeding Heart Show
3. Sing Me Spanish Techno
4. The Slow Descent Into Alcoholism
5. Another Drug Deal of the Heart
6. Failsafe
7. All the Old Showstoppers
8. Challengers
9. Brill Bruisers
10. Born With a Sound

Only meant to list 10, but since I misstyped 20, I’ll continue:

11. Dancehall Domine
12. Myriad Harbour
13. Go Places
14. From Blown Speakers
15. Twin Cinema
16. Moves
17. High Ticket Attractions
18. We End Up Together
19. The Spirit of Giving
20. The Laws Have Changed

was discussing this in another online spot: they're going the wrong direction in terms of draw.

enjoy, though! still the best rock band of the past two decades.

Saw them last week, they were ... OK. But that happens to everyone.

lemme say that I am shooked! SHOOKED and STOONED, per Barry Wom, that there is another Ilxor living in Fairfield County! Mostly finance people into Dave Matthews, Dead & Co, Phish and so forth, so its nice to know there's another ILMnik lurking around.

In said county, I wanna support shit like this band doing a show at a venue 15 minutes from my house, because it is slim, geriatric pickings almost all of the time…you have to go to New Haven to see current acts, and I have very small children, so going to NYC is challenging… and in fact, that Nu Porns were booked at Wall St Theater at all indicates that they are more geriatric than not…when I saw this band in 2001, 2005 and 2015, they came out all guns blazing each time and would settle down for some subdued shit but were mostly there to throw down…even at Prospect Park Bandshell, in front of thousands of Slope-ites whom the band resembles, they TOE SHIT UP… but last night, it was gray and white hair, bald heads, seated in the venue…to me, seated audience = not enough energy. Josh and Alpine seem to be saying that the band is mostly listless no matter what, but it seems to me that even a late 40s/early 50s crowd on its feet can transmit sufficient energy back at the band…Carl (my wife, who doesn't follow music at all but admires Neko, called him "Ed Begley Jr.") and Neko barely kept up any of the sort of patter I remember them being quite good at…they did get going at the end, and so I wanna blame the crowd, who may rep for legacy indie rock but ultimately are uptight CT people too concerned with their own comfort. There is room at the back of the venue at the bar for people to stand and respond physically to the music, so that helped a bit. Do you remember what Carl said about Norwalk, Justineyukon?

Says it all, really, that me and my buddy from Sheffield, talked a bit, possibly too loudly, and were indignantly shushed by two sets of couples, one who exclaimed "WE'VE BEEN WAITING THREE YEARS FOR LIVE MUSIC!!!" My friend got his back up. pissed that american stick in the muds now come to rock shows and demand hushed, attentive respect…he doesn't know the band and this ruined the show for him, but they did "Mass Romantic," "Slow Descent," "bleeding Heart show" (a very very moving song")… I am happy the band came to my area, but do I have to be resigned that music designed to be kinetic will occasionally be subject to aging indie rock who want to sit down? Is this what National shows are like?

xpost: "aging indie rock fans"

Doesn't Neko live in New England?

My fave they played here was ... "July Jones"? I liked hearing that again. But yeah, I've seen them a bunch over the years, in increasingly big places (not huge, but bigger than where I used to see them), and they'd always put on a pretty good show. This one (one of two sold out shows in a maybe 1000 person venue) was relatively listless, or at least not particularly fun, compared to how I remembered them. That said, there were two rapt guys in front of us (I was in a balcony spot, so most people were sitting) that hung on every word. For comparison's sake, a couple of people I was with absolutely loved them, but one of them worships Neko. Another person I was with, a more casual fan though nonetheless one familiar with their whole catalog, thought the set was weighed down by the new stuff, not in an old fan likes older stuff sort of way, just that she thinks the new stuff is much more subdued.

I saw them on tour for their last album cycle and they were terrific. I have hard time believing their love show has fallen off that considerably, from just one cycle to the next. Granted, we had a whole pandemic in between so maybe some shit has happened.

They're playing Brooklyn Steel and tickets are pretty affordable - is Neko definitely with them the entire tour?

FWIW, I saw that Prospect Park show in 2015 - I thought it was okay, but by then I was kind of losing interest in them. I managed to see them in 2006 and Neko was part of the band - a nice surprise as IIRC she wasn't actually touring with them. I think it happened because she was living around Chicago at the time and didn't have a tour going on herself. That was an excellent show and it was probably the peak of my fandom - Twin Cinema had come out and it's probably still my favorite album of theirs.

First of all, I didn't say they were listless this time, I said their draw is shrinking. No worries, just wanted to clarify.

HOWEVER ... I do think they're generally a little bit listless, at least in recent years. I've seen them three times: First in 2003 and they were great, then in 2010 and they were listless (but also touring on what I think is their worst album, Together), and again in 2017, and they were great, but they were great because of the *songs* not because they gave a great performance. (There were other tangential circumstances that made me love them that time, too.)

The real fuel for the listlessness is just the lack of personality that comes through anymore ... if Carl and Neko were once great at banter, they really aren't these days. (Neko is definitely still better at it than Carl.) They mostly look like they're going through the motions, *especially* Blaine Thurier (who is no longer with the band, but was a vibe-killer when he was). Carl's affect looks more like a mix of "a little nervous + lots to do and trying not to mess up + going through the motions" ... I think he enjoys what he does, mostly, but he just doesn't really act like it.

I haven't seen them on this tour, but if they seem listless this time, I would suggest that it's because the setlists are heavy with songs from an album that's just OK. I'm not sure they have the show to carry dreary songs anymore.

Maybe the next album will be a Brill Bruisers-style return to form and I'll pounce on the chance to see them again, but otherwise, it might be time - for me, at least - to prioritize anniversary shows focused on the albums I really love. (I missed the Mass Romantic / Electric Version tour and it still bums me out.)

Yeah, I should stress, it wasn't a bad show, as such. Just ... fine. Rarely exultant.