| The record
begins with the click of the drumsticks: a one two, one-two-three-four,
a uber-cheesy keyboard riff, a driving guitar chugs, and a drum roll
cascades into a full blown herky-jerky jam fest on the track called
“Mass Romantic.” It is an utterly appropriate song to kick
off The New Pornographer magnificent indie-power-pop record of the same
name. Mass Romantic is, to use a cliché, a venerable tour-de-force,
a smack in the face, and a middle finger to the whiners who say indie
rock is irrelevant. This is soul music. This is bold music. This is
rock music; [pause] that happens to be bent on indie.
“The whole record did come off, like, a little more energetic
than I thought it would be,” states Carl Newman, principal songwriter
and self-proclaimed talent scout. “I don’t why that was,
it just did. It almost worried me a little bit when at the end of it
I thought, ‘Will people want to listen to this record?’
Because it’s just one two three four go, for forty minutes, and
it rarely lets up, and when it does let up, it’s some quiet part
with a lot of weird squiggly sounds in it.” It’s a tremendous
thing when the songwriter perfectly describes the band’s sound.
It makes my job much easier.
Mass Romantic was released in late 2000 on Canadian indie, Mint Records,
to, well, not much fanfare. It wasn’t until the following year
that critics and discerning music listeners across North America (and,
even, overseas) began to generate a mild buzz about the band. Much of
the talk centered on the stellar, quirky, over-the-top rock songs that
emanated from their hi-fi stereo systems. As more press began digging
up the origins of the band, they were soon tagged a “supergroup.”
“I don’t know. I never was really into that idea. I think
our bass player, John, just liked the idea of calling it a supergroup,
thinking that would make it [the record] sell extra copies or something,”
Newman says, “At the beginning, when the record came out, we just
had no idea that anybody would be interested. So we were thinking, ‘We’ve
got use any means possible to move these things.’ I think that’s
probably why it happened.”
Well, leave it to the critics to play some surreal game of investigative
capture-the-flag. They maneuver between fellow hotshot know-it-alls
using Internet search engines, the All Music Guide, and The Trouser
Press Record Guide (and Guide to 90s Rock) to get to the goal, the flag
of newfound knowledge, and upon grabbing it begin to wave it around
giddily. Here is how the tag was applied: Newman, a veteran of indie
pop playing in Zumpano, brought a group of friends together for his
new band, he was calling The New Pornographers. These friends happened
to be in other bands or had their own creative outlets, thus the band
took some time to come together. In the meantime, several members began
to experience some “success” on their own.
Dan Bejar, who is an excellent songwriter with his own band Destroyer
(who have received their share of indie hype) was enlisted, “I’ve
just known him through the years, basically. I guess I was one of the
really early Destroyer supporters. I thought his songs were really good.
We had this idea we gotta put this band together, and that was basically
before (Destroyer’s) City of Daughters came out, so all he basically
had was that four-track recording. We slowly assembled it together,
and eventually had a band a few years later, oddly enough.” Bejar
would provide guitar, vocals, and songs to The New Pornos.
Limblifter and Age of Electric alum, Kurt Dahle, was asked to man the
drum kit. Newman explains that Age of Electric was a fairly big band
in Canada in the mid-90s, “I think Kurt has a Canadian gold record
in his basement somewhere. It’s kind of strange when I think of
it. That Kurt used to be this pop star in Canada.” Next up is
Blaine Thurier, who became known as the filmmaker/screenwriter, who
would be playing the keyboards. “He’s just a really old
friend of mine. I think I’ve known him longer than anybody in
the band. We started before he started doing film. He was a cartoonist.
And then at some point he decided to write a script and buy a video
camera and buy a computer and kind of went into debt and made this movie.
This ridiculously DIY movie, and it ended up getting a decent amount
of attention. It won the best narrative feature at the South By Southwest
Film Festival. It’s kind of strange that people now refer to Blaine
as the filmmaker,” says Newman with sly smile in his voice that
comes across the phone lines. John Collins, the bass player, has played
in bands like Thee Evaporators and Thee Goblins, would be providing
the low end as well as some keyboard parts (more on that later).
And, finally, Neko Case was chosen to contribute her splendid voice
to The New Pornos’ songs. Newman explains, “At that point,
she didn’t have a band. Yeah, I met her in 95 or 96. It was at
a point when she was just beginning to sing. And people would go, ‘Have
you heard Neko sing? She has this really good voice.’ And it wasn’t
too long after that she became part of the band.”
Newman states, “I think it’s kind of weird because people
refer to us as a supergroup, but when we started we really weren’t.
Neko hadn’t put out any of her country records yet, nobody knew
her. And Dan hadn’t gotten any attention as Destroyer. And Blaine
hadn’t done any movies. Since we’ve started, our resumes
have become more padded. At the time, we were just a bunch of people
in a band. I’ve always felt that, if nothing else, I was a good
talent scout in this band. I knew how to find great new talent, and
I knew how to surround myself with it. Hopefully, [the tag] will be
gone by the time we put out our next record.”
And The New Pornos were born, much to our delight. What makes this band
so exciting isn’t so much who is in the band, but the songs; twelve
songs that not only expand, but move indie rock into a new realm. The
thing that makes The New Pornos so entirely captivating is the sheer
energy, the ability to reconcile the Rock Aesthetic with the Craft of
Pop Songwriting. This is literate songwriting with passion. Newman attributes
this to the influence of early seventies British music. “I don’t
think we sound like an early seventies glam band, but that’s the
stuff I think a rock band should be modeled upon,” he explains
with mild-mannered intensity. “If I’m ever stuck for ideas
or where your rock band should go, I mean, Love and Roxy Music, I just
think are two of the greatest rock n roll bands, ever. Maybe not technically
as good as The Beatles or The Stones, but just for style…”
he pauses, formulating his next statement, “They aren’t
necessarily the best bands, but they are the bands I would want to be
in.”
The New Pornos have been able to do something most late nineties early
twenty-first century indie rockers have not been able to do: transcend
their influences. When Newman has an idea of what he wants to say, he
rolls. Explaining this phenomena, this central tenet of his band, he
says quickly, “I think we are definitely trying to make it sound
like nothing else. I remember that being a thing in the back of my mind,
I never wanted anything in it that was too much of a reference point.
So for that reason, I didn’t want it to have any strings, or any
horns, or you don’t want to use an electric sitar because it has
so many connotations. You have to be careful with some instruments because
they had been used for so much evil in the past. I like the harmonica,
but if you pick up a harmonica people are going to compare you to Dylan.”
And, overall, The New Pornos succeed at disguising their influences.
Sure, the woo-hoos on “Letter From An Occupant” recall the
Beach Boys, and the melody of “Jackie” smells like Hunky
Dory, but what the hell does “The Body Says No”, “The
Slow Descent Into Alcoholism”, “Mystery Hours”, and,
damn, the rest of the record sound like? Something familiar, but nothing
in particular! Not to get all Kid Rock on you, it sounds like good shit.
“We didn’t want to be wimpy,” Newman states concretely
and specifically. “I think I’d always felt that Zumpano
records were too wimpy. And I wanted to be a little more rock, even
at the expense of subtlety. I really liked the sound of a chugging guitar,
it could add so much weight to a song. I know we wanted it to be fun.”
In the studio, this goal was paramount and the other members were fast
to accept Newman’s vision. He recalls how the others wanted the
songs to be faster and heavier. Sometimes they had to push him to keep
this in mind, “It was always me going, ‘No. I know what
you are trying to do, but that is just too fast.’ I think it was
John and Kurt going, ‘No, it’s good to be fast!’”
Mass Romantic is chock full of glorious moments, hugely captivating
hooks, and a general big sound, something that has been decidedly lacking
in indie rock over the last five to seven years. The sound is practically
dirty and nearly sick, full of fuzz bass, crunchy riff ripping guitars
and filthy keyboard licks and lines. Newman proudly states, “We
wanted bizarre keyboard sounds. For example, the keyboard that is kind
of in the middle break of “Mystery Hours”, I really wanted
it to have that fucked up, kind of calliope kind of feel.”
Newman says that they have been in the studio on and off working on
the new record. Collins has been more involved putting another interesting
spin on the songs. “As we work on the new record, I realize that
John is kind of one of the secret weapons in the band that doesn’t
get enough credit. For the most part, the two people who were there
the most making Mass Romantic and, now, the new stuff, are John and
I,” he explains. “I think one of things that is really good
about the band is I don’t have to depend on myself to be the only
person with any ideas. Because I think I would really be miserable,”
he says with a bit of a chuckle.
Not only do the New Pornos mine new/not-so-new territory with their
music, but the lyrics aren’t half bad, although what the hell
they are about, I don’t know. But at the same time, I do know.
There is room for interpretation, as well as, shared experience. I share
with this point with Newman and he replies, “We were trying not
to be too absurd because… I think both Dan and I are both not
trying to write relationship songs that are about everyday things, you
know? And the same we don’t want to be like silly pyschedelic
music. So, hopefully we fit somewhere in the middle there.” Mission
accomplished, wouldn’t you say fellow discerning music listeners?
In a world full of bad to absolutely horrible lyrics, Newman’s
approach is welcome. He says it best, “For me personally, I don’t
even feel like I’m trying to write great lyrics, I’m just
trying to write lyrics that aren’t bad. If you can write lyrics
that simply are not bad, you are already on the top ten percent of lyricists.”
The band just finished a mini-tour of the Midwest that proved to exceed
any expectations created by the mild hype lauded upon them by critics
in year end “Best of 2001” lists and media buzz. There will
be a short period of time to collect their senses before they begin
recording their sophomore record. Newman says they are looking to finish
it up by June or July 2002 and have it released late in the year. He
thinks this is a good idea and hypothesizes, “It made me think
releasing a record at the end of the year could be a good strategy.
You get on the year end of lists of the people who are really on the
ball, and then for the people who are a little late, you get on theirs
the next year.”
The question had to be asked: What is with the name chosen for the band?
“Oh. I don’t really have a good answer. People don’t
really like my answer. My truthful answer is I just like the way it
sounded. Actually, it has nothing to do with pornography. People don’t
want to hear that though,” states Newman , obviously feeling sinister.
Sounds good to me. If the new songs debuted on the winter tour are an
indication of things to come, the name The New Pornographers will not
being going away any time soon. And there was much rejoicing.
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