She'll Grow Back: The New Pornographers

Sunday, April 20, 2008

The New Pornographers

As I reassured my mother (and my roommate), they aren't actually producers of pornography.

That I know of.

I'm another one of those New Pornographers fans who goes to see and hear Miss Neko Case primarily. Not to say that the other members of the band aren't great and all, but I'm all about the Neko. Which means that I am a lucky, lucky boy. You see, she had a fall and fractured her ankle (at one show, it was jokingly blamed on Cat Power), and the Athens show was her last on this tour. She had a hard time getting onto the stage, and spent quite a bit of the show trying to get her leg comfortable.

Musically, I have to admit I'm not that big a fan of The New Pornographers, really. They have a handful of songs I love, and another bunch of songs I like, but I don't care for them as a whole. With that said, here are three of my favorites that got played on Thursday.

"Mass Romantic" is one of the few NP songs where Neko gets to sing powerfully. Usually she's doing backing vocals, or sweet lyrical interludes, and almost never the knock-me-on-my-ass powerful vocals she does as a solo act. "Go Places" is a remix you can only get by buying the exclusive 4-disc set of Challengers (which, for the record, only costs $5 more than the standard one-disc edition). "Myriad Harbour" is a song written and primarily sung by Dan Bekar, who wasn't on this tour. So the band invited Will Sheff onstage to sing Dan's part (and I think it was a pretty good impression).



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