Radio rebels win fans, fame with original music

Despite being label mates with the highly successful Interpol,
pop/rock group the New Pornographers never expected popularity. Not
one to follow trends, their dedication to their own sense of good
music has made them one of the most talked-about new bands.

The New Pornographers are not really “new,” as is
the case with most groups finally surfacing to the consciousness of
the mainstream music scene. They are currently on tour in support
of their third album, “Twin Cinema,” and will be
playing at the Henry Fonda Theater on Thursday with Destroyer and
Immaculate Machine. In addition, they will also be guests on
NBC’s “Last Call with Carson Daly” earlier in the
day.

Carl Newman, the frontman and mastermind behind the New
Pornographers, remains modest in anticipation of the show.

“The last time we played (in Los Angeles) was at The
Knitting Factory back in ’03. I’m looking forward to
Henry Fonda; I’m hoping we can fill it. Hopefully, all this
hype will pay off,” he said.

This tour will be the first time Dan Bejar of Destroyer will be
on board. Bejar, an integral part of the band who contributed
several songs to “Twin Cinema,” is one of several New
Pornographers with outside projects. Bejar, Newman and singer Neko
Case all released acclaimed albums of their own in 2004. Despite
the recent press, Newman, a prominent guitarist, is pleased to
expect the usual crowd.

“For the most part it’s just indie rockers, the same
people who are buying The Shins or Arcade Fire or Broken Social
Scene,” Newman said.

A self-proclaimed “mish-mash” of sounds, the New
Pornographers are in fact somewhat difficult to describe, at least
in contemporary terms. Their primarily upbeat power-pop is much
more akin to some revamped sampling of classic pop/rock bands such
as Big Star or the early Beatles than it is similar to anything on
the radio lately.

Not unlike the rest of the creme de la indie crop, Newman
credits his willingness to trust his instinct as the primary reason
for the quality of their sound.

“It’s a gut feeling. I started off as just a music
fan. I didn’t pick up the guitar until I was 18. So as a
songwriter, I still look at it as a fan, and when I write
something, I try to step back and go, “˜If I was just
listening to this, would I like it?'” Newman said.

“I’m of the school where you throw out a huge amount
of ideas to try everything, and then you sort through all of it and
figure out what works. In that sense, I feel like writing good
songs is just having good taste.”

The band got together in 1997 and was first introduced to the
public on the small Vancouver label Mint Records in 2000. By 2002,
they joined up with Matador Records to release “Electric
Version” and the U.S. reissue of their debut “Mass
Romantic.” Since then, the music industry’s recent
upheaval has led to a virtual revolution for the independent
listener, creating opportunities in areas where previously none
existed.

While Newman says the group’s latest album isn’t
exactly radio-friendly, he has no intention of changing his sound
for the airwaves and hopes that his ideas and pop hooks will be
enough to earn them a spot on stations’ playlists.

“We’re kind of incapable of changing for the radio,
but hopefully the radio would change slightly for us,” said
Newman, who described his latest album as being the least
radio-friendly.

“The radio has changed for a bunch of bands ““ The
White Stripes, The Strokes, The Hives, Modest Mouse ““ bands
that you wouldn’t expect to have mainstream success, but
there they are.”