New Pornographers

For some reason, during the past few years I convinced myself that I didn't like the New Pornographers. I thought they were overwrought, saccharine and, overall, just too much something. Tonight, though, I went to a New Pornographers/Destroyer concert and everything changed. I originally bought the tickets because I wanted to see Destroyer, who's currently performing songs exclusively from Thief and Streethawk. Destroyer, as was expected, was awesome. (Actually, it might even have been the most consistently good Destroyer show I've seen in quite some time, but that's for a different post.) But when the New Pornographers started to play, I realized that I had completely missed the point for all these years. The wall of sound effect alone was quite impressive in itself but it can't totally account for the fact that, when played in a live setting, the songs suddenly took on this epic quality. I could see the unstoppable urge to dance spreading throughout the crowd as the night wore on, but I was shocked at how many songs came across as being classics, even though I only listen to the albums occasionally. I guess what I'm meaning to say with all this is that, Carl Newman, I apologise for all the hating. I have been converted.

Here's some songs by the New Pornographers, as well as by band members and affiliated bands.

New Pornographers - The Laws Have Changed
This song kicked my ass tonight. I almost forgot how simultaneously complex yet catchy it is and, up until today, I didn't even realize how amazing the lyrics are.

Destroyer - Streets of Fire
You can't beat the original, but you can make it sound better. They easily proved this tonight.

Neko Case - Dreaming Man
This is Neko Case covering Neil Young from Harvest Moon, the only adult contemporary album that I consider a must own. Really, it all comes together when she says the Aerostar line, in spite of the gender confusion problems. Or perhaps because of them.

The Battles - Lycanthropy
I think the guitarist that played with destroyer tonight is in this Vancouver band. Even if he isn't, Dan Bejar played keyboards on this song. At least I think he did. Even without him, though, this song is awesomely good.

Immaculate Machine - Broken Ship
I missed this band tonight, which I regret, but the girl played some mean keyboard and tambourines with the new pornos.

[It goes without saying that you should buy all these albums but, because it's late, I hope that you can find them on the internets yourselves without the assistance of handy links.]