Rock stars don’t get to see their friends and family too often when they’re on the road. While touring to promote “Twin Cinema,” its third album of hook-laden power pop, The New Pornographers has solved that problem; friends and family are the band’s two opening acts.
Kathryn Calder, lead singer Carl Newman’s niece, will open the show with her band, Immaculate Machine, before joining the Pornographers on stage to handle background vocals. Also doing double duty is Pornographers guitarist Dan Bejar, frontman for the other opening band, Destroyer.
Seeing Bejar perform with the group is a rare treat, as he hasn’t toured with the band since 2000. In general, getting all the members of the New Pornographers out on tour can be a bit like herding cats, with almost everyone in the group working on other projects. Vocalist Neko Case’s solo career has been so successful she missed several dates on the summer leg of the tour before rejoining the band this fall.
Metromix talked with Newman about the origins of the band’s name, what song is currently stuck in his head and why he prefers TV shows about people selling pot to an episode of “The OC.”
In some interviews you say the band name came from a Jimmy Swaggart book, in others it sounds like you’re making up answers.
The Jimmy Swaggart one is kind of made up. I just liked it, you know? Back in the ’60s, there were a lot of bands that were “The New.” The New Seekers, The New Christy Minstrels, so I wanted to be The New something. Calling yourself “The New” gives it this false sense of being really modern.
The New Pornographers has been called an “indie supergroup,” but you don’t really care for the term, do you?
Noooo. It was coined by the label because I think they thought it would help us sell a couple hundred extra records. It doesn’t really seem like a very good term for us. Lots of bands are made of people who have been playing in other bands before. Nobody ever calls Tortoise a supergroup, even though they had guys from Slint and Eleventh Dream Day and whoever else! So I think it’s kind of annoying.
Do you find yourself playing over-protective uncle to Kathryn?
No, she doesn’t need anybody protecting her. I imagine I would if it came down to some kind of bar brawl but, other than that, no. It’s pretty mellow.
Not too many bar brawls on tour?
To date? Zero.
In “Sing Me Spanish Techno,” you talk about the dangers of “listening too long to one song.” Is there a song you’ve been listening too long to lately?
There are songs that go through my head constantly without me even listening to them. Like “Sister Golden Hair” by America. That one’s been in my head for quite a while now. Like a few months. But the more “Sister Golden Hair” plays in my head, the more I’m beginning to like it.
You’ve got a solo track on an “OC” mix, and The New Pornographers has a song on the “Weeds” soundtrack. Which show are you more likely to watch?
I don’t have cable at all, so I don’t really watch TV. I’d say I would watch “Weeds.” I think I can relate more to people selling pot than people living in “the OC.” I am from Vancouver, after all.
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The New Pornographers
When: 9 p.m. Thursday
Where: Metro,
3730 N. Clark St.
Tickets: $18
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metromix@tribune.com
