Billy goats and bubblegum

>> Hooking up with the New Pornographers

by JOHNSON CUMMINS

Thumbing through the current Rolling Stone, I was shocked to find a favourable review of something I actually liked. The one saving grace in its thinning 64 pages was a three-and-a-half-star review of Vancouver's supa-group the New Pornographers. The magazine even called the record "a striking power-pop album exploding with energy and joy," and for once they were spot on.

Most of the hyperbole that has attached itself to the New Pornographers got its running start with the attachment of y'all-ternative star Neko Case's name. Although Case is excellent on the record, her presence overall is a cameo at best. "I guess having Neko in the band was kind of like a hook," says singer Carl Newman. "If they want to use Neko as a selling point, that's cool with us. If you meet a girl, you don't really want to spill everything about yourself right off the bat, but you still need a hook. Maybe what most people don't know is that Neko wanted this tour to happen even more than us and has been a real booster for the band."

Neko's more urban vocals do fit like a velvet glove on the record, but any comparisons to her C&W material is instantly squashed. This is a classic bubblegum pop record, with all of the usual suspects--Brian Wilson, Van Dyke Parks, Phil Spector, George Martin--getting musically namechecked. Five-part harmonies careen over infectious melody lines, arrangements take sharp left corners and the instrumentation is as thick and dense as Spector's famous wall of sound--yet incredibly digestible.

"I think we really had a hard time taking stuff out of the mix. We did at some points because it started to get ridiculous, but it is definitely the record I've always wanted to make. I love the Beach Boys but I think that was an unconscious influence as well. If you are going to be doing anything with multi-track harmonies, how can you sound like anybody else?" says Newman.

To package a project slick with two years' worth of blood and sweat must've been a challenge. These guys really rose to the occasion and came up with one of the most gaudy pieces of cover art I've ever seen. Emblazoned on the front we see two lovers locked in a naked embrace as a ram (yeah, that's right, a ram!) watches over the couple in front of a mountain range.

"I actually got that painting at Kathleen Hannah's [Bikini Kill] garage sale. This guy from Tacoma came to the garage sale and he had it with him and I just knew that I had to have it. I offered him $20 and just brought it home. When we were thinking of a cover, somebody mentioned that the weird painting in my house would be perfect. We still don't know the artist who did it, but if he is reading this, please get in contact with us."

With Andrew Bird's Bowl of Fire at Cabaret tonight, Thursday, Feb. 22, 9pm, $12