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Posted in music on September 20, 2005
New Pornographers on Neko & Brooklyn Show
Pitchfork: So Neko Case is also going to be coming back for that tour after playing some shows without her. How was it adjusting to her absence?
Newman: It was only in June that we started playing shows without her. For obvious reasons, the first couple shows seemed weird. We thought, "What are people going to think? Are people going to throw stuff at us? What if people only like us because Neko is in the band?" And then after a couple shows, we realized that wasn't the case. And it helps that Kathryn [Calder] is just really good. She's a great singer and also a great piano player, so musically she makes the band a lot better because we've got this extra virtuoso musician. Did you go to that Brooklyn show?
Pitchfork: Yes, I did. I thought that it came out pretty good.
Newman: That was fun. It just seemed weird that this was the biggest show that we've ever played, and we were playing it with this new lineup, and it made us realize that we can function as a band without Neko.
We always want to have Neko around to play with us, but I think that whole little trip was like an experiment because we had to start playing without Neko. If we were always waiting for Neko to play, then it would be another record that we didn't support and didn't tour. Neko knew all of this, so the whole situation works out pretty nicely.
the whole interview at Pitchfork who gave New Porn's latest album a 9.0.
Previously
Neko Case Playing Joe's Pub | New Album
Posted on September 20, 2005 2:46 AM
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Comments (5)
Yeah, I thought that section of the interview was pretty harsh... It stood out.
Posted by Hightower | September 20, 2005 8:33 AM
check out for the issue of Magnet for more on this. David Cross basically talks a bunch of smack on Neko, it comes across that she was a diva at a Seattle show, and Cross tells Newman that he it's time to ditch her. Newman also talks about recording happening with or without her. Never realized that tension was there...they always seemed a band that got along.
Posted by Kevin | September 20, 2005 11:16 AM
for a band who apparently have a lot of tension, their music sure seems pretty free of it...
Posted by matthew | September 20, 2005 12:37 PM
sometimes the best music is born under a significant amount of band tension.
Posted by ryan | September 20, 2005 2:01 PM
Neko may or may not be a diva, but realistically speaking (and ignoring the fact that Carl's been living in SF), it may be geographically inconvenient to expect Neko to be a part of every little New Pornos' activity. But much more importantly, this is Carl Newman's band - she's essentially a hired gun - and he seems to perceive this project as his last chance to make a decent living playing rock music. Since he writes 90% of the songs (and Dan Bejar doesn't even consider himself a member of the band), why should he have to wait around for a year at a time waiting for Neko to record and tour her own material - especially because the man seems so darn prolific?
Posted by David | September 20, 2005 6:13 PM