Double feature, soft and harder

I didn't move fast enough to get tickets to the (long sold-out) New Pornographers+Belle and Sebastian gigs in NY tonight and tomorrow, but jds has a review of their Montreal hit from a few nights ago. He also brings us the very good news that their March 6 gig in D.C. will be webcast (and later, downloadable... [EDIT: maybe not?] [EDIT 2: Mais oui! Le MP3!]) thanks to NPR's excellent and surprisingly non-NPR-ish live concert series.

I love this quote from Pornographers architect A.C. Newman:

"Various unintentional influences have crept into our work, some of which were quickly removed: The Moody Blues, Tubeway Army, Wings, always Wings, never The Beatles, Eno of course, you can't play ebow (a bow for electric guitars) without sounding like Eno, Modern English, middle period post-Gabriel Genesis, The Stranglers, 10CC. We're still trying to find a way to insert some dub/white reggae in the mix, just as an intellectual exercise, to see if we can do it without being dropped from the label. I know it sounds awful but it will all work out."

jds also writes:

I assume they get a fair amount of radio play up there, given the whole 30% native artist rule for Canadian radio and federal grants for music videos, etc.

I'd have thought that too. What with the wave of unshitty Canadian bands breaking in the past few years, I was actually looking forward to listening to Vancouver rock radio when I was home for the holidays. I mean, they would have to be serving up a steady stream of New Pornographers / Neko Case / Destroyer / Broken Social Scene & co, right?

Turns out, not so much. Apparently, Vancouver's favorite hometown band is still, um... Nickelback.

Comments

[JDS]

1.

Oh, Canada. You don't even know good music when it's right under your nose. Let the Nickelback and Tragically Hip go.
But seriously, there must be something more then blogging and Pitchfork that's got the Montrealers singing along with the New Pornographers.

Thanks for the mention.

I pretty sure the NPR show will only be a stream, not a download. That's how they do most of their audio.

[DJA]

2.

Except the Calexico + Iron and Wine show eventually showed up in a downloadable version. I'd assumed they did this for every show... ?

[JDS]

3.

hmmmm, I wasn't aware of that - it
s great news. Go NPR!

[Maggie Osterberg]

4.

Nickelback?

I blame Nardwuar.

[mwanji]

5.

I'm listening to Belle & Sebastian at the moment. I'd actually never heard their music before. Sounds really good, tight band and great between-song banter. Love the accents.