NEW PORNOGRAPHERS, THE - MASS ROMANTIC

The New Pornographers is a Canadian indie rock group formed in 1997 in Vancouver, British Columbia. Their sound is influenced by that of such power pop bands as The Cars and Cheap Trick, but they use much more sophisticated rhythms and chord changes. Although it was widely reported that the New Pornographers got their name from a pamphlet put out by televangelist Jimmy Swaggart condemning rock ‘n’ roll as “the new pornography,” Carl Newman has stated that he came up with the name after watching Shohei Imamura's The Pornographers (1966). The melody of the first and eponymous track on their second album Electric Version, for instance, begins with an arpeggiated diminished triad --- a rare and strange opening flourish for a pop song. The band have released a series of well-received albums: Mass Romantic (2000), Electric Version (2003), Twin Cinema (2005), Challengers (2007), Together (2010), Brill Bruisers (2014) and Whiteout Conditions (2017). In 2019 they released In the Morse Code of Brake Lights. The band members include: - Carl Newman - vocals, guitar, ebow, synthesizer, harmonica, pump organ, xylophone - Dan Bejar - vocals, guitar, synthesizer, melodion - Kathryn Calder - vocals, piano - Neko Case - vocals, tambourine - John Collins - bass, guitar, synthesizer, ebow, vocals - Kurt Dahle - drums, percussion, vocals - Todd Fancey - guitar - Blaine Thurier - synthesizer Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.