A.C. Newman Leaves the Motor Running

A.C. Newman is hard to get a fix on, period. The fact that he's invariably described as the "frontman" for The New Pornographers only raises the question of why anyone leading so phenomenally successful a band needs a solo career.

And there he was at Neumos, half in shadow, half in dimly-colored lights, tearing through a set with only a few words here and there of song introduction.

He was singing to a crowd who knew his first album, The Slow Wonder, by heart--"Miracle Drug" came early, "On the Table" came late--and who were delighted to find that Get Guilty equally employs Newman's gift for motoric melody and his sung-as-if-you'll-get-them lyrics--lyrics that, everyone will tell you, reward repeated listening. But baroque pop or not, there's little ostentatious about it.

"There Are Maybe Ten or Twelve" and "Submarines of Stockholm" from Get Guilty are what passes for hit singles on a Newman album--they both have a catchy chorus that seems to advertising their accessibility, but the more you listen, the more "Make of that what you will" becomes a daunting instruction. And while the sheer sound is dialed down compared to the New Pornographers, Newman still attacks. Even a "la la la la," in his hands, sounds full of intent.

Meanwhile, he's backed, even on the road, by a band "bearing trumpets, keyboards, fleugelhorns, drums, recorders, violins, and extra guitars" (as Josh reports over at MetBlogs).

After a while we became distracted by how beautiful the literally half-dressed violinist/tambourinist was, so we took a picture of her too. It feels like there's an analogy to make here about the beauty of the half-visible or half-understood, but we're pressed for time and want to get back to listening to the album. So--make of that what you will.