CHRW likes Pornographers

The New Pornographers have been flipping in and out of the #1 spot on our charts since the release of their latest album Twin Cinema in August. They have been number one on the CHRW charts for 9 weeks total (non-consecutive), giving them the distinction of being the longest running #1 album in CHRW history. According to the encyclopedic CHRW historian Steve Kopp (History of Us, Tuesdays 1:30pm - 3:30pm) the former record holder was Nash the Slash's second solo album "Children of the Night" back in the early 80's. Given the number of diverse shows and tastes at the station it is a pretty unique feat for any album to be so well received, but nobody can dispute the awesome popness of the New Pornographers. If you need some more convincing to run out and buy this album, you can listen to the songs "Twin Cinema"(mp3) and "Use it" (mp3). You can watch a video of their live performance at WFMU here (avi 44mb, Courtesy of WFMU's Beware of the Blog)

The most startling thing about the New Pornographers are the amount of excellent solo albums put out by members of the group. The Slow Wonder released last year by frontman Carl (A.C.) Newman spent a lot of time on the CHRW and CMJ charts, got him nominated for a Juno (he was beat out by Broken Social Scenester, Leslie Fiest) and made numerous critics year's best lists. The Slow Wonder is my personal favorite of all New Pornographer-associated output, I only needed to hear "Town Halo" once to be hooked. There are still some tracks floating around ("Miracle Drug" mp3 and "Drink to me Babe, Then" mp3, Courtesy of Matador) in case you live in a cave and haven't heard it yet.

New Pornographer's guitar/keyboardist and tuxedo-shirt retailer, Todd Fancey also released his first solo album in 2004 to critical acclaim (PFM) and has recently released a follow-up 4 song EP on March Records. Daniel Bejar's side-project(does it count as a side-project if you actually release more albums than your main project?) Destroyer has consistently put out some praise-worthy indie albums including, thief (2000, Catsup Plate), Streethawk: a Seduction (2001, Misra), This Night (2002, Merge) and Your Blues (2004, Merge). Destroyer's latest album Notorious Lightning and Other Works is more of the same indie-pop and clever song-writing.

I don't think you really need me to tell you about sometimes Pornographer Neko Case's solo projects. Born in Virgina claiming Washington state as home, Neko has been a fixture in the Vancouver music scene for a while now. Her career so far has included a far-ranging variety of musical styles and numerous bands, but she is most well known for her country-influenced indie-pop of her solo projects which include 2004's The Tigers have Spoken .(Anti) and you can listen to the track "If you Only Knew" here (mp3 courtesy Anti). Her new album Fox Confessor Brings The Flood is scheduled to be released in March 2006 also on Anti records.

The New Pornographers without solo projects, John Collins, Blaine Thurier and Kurt Dahle, spend a fair amount of time in other notable bands including Limblifter (Dahle) and The Evaporators and Thee Goblins (Collins), while Thurier makes movies in his spare time.

Just a small overview of the current reigning champs of the CHRW charts.