Originally Published: 2009-02-15

It will be easy for Carl Newman to remember the date he released his second solo album, Get Guilty. It came out last month on Inauguration Day, and he jokes that it meant, “Obama stole my thunder!” Newman had an in-store performance at the Virgin Records mega store in New York City that evening, and it reportedly went well.
He releases solo records under the name AC Newman, but remains best-known as the chief songwriter in and acknowledged leader of The New Pornographers. Since their first album, Mass Romantic, back in 2000, this Vancouver-based collective of talented singers, musicians and songwriters have earned a sizeable following of loyal fans around the globe with their four records to date.
Now living in Brooklyn (he is married to an American), Newman recorded Get Guilty there with a cast of his American musical comrades. That list includes Josh and Kori Hammel of the duo Mates of State, backing vocalist Nicole Atkins, and drummers Charles Burst and Jon Wurster (Mountain Goats). Newman himself plays guitar, bass, keyboards, mandolin, and percussion, and his masterful use of layered production and gift for pop melody remains the focus of the record.
Its sound will be instantly familiar to fans of The New Pornographers, and Newman makes no apologies for that. “I make AC Newman records where people go, ‘Well if you added Neko Case to this, it’d sound like The New Pornographers.’ I think there’s an element of truth in that, but what can you do? I’m the main guy in that band. That is what I do, man. I don’t really compartmentalize the two things. It’d be much easier for people to digest if my solo albums were quiet and acoustic and then if I did something else with The New Pornographers.”
Case is the solo artist whose strong voice is on the fore on many of The New Pornographers most popular songs. With her own career soaring, she is not able to join the band on all their touring, but they’ve recruited another talented singer, Kathryn Calder (of Immaculate Machines), to join the ranks.

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