There are basically two distinct types of music fan when you get down to it: the genuine fan and the hipster poseur.  The genuine fan has no problem admitting their love of Bruce Springsteen.  The hipster poseur will only do so when Bonny Prince Billy has covered one of his songs.  The genuine fan will listen to just about anything that happens to move him/her at any given stage of their life.  The hipster poseur subsists on a steady diet of Pitchfork reviews and anything labeled as “lo-fi”.

I once went on a single date with a hipster poseur.  He was the drummer of a local band that I was more than mildly obsessed with at the time.  He was several years younger than me, extremely jaded and superior.  Throughout dinner, he baraged me with interview questions: “Favorite Beatles album? (his was The White Album, of course), “Which member of Radiohead would I sleep with?”, “Most influential prog-rock band?”.  Needless to say, I wasn’t exactly enjoying myself.  The best part of the date was watching him nearly shit his pants as I did donuts in an empty extremely icy parking lot.  I never went out with him again, a mutual decision,  his band promptly disappeared, and life went on as though it had never happened at all.

There are bands that can be used to conduct social experiments to determine which sort of music fan a person may be and I think the New Pornographers are such a band.  They are a hard working band of much talent.  They’ve been mainlining power pop since 1997.  They make sunshiney music that makes you want to hug people.  Maybe that’s not your thing.  That’s okay.  But don’t hate on them, please; especially if you yourself have no musical talent of your own.  It’s just inane.  Let’s take a quick look at what we have in the New Pornographers:

Carl Newman, the founder, who has produced brilliant solo work under the moniker, A.C.Newman.  Neko Case, who needs no introduction by now.  Dan Bejar, who has also released solo work under the name, “Destroyer” as well as playing with bands Swan Lake and Hello, Blue Roses.  He plays the electric and acoustic guitar, piano, organ, vibraphone and percussion, so I’d say he deserves some respect for that, wouldn’t you?

New Pornographers have enjoyed their fair share of accolades from the industry.  Last year, Rolling Stone honored their second studio album, Electric Version, on their list of “100 Best Albums of the Decade”.  Their first three albums were all featured on the Village Voice Top 40.  But they are ravaged by the hipster poseur demographic and I simply cannot abide it.  This camp argues that a group containing the power trio of Newman, Case and Bejar ought to be producing music that can be heard from space; so awesome in its power that it produces seizures of epically hip proportions.  Well, I’m sorry, but I just can’t get on that bus.  Canadian power pop may not be your cup of tea and that’s alright.  But to hate on a group that consistently churns out pretty little gems and shares its talent equally in lieu of ego wrestling matches?  You might want to consider putting your energy towards a more useful end.  While you’re at it, you can explain to me why Trans Am ever got a record contract.

New Pornographers – Your Hands [Together]

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