New Pornographers Plot Album, Solo LPs for Neko Case and A.C. Newman

The members of Canadian power-pop crew the New Pornographers are keeping plenty busy these days. Singer-guitarist Carl "A.C." Newman will release his second solo album, Get Guilty, on January 20th. And in March, singer Neko Case will put out her latest set of country-pop tunes. Titled Middle Cyclone, the disc features an all-star crew of guests including the Band's Garth Hudson, M. Ward and many of her New Pornographers bandmates, in addition to her five-piece backing band. "Whenever I'd hear a musician was in town, I'd be like 'Get 'em down here!' " says Case.

Case also tells Rolling Stone that the New Pornographers are prepping their follow-up to last year's Challengers. The group plans to start recording early next year. (There is no tentative release date slotted, however, according to the band's label, Matador Records.) "Carl told me the other day he's got a bunch of demos for the new record," she says, "So I'll be getting those pretty soon, and we'll probably start working on that in the new year."

Related Stories:
• New Pornographers Live at All Points West
• Album Review: New Pornographers, Challengers
• Pornographers Get Rolling

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Song Stories

“Piano Man”

Billy Joel | 1973

Billy Joel’s first hit, “Piano Man,” was – ironically – an autobiographical lament about how his first album wasn’t a hit. When Cold Spring Harbor didn’t take off, Joel briefly became a lounge pianist in Los Angeles, and this song, about that experience, expressed his frustrations and fears at the time: “And they sit at the bar and put bread in my jar/And say, ‘Man, what are you doing here?’” “It was all right,” Joel said later, about the gig. “I got free drinks and union scale, which was the first steady money I’d made in a long time.”

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