With Or Without Neko

>> Featured Artist: The New Pornographers

The Toaster Talks editorial staff is way too excited for the upcoming New Porn-B&S show in D.C. on March 6 (the second of the double-day billing). The New Pornographers put on an amazing show with Neko Case last year (see last week's Immaculate Machine entry), but as she is releasing an album March 7 (see Album Lookout below), the NPs will be Neko-less this spring. And with Destroyer out touring in promotion of a new album as well, Dan Bejar won't be on the tour either.

In these uncertain times, the Toaster likes to snuggle up with what it's comfortable with. The nets have been pretty well doused in new New Pornographers, so we thought we'd point to something some of us might have missed.

"Letter From an Occupant" (from the band's 2000 debut, Mass Romantic) is as close as it gets to perfect pop.


>> Album Lookout: Fox Confessor Brings the Flood

Neko Case - Due Out: March 7, 2006 Anti-

This is what Neko Case sounds like without Carl Newman's pop-Midas touch. Still so good.

"Hold On, Hold On" is the opposite of straightforward pop. Clocking in at just over a buck and a half, it shows off her soaring vocal talents. The album shows off her ability to stand strongly in the likes of country, gospel and folk genrese without sounding contrived. It's this versatility that makes her such a gem to the indies. Here at the Toaster, we like to think of her as a weathered, much-more-truly-country-western Jenny Lewis. Perhaps it's the red hair.


>> Reverting to: 1996

OK, we like to stay on topic here. Still very excited about the March 6 show, we decided to go back only so far in our time machine. Here's some classic Belle and Sebastian which goes out to those who are having trouble waiting just like us. "Like Dylan in the Movies" really shows just how much this band's sound has changed in the past 10 years. And still, it's surprising just how much they still sound like themselves even though they've added all that funk and '70s pop sensability to their delivery.