New Substack, New Song
Hey everyone, it’s me, A.C. Newman. I’m here to tell you about my new Substack. It is called 'Ballad Of A New Pornographer' because I am in the New Pornographers and it’s an easy name to grab onto for the casual viewer, skipping like a smooth flat pebble through this online ocean, past all the flotsam and jetsam. The idea is that you would see it and ask "Hey, what's that?" At least that is how it plays out in an ideal scenario, in our computer models.
I would like this to be a place where I put new music, a place where I try out new ideas, a place where I show how the sausage is made, a place to talk about the process and how the ideas transform over time. I want it to start with a song, that may or may not be finished, and use that as a jumping off point to talk about everything else, because songs are usually the sum of many different ideas, pulled from the air as they pass by. Going off on tangents is the fun part. It’s also a road to madness. Somewhere between fun and madness, that’s the sweet spot. There will probably be covers, different versions of old songs by the band or my solo work, there will probably be the occasional photo. Actually, here’s one I just found. It’s me with Biff Henderson, backstage at Letterman in 2003:
At the heart of it, I want this to be a place where I put new music, possibly the only place it is available. That’s not all however! There is more! There is also old music!
The good people at Matador Records have agreed to press a very limited amount of vinyl copies of my 1st solo album The Slow Wonder for its 20th anniversary. The bad people at Matador tried to stop them but they lost this battle. There will be copies on cream colored vinyl that will ONLY BE AVAILABLE TO PAID "VINYL CLUB MEMBERS" ON MY SUBSTACK! They will be given access that gets them into the online store, where they will be able to purchase it. An elite exclusive club.
There's more: this November and December I will also be playing a very small amount of shows in fairly small venues, in Boston, DC, Philadelphia and Brooklyn. At these shows, I will be playing The Slow Wonder album in its entirety, in order! Other songs, yes, but only after that album has been played front to back. Only after I’ve fulfilled that contractual obligation! My promise to you, kept.
Presale begins tomorrow 9/19 at 10am ET. Sign up to get the code now via acnewman.net. A portion of the presale ticket proceeds sold via my website will be donated to Zero Overdose, a nonprofit doing incredible work to help prevent overdoses with safety plans and free Narcan training / distribution in New York and beyond. General onsale Friday 9/20 at 10am ET.
I made The Slow Wonder way back when simply because I could, because I was lucky enough to be living off music and wanted to use that time I'd been given. Neko was busy for all of 2004 and I wanted to stay busy doing what I do: writing, recording and playing music. Did anyone want this? I had no idea, but I was going to do it anyway. So it is with this Substack. I do it with no real expectations. Hell, this approach worked once.
This first song I'm posting is called "The Lofoten Vortex". Paid subscribers can hear it below. Not sure if you'd call it a demo, it's pretty fleshed out, but I'm not sure it's finished. Are they ever finished? What is this for? Who is it for? I have lots to say about it, more information than you need, but I'll leave that for the next post. I'm trying to do different things here, I'm also doing my usual thing. Playing with the way the chords interact with the melody, telling a story that goes deep into my family history and will hopefully join together later with 9 or 10 other songs to tell a bigger story. That's an ambitious project though. We will see. I want this Substack to chronicle that journey from my brain to song to recording to album.
I hope this is of interest to you. I thank you for your time. I think this will be fun.
Carl
Listen to my new solo song "The Lofoten Vortex" here: