10 days until paczki

I don’t know what was up with my body, but I really wanted a doughnut yesterday. Well, not just any doughnut, but a paczki. I never crave doughnuts. I considered driving to Hamtramck after work, but the thought of getting back into my freezing car was just too terrible. At least, Paczki Day is coming up – February 8th. I’m required to eat multiple paczki that day.

Via an email from Matador – More New Pornographers this year. Carl Newman says…

"We're hard at work on our new album, which should be in the hands of Matador by mid-March, and in the hands of real people sometime in late summer. Maybe September? I don't know. If it was up to me it would come out two weeks after we finished it, but that's just not how it's done.

"We've become fascinated by the ability of the ebow and baritone guitar to sound kind
of like a cello. This fixes the problem of wanting cello, but not wanting a cello player in your band. They take up way too much room. We can also get that Creation bowed guitar sound without bowing the guitar, and looking like a guitar-bowing idiot.

Dan's been coming around alot and recording with us, more than on Electric Version, so that's cool. This album will have the Jackie sequel, "Jackie, Dressed In Cobras", for those of you that always wondered where Jackie's life took her/him. Neko's gonna come and sing, Nora's gonna come and sing, and my long lost niece is gonna come and sing with us too. Not because she's my niece, but because she's really good. I want a lot of singers. I think it will be good.

Various unintentional influences have crept into our work, some of which are quickly removed: The Moody Blues, Tubeway Army, Wings, always Wings, never The Beatles, Eno of course, you can't play ebow without sounding like Eno, Modern English, middle period post-Gabriel Genesis, The Stranglers, the vocal inflections on "Dreadlock Holiday" remain a steady influence, we're still trying to find a way to insert
some dub/white reggae in the mix, just as an intellectual exercise, to see if we can do it without being dropped from the label. I know it sounds awful but it will all work out."

There’s a lot to look forward to this year: Portishead in the studio, Sloan Greatest Hits, Doves, New Pornographers, and other things I can’t remember right now.

Hugs and Kisses... Stay warm!