{"id":72,"date":"2019-12-04T19:50:10","date_gmt":"2019-12-04T19:50:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.richbradley.org\/songs\/?p=72"},"modified":"2020-04-25T17:09:46","modified_gmt":"2020-04-25T17:09:46","slug":"brill-bruisers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.richbradley.org\/songs\/201x-favorites\/brill-bruisers\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cBrill Bruisers\u201d \u2013 The New Pornographers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-youtube wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"The New Pornographers - Brill Bruisers (Late Show w\/ David Letterman)\" width=\"780\" height=\"439\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/9JxqE3BKph8?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>I\u2019m a power pop guy at heart. Big hooks over manic drums and surprise minor chords? Can\u2019t beat it.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That\u2019s my disclaimer before I call The New Pornographers the best band of the last 20 years. It\u2019s not a popular choice, generally well-liked though they are. But to my ears, no one can match the consistently stellar songwriting they\u2019ve delivered since their 2000 debut <em>Mass Romantic<\/em> and through this year\u2019s already-criminally-underappreciated <em>In the Morse Code of Brake Lights.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I sort of get the disconnect. Power pop is all about maximizing ecstasy while working within tight parameters, for a listener who\u2019s already likely heard every conceivable variant of the genre a million times (The Beatles mined everything there was to mine over an eight-year span half a century ago). But that\u2019s the game.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And in the hands of anything less than a genius, it can be a pretty boring game. Fortunately, the NPs have a genius in lead singer\/songwriter Carl Newman, who possesses an understanding of this particular art that\u2019s way more advanced than most.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Newman approaches pop songwriting like a formal experiment. To some, his clinical focus on form over the romantic ideal of divine rock inspiration creates distance between the music and the listener. But if you\u2019re wired for and fully immersed in this stuff, it\u2019s a unique joy to listen to a master consciously playing with the ingredients and boundaries of his medium.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I don\u2019t know if \u201cBrill Bruisers\u201d is the best New Pornographers song of the decade. But I\u2019m pretty sure \u2013 with its double-speed adaptation of the opening chord progression from Squeeze\u2019s \u201cTempted,\u201d and the titular allusion to the home of America\u2019s past music legends, and the full-band \u201cBO BA BOs,\u201d and this Letterman performance featuring Neko Case in pharaoh tights blowing the roof off the Ed Sullivan Theater in well under three minutes \u2013 that this track is Newman\u2019s biggest flex.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I\u2019m a power pop guy at heart. Big hooks over manic drums and surprise minor chords? Can\u2019t beat it.&nbsp; That\u2019s my disclaimer before I call The New Pornographers the best band of the last 20 years. It\u2019s not a popular choice, generally well-liked though they are. But to my ears, no one can match the&hellip; <\/p>\n<div class=\"readmore-wrapper\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.richbradley.org\/songs\/201x-favorites\/brill-bruisers\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[9],"class_list":["post-72","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-201x-favorites","tag-the-new-pornographers"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Brill Bruisers - The New Pornographers | Rich Bradley<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I don\u2019t know if &quot;Brill Bruisers&quot; is the best New Pornographers song of the decade, but I&#039;m pretty sure it&#039;s power pop mastermind Carl Newman&#039;s biggest flex.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.richbradley.org\/songs\/201x-favorites\/brill-bruisers\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Brill Bruisers - The New Pornographers | Rich Bradley\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I don\u2019t know if &quot;Brill Bruisers&quot; is the best New Pornographers song of the decade, but I&#039;m pretty sure it&#039;s power pop mastermind Carl Newman&#039;s biggest flex.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.richbradley.org\/songs\/201x-favorites\/brill-bruisers\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"RB.org\/songs\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/richlbradley\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/richlbradley\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-12-04T19:50:10+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-04-25T17:09:46+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.richbradley.org\/songs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/scott3icon.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Rich Bradley\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@rlbradley\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@rlbradley\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Rich Bradley\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.richbradley.org\/songs\/201x-favorites\/brill-bruisers\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.richbradley.org\/songs\/201x-favorites\/brill-bruisers\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Rich Bradley\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.richbradley.org\/songs\/#\/schema\/person\/20a932bf4ce1b2724037a850355d507c\"},\"headline\":\"\u201cBrill Bruisers\u201d \u2013 The New Pornographers\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-12-04T19:50:10+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-04-25T17:09:46+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.richbradley.org\/songs\/201x-favorites\/brill-bruisers\/\"},\"wordCount\":344,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.richbradley.org\/songs\/#\/schema\/person\/20a932bf4ce1b2724037a850355d507c\"},\"keywords\":[\"The New Pornographers\"],\"articleSection\":[\"201X Favorites\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.richbradley.org\/songs\/201x-favorites\/brill-bruisers\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.richbradley.org\/songs\/201x-favorites\/brill-bruisers\/\",\"name\":\"Brill Bruisers - 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