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Music

Crankin up the AC

A.C. NEWMAN at Lees Palace (529 Bloor West), Wednesday (March 11). $18. 416-870-8000.

Carl Newman recently married an American, moved to Brooklyn and proceeded to release his second solo album, Get Guilty, on Barack Obama’s Inauguration Day. It makes you wonder if he’s preparing to ditch his Canadian citizenship for the land of the free.

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But on the phone from Los Angeles, the red-haired singer/songwriter/guitarist for the New Pornographers and A.C. Newman (his not-so-solo solo project) claims to miss Vancouver’s Asian food far too much to settle in New York forever. And it was his label, Matador, that picked the album’s release date, apparently at random.

“It was a total fluke,” Newman says. “I wasn’t trying to associate myself with Obama. It was serendipity maybe. At least it’ll help me always remember the day my record came out. It’s a legendary day in American history, and I will be a really, really small footnote – so small that you’ll need a microscope to see it.”

Here he’s being modest. Blender once named the New Pornographers’ Mass Romantic the 24th-best indie rock album of all time. Rolling Stone listed his Myriad Harbour on its 100 Best Songs Of 2007 list. He’s earned a Juno and been short-listed for the Polaris Music Prize. Maybe not enough to get him in the history books, but Newman’s no slouch.

Get Guilty, whose title refers to a sentence in a Donald Barthelme short story, continues his quest for power pop perfection. The 12 songs feature his signature maximalist arrangements and harmonies, plus drumming by Jon Wurster (Superchunk, the Mountain Goats, WFMU’s The Best Show) and backup vocals by Nicole Atkins and the Mates of State. The six-piece touring version is made up of friends from both sides of the border.

“I’ve never had a violinist and a trumpet player on tour before, and it makes me want to learn some Love covers,” Newman jokes. “It’s so easy with this band, it’s almost like I’m doing karaoke. I feel like I’m doing none of the work. I’m standing at the front singing and strumming my guitar and they’re behind me doing all the difficult stuff.”

On Donald Barthelme’s influence

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On songwriting

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On being in New York for Obama’s election night

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music@nowtoronto.com

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