Album I'm looking forward too:possibly a new feature

I've been a fan of The New Pornographers since the release of Twin Cinema ("hang on a minute that was their last album your not a real fan" etc) and they have become one of my absolute favourite bands (honestly joint 4th place with Bob Dylan on my last.fm profile). I just love their sound particularly the meshing of their different members vocal talents (most obviously Neko Case, A.C Newman and Dan Bejar, all of whom have excellent solo stuff too of course) they are highly skilled musicians all round and their three albums so far have been uniformly superb, I actually can't think of a 'filler' track on any of them, if all that wasn't enough they formed in Vancouver a place I'd love to visit some day, they are signed to Matador a record company with a load of great bands and artists (boy I'd love a promo copy of this album right about now) and they are the most potentially embarrassing band to reccomend to any uptight friends and/or relatives. So needless to say having heard a couple of tracks from their upcoming release 'Challengers' I am greatly looking forward to it, and so should you, thats right you sitting there in front of your computer and if you lift up that cup in front of you you should see the Jack of Spades (if it actually happened that would be freaky). I haven't yet seen them live so hopefully they will be shortly touring the UK (and hopefully coming to Brighton as well hint, hint) but for those lucky lot in North America they are touring and here are the dates:

7-29 Toronto, Ontario - Rogers Picnic
09-13 Victoria, British Columbia - McPherson Ballroom #&
09-14 Seattle, WA - Showbox #!
09-15 Seattle, WA - Showbox #!
09-16 Portland, OR - Crystal Ballroom #!
09-17 San Francisco, CA - Warfield Theatre #!
09-18 San Diego, CA - House of Blues #!
09-19 Los Angeles, CA - Henry Fonda Theater #!
09-20 Los Angeles, CA - Henry Fonda Theater #@
09-21 Tucson, AZ - Rialto Theatre #@
09-22 Albuquerque, NM - Sunshine Theater #@
09-24 Boulder, CO - Boulder Theater #@
09-25 Salt Lake City, UT - The Depot #@
09-26 Boise, ID - The Egyptian Theatre #@
09-28 Vancouver, British Columbia - Commodore Ballroom #!
10-11 Edmonton, Alberta - Edmonton Event Center $
10-12 Calgary, Alberta - MacEwen Hall $
10-13 Calgary, Alberta - MacEwen Hall $
10-14 Missoula, MT - University Theater $
10-15 Winnipeg, Manitoba - Garrick Center $
10-16 Minneapolis, MN - First Avenue $^
10-17 Milwaukee, WI - Pabst Theatre $^
10-18 Chicago, IL - The Metro $^
10-19 Chicago, IL - The Metro $^
10-20 Buffalo, NY - Riviera Theatre $^
10-21 Toronto, Ontario - Phoenix Concert Theatre $^
10-24 New York, NY - Webster Hall $^
10-25 New York, NY - Webster Hall $&
10-26 Philadelphia, PA - Trocadero $&
10-27 Washington, DC - 9:30 Club $^
10-31 New Orleans, LA - House of Blues $&
11-01 Houston, TX - Warehouse Live $+
11-02 Dallas, TX - House of Blues $+
11-03 Austin, TX - Fun Fun Fun Festival
11-05 Denver, CO - Gothic Theatre $

(& with Immaculate Machine
# with Lavender Diamond
! with Fancey
@ with the Awkward Stage
$ with Emma Pollock
^ with Benjy Ferree
+ with Spoon)

as if that wasn't enough you can also buy the album early and get it now if you live in North America. Anyway aside from that tune in to 6music from 4pm to hear Richard Hawley on Steve Lamacq's show, and until the next post be careful out there (your supposed to say good hunting).

MP3s: The New Pornographers-My Rights Versus Yours
The New Pornographers-Mass Romantic
The New Pornographers-Twin Cinema

Per-Order (UK style): The New Pornographers-Challengers