Thanks to BV for the heads-up.

AOL Spinner:
“Carl Newman is currently mixing his as-yet-untitled long-player – set for a January release – and is especially enthusiastic about the lineup of musicians who contribute to the new tunes. “My friend John Wurster, who drums with Superchunk and the Mountain Goats, did most of the drumming,” he says. “A singer named Nicole Atkins did a lot of singing on it. She’s a really killer singer; she kind of reminds me of a cross between Mama Cass and the Shangri-La’s.”

Currently in the home stretch of completing the CD, Newman admits that he is his own best friend and worst enemy when it comes to working on the project. “Every time I make a record, I sit there thinking, ‘It sounds too different,’ and then the next day I think, ‘it sounds the same as everything else,’” he says. “The next day, I’ll go, ‘It’s perfect,’ and the day after that I’ll think, ‘Its all wrong.’ I just put my head down, try to work hard, hope for the best and hope that people buy it so I can continue doing this for a living.” As soon as the solo effort is complete, Newman plans to “immediately” begin work on the next Pornographers record.

As a giant fan of A.C. Newman’s Slow Wonder this is fantastic news to me. The last New Pornographers record was kind of mediocre, so I’m assuming he saved most of his magic for this solo record.