The New Pornographers' Name Triggers Spam Woes

In an Internet-savvy landscape, a band's visibility can greatly be hindered or enhanced simply by its choice of name. A search for !!! actually gives zero results, but until recently it defaulted to the top of iTunes playlists. Bands such as South and Maps simply lose out in Google Search to the likes of direction-related sites and, obviously, Google Maps.

Vancouver pop-power collective the New Pornographers don't often deal with problems in search engine ranking, but they have run into some difficulties when it comes to sending out band e-mail. Singer A.C. Newman told Spinner, "When we first started talking to [record label] Matador in the U.K., I kept thinking I was getting snubbed by the people from the label because I would ask them some questions and would get no answer." Newman continues, revealing that "it was because their spam filter was, like, knocking out the word 'pornographer.' It's frustrating when you're signed to a label where your band name is not allowed to sneak through on e-mails."

The band and Matador have learned to simply adapt the name of the band when sending e-mails, most commonly to "the New P's." Keyboardist Kathryn Calder added, "I don't ever put the [band's] name on the subject heading." Calder also vehemently advises friends and fans to "go to thenewpornographers.com and not newpornographers.com, because I've been to newpornographers.com accidentally, and it's not the right Web site."