• News

• All

Feb 10, 2026 By Mark Redfern

The New Pornographers are releasing a new album, The Former Site Of, on March 27 via Merge. Now they have shared its third single, “Pure Sticker Shock.” Listen below, followed by the band’s upcoming tour dates.

“This song is not about a specific event, but it has felt very ‘applicable’ to me and this year of my life,” band leader Carl “A.C.” Newman says in a press release. “It basically asks the question ‘What has worth? Who is deciding?’ Your market value is not always your value.”

The Former Site Of is the first New Pornographers album since former drummer Joe Seiders was arrested last April in California on child pornography charges. While not a founding member of the band, Seiders had been with them since 2014, but was dismissed from the band once he was arrested. In an interview with Rolling Stone last November, Newman said that Seiders’ drum parts would be taken off the new album. Session drummer Charley Drayton (Divinyls, The Rolling Stones, Fiona Apple) took over, but Josh Wells (Destroyer, Black Mountain) will join as the touring drummer for the band’s upcoming dates. The band’s lineup for The Former Site Of is Newman, Kathryn Calder, Neko Case, John Collins, and Todd Fancey. Newman first worked on the songs in his home studio before bringing them to the band.

“Having time in my studio really opened things up,” says Newman in a press release. “I don’t like wasting my bandmates’ time, and always felt guilty when I’d give them a song, ask them to do something, then completely change the song and ask them to do it again. Now I can get the skeleton of a song together first—just a couple of elements, the key feeling, really as little as possible—before bringing it to the band and running from there.”

The album includes “Ballad of the Last Payphone,” a new song the band shared in April 2025 before Seiders was arrested. It was one of our Songs of the Week. When the album was announced they shared its second single, “Votive,” via a music video.

The New Pornographers’ last album, Continue as a Guest, came out in 2023 via Merge, their first for the label. Read our review of it here.

Read our 2017 interview with The New Pornographers’ Carl Newman on Whiteout Conditions.

The New Pornographers Tour Dates:

April 22—Boston, MA—The Wilbur*
April 23—New York, NY—Webster Hall*
April 24—Glenside, PA—Keswick Theatre*
April 25—Rochester, NY—Water Street Music Hall*
April 27—Detroit, MI—El Club*
April 29—Millvale, PA—Mr. Smalls Theatre*
April 30—Cleveland, OH—House of Blues*
May 1—Milwaukee, WI—Turner Hall*
May 2—Minneapolis, MN—The Fitzgerald Theater*
May 3—Chicago, IL—The Metro*
May 5—Englewood, CO—Gothic Theatre*
May 6—Salt Lake City, UT—The Commonwealth Room*
May 8—Seattle, WA—The Showbox*
May 9—Portland, OR—Aladdin Theater*
May 11—San Francisco, CA—The Castro Theatre*
May 12—Los Angeles, CA—Teragram Ballroom*
May 13—Phoenix, AZ—Crescent Ballroom*
May 15—Austin, TX—Mohawk Outside*
May 16—Dallas, TX—The Kessler Theater*
May 17—Baton Rouge, LA—Chelsea’s Live*
May 19—Atlanta, GA—Variety Playhouse*
May 20—Saxapahaw, NC—Haw River Ballroom*
May 21—Washington, DC—9:30 Club*

*with Will Sheff (of Okkervil River)

Subscribe to Under the Radar’s print magazine.

Support Under the Radar on Patreon.