For those indie-rock fans that somehow haven’t yet heard, rejoice – two of the scene’s hottest acts, the New Pornographers and Okkervil River, will take the stage tonight at the Classic City’s own Georgia Theatre.

Although most are quick to notice front man A.C. Newman and singer Neko Case, the New Pornographers often are regarded as an indie-rock “supergroup.”

“For me, thinking of us as a supergroup was sort of a silly hyperbole,” said John Collins, the New Pornographers’ bassist. “It kind of fit because we operated like a supergroup, but we weren’t really that ‘super’ – nobody really knew who we were.”

The New Pornographers’ full lineup includes eight members, each with roots in various other musical projects, and their experiences bring a wide range of dynamics to the band’s sound.

“It’s definitely a big part of our style to have lots of hands on deck all the time,” Collins said.

Despite its suggestive-sounding band name, Collins insists their music is entirely unrelated.

“Our name is utterly meaningless, really,” he said. “We could be searing death metal, or we could be Muzak, and we’d still have about the same relationship to the word ‘pornographers.’”

Collins said working with such a large group dilutes tension between members and allows for more freedom of expression.

“It’s pretty smooth sailing actually,” he said. “We used to have a lot more trouble with scheduling, but now it’s all kind of working out better, because we’re all sort of getting used to budgeting our time between this band and our other projects.”

The New Pornographers’ unique chemistry has yielded four acclaimed studio albums. The band’s newest release, 2007′s “Challengers,” reveals it at its most effortless.

“We didn’t really think too much in terms of influences this time around,” Collins said of the recording process. “We were just sort of all happy with it . We spent enough time with everything that everyone had a chance to get into it.”

Despite being spread out across parts of Canada, America and Europe, the band worked on “Challengers” by sending one another demos via e-mail.

“It was a new way of going for us, because MP3-file band practice was kind of weird,” Collins said. “But we got together for about a week and played and it came together.”

“Challengers” is the main focus of the New Pornographers’ current tour, but fans can expect much more from tonight’s show.

“We are dredging up some older tunes we haven’t played in a while,” Collins said.

The six-piece indie-rock band Okkervil River will open for the New Pornographers tonight in support of its newest album, “The Stage Names.”

“The Stage Names” has received critical acclaim and is a departure of sorts from previous albums.

“We approach every album differently,” said Will Sheff, the lead singer and guitarist for Okkervil River. “Specifically for ‘The Stage Names,’ we rehearsed the songs a whole lot in advance, and then we played them mostly live in the studio to get that kind of electric feeling you get when you hear musicians playing live together.”

Among Sheff’s influences present on “The Stage Names” are a diverse mixture of old-time music, singer-songwriters such as Bob Dylan and Randy Newman, punk rock and glam rock.

“The songs kind of breathe in and breathe out references to other songs,” Sheff said. “It seemed like the ultimate way to do it – to take a fragment of one song and full-on incorporate it into another. People used to do stuff like that all the time in classic folk music, so it just felt really right for us to do as well.”

Tonight, Okkervil River plans to put an emphasis on its new album’s material.

“We always play at least something from all the records, and this tour is no different,” Sheff said. “But we’re focusing a little bit more on ‘The Stage Names’ this time.”