SOUNDTRACK: NADA SURF-Plays Covers on World Cafe (May 13, 2010).
I didn’t even know that Nada Surf had released a covers album (sometimes things slip through the cracks), but when NPR previewed their new song, I learned that they played some covers for World Cafe (not downloadable, sadly) to promote the album.
So I’m going to be investigating that covers album shortly. In the meantime, we get this very enjoyable four-song set (three covers and one of their own tracks).
The band chats with David Dye briefly (about 5 minutes) before busting into the songs (a wonderful explanation of Bill Fox and a mention of reading about him in The Believer). Their own track is “Whose Authority” one of their many wonderful songs.
The three covers are “Love Goes On” (by the Go-Betweens), “Enjoy the Silence” (by Depeche Mode) and “Electrocution” (by Bill Fox). I didn’t recognize the first song until the Ba-ba-ba chorus kicked in, although I admit I’m not terribly familiar with it. Similarly, the final song by Bill Fox is very obscure (as is Fox himself). Both of these two songs are played with jangly guitars and are poppy and quite enjoyable.
The Depeche Mode song is the one that I already really knew well. And boy do they make it their own. They turn it from a somber dirge (catchy but somber) into a more upbeat almost poppy folk song. It will probably be a polarizing cover (if anyone cares enough about Nada Surf to listen) and while I don’t think it’s as good as the original, it works so well in the context of a Nada Surf show, that it’ hard to argue with it.
Nada Surf is one of the great unsung bands and it’s hard to believe they aren’t more successful.
[READ: October 21, 2011] Mission Street Food
With Lucky Peach, McSweeney’s entered into the world of food publishing. I was surprised by how much I enjoyed Lucky Peach. But when I received Mission Street Food, I was no longer in the frame of mind to get excited to read this book, which, as the subtitle says, promises recipes and ideas. And when I first flipped through it, I got to the recipes pages and said, well, when will I ever read this?
Then one night recently I couldn’t sleep and Mission Street Food was there, so I read the Preface. And Anthony Myint has a great writing style, a great flair for telling a story and a wonderful story to tell. Needless to say, I read almost the whole first section before falling asleep. And I was excited to tackle the rest of the book.
I hate to sound like I think that McSweeney’s has changed the way food book publishing is done, because that would be unfair. I don’t read food publishing as a rule. I can’t even enjoy looking in my wife’s cooking magazines. Seeing names of foods and recipes for preparing them just doesn’t do anything for me. But maybe the narrative of those books is more interesting than I give them credit. Maybe I should sit down with another foodie book and see what it’s all about. (more…)
I Just Read About That... 