SOUNDTRACK: NADA SURF-Peaceful Ghosts (2016).
Six years after the release of the Brussels live album (and 13 years after recording it!), Nada Surf released another live album. This one featuring an orchestra. Apparently Austrian radio station FM4 offered the band the yearly slot they give to a rock outfit to be backed by an orchestra for a whole concert. A similar session with Radio Eins in Berlin enabled the band to extend the collaboration with the Babelsberg Film Orchestra over two shows. It is the show with Babelsberg on June 21 that was recorded.
I have often wondered what makes a band play with an orchestra. So it’s interesting to learn that they were invited. What made the orchestra choose them is something else entirely. Caws says that they were recording their new album when they got the call for this, so they sent over their friend (and occasional touring member) Martin Wenk (of Calexico) to supervise the project with composer Max Knuth.
So perhaps because the band didn’t participate entirely, or maybe just because that’s what they wanted to do, this recording is not a rework of the songs. Rather, it’s Nada Surf with an orchestral backing. But Caws’ songs and voice are quite suited to this treatment. They avoid their heavier songs and stay with primarily their mid-tempo stuff (wisely avoiding an orchestral version of “Popular”). This gives the performance a bit of a samey quality, but each song sounds lovely. Sometimes the strings are just there to accentuate the songs, but other times they really add power to the emotions. They had recently added former Guided By Voices guitarist Doug Gillard to the lineup (“we hope to never be a trio again”) but despite his occasional solos, the flourishes comes from horns and strings more than guitars.
The album almost feels like a Storytellers session with Matthew Caws telling origins stories before each song. Some of the stories are really quite fascinating. Some just give some nice insights into the songs. My favorite was the one before “Blizzard of ’77.”
It’s expensive to rehearse in New York. No one has a garage and there are no basements, so they rehearsed in a space that cost $20/hr. When they were in high school they could only afford two times a week. So they played loud and fast to get everything out. Later, they were touring in Amsterdam sharing a hotel room with Daniel. He didn’t want to wake up Daniel so he went into the bathroom to write and that’s how their first quiet song came out. (it’s fascinating how short it is too).
The somewhat more unlikely story is for “Rushing” in which he says that a relationship can sometimes make you forget your own body dysmorphia: “You come rushing at me and I forget my body.”
The best use of the orchestra is on the awesome minor key song “The Fox.” He opens, “After all this joy, we’ll go somewhere dark. American television. Cable news. FOX TV. A fox is a clever animal–good at manipulating other animals.” This is one of my favorite Nada Surf song anyhow (even before I knew what it was about), the bass line is just sublime. And the dramatic buildup towards the end with the horns and flutes is really great.
There’s some nice orchestral hits and swells on “Believe You’re Mine” and “Beautiful Beat” has a pretty guitar melody that is nicely appointed to strings. “Out of the Dark opens with the orchestra which is a nice change and the xylophone sounds quite pretty as well.
Before “80 Windows” he explains about visiting a friend in Sweden and how in the summer it is warm and dreamy, but in winter, he slept until 2 because of jetlag, and the day was over. So he counted windows in the apartment across the street. Knowing that really makes the lyrics more effective, I can really picture it. There’s some great use of orchestra at the end of this song as well.
Between this album and the previous live album they repeat three songs (marked with a * below). This is not an essential release, and I hope they rock a bit more when I see them in March. But it’s a nice overall experience of the band.
Comes A Time The Fox Out Of The Dark
Believe You’re Mine Blonde On Blonde* When I Was Young
Beautiful Beat 80 Windows Animal
Blizzard of ’77* Inside Of Love* Are You Lightning?
Rushing
[READ: March 25, 2016] “The Limner”
I really enjoyed the way this story unfolded. I was especially intrigued at the details of the painter’s disability and how we didn’t learn of it until several pages in.
So this story is about a painter, Wadsworth. I’m not exactly certain when this is set, but suffice it to say it is set when a portrait was the only way of guaranteeing your image would live n in posterity). Wadsworth is painting a man, Mr. Tuttle. Tuttle is quite cheap (he is arguing about the fee–$12).
Wadsworth says that he has written Tuttle’s comments in a book–the book that every patron writes in–and that Tuttles’ comments are just as obvious and repetitive as all the previous patrons were.
Turns out that Wadsworth is an itinerant painter. He moves into a town, puts an ad in the paper and if he has no customers in 5 days he moves on. Some patrons give him lodging–some are even more generous. (more…)
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SOUNDTRACK: LOS BITCHOS-“Bugs Bunny” (2018).
This is another single from Los Bitchos.
SOUNDTRACK: JILL SOBULE-Underdog Victorious (2004).
After ordering California Years, I saw that she had released this disc, Underdog Victorious, which I had never heard of. Then I found it used for pretty cheap. The most exciting thing about the disc is that there’s a crossword puzzle (that is largely about Jill herself) done by Will Shortz on the inside back cover!
I Just Read About That... 