SOUNDTRACK: NADA SURF–North 6th Street (1999).
In 1999, Nada Surf released this collection of songs.
It was named after the street in Brooklyn where we first got together. It has our first singles, some 8-track demos we made in our practice space, some alternate versions, french versions, a couple of unreleased songs and a cover.
Collections like this can be hit or miss, especially when a band had progressed from their original sound. But there’s nothing embarrassing about this collection at all. In fact, there’s a lot of really charming stuff on here.
The first two songs, “The Plan” and “Deeper Well” are labelled as 7″ Version. I don’t really know what that means. Both songs appear on High/Low. “The Plan” is a little shorter than the record and “Deeper Well” is a little longer. They sound similar, although there’s a different drummer, Aaron Conte. But they both sound really good and are a nice reminder that Nada Surf can really rock out.
The next three songs are demos of songs from High/Low: “Ice Box,” “Psychic Caramel,” and “Popular.” These also have their first drummer. These aren’t boombox recordings. They sound well produced, although they do feel a little more grungy than the album. “Popular” sounds the most different. There’s female vocals in the beginning. The tone of this version seems a bit angrier, but otherwise similar.
The next two songs are French versions of songs from High/Low. Matthew Caws and Daniel Lorca met at a French school in New York, so their French is quite good. It’s weird, but cool to hear familiar songs sung in a different language by the same vocalist. These songs, like the whole High/Low album were produced by Rik Ocasek, so I’m assuming they were done a the same time.
“Traffic” and “Me and You” are (I believe) previously unreleased. “Traffic” is a quiet instrumental propelled by Daniel’s bass and some gentle pretty guitar picking. The ambient noise of an ambulance is a nice touch. “Me & You” is a full-on folk song–acoustic guitars and possibly a suitcase for drums. Each of these songs is 1:47 long–snippets into bits of songs.
“Silent Fighting” and “Spooky” are alternate versions of songs that appeared on the band’s reissue of their album The Proximity Effect. They weren’t on the original album (which was lost in record label hell for quite a long time), but they are the final songs on the version that’s largely available. “Silent Fighting” is a demo version, but again, it sounds professionally done. And “Spooky” is listed as an Alternate Version.
The next two songs are also unreleased elsewhere. “The Manoeuvres” is a quiet acoustic ballad. “Sick of You” is an Iggy Pop song! Like the original, this song is slow and moody with a distinctly Iggy tone in the vocal delivery. And like the original, it rocks out in th emiddle with a full on punk assault. It runs over five minutes long
Up next are two more demos from The Proximity Effect. “Robot” is a lot quieter. You can hear the lyrics more clearly and the heaviness is toned down. “Amateur” sounds pretty similar–full with a great bass sound. Although it’s missing the wonderful “ooh ooh ooh” part.
“River Phoenix” is a rocking song with a spoken vocal line and fascinating lyrics like:
River Phoenix
Ian Curtis
And river Phoenix
And me and you
And it’s quite catchy.
“Mother’s Day” is another demo from The Proximity Effect. This is a fantastic anti-rape song with brutal, angry lyrics. This version sounds a little different–a little less distorted, a little less loud, but still angry.
“Dispossession” is an alternate version from The Proximity Effect. The album’s guitars sound a bit rawer, the guitars a little crisper and the whole things feels a bit more wild. This version is a bit cleaner, except for the wild guitar solo.
[READ: November 7, 2020] The Midnight Library
S. brought this home and really enjoyed it. She thought I’d enjoy it too. Of course she was right. I’d probably enjoy most of the books she reads, but I already have my own dozen dozen authors that I like to read already.
The book opens with the fascinatingly dramatic opening sentence:
Nineteen years before she decided to die, Nora Seed sat in the warmth of a small library at Hazeldene School in the town of Bedford.
Nora is playing chess with Mrs Elm the librarian when Mrs Elm gets a call that Nora’s father has just died.
The book jumps nineteen years ahead to “twenty-seven hours before she decided to die.” The next few chapters list the miseries of her life: her cat is hit by a car, she gets fired from her lousy job (her boss has the funniest, meanest line I’ve read: “I can’t pay you to put off customers with your face looking like a wet weekend.”) (more…)
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This is my third timing seeing Nada Surf and I decided that S. needed to see them as well.
It is crazy to think that this show was postponed for almost a year and then had to get postponed again. There’s a light at the end of the tunnel though a vaccines are making the rounds. November seems like a reasonable time to plan for a show. So I bought tickets for S. and myself.
