Revolution in the Head

Bands like Nada Surf aren’t supposed to exist. In an industry not exactly known for giving second chances, the band are an unlikely story of a phoenix rising from ashes. By all accounts, they really shouldn’t be much more than a footnote in the history of 90’s alternative rock. Yet here they remain, having just released Lucky, the third album in a troika of memorable, hauntingly beautiful releases.

The late 90’s saw Nada Surf in danger of being relegated to “one-hit wonder” status. Their 1996 single “Popular“, whose verses consisted of singer Matthew Caw’s snarkily reading verbatim from a 1960’s etiquette manual on teenage dating, was a mainstay on MTV’s Alternative Nation.

Things went downhill quickly after that.

Their Ric Ocasek-produced debut album, High/Low failed to yield any further singles. Elektra refused to release their follow up album, 1998’s The Proximity Effect, essentially holding the band and the album hostage until finally being released from their contract in 2000. Yet the band somehow persevered, opting to finally self-release the album and tour in support.

In 2002, a full six years beyond their initial meteoric rise to video infamy, Nada Surf released the album Let Go, a self-funded venture that was picked up by northwestern indie label Barsuk. Let Go was a shot from the dark, an album of surprising depth and maturity that shockingly bore very little resemblance to “Popular” or anything of its nerdy alterna-ilk. It hit with the critics and the band suddenly found itself with something even better than a resurrected career: a complete rebirth. The band’s 2005 follow up, The Weight Is A Gift continued the renaissance, mining the same introspective, at times hushed, yet tuneful territory. Not nearly as revelatory as its predecessor but not without its merits.

Expectations in these parts for Lucky, however, were not especially high. The Weight… in some ways seemed just like an inferior, less-impactful sequel to Let Go. Would this be yet another case of diminishing returns? Had the band simply peaked with Let Go?

Those fears were unfounded: Lucky is the band’s true masterstroke, the first thoroughly great record of 2008. It’s an album that endearingly wears its heart on its sleeve and begs to be played loudly. If Let Go and The Weight… felt best on cloudy, rain-filled days, this is one to soundtrack the morning’s first ray of sun.

It’s album of many highlights. Opener “See These Bones” is a slow burner that hinges on the lyric “too tired to eat, too hungry to sleep”, but builds to a crescendo featuring three memorable melodies, weaved together and sung in the round. “Whose Authority” shimmers like nothing so much as a lost outtake from Teenage Fanclub’s career defining Grand Prix, while “Beautiful Beat” is an unabashedly positive reflection on the healing powers of that one perfect song. (Sounds hokey, but it works.) ”Weightless” alternates between herky, jerky, restless guitars and softly, swooning strings, before finally giving way to a soaring wordless choir that would make Mr. Wilson blush. It’s an album that is likely to yield new favorites with each play.

They say it’s better to be lucky than good, but in Nada Surf’s case it seems both apply.

Nada Surf, Lucky (Barsuk, 2008)

See These Bones {download mp3}

Whose Authority {view video}

Weightless

George Harrison: 25 February 1943 – 29 November 2001

All Things Must Pass (Solo Demo, EMI Studios, London, 25 February 1969)

In 1994, British writer Ian MacDonald undertook the most ambitious study of the Beatles music to date. In his landmark book “Revolution in the Head: The Beatles Records in the Sixties”, MacDonald chronologically presented every song in the Beatles recorded history. MacDonald’s exhaustive studied approach was somewhat academic in nature, but it also provided great thrills for the Beatles-obsessed masses.I remember borrowing my brother’s copy of this book and letting Mr. MacDonald take me on a journey deeper into the heart of the Beatles’ music. I’d read a passage about a particular song, put the book down, cue up that song and listen with the newly acquired insights, noticing things I’d never heard before.

Lather, rinse, repeat, ie, etc, eg. It was a blast.

(Incidentally, “Revolution in the Head” has recently been put back in print and obviously comes highly recommended. I’m tempted to finally purchase my own copy of the book but am slightly afraid of the ramifications this action might have my ability to be a productive, interacting member of my own household.)

So…yet another music blog, right? Does the world really need another one? Probably not. And while it seemed appropriate to christen this site after one of my most favorite books, I don’t really aspire to a level of Ian MacDonald-like analysis of music, nor do I think I am capable or qualified to provide that level of analysis.So what exactly is the point? It’s actually fairly self indulgent in essence.

I buy a lot of music. I also read a lot of music magazines and books. I spend many of my waking (and even some of my non-waking) hours listening to and thinking about music. While I recognize that this hardly distinguishes me from so many others or qualifies me as any kind of expert, it does present some practical challenges. The bottom line is that at some point, all of this stuff fills and begs to leave my head and go…somewhere else.

I’m fantastically lucky that the person with whom I have chosen to share my life also shares this passion to some degree. And I have so many friends who are somewhat, ahem, afflicted, in varying degrees, with similar conditions. Still, there’s only so much that a person can share. Time constraints and geographic boundaries often prevail. So consider this an audio journal of sorts. It’s the place where I will brain dump the landscape of my musical mind, in order that I may free up that space for the next discovery or revelation to take residence. Perhaps you will find it interesting. And if you do, please feel free to make liberal use of the comments. That’s what they are there for, of course.

But like I said, this is mainly an exercise of self-indulgence. I don’t really aspire to be any sort of tastemaker and I’m not on some sort of mission necessarily to evangelize the next great so-and-so. There are plenty of excellent blogs out there that already do this and do it exceptionally well. Really, it’s just a place for me to share thoughts on the things I’ve been enjoying musically. It could be a new release. Or it could be a record that is 30 years old. In most cases it will be full length records (because this reflects how I listen), but it may occasionally be a single song. I have ideas for regular “features” that I will share in time. But for the most part this will just be a place for me to write about the records that I have been recently enjoying. I hope you enjoy it.

As a sidenote, I must mention that I have an additional motive with this site that has very little actually to do with traversing my musical mind. This site also has the purpose of serving as my own personal web design/development sandbox. I say this because I want to make the caveat that the scenery here may change often and without warning. Certainly this current Wordpress theme is merely a temporary decorating decision. My intention was to not start writing until I actually had a custom design ready to go, but a friend (and personal blog hero) successfully convinced me that it was better to just start writing and worry with the rest afterwards.

Every time I move somewhere new, the first thing I do is set up the stereo. It could then be months before the first picture is ever hung. Consider these first few posts the equivalent of that. We’ll get things looking prettier soon enough.