Nada Surf

Nada Surf

Nada Surf is an American alternative rock / indie rock group formed in 1992. The New York band consists of Matthew Caws (guitar, vocals), Ira Elliot (drums, backup vocals) and Daniel Lorca (bass, backup vocals).

The band is best-known for the song "Popular" from their 1996 album High/Low. (see the dedicated section below).

Each of the verses in "Popular" presents, in spoken word format, sarcastic advice to teens. Initially offered in a calm, deadpan voice, the lyrics gradually build Kinison-style in teen angst and rage.

The follow-up effort, The Proximity Effect, failed to garner much attention. The band explains on their official website:

Nada Surf recorded The Proximity Effect in 1998 with Fred Maher (Luna, Lou Reed, Matthew Sweet). It was a mighty fine record. Elektra, claiming they "didn’t hear a single," asked the band to go back in the studio to hunt for one. As this was months after they’d handed the record in, the band refused and were dropped. It’s pretty safe to say, though, that Elektra didn’t appear to be "listening" very hard. The Proximity Effect was released as scheduled in Europe. Critics loved it and fans bought it. Elektra still didn’t care, but the band did. So after wrestling the rights back, Nada Surf released The Proximity Effect stateside in 2000 on their own label, MarDev Records, and toured accordingly...

After a four-year break, the group released Let Go through Barsuk Records to positive reviews. The song "Inside of Love" received some airplay and even reached number 73 in the United Kingdom, a feat which neither "Popular" nor the other two previously released singles from Let Go achieved. On the strength of the single, the album reached number 31 on Billboard's Top Independent Albums chart.

The band's fourth album, The Weight Is a Gift, was released in Germany on September 5, 2005, by City Slang Records, September 12 in Japan/Australia and September 13 in the US by Barsuk, and in the rest of Europe, September 19 by V2/City Slang. It was produced by Chris Walla of the band Death Cab for Cutie, Louie Lino, and Nada Surf. The album's lead single is "Always Love."

After touring for one year after the release of The Weight Is a Gift, the band went back to the studio in March 2007, in Seattle, at the Robert Lang Studios, under the direction of producer John Goodmanson, to record its fifth album, whose working title is Time for Plan A and which will be released on February 5, 2008. Nada Surf should also be on tour during the fall of 2007.

A few titles have begun to filter: Ice on the Wing, Here Goes Something, I Like What You Say.

Biography

Early Years

Nada Surf was formed in the early nineties by Matthew Caws and Daniel Lorca. Both met in Le Lycée Français de New York (USA) and spent some of their childhood in France and Belgium. They played in many bands, including The Cost of Living and Because Because Because. Their first drummer was called Dan, later alluded to in the song The Plan (High/Low). Dan is then replaced by Aaron Conte, with whom the band records its first 7" : The Plan/Telescope (1994/Stickboy), as well as the demo tape Tafkans, the raw version of High/Low. Those raw versions are later released on their second 7", Deeper Well/Pressure Free (1995/Deep Elm Records), on the Karmic EP and on North 6th Street.

Aaron leaves the band in january 1995 and is replaced by Ira Elliot, former drummer of the Fuzztones (1984-1985), a very active band of the eighties NYC scene, whose fans included Matthew and Daniel. They had always wanted play with him, but wanted to achieve a higher level before asking him. Ira's arrival into Nada Surf is a founding event, as since then, Matthew and Daniel's ambition is greatly improved, in order the keep him in the band.

So, when meeting former Cars, and Weezer producer, Ric Ocasek after a show at the Knitting Factory, they have the guts to hand him, with little hope, a copy of Tafkans. Three weeks later, Ric calls them back, but he wants to record all the songs. Meanwhile, the band finalize a contract with Elektra, through an executive, Terry Tolkin, who was working for its indie branch No.6 Records, on which Karmic had been released in 1995. A producer and a label: High/Low is in the works.

Actually, the negociations with Elektra didn't go smoothly, so Ric also connected them to Maverick Records, and the band flew to L.A. for an audition which was quite hectic, as Matthew had the flu, and they had to rent gear. Here's his report back then:

11-JAN-96 2:09

hi, yeah, I'm sorry, I guess it would be a little more interesting if you knew what I was talking about... I play guitar and sing in a band called nada surf. I've been in a few bands in the last ten or so years (i'm 28) and though I knew I'd always be involved in some kind of project, I'd long ago dismissed the idea of ever having the chance to do it for a living. I thought I would always just play for my friends, and I was totally happy with that. I even got a normal job (I should have done that years ago!) writing and editing at Guitar World. Anyway, one night I was leaving the Knitting Factory and I saw Ric Ocasek coming in. I've never gone up and spoken to a clebrity without being introduced (except Wallace Shawn in kinko's once) but I had a tape in my pocket, and because we had just recently gotten an exceptionally excellent drummer, who was not likely to stick around unless I showed at least a little ambition, I went back in and gave Ric the tape. He was very nice about it and said he'd listen to it. To my utter surprise (I hadn't given the matter one more thought) he actually called me three weeks later and said he loved it and wanted me to come over to talk about it! Insane! Totally insane! I don't think I've ever been so shocked. I went over to his house a couple of days later and sat in the kitchen while he puttered around and asked me questions. After a while, we went downstairs to his studio and talked. The gist of it was that he wanted to make copies of our tape and send it around to some a&r guys he knew. A week later, we played a show, and someone came up to me after and gave me his number, saying he had a label called No.6. I knew they'd put out a Dean Wareham single I liked and I'd heard name a few times, so I dropped off a tape and a Stickboy single the next morning. When I got in to work, he called me and said he wanted another copy to give to his boss at Elektra, where he had his day job. But an hour later, his boss called, he'd heard it already, and he wanted to come to our rehearsal that night. We brought a lot of beer to help us forget that he was coming, and when he did, we tried to play as if he wasn't there, which wasn't very easy. Freak development of all freak developments, he called me the next morning and offered us a contract. Luckily, he also said to think about it and get back to him. Not having any idea what I was supposed to do then, I called Ric for advice. He said "tell him you're flattered, but that I still want to send it around." I did that. I couldn't believe that I'd just been offered the one thing I'd always wanted and had turned it down. Then things just got weirder... Almost every day after work, we'd go up to Elektra for another installment of a very long, very hard sell. We liked almost everything about the place except for their size--they had so many bands! We'd get totally lost! But everything else felt so right that we eventually told them (with the help of a lawyer) what the contract would have to say for us to sign. Our a&r guy said that it would be smooth as anything and we would get everything we asked for. But the business d epartment obviously didn't see it that way, because when we got the contract, they'd chopped out all the bits that were important to us! But luckily, the next day, one of the labels that Ric had sent it to, Maverick (chez Madonna), called. They wanted us to fly to L.A. I had the flu, but since it looked like things might not work out with Elektra, we figured we had better go. I'd been to California only once, years ago, so it was a good place to be sick, at least I was distracted by being in a new environment. It was very spinal tap. They actually sent a car to the airport to pick us up. The driver talked about all the famous people he drives around, like that guy "Sleaze, from those Red Hot Chili Peppers." Then he told us the dispatcher from his company had a beautiful voice, and could he play us her tape? Jesus, what the hell am I doing? I'm sorry, I have been seriously babbling! I'm sure you didn't need to hear all that.....we finally went with Elektra, though we haven't put pen to paper yet, even though the record's finished.

... ...so we listened to the driver's dispatcher's demo tape--a smokily sung old jazz standard--while we drove clear across town (seemed like an hour!) and the driver told us about the decline of music. Because our plane had been late, we went straight to the Maverick offices, a one-story whole-blocker with a high-security entrance. If Elektra gave us the hard sell, these guys--I guess they figured they were coming from behind--gave us the "this is THE most special little operation in the world" super-sell. Freddy, the owner and the man who had left me a frantic message two days before, is Madonna's manager and had been Michael Jackson's in the past. I had assumed that he was going to be a cheeezball and that we were only going out there to make Elektra nervous so that they would stop being vague about artistic control, not getting dropped after the first record and all the rest of the scary bad stuff. I wasn't prepared for him to be a kind, charming and intelligent man. By the end of lunch (I recognized the restaurant from the scene in the Player where they eat outside with lotso famous people), everything we were hearing from Freddy and Guy, Maverick's A&R guy, was actually making us feel stupid and defensive about having ever even considered Elektra's offer. Maverick only had FOUR bands (Alanis having just gone quadrillion platinum and Candlebox having sold an equally silly number of records), were only going to sign TWO in the next year, wanted us to be one of them, AND were willing to release any of our demos if we went in with ric and didn't feel like we'd beat 'em. The whole thing was made weirder by the fact that I was so blocked up with the flu that I could hardly hear, sitting there outside in 80-degree clear-skied perfect weather. We were done for the day, so we went to our hotel to rest up from our trip--we were to play for the company the next afternoon before catching a flight home. Our hotel was ridiculously fancy--by this point everything seemed funny. We spent the whole evening walking around Sunset Strip, feverishly debating the pros and cons of each label, and the whole night sitting in our room, feverishly debating the pros and cons of each label some more. The next morning, Daniel our bass player got up early to go to the beach (he'd brought his boogie board) but came back frustrated an hour later. The beach was five miles away and he couldn't find a taxi or any public transportation. Our "audition" for the company was a disaster. Freddy's assistant had asked me on the phone in New York what we would need. I said "uh, a rehearsal space with some amps and drums, I guess." She had asked me twice if I could get any more specific, but all I could muster was "well, some good amps and drums would be nice." I basically had no clue that rehearsal spaces in L.A. are just big rooms that people bring all their shit into. We showed up at the "Fortress II" an hour early to find a big, grey and very empty room. We asked the guy working there where the amps were and he rolled in two huge cabinets with one sixteen-inch speaker each and one fiberglass-foam-filled-where-the-other-speaker-used- to-be-gaping-hole each. And two old 30-watt bass heads. And a three-piece drum kit with a solitary broken cymbal. Now we are not a picky band by any stretch, but playing privately for an entire label with a totally sick singer seemed bad enough, but sounding wretched was just too much for the other guys, and they basically freaked. Seeing no other alternative, we called a rental company and placed an order for a couple of good amps and some cymbals. The bill was going to be $300 bucks or something, but we thought that when the label saw the rehearsal space and the equipment that was there, they'd happily pick up the tab and approve of our pro-activeness. Well, we were wrong. When Freddy's assistant arrived, she was shocked at what we'd done. "What's wrong with that stuff?" Uh, nothing of course. We cancelled the order and got on with the show when all the labelites had filed in. The sound was absolutely horrible, but it sure beat sitting around together for an hour waiting for the rentals, explaining in detail exactly how badly all the house stuff sucked! We were sure we'd blown it, but they were still doing the hard-sell when they took us out for another lunch. By this time, I felt like going to bed for a week, but we had lots of time to kill, so we dragged our bags and guitars through what seemed like world's largest mall, looking for the movie theater. On the flight home, we were all sure that Maverick was the way to go, but the next day we were confused again. Anyway, that's the basic story. We went into the studio a couple of weeks later, are now done, and still haven't officially signed. I'm pretty scared of getting lost in the shuffle, but at least we made a record I really like, so we've already gotten that out of it. And we got to work with ric, which was an absolute pleasure. we shall see what we shall see....As jneil said, if I get spit out of the machine a year from now, a bitter wreck, I can always post about that.

High/Low is mastered in january 1996, 10 songs being completed in 19 days (recording included). The recording is paid for by Elektra, before the band signs its contract on january 18, 1996.

Major Period

During the summer 1996, Nada Surf tours the USA with Superdrag, and Popular becomes an anthem, and crosses the Atlantic. Nada Surf then conquers Europe, where The Proximity Effect is released in september 1998, produced by Fred Maher. Actually, their record label, thinking it lacks a hit such as Popular on this album, has the band recording many covers, including Black & White (The dBs) and Why Are You So Mean To Me? (Vitreous Humor), in order to use it as a single. But tired of the requirements of the art director, Nada Surf, judging the album is complete and perfect as it is (Elektra even suggests to include an acoustic version of Popular), and breaks its contract. As a consequence, this album isn't release on the US market, and while the band is on a promotional tour in Europe, Elektra drops them. Despite these events, this album is critically acclaimed in France, where the band makes a 30-show tour in march 1999.

Independant Period

Follows a legal battle to get the rights over The Proximity Effect, ending in 2000, allowing the band to release the album in august 2000 on their own label: MarDev, named after Matthew's maternal grandmother, Margaret Devereux Lippitt, daughter of the painter Margaret Walthour Lippitt. Now, they have to rebuild a fanbase in North America, which is done after a few months of intensive touring.

During this 3-year forced break (1999-2002), the band members take a regular day job, Matthew working at a nearby record-store, Daniel working on some computer projects, and Ira doing drums and guitar sessions for other artists. Caws would later refer to these times as a period of luxury.

In 2001, they record most of the songs from Let Go, produced by their friends Louis Lino and Chris Fudurich, who had engineered The Proximity Effect. They pay them with $1 and $5 bills, the money earned with the selling of merchandising during their tours. Let Go is also critically acclaimed, and the Inside of Love single gets a decent airplay. They earn a reputation of good songwriters. Although many critics perceive it as an expression of the NYC post 9-11 melancholy, Let Go has been written before these events. This is a stepping point for the band, which could for the first time work pressure free, with no art director to satisfy, and unleashing their creativity. Their fans, very active online, wait for many months its release, constantly delayed, but the final result greatly compensates for the frustration accumulated over the years. As usual, the release is followed by many months of touring, including many european festivals in the summer 2003.

Finally, after 10 years of labor, Nada Surf is successful on both sides of the Atlantic, and not only in Europe. Indeed, their fourth album, The Weight Is a Gift' (produced by Chris Walla, among others) gets a large audience, with the single Always Love. The frame of mind in the writing of this opus is different, as they have to work with more pressure. And songwriter Matthew Caws, who then faces tough times, takes music as an escape from his personal difficulties.

Nada Surf finished touring for The Weight Is A Gift in october 2006, and has worked since then on its fifth LP, Time for Plan A, expected on February 5, 2008. They have recorded in the Robert Lang Studios, in Seattle, in march and august 2007, under the direction of producer John Goodmanson.

Discography

(see this page for a more detailed listing)

Studio Albums

Year	Cover	Title	Label
1996	File:Nshl.jpg	High/Low	Elektra
1998		The Proximity Effect	Elektra (Europe) / MarDev (2000)
2002		Let Go	Labels/EMI/Barsuk (2003)
2005		The Weight Is a Gift	Barsuk/City Slang (Rough Trade)
2008		Time for Plan A	Barsuk/City Slang (Rough Trade)

Other Records

Year	Title	Label
1995	Karmic (EP)	No.6 Records / 2007 reissue on Hi-Speed Soul Records
1999	North 6th Street	Noneties music
2004	Live in Brussels	Labels/EMI France

Popular

Popular is nada surf's first single, released in June 1996, which made them well-known over the world. The song reached number 11 on the U.S. Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart and propelled the album to number 63 on the Billboard 200. "Popular" was also a big hit in France, reaching the Top 10 with a total chart run of 15 consecutive weeks in the French Top 50. It was also used in France in a TV commercial for the radio station Fun Radio, which was then the most influent teenager radio station. The whole song, except for the chorus, is made of parts of a book, Penny's Guide to Teen-Age Charm and Popularity (Gloria Winters, 1964, Prentice Hall), whose advice are taken sarcasticaly by Matthew Caws. Those parts are spoken, and not sung.

Video and Controversy

The video for this song, directed by Jesse Peretz, was shot at the Bayonne High School, with administration approval, and showed football players and cheerleaders, wearing the uniforms of the school, as well as the three members of the band, Matthew as a teacher, Daniel as a security guard, and Ira as the football coach. The vice principal of the High School later launched a controversy, in mid-august 1996, by raising the issue that the last scene, which shows football players staring suggestively at each other in the showers, was homoerotic and thus offensive towards Bayonne High School, as it suggested some of its football players could be gay.

According to Nada Surf, the shower scene was never intended to suggest homosexuality. Indeed, both the song's lyrics and the bulk of the video's imagery are predominantly -- and blatantly -- heterosexual. The video features passionate, heterosexual kissing scenes, for example, which go well beyond any "suggestive" smiles that so offended the vice principal.

Significantly, the band members quickly took exception to this homophobic attack. During an MTV News report on the controversy, Nada Surf lambasted the vice principal's ignorance -- calling the vice principal "small minded" for singling out "homoeroticism as more offensive than straight eroticism".

Singles

• The Plan/Telescope (1994 - 7")
• Deeper Well/Pressure Free (1995 - 7")
• Popular (1996)
• Treehouse (1996)
• Deeper Well (1996)
• Zen Brain (1997 - french version, promotional release)
• Why Are You So Mean To Me? (1998 - promotional release)
• Firecracker (1998 - promotional release)
• Hyperspace (1998 - promotional release)
• Mother's Day (1998 - promotional release)
• 80 Windows (1998 - test pressing)
• The Way You Wear Your Head (2002)
• Inside Of Love (2002)
• Blonde on Blonde (2002 - 7", promotional release)
• Hi-Speed Soul (2003)
• L'aventurier (2003)
• Always Love (2005)
• Imaginary Friends (2005 - promotional release)
• Blankest Year (2005 - promotional release)

Other releases

• Where Is My Mind? Tribute to the Pixies (Contributing Where Is My Mind?) - Glue Factory - 1999

• This Is Next Year: A Brooklyn-Based Compilation (compilation track) - Arena Rock Recording Co. - 2001

• Music from the OC: Mix 2 (compilation track) - Editing Wea Records - 2004

• Future Soundtrack for America (compilation track) - Barsuk - 2004

• Love Rocks (compilation track) - Human Rights Campaign/Centaur Entertainment - 2005

Films, games, TV programmes and adverts soundtracks

• Nada Surf performed the 'Kitty Cat Song' used as the theme tune for the Catz 2006 PC game, officially titled 'Meow Meow Lullaby Remix'. The song was written by by Matthew Caws, Ira Elliot & Daniel Lorca, recorded by Tom Beajour at The Nuthouse, published by Songs as Pets (BMI)/Karmacode (ASCAP) with additional Vocals from Lianne Smith. Nada Surf appeared courtesy of Barsuk Records, by arrangement with Bank Robber Music.

• Nada Surf covered The Beatles' classic "All You Need is Love" in 2006. The cover was featured in a Chase Credit Card television commercial in the U.S.

• The song "Blonde on Blonde" from Let Go is featured during the opening and end credits to the 2004 coming of age German film Sommersturm (Summer Storm). "Blonde on Blonde" is also featured in the 2004 John Travolta film, A Love Song for Bobby Long, and in the TV show Six Feet Under.

• "What is Your Secret" from The Weight Is A Gift, was featured in "A New Light", episode 3 of the ABC series Six Degrees (10/05/06).

• Nada Surf recorded a cover of the classic 80s song "If You Leave" by OMD for the television program The O.C. The song played during a prominent scene in which Seth Cohen (Adam Brody) shares an emotional goodbye with Anna Stern (Samaire Armstrong). This scene was a tribute to the John Hughes film Pretty in Pink, in which the OMD version of the song originally appeared.

• Nada Surf's songs Inside Of Love and Always Love are featured in the television show One Tree Hill. Inside Of Love was played in season 1 episode 13, when Lucas (Chad Michael Murray) kisses Peyton (Hilarie Burton) and Always Love was played in season 3 episode 3. "Inside Of Love" was also featured in the first season of the television show How I Met Your Mother.

• "Always Love" is featured on the soundtrack to Disturbia (2007) and has been played on "CW"'s "One Tree Hill".

• "Zen Brain" is featured in the German movie Nichts Bereuen (2001).

• "Hyperspace" is featured in the German movie The Edukators (2004).

• The band appears playing "Concrete Bed" in the episode 56, Return of the Future, of One Tree Hill (1/18/2006), and they are part of the plot.

• Nada Surf's song "I Like What You Say" is featured in the 2006 film "John Tucker Must Die"

Covers

• Nada Surf play the title track of the Pixies tribute album, Where Is My Mind?.

• Daniel and Matthew went to school at the Lycée Français de New York and also spent time in France and Belgium as children. They have been influenced by French culture, and the band has recorded cover versions of Alain Souchon's song "La p'tite Bill est malade", Indochine's "L'Aventurier", and Françoise Hardy's "Au Fond d'un Rêve Doré"

• ”Always Love” was covered by the band America, a group most well-known for their success during the 1970s which released its first major-label album in over 20 years in 2006. Matthew and Ira from Nada Surf were guest musicians on the album.

• The band has covered the Stooges song I'm Sick of You for the Iggy Pop tribute album, We Will Fall.

• They have covered the song "Blue Moon" for the Big Star tribute.

• Nada Surf covered The Smiths' classic There Is a Light That Never Goes Out for a BBC6 tribute operation, featuring Ed Harcourt on keyboard. They subsequently included it to their setlists.

Bibliography

The Hyperspace-Perspective in the Lyrics of Nada Surf [1], by Christian Auinger. Doctorate in anglo-american language study, University of Vienna - 2005

External links

• Official Site
• Authorized Fan Site, with a complete discography and many audio and video files
• Matthew's diary on the early days of the band
• "Finally Professional", PopMatters interview (9/2005)
• Ira Elliot Interview, by Raphie Frank (6/2005)
• Lazy-i Interview: February 2006

• "Staying Afloat: Nada Surf Keep on Aboard" CBC Radio 3 Live Concert Session; story by Rob Nay, photography by Lorne Bridgman