Nada Surf
1/12/2008

Nada Surf are a shockingly resilient band. Like their labelmates Harvey Danger, they somehow escaped being relegated to pieces of mid-90s rock-radio nostalgia, establishing themselves as workhouse indie rock acts with a lot more wind left in their sails. Gone are the days when Nada Surf's "Popular" would appear every five minutes on MuchMusic; now, they're kicking it as the soundtrack to your favourite WB shows, popping up on shows like The OC and One Tree Hill pretty much all the goddamn time. Yes, Nada Surf grew up to be a real band.

And a very nice band at that! At a Toronto in-store, they seemed genuinely pleased and surprised by the substantial turnout. While their next full-length, Lucky, isn't due out until February 5, and their bass player Daniel Lorca was laying low State-side, the band still churned out a really incredibly adorable set of quiet, genuine, tiny rock songs about being in love, out of love, and cats. They don't return until April with a proper show in a real venue (not that the basement of Sonic Boom isn't a rad little place to hang out and listen to tunes), but their set certainly satisfied the bopping die-hards in the crowd, who were no doubt pleased to hear acoustic renditions of four songs from their upcoming record.

Matthew Caws is a really nice guy. After offering me some of the band's cheese (it was really good) and olives (also delicious), we settled into a corner of the basement's huge storage room, which primarily houses the massive window displays that Sonic Boom is known for. So while we chatted congenially about music publishing, doctorates, and The OC, a scary tree of skeleton children hovered in the background.

MindTrap really is one of the best games ever. While Matthew was a good sport about answering some riddles, I really hope to riddle-down with some more riddle-loving bands in the future. I mean, who would have thought it was daytime? Really. That shit traps your mind right good.

Check out a real interview with Matthew this coming Wednesday.

Sam Sutherland


Nada Surf "Always Love"

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