nada surf - the proximity effect

A band that made it big: they signed with Elektra and saw a song from their debut album become a hit and MTV staple. The band's follow-up album, the proximity effect, sold well and received critical acclaim in Europe. This is where the wheels fell off. Or perhaps where the group, nada surf, decided they'd had enough.

"Elektra didn't hear what they wanted to hear: a hit," said singer/ guitarist Matthew Caws. The album's U.S. release was pulled. But the band had invested too much in the proximity effect for it to be shelved. So they fought to get out of the contract, which they did; and they fought for control of the album, which they got; and then they released it on their own label.

The album's tone is happy but understated: an alternative sound with melody, moody and exuberant, seemingly ready to burst at any time. The band reminds me of a combination between a sort-of-Weezer and a modern Cheap Trick. "We're too pop for underground and we're too quirky for the mainstream," said Caws. "We're in a purgatory in the middle and we're fine with that."

The tunes feel poppy, but the lyrics do not. Speaking to a generation distanced from itself, the songs address disaffection and distance between people. "There is such a surfeit of small artificial distractions around us all the time," Caws said. "There are too many details, too many schemes."

Part of the blame lies on the society we live in, as "Bacardi" describes in a tale about a drunken walk home from a party:

...you go home and spend your life alone

with the stereo, watching the late show,

or force yourself out in the night, to meet

your generation, you feel like claymation

in fluorescent light, on our knees, we

made it hard to see, we made it hard to breathe

and the air was thin.

The tension between the seemingly pop/alternative tune and the lyrics that talk about "there's no right and there's no wrong, there's just the balance of things" creates a pull, making each part say more than it would on its own.

Seeing them live also makes the songs speak more. Playing at Brownie's recently to a packed house, nada surf sounded great, perhaps even better than on the album. The set was full of energy and they looked like rock stars up on the stage. Go see them live if you can, and if you can't--turn the volume up when listening to their CD.

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