NINA NASTASIA

Best,
Beer Can

In an experiment of collaboration, songstress Nina
Nastasia and the incomparable percussionist Jim
White have announced the release of their album, You
Follow Me. The album, which will be released on May
28th, 2007, is Nastasia’s second release on Fat Cat
Records.

White – who is best known for his work with the
highly regarded instrumental group Dirty Three as
well as lending his hand to the projects of Will
Oldham, The Boxhead Ensemble, Smog, Nick Cave and PJ
Harvey – thought up the idea of a collaboration
between himself and Nastasia after the recording of
her album, On Leaving, for which he played drums.

The album was recorded with the legendary Steve
Albini at his Electrical Audio studio in Chicago
after White and Nastasia worked together with
musical organizer Kennan Gudjonsson with the process
of fine tuning the album in New York.

she was on blistering form in glasgow last night. this is the 4th time i have seen her and the first time i have seen her play solo. i was quite disappointed when i saw the setup, i thought i would miss jim white, but when she started playing... oh wow. much rawer than before. the rawness is usually lurking there under a fairly demure surface but this time it was all there for us to see. really amazingly great.

Looking forward to seeing her at Green Man.

happy to hear that. when i saw her solo here in Mtl last, it was dull.

she is a genius

Nina w/ orchestra? Fuck yeah.

This could be very good.

http://www.wearsthetrousers.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/n_lp_ninanastasia_10.jpg

Track off the new album available for download here:

http://www.clashmusic.com/feature/nina-nastasia-album-preview

Another track appeared on a FatCat sampler not so long back: "You Can Take Your Time" which for me was the highlight of her last Peel Acres session (6 years ago, give or take a few months!) The album version is great, but the live-at-Peel-Acres version was better, for my money at least.

A bit of street-teaming here so forgive me. Today at 5:30 GMT, there's an interview with Nina that I engineered, three live tracks including an untitled new one, it's on Resonance FM, the show is called Arctic Circle.

oh shit! thanks for the heads up

http://ec.libsyn.com/p/3/4/7/347cb6d6c36d33cb/Resonance__51_24-05-12.mp3?d13a76d516d9dec20c3d276ce028ed5089ab1ce3dae902ea1d01cb803ed9c15a528e&c_id=4560123

^^just listened! great stuff! sounds awesome btw, good job engineering.

she is a staggering talent, every performace i've seen or watched on youtube, it's just flawless playing and singing....

also she seems really cool and funny, way less serious than i thought she would be.

thanks, MaresNest x

Thanks guys!

It was a little problematic, the idea of meeting her as I'm a big fan, it could only be a letdown? In truth, NN and Kennan were incredibly gracious and nice to us, we plied them both with whisky and they hung out in the studio and chatted with us and some London friends of theirs for a good while afterwards. I really can't say enough nice things about them. And, of course the added bonus of watching/listening to her perform, well...damn.

I spoke to her twice after gigs when she was milling around. one feels like one shouldn't say hello and thanks to artists but she was lovely and, i think, even appreciated it. i have to say that the second gig was really special though, maybe my favourite gig ever, in fact.

I was lucky enough to see her and Jim white perform as a duo on that tour, what a show

her & jim white clanking along is still some sort of transcendent moment in acoustic-guitar-player-presentation, to me, like it was some amazingly novel moment, & record, that demonstrated making something that's more than the sum of its parts. so good.

couldn't get the above link to work today, but found this one:

http://www.jointhecircle.net/radio/?p=1769

the best

truth bomb^

she really is.

So how does Outlaster stack up?

i think it's great....though honestly i have my personal favorites but i think all her albums are of super high quality

I have "Dogs" on socialist records and really like it. Have always been looking for the album with Jim White, and saw Outlaster on vinyl recently for pretty cheap, like $9.99. I wasn't sure about it though. Always considered her a less alienating alternative to Mirah, and not in a bad way.

don't know mirah....outlaster on vinyl for $10 is a bargain

Oh! Give her a shot. Try the "Advisory Committee" album.

Got Outlaster on vinyl the other week. As scott mentions in an Outlaster thread, it sounds great and the packaging is fantastic. I used to be a total stan for the simpler arrangements in Dogs, but the strings in Outlaster won me over in the end. I have to add Dogs to the vinyls wanted list, though. I first heard Dogs while visiting a friend in the Audio Recording program at IU. A professor let him borrow it as an example of a great recording.

Dogs has been reissued at least once on vinyl, I bought it from her when she played in mpls w/Jim White

Reissued in Europe maybe? All of the copies on discogs ship from Germany/the Netherlands

yeah no idea, but there's no way it was the orig. press...unless she had a box leftoever that she brought on tour

the jim white record is kinda hard to find i think, now...i grabbed the last copy she had from the merch table and bummed everyone behind me out

btw, evan - mirah (the name) was bugging me and i realized a friend of mine put out a bunch of her records (or at least the vinyl versions)

Jim white collab on lp recently went for 80+ on eebs.

damn, i don't think i'd part w/it though

when amazon says it's "temporarily out of stock", does it really mean "probably out of stock forever"?

yeah probably gone...

honestly, sometimes if you have a decent bigger indie record store in your town you could call over and see if they have one collecting dust for list price, i've found stuff like that before

that's so great to hear! thanks for sharing

Here's a recording of the Stowmarket concert from the end of last month -

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/jlpsuvoym0yq7z09cfynk/h?dl=0&rlkey=lm0t9g4ij2861u4y54mggx7cy

maresnest thank you so much!

You're welcome ums

I also added in the Daylight Music session songs that I recorded years ago (talked about way upthread).

Will gladly also check out that download.

Saw Nina in Glasgow on Thursday, my first time.

Fantastic thank you MaresNest, quite a few songs I'd never heard there. 'Hard Life' is phenomenal. I'm catching Nina in Exeter on Thursday, thought I'd missed her tour dates but then amazed to see she was coming to the south west.

Thank you so much mares neat it’s great.I really tried to get to this gig but I just couldn’t find a way. It’s almost exactly the same set list as London. She did regrets too.thanks for making this available …

I’m still on the hunt for ask me live not found it yet….maybe it’s to personal ….

none of the people filling in setlists here seem to have heard it yet: https://www.setlist.fm/stats/songs/nina-nastasia-5bd61758.html?songid=bee554a

The recent Newcastle gig is in the same dropbox link now.

Cambridge show last night was fantastic - "Hard Life"(?) at the end may have brought at least one audience member to tears after a rocky day

The Cambridge concert popped up as well, so I've added it to the pile, same link above.

Nice, thanks MaresNest. Just back from the Exeter show, Nina in very good form, voice stronger if anything than when I last saw her 12+ years ago. Riderless Horse songs sound terrific (though still no Ask Me) and she also performed a few older surprising ones, World of Dirt and the Untitled ("Lose Myself To Change"?) fantastic to hear live. "Hard Life" seems to be the regular closer now, and it's as strong if not stronger than anything she's ever done (which is saying something).

The Marc Riley/Gideon Coe session is in there now also

Tom Ravenscroft had a really fun interview with her on his 6 show the other week too

New version of This Is Love/You Were So Mad with Marissa Paternoster out on BandCamp - https://ninanastasia.bandcamp.com/album/this-is-love-b-w-you-were-so-mad

was getting so used to hearing her unadorned, it's disorienting to hear the new material in a full arrangement.

This is so subdued for Paternoster, it seems like this could be a fruitful long-term collaboration.

Nina back in the UK playing 10 dates in August/September. She's also supporting Wilco in a US tour in October: https://www.picuki.com/media/3121182834395937534

dang, some of those dates are driveable for me

A bit late, but her gig in Dublin in April was amazing. Much more confident than she was in 2012. Only blip the entire evening was her forgetting a lyric in "World of Dirt". I managed to remember so told her the lyric, and she thanked me, but then she shot me this brief look of 'wait, this song is unreleased, how do you know that?'. I just smiled at her, then she smiled back, thanked me again, and continued the song. It was a cool moment. One that I'll always remember every time I hear the "You can blame me, you can blame your friends" lyric.

We had a nice conversation at the merch stand after the gig. The new songs she was doing that tour ("Hard Life" and "Sunrise Is a Sunset") won't be on her next album with Florida BC, since those were brand new songs written just before the tour started, while the album was recorded late 2022. "They'll be on the album after the one with Florida BC... unless I write better ones". "Hard Life" is that song's official title, but she doesn't like the title "Sunrise Is a Sunset", "I'll come up with something better eventually".

We also had a nice chat about the nature of the independent music business. She would've loved to release the record with Florida BC this summer, but "indie labels have limited finances and tight schedules for all their bands... so you sort of have to wait in line until the label's ready to release your record while they're busy releasing other people's records". It'll hopefully be released spring 2024, with more EPs and the next record following summer 2025. "No plans of ever stopping!".

There was more to this conversation, but it was 2 months ago at this point so this is all I can recall.

Thanks MaresNest for the bootlegs above. Beautiful sounding. Unfortunately no bootleg from me this time. I stupidly left batteries in my Zoom H4 since the last time I used it (around 2019) so the electronics inside all are caked in silver crud. I did record most of the gig (audio only) on my phone, but the quality really isn't worth anyone else's bandwidth.

"no plans of ever stopping" hell yeah

Fantastic, thanks for that Homeostasis ... weirdly enough a similar thing happened to me in Exeter! She was on very strong form, voice sounded great, but yeah forgot a lyric in 'Untitled' ("You're going home after 8 or 9 years and your Daddy has died"). I'm not the sort to shout out at concerts so kept quiet but when she really couldn't remember it, let her know. She was genuinely thankful - it was quite the moment

this is just great, for a while this thread felt more like we were sifting through the unreleased rarities and scraps of an artist that had or seemed to be disappearing. like a future "vanished" cult artist...i'm just really happy for her for all the new energy and activity.

It really is incredibly heartening. Looks like she's putting on an extra date in London as the first has already sold out (!).

Sorry, forgot the link: https://us21.campaign-archive.com/?e=8f1dfb7199&u=fbf4093d5a3ce10055cfdaa99&id=227d585c16

St Pancras Old Church is a very Nina venue, frankenstein, hardy tree and all. but it's not big in any way.

for a while this thread felt more like we were sifting through the unreleased rarities and scraps of an artist that had or seemed to be disappearing. like a future "vanished" cult artist

one can easily imagine in the past, she might well have disappeared, since it would be easier for one to fall out of both the public eye and completely out of their social sphere as well. i imagine it took a lot of strength for her to leave that relationship and to deal with the mixed feelings of freedom and guilt which followed in the wake of what happened after, and i don't doubt having a more readily available support system instantaneously available (vs whatever might have happened to her in idk the '60s or '70s) was crucial. i don't want to make any assumptions about her personal story though, i'm just glad she's back and seemingly happier than ever.

Someone at Setlist.fm has updated one of the setlists from the recent UK dates:

https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/nina-nastasia/2023/norwich-arts-centre-norwich-england-4ba2ebaa.html

She's doing at least 4 brand new songs these recent dates: "Rock + Rain", "It's Not Easy", "Murder Ballad" and "Family Name". Official song titles from the Nina's handwritten setlist. Same user also uploaded recordings of 3 older songs to YouTube from that same show in Norwich, so safe to say this is all legit.

^ That was me! I shared the full audio recording here: https://archive.org/details/ninanastasia2023-09-06

Awesome can't wait to check this out

I saw this pop up on D!m3 too, nice work!

New band?! New album!!

https://www.stereogum.com/2235195/jolie-laide-nina-nastasia-jeff-macleod-pacific-coast-highway/music/

https://www.instagram.com/p/CxTfWcVSHyC/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

Missed seeing her in the UK as I've been abroad but this is great news, thanks all!

Hell yes! This is awesome.

It's great to hear Nina with a full band again. "Pacific Coast Highway" sounds like a bastardized version of a James Bond theme, by way of "Regrets" and "I Say That I Will Go". Can't wait to hear the rest of the album.

And thank you Rairun for the Norwich recording. Those new songs are awesome too. As much as I love "Sunrise" and "Hard Life", they sound like an extension of Riderless Horse; it's hard to imagine them as anything other than acoustic songs. But with these new songs, you can almost hear the full-band arrangements taking shape.

They sound like a return to the Dogs/Blackened Air sound. "It's Not Easy" could have a "The Long Walk" type of production, with violin or e-bow or something. "Murder Ballad" could be a sister song to "Ugly Face", with that sort of driving drum rhythm and a heavy violin presence. "Family Name", my favorite of these songs, probably should remain mostly acoustic, but could have a delicate touch of violin or piano, similar to "Why Don't You Stay Home".

Also been reading her tour diary on Substack. It's great to hear her doing so well. Future's looking bright. ;)

Touch & Go are reissuing The Blackened Air on limited edition clear-colored vinyl on October 20th. It doesn't look like Nina will be able to sell it on her Bandcamp (T&G seem to be doing this themselves, and Nina isn't signed with the label anymore), so you might want to check with your local suppliers/online if you want to pick this one up.

New song - Why I Drink

https://theautumnroses.org/2023/10/04/jolie-laide-why-i-drink/

two tracks, in fact, if you click through to the bandcamp link.

Nice surprise today when the postman left the Jolie Liade record in my woodshed - looks like it shipped out at least a couple of weeks early, and from Canada too. Also it looks like they (accidentally?) sent me two copies!

awesome - how is it?

It's pretty great. Languid but surprisingly rough-edged (compared to the two tracks released first). The last track on the second side, Blue as Blue, is a storming closer, and I really like Death of Money and Moves Away Towns too. Definitely got that David Lynch/Lost Highway/Chris Isaak feeling about it. Perfect for this very dark and wild night, which has been punctuated by powercuts.

A few more listens and I'm really enjoying this, even on my incredibly knackered record deck. As mentioned I got an unexpected spare copy - if anyone would like it give me a shout and I can send it out (might be easiest in UK postage-wise).

Can confirm that Jeff (guitarist for Jolie Laide) is shipping out the Bandcamp orders early. Received my copy today, but house is too busy to listen to right now. Maybe later. Also received my copy of the Touch & Go vinyl reissue of The Blackened Air earlier this week, which sounds wonderful.

Ah I forgot about that reissue. Comically, when I try to order it through Touch and Go's site they ship to everywhere - including Pitcairn Island and the Isle of Man - but not the UK.

Ah I was going to joke about "bloody Brexit" - turns out that *is* the reason: "Apologies to all our UK customers, but due to Brexit, we are currently unable to accept orders from the UK.". Enjoying those sunlit uplands!

^ Hey JiffMoose, you had any luck purchasing The Blackened Air reissue? Unfortunately, the place I purchased it has sold out. If you're still having trouble, I'd have no problem purchasing it from Touch & Go and then sending it on to you.

Loving the Jolie Laide record, by the way. If I were to compare it to anything else Nina has done, it'd be Run to Ruin. It's a bit more uptempo than that record, but it has that same sense of dread running throughout. You can never quite get over the feeling that something terrible could happen at any moment. It's quite impressive.

Don't want to give too many spoilers, but "My Darling" is probably the song I replay the most. It's a gorgeous McCartney-esque ballad. Fairly short but very, very pretty.

Thanks Homeostasis - I did manage to track it down at Piccadilly records in the end, but thanks for the kind offer! It arrived on Halloween, and I think playing Ocean far too loud on my haunted record deck might have scared off any trick-or-treaters.

Don't really know Conan Neutron, but this is interesting - 2hr long interview with Nina: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3H5NYN3iHAE

first listen i am really liking the JL album

Finally got around to watching the interview. Interesting from 1:24:30 where Nina alludes to after Outlaster "there was another record that was a Bear ... if you could see the movie of it you'd see the break down. By the time we tried to do a recording it just didn't work, everything was breaking down at that point, it was just such misery that it wasn't happening. There are some recordings ... I'd have to go through and see what's salvageable, if anything"

Also very affecting on Kennan, with "Handmade Card" being a gift to him that was recorded on one night, "a joyful kind of thing". "He wasn't just one thing".

This is really nice: Nina writing about the influence of her artist father, James: https://www.talkhouse.com/role-models-nina-nastasia-took-more-from-her-father-than-she-realized/
Pennies dropping all over the place for me with "Jim's Room". I was just looking at the illustration from Blackened Air and wondering about it the other day...