That’s awful — I feel terrible for Nina, moreso considering Albini’s comments that she’s been dealing with her own health issues. Which I’d never heard about before but might explain her lack of releases this past decade.
It sounds like he’d been her constant companion for a couple decades, so I hope she has strong support around her.
― omar little, Tuesday, 28 January 2020 04:58 (four years ago) link
that's really sad. RIP.
― sean gramophone, Tuesday, 28 January 2020 14:47 (four years ago) link
Horrible news. RIP.
― pomenitul, Tuesday, 28 January 2020 14:51 (four years ago) link
I had an incredibly brief encounter with Kennan & can attest that he was very much as advertised (and more) in Steve & Tim's posts, just heart breaking
I spun Dogs & the Blackened Air & Run to Ruin last night and man those fucking records
― chr1sb3singer, Tuesday, 28 January 2020 16:10 (four years ago) link
Nooooooooo, this sucks, I hung with them both for an afternoon for a radio session/interview, Kennan was a lovely big bear of a dude.
― Maresn3st, Tuesday, 28 January 2020 18:31 (four years ago) link
A small piece of news - a (very) tiny interview on Velvet Sheep from Jun 30 - https://velvet-sheep.com/song-for-ewe/nina-nastasia-song-for-ewe/
“I have many more records in the works, so I’ll be getting back to music from this long hiatus. It’s where I’d like to stay for a long while again.”
Nina's classic song selection: "The song I love and never get sick of, isn’t obscure-ish. I don’t listen to a lot of music actually. Common People – Pulp"
Here's hoping things are going alright for Nina in New York.
― JifMoose, Monday, 5 October 2020 17:05 (three years ago) link
Glad to see this thread get bumped for good news.
― pomenitul, Monday, 5 October 2020 17:08 (three years ago) link
oh wow thanks so muchthat's great to hearhopefully it actually happensi had recently thought that maybe she would be done forever
― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Monday, 5 October 2020 17:10 (three years ago) link
Really hope Touch & Go finally depresses her early work, too
― beamish13, Monday, 5 October 2020 17:49 (three years ago) link
it was pretty depressing to begin with!
― Julius Caesar Memento Hoodie (bendy), Monday, 5 October 2020 23:27 (three years ago) link
i had no idea nina nastasia was so good! i loved dogs when it came out but never stayed listening to her subsequent albums, she got better and better! you follow me and outlaster are incredible. i wish someone would encourage her to write a stage musical tho lol, like a dark gothic brecht play with a zombie apocalypse.
― plax (ico), Sunday, 31 January 2021 17:39 (three years ago) link
Funny! Yes she is awesome- any reason why you stopped paying attention despite you loving the one album at the time?
― Evan, Monday, 1 February 2021 04:37 (three years ago) link
They don’t call her Nina “Nasty Nas” Nastasia for nothing
― longtime caller, first time listener (man alive), Monday, 1 February 2021 05:06 (three years ago) link
there's no singer songwriter I hold in higher regard
― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Monday, 1 February 2021 05:23 (three years ago) link
― Evan, Monday, 1 February 2021 04:37 (eleven hours ago) bookmarkflaglink
oh probably a lot of reasons, like my focus shifting to club music (my 20s) and subsequent things i heard not having the same bright immediate ring of dogs. i think its probably a good thing as lots of the things i've been enjoying are shaped by subsequent things i've gotten interested in and i don't think i would have really appreciated this music in the same way if i'd heard it when it came out
― plax (ico), Monday, 1 February 2021 16:11 (three years ago) link
Outlaster came out more than a decade ago now. :(
― pomenitul, Monday, 1 February 2021 16:12 (three years ago) link
i wish someone would encourage her to write a stage musical tho lol, like a dark gothic brecht play with a zombie apocalypse.
This is a good idea. There's a big Brecht/Weill thing going on with Outlaster.
― Heavy Messages (jed_), Monday, 1 February 2021 17:44 (three years ago) link
― pomenitul, Monday, February 1, 2021 11:12 AM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink
scary!
― Evan, Monday, 1 February 2021 17:51 (three years ago) link
she was trying to warn us :(
― stimmy stimmy yah (Simon H.), Monday, 1 February 2021 17:52 (three years ago) link
I miss anticipating her next record a lot, but after all these years, there's also an appeal to the tidiness of six albums so good I cant choose among them, evenly spaced over a specific decade, produced with the same raw sheen, as though there was a Felt-like manifesto she completed.
― Citole Country (bendy), Monday, 1 February 2021 18:36 (three years ago) link
i think she's got a new album coming out this year?
― plax (ico), Monday, 1 February 2021 19:11 (three years ago) link
She posted on her bandcamp in October that she was working on something and would try to get it out in the "next few months" but nothing has been announced yet.
Per what I said in 2018
I'm excited but until I see a release date I'm not exactly holding my breath. I mean I saw her playing new songs in 2012.― chr1sb3singer, Friday, February 23, 2018 1:49 PM (two years ago) bookmarkflaglink
― chr1sb3singer, Friday, February 23, 2018 1:49 PM (two years ago) bookmarkflaglink
― chr1sb3singer, Monday, 1 February 2021 20:00 (three years ago) link
There's a big Brecht/Weill thing going on with Outlaster.
― Heavy Messages (jed_), Monday, 1 February 2021 17:44 (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink
yes and a real one, not a plinky plonky campy pastiche where everyone has smeared kohl around their eyes, big knickers and a bowler hat! there's a great sense of theatricality, dark narratives richly colorful and the songs on outlaster in particular are so integrated with the arrangements im obsessed. Outlaster and you follow me are the two i like the most i think
― plax (ico), Tuesday, 2 February 2021 11:19 (three years ago) link
she's also an interesting guitar player and her playing is v important to you follow me, more than i expected as i feel like she's promoted so much as a 'songwriter'
― plax (ico), Tuesday, 2 February 2021 11:24 (three years ago) link
six albums so good I cant choose among them
I definitely have favorites among them, but they are all pretty great, and I love how each album really has its own identity. She has worked within the same basic indie-folk construct but done very different things with it sonically.
― a man often referred to in the news media as the Duke of Saxony (tipsy mothra), Tuesday, 2 February 2021 15:00 (three years ago) link
We polled them a year ago and there were a handful of clear favourites but her level of consistency is indeed remarkable:
Nina Nastasia: We Never POLLed
― pomenitul, Tuesday, 2 February 2021 15:02 (three years ago) link
I've been really loving "Outlaster" recently, which I got when it came out and liked but it never really stuck with me and it has been the NN record I reach for the least, I probably haven't spun in 5 yrs or longer.
Anyway, it sounds great to me now.
― chr1sb3singer, Tuesday, 27 April 2021 14:34 (two years ago) link
i only recently got into her albums recently (having heard and liked dogs when it came out but none since) and with them all lined up to choose from outlaster and you follow me were the ones that have grabbed me most
― plax (ico), Tuesday, 27 April 2021 14:48 (two years ago) link
she's one of the few artists where at various times every one of her records has been my favorite at one point in time
― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Tuesday, 27 April 2021 18:51 (two years ago) link
Listening to Run to Ruin right now for the first time in a bit, she's so good.
― a man often referred to in the news media as the Duke of Saxony (tipsy mothra), Thursday, 29 April 2021 00:50 (two years ago) link
not sure if these have been posted, but they're awesome
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hcsVKelBOuwhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HgXwl2Sjqnkhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6M6x_QYrPo
― just sayin, Thursday, 29 April 2021 02:06 (two years ago) link
I haven't ever seen these available anywhere else - so I made a playlist of a few unreleased and rare songs. They're pretty incredible, especially "World of Dirt"
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLVL0o0rTY5ypolWuNYMqPDEEnLzoPXZGb
― JifMoose, Wednesday, 19 May 2021 21:29 (two years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0dyptWKLd8Y
― JifMoose, Wednesday, 19 May 2021 21:30 (two years ago) link
old stuff reissued on bandcamp!signed to Temporary Residence!touring with Mogwai!
https://pitchfork.com/news/nina-nastasia-digitally-reissues-3-out-of-print-albums/
― sean gramophone, Tuesday, 1 March 2022 00:16 (two years ago) link
YES!!!!!!!!!!!!
― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Tuesday, 1 March 2022 13:16 (two years ago) link
Great news! Those are my 3 favorite albums of hers (love the first 3 too, of course).
― a man often referred to in the news media as the Duke of Saxony (tipsy mothra), Tuesday, 1 March 2022 14:59 (two years ago) link
i fell out of listening to her after dogs which i liked a lot at the time. i ended up listening to all of them recently and outlaster and you follow me are the two standouts in my opinion
― plax (ico), Saturday, 5 March 2022 19:28 (two years ago) link
Agreed those are my top picks also blackened air
― Evan, Saturday, 5 March 2022 20:11 (two years ago) link
Fantastic!!! Run to Ruin also great.
― JifMoose, Monday, 7 March 2022 19:31 (two years ago) link
new album july 22
https://www.clashmusic.com/news/nina-nastasia-announces-new-album-riderless-horse
― mookieproof, Monday, 4 April 2022 13:48 (one year ago) link
it says there that this kennan gudjonsson produced all her albums but I and wikipedia thought it was steve albini?
― plax (ico), Monday, 4 April 2022 13:59 (one year ago) link
Kennan was the producer, Steve recorded/engineered everything
― chr1sb3singer, Monday, 4 April 2022 14:14 (one year ago) link
i mean that's how i would have guessed it based on what i know of albini but wikipedia lists him as the only producer on every single record. on discogs, gudjonsson is listed as producer on two of them (on leaving and you follow me) but most don't list a producer at all. He's listed in various capacities on all of them (e.g. musical director on outlaster)
― plax (ico), Monday, 4 April 2022 17:24 (one year ago) link
The text of that announcement was … not what I was expecting. Were the darker elements widely known? I remember a lot of grief and loss at the time of Kennan’s death over at the Electrical forum, but no hint of this stuff.
― assert (matttkkkk), Monday, 4 April 2022 18:52 (one year ago) link
Good news on the album (and "Just Stay in Bed" is lovely). Quite blindsided too by the details in the announcement.
― JifMoose, Monday, 4 April 2022 22:50 (one year ago) link
Longer description in the press release
https://ourculturemag.com/2022/04/04/nina-nastasia-announces-new-album-riderless-horse-shares-new-single-just-stay-in-bed/
― JifMoose, Monday, 4 April 2022 22:59 (one year ago) link
I don't want to comment on her personal life (though I hope her return to music is a sign that she's isn't in such a dark place these days), but this daytrotter writeup has haunted/irked me for years. the writer spends the first paragraph and a half introducing us to the concept of the Svengali before insisting that Kennan and Nina definitely don't (really, they don't!) have a Svengali-Trilby relationship
Gudjonsson does not perform with Nastasia live, but acts as her manager and best friend, contributing to her art after the lights have cooled and the crowds have dissipated. Serving her songwriting this way makes it difficult to know where everyone starts and ends and what we're left with is Nastasia earning the distinction and reaping all of the credit. So we'll give it to her -- happily. It's that voice anyway that has us riveted.
don't most singer-songwriters reap most or all the credit for a creative process that owes a lot to the support/input of their loved ones and collaborators? and is it really fair to claim that Nina takes "all the credit" when she has publicly acknowledged Kennan's efforts (but hasn't gone so far as to give him songwriting credits)? Nina's case is really only noteworthy if one has previously operated under the assumption that she was a solitary, 100% self-made genius, or if one is loathe to celebrate the achievements of a female artist unless it's abundantly clear that she doesn't owe the bulk of her success to the men in her life. tbf it's probably unhealthy and spiritually destructive to waste so much energy on bad faith readings of terrible music writing
I'm currently debating whether to see her open for Mogwai in Boston in a few days. I've never even heard Mogwai and idk if it's worth it to attend a concert chiefly for the opening act
― in walked airbud (unregistered), Tuesday, 5 April 2022 00:18 (one year ago) link
I don't care about Mogwai, but for her I'd go.
― dow, Tuesday, 5 April 2022 00:29 (one year ago) link
Last time I saw Mogwai I ended up a bit bored, but their newest record is a bit of a latter peak and they are very good at building giant sounds (wear hearing protection!). If you know you'll enjoy NN I don't think Mogwai will wreck it for you.
― assert (matttkkkk), Tuesday, 5 April 2022 00:39 (one year ago) link
i don't think there's anything to be gained by trying to divine kennan's influence out of a press release
― mookieproof, Tuesday, 5 April 2022 01:09 (one year ago) link