NINA NASTASIA

hmm, lumbering shoegaze-not-shoegaze post-rock isn't really my bag, but their new album sounds alright based on the 5 minutes or so I sampled, so I could see myself enjoying their set well enough. and it's doubtful that Nina will perform as a headliner in my area anytime soon. still not totally sold on the idea, but leaning toward it now

(xpost)

i don't think there's anything to be gained by trying to divine kennan's influence out of a press release

fair point

In that situation, I'd rather hear her whole set, then leave if I didn't get into Mogwai pretty fast----and not have to listen to them (or go to the bathroom and then walk the hall) until she fuckin finally appeared (if I were even allowed to leave and come back)(sorry Mogwai, hope your new album and show are indeed better).

Not likely, of course, esp. as long as she's been away, that they'd be opening for her, so let's take advantage of that!

ha, I take it that you had a bad experience at one of their shows? Nina's definitely opening for them at this show, so my best bet is to leave early if Mogwai don't do much for me. I really just wish I had a better handle on post-rock concertgoing etiquette. is it acceptable to walk out of their show in mid crescendo, or should I leave prior to the crescendo (if I can anticipate it) or just wait it out until the next quiet bit? they look like very sensitive lads, so I'd hate to hurt their feelings in any way

https://i.imgur.com/K86Oj5s.jpg

Better to leave while it's loud, then: they might notice when everything's so quiet you can hearboots shuffling away. I haven't had a bad experience at their show, and they might be better live, as many are; I just liked one of their albums, then when I came back, around ballot time, the thrill was gone and then some. It happens.

I've never seen 'em at all, to be clear.

What I take from the press release: her return is even more remarkable than previously thought, and we should see her while we can. Now, maybe she'll turn out to be a regular Willie Dylan with the touring, but maybe not.

hey on an ilm hiatus until i learn how to not argue about music on the internet but i did want to stop by and say that i saw nina open for mogwai last night and it's one of the greatest things i've ever experienced, was riveting - she held the crowd in silence, reminded me a bit of leonard cohen at the isle of wight.

was very emotional and triumphant, she seemed so happy and none of the sometimes unstable, uneasy stage banter she's had in the past. she even brought her new dog out onstage. she thanked the (surprisingly attentive and quiet) crowd and mogwai several times, she really seemed to be enjoying it.

she mostly played the new album, with some older favorites, notably "superstar" off run to ruin and "why don't you stay home?" from on leaving.

so many of the songs now take on a different meaning, the shadow of his suicide was felt all throughout the set and in the new songs. her voice and guitar playing were incredible, this might have been the best time i've seen her.

was a magical night, i caught about a half hour of mogwai - who were actually good and better than i remembered - but after what was almost a religious experience for me i just wasn't im the mood for a rock band.

if you have the chance, you should go see her on this tour. though, based on last night, i'm much more hopeful she will be more regularly active in the future.

also a good reminder that i don't know if any artist really touches me emotionally the way she can, she's such a distinctive writer, from both a musical and lyrical perspective, to me she's up there with any great songwriter you can name.

i didn't want to spend the set with a phone in my hand, but filmed the first song, an acapella i'm assuming from the new album, was awestruck

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_gYeK2VyFs8

Wow, she sounds amazing. Was the whole set solo or did she have other musicians for parts of it?

Fucking hell, guess she already played NYC.

Just her and a guitar, had the whole room in the palm of her hand

Do you know what that song is called?

No she didn't say any song titles before she played, wish I would have thought to try go take a pic of the setlist

guess I gotta wait until july. I'm such a sucker for that type of Irish/American plains type sad unaccompanied ballad

Hope she's going to tour again after the release, seems weird to tour in support of a new album three months before it's available

she mentioned that mogwai just asked her and she said yes, seemed like maybe more of a life thing than a marketing thing given where she's coming from, but like i said i'm more much more hopeful that this won't be the last chance i had to see her which is sort of how i went into it

Thanks for popping in to share that. Glad to hear it!

Thanks for sharing this, she sounds really incredible, voice very strong.

Discovered something ... interesting. The release on Bandcamp has a preview of the tracklisting - but it's too low resolution to make out the lyrics. But it seems their image server can be persuaded to serve up a high-resolution version which is quite readable. For example - I can see the beautiful acapella track UMS shared above isn't on the new album (so double thanks for posting it).

Here's the low resolution image - does anyone want me to post the high resolution one (or is it too spoiler-y)?

https://f4.bcbits.com/img/0028472930_10.jpg

New This is Love song released on Bandcamp - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zB2AyI_bCi0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zB2AyI_bCi0

Bloody hell - https://www.theguardian.com/music/2022/may/12/songwriter-nina-nastasia-abuse-grief-psychosis-john-peel-steve-albini-laura-marling

sad story.

does anyone know what the canadian band she's working with is?

I've registered here just to say thanks to you all. This thread has been the most comprehensive resource online for Nina's limited activity this past decade. All that stuff about Kim Deal and the 2016 art show and the Daniel Knox collaboration was news to me, so thanks.

As ecstatic as I am that Nina is releasing a new album, a lot of these recent developments have been heartbreaking. I was in contact with Kennan via email for about a year from mid-2011 or so. Like a lot of email pen-pals, our conversations just naturally ran their course, to the point where there was nothing left for us to say to one another. But the guy was hilarious. He would often interject our conversations with random asides that would genuinely have me in stitches. I mean... he was filthy AF, but there was never anything mean about what he said. Other than the black humour, he seemed gentle and kind, and appreciative of my work elsewhere. I really grew to like him, and for that brief time considered him a friend. All this stuff... it's been a lot to process, you know?

Anyway, as a thanks to everyone here, I've uploaded a goody on YouTube for anyone who's interested. This is Nina's solo April 2012 gig at Whelan's in Dublin, Ireland. Her last full gig for a decade, before her tour with Mogwai. It's audio only.

Here's the link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFu0psZCd7E

It's Nina acoustic, so it's a fairly "quiet" gig. I genuinely don't think the sound guy had that tiny amp turned on most of the show. If it was on, it was set at a minimal volume. There was an obnoxiously creaky door that the staff occasionally used, and you can sometimes hear the sound of the barman loudly opening glass bottles, and during the very quiet moments in-between songs you can hear the distant thumping of idiotic dance music from the bar next door... but aside from all that, the sound is fine. ;)

There's only one truly previously unreleased song performed. That song is called "Marry Me", which I uploaded it separately for your convenience:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q49ZZCoX7WQ

Sorry for rambling. Hope you all enjoy the bootleg. Best wishes.

thank you so much for posting and for sharing, Homeostasis.

That's awesome, thanks!

And condolences and sympathies are for everything with Kennan. That is a lot to process.

Really great, thanks so much for posting these Homeostasis. For years I had the tune of "Marry Me" rattling around in my head - I saw Nina performing it as an opener to a gig in Bristol in 2010, but of course couldn't find it anywhere. It says something that the songs are so striking that years later "come now and come quickly" is immediately recognisable.

Nina performed some of these songs on a small set at the Electrical Audio anniversary back in 2017. The recordings have disappeared from youtube, but I've got them downloaded - I can load them back up if people are interested.

Thank you so much you guys for posting the live songs by Nina .they are flipping amazing. It’s kinda incredible that she has so many songs floating about not captured on record. I’ve been a fan since the blackened air was on the virgin listening post. Ugly face from peel acres was when the penny dropped.I’ve been devoted ever since. Like all you I was overjoyed when I heard the news of Nina’s return but also sad when I heard the news of what happened. I’ve caught her many times in uk always incredible …except the famous gig where her guitar was fucked up …

It’s amazing how Nina has been so honest in recent interviews about her like and I just feel bad the I had no idea how much she had suffered for the music and been really broke sometimes ..anyway really hope she comes to uk

Also I’m really interested to hear so many people with reservations about Mogwai ….in uk they get universal adoration from press and punters alike but I find them boring in the most part.lol

Again thanks for posting the live Nina stuff and here’s to the new album

Jif moose please upload any other songs you have mate 🙏🙏🙏🙏😇

Hi David, no problem - I've been digging through my hard drive and come up with these couple of interview/performances, which I don't think are available anywhere online any more. No totally new songs, but another rendition of "Where We Go", which was unreleased.

First one is from the now defunct RockFeedback TV back in 2010, mostly stuff from Outlaster, performing 4 songs with Matt Szemela:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0DAPjKXa78

Looking back I was amazed to see the other one actually discussed on this thread way back in 2012 - looks like MaresNest worked on engineering it. This is the Arctic Circle radio (on Resonance FM) - very interesting interview this, and lovely performances:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-03Z2BOfbM

Oh look, it's my old studio. Yeah, I engineered that.

That was a fabulous day, they both stayed on afterward. I bought a bottle of whisky for Nina as a thank you and we all hung out for a few hours sipping with her and Kennan.

Wow thanks MaresNest, it's a great recording

I think I have the songs somewhere in the archive I created, if you'd like them without the compression.

Oh yes - that would be really fantastic. Very much appreciated!

XP to David, I wonder if the gig where her guitar fucked up was at Cafe Oto, it was a super warm day and the side door was open to her left to let cool air in and there was a dyson fan on top of the piano on her right and coupled with the humidity it was playing merry hell with the guitar's tuning.

My mate went to see her play the day after our Arctic Circle session and said she was a bit all over the place and I kinda got the blame for buying her the bottle of whisky the day before (our session was on a weekend afternoon). I remember Kennan jokingly saying, 'Go easy, you're gonna be drunk as shit'

Hi I remember she was good at cafe oto .it was very hot I remember .I also saw her at a private gig she did above a pub just for fat cat subscribers. Again amazing . The gig where the guitar was all off was definitely with Jim white. And his drums were too loud ….members of the audience tuned the guitar but to no avail…. I saw her at the bush hall in London and we all sat on the floor and it was like some school assembly and she was the most talented music teacher

Jiffmoose thank you so much for uploading these ..great interviews …I tuned into resonance to here her …wonderful stuff

That interviewer looks smitten makes me smile .. maresnest I think the gig where nina guitar failed was the scala in London

members of the audience tuned the guitar but to no avail

Well I just heard the new song afterwards and it’s wonderful , sad ,and honest ,

Cheers David - enjoy!

Wow, yeah that new song is quite something

There's a good-sized new interview on Stereogum - https://www.stereogum.com/2189722/nina-nastasia-riderless-horse/music/

Great interview. Glad Nina is loving life and looking to the future ….

I never looked for biographical details during her 00s run, and maybe they weren't available - this interview makes it sound like she didn't share much before.

I'm finding it really heavy to learn this backstory. I had no idea the records were such a collaboration. As I learn that Gudjonsson contributed so much but with problematic intensity, that beloved run of albums suddenly feels much different, like a weird reveal in a plot-heavy movie. The blackened air, the small rooms, the details of hurt feel much less metaphorical, much closer to the means that created the tracks. I'd taken her storytelling to be a reflection of memory, since she wasn't young when she started recording. But it sounds like the suffocation and survival instinct was active as the songs were created. That they edited and refined such personal narratives together shows this frightening self-awareness of the relationship. I guess that explains how the albums could be coal black without being despairing - the music was the cause and the solution to the controlling and obsession.

Hi bendy great post you pretty much said it for me .I feel I was naïve. I thought here’s this lovely lady singing amazingly with such a happy relationship .it’s hard to live with a perfectionist .and someone so critical that you stop making music altogether just to keep the peace..Nina has been candid like never before and it’s now it’s going to be weird listening to those songs again knowing what we know.. weirdly. I didn’t love the last album I thought it was too heavy handed on the orchestration. Anyway the new stuff sounds good ..I really think the best will come in a few years ..just hope she keeps making music. Lord knows it’s hard to make a living from it …

Getting some great press with this record.

It looks like there's something in the new issue of Uncut. The website just says "Nina Nastasia: Album by album with the Californian songwriter." I assume that means a feature/interview where Nina gives talks about all her previous records. Will pick it up if I see it somewhere.
https://www.uncut.co.uk/publications/magazines/uncut-august-2022-138845/

Also an interview with the Italian version of Rolling Stone:
https://www.rollingstone.it/musica/interviste-musica/nina-nastasia-musica-dopo-un-trauma/643516/

There's not much we haven't read in the English interviews with The Guardian and Stereogum. Main take away was a paragraph about Nina's first tour, I'm assuming from after the release of Dogs but the writer doesn't say when, so it could've been the 90s. Nina wanted to do a solo acoustic tour, but Kennan was adamant she tour big venues with a 9-piece band, and the whole thing ended up costing over $30k. She was playing catch-up from the start. Sounds awful.

Also, according to Rolling Stone Italy, the album is completely acoustic: just Nina and her guitar. The last track on the record, "Creek and Chimes", is "the sound of running water". And the album wasn't recorded at Electrical Audio, but "in a kind of water tower, a beautiful circular building in New York that is also a guest house owned by a friend of mine, with a magnificent spiral staircase that goes all the way to the top."

Hope Sandoval's last album was also recorded in a circular building, one of the Martello Towers in Dublin. There's something about that environment that creats really beautiful audio dynamics: the sound just reverberates gently off the walls back in to the microphone. Naturally very church-y sounding, and sounds beautiful on headphones. Can't wait to hear it.

Thanks homeostasis. We have two Martello towers where I live .when I was young and a stoner me and my mates use to plan to buy one and turn it into a arts centre and venue….that was the plan until we came down then promptly forgot all about it. First time I saw Nina was with the full band orchestra early on and it . Sorry it skinted her …but it was awesome…it was when she toured the blackened air and every detail was lovingly reproduced…I. Was very impressed.
I can’t wait for the album ..I guess we will see …I’m happy with her and an acoustic…but it would be a shame if that was how it would be from now on which I doubt. I really liked that band sound she had going . I will try and track down the uncut magazine