NINA NASTASIA

Agree ..trying hard not no overlisten …keeping it box fresh….. it’s interesting me to imagine what songs would have sounded like if she had always been in sole control of output…

I guess this is a bit mean and pointless of me .

I have a feeling that Nina will go from strength to strength …

The Two of Us is almost an … anthem?! Amazing interiors of a relationship here.

The whole album is really a memoir. I can't think of anything else quite like it.

Anyone concerned about the album featuring just Nina's voice and a guitar need not worry. The album may be Nina solo throughout, but the difference in tempo and variation is striking. Imagine comparing an acoustic "Brad Haunts a Party" or "I've Been Out Walking", to the likes of "So Little" or "One Way Out". That's the sort of variation we're talking about on this record. It's pretty cool, and holds your attention throughout. I mean, it's not an easy record to listen to. I doubt I'll be playing this 200 times this year like I did with her first 4 albums way back when. It's too intense for that. But I did think "Wow. Holy crap. This is unbelievable." quite often when listening to it.

That being said, did anyone else here order the CD from Bandcamp? I pre-ordered it from there quite a while ago, but still haven't received an email confirmation that it's been dispatched. Looking around elsewhere, Rough Trade seem to be filling CD orders, and some copies have even been sold at Discogs. And I've not read anything about the CD being delayed. Just wondering if anyone could confirm a delay specifically with Bandcamp orders, or if I should reach out to them at this point? Thanks.

^ Nevermind. It's typical. I wrote that last night, then I come home from work earlier today to find the CD had been delivered. EU shipments are being delivered from the Netherlands, if that helps any other EU customers estimate they expect to receive their CD.

There is a big yellow sticker on the front of envelope saying "Goods not fulfilling the conditions laid down in Article 28 and 29 of the Treaty on the functioning of the European Union", whatever that means. Probably something to do with EU VAT/import duty regulations, which has severely impacted by music purchasing these past few years. Bloody bureaucracy.

To make up for the double post, I've uploaded the last Nina Nastasia rarity I have in my collection to YouTube: the Japanese version of "While We Talk".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fClwSRE8pyk

Thanks so much it’s great .Nina just did a interview with Marty it’s on you tube. 26 mins long. Apparently she’s done another album already a colaboration.
Good news eh….I think maybe brexit or something lots of my parcels have been suddenly very expensive 🙁

Thanks for pointing out the interview with 13th Floor MusicTalk on YouTube. It's nice to see a video interview after all these years. She looks a lot more confident in herself than she did when I saw her live way back when. It's really great to see, considering all that's happened.

Sounds like the collaborative album was made with a Canadian band called Florida BC. Likely the Canadian band she mentioned in an interview above? They released an album in 2020 called Salt Breaker Sand. It's on Spotify and is pretty cool. Has that Leonard Cohen/Nick Cave sort of sound. Also reminds a bit of early Cat Power. That sort of vibe.

Nina says their album's already mastered, and even that the artwork is finalized. Though I doubt it'll be released before Riderless Horse is issued on vinyl (November?). She also says she's been writing stuff for another record. At least we know we definitely won't be waiting another 12 years for a new record. ;)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ggn2WOyZsNA

Saw her at Union Pool on Saturday night. She was incredible! Really charming. She read the audience two stories she wrote, then she played her entire new album afterwards front to back.

two new songs from the riderless horse sessions!

https://ninanastasia.bandcamp.com/album/too-soon

They're good, I don't know that they add a whole lot.

Nice to hear the new songs … lots more to come ..I haven’t listened to riderless horse much ..like reading someone’s diary….I say probably being too prescious. AS ALWAYS

Hi everyone. I went to see Nina live last night. She was the best I had ever seen her….
She is always good live but seemed really at ease and played the new album in it’s entirety..bar one song ask me .(my fave 🙁).

She sang around 5 songs I’d never heard..all excellent especially a new instant classic…

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!