surf's up

were you aware just how much nada surf rocked?

i sure wasn't. all i knew about them was their hit song back in the early-mid 90's called, i believe, "popular". it was ok, but smacked off the same "jumping-on-the-alt-rock-bandwagon" schtick that plagued much of rock music during that time. and, when i never heard another peep out of 'em, i assumed they were just another in a line of one-hit wonders from that era.

then along comes a website called pandora. it's a pretty cool idea; basically an internet radio station that you program by inputting the names of your favorite artists. the playlist is then automatically generated based on their own algorithm for figuring out what other stuff you might like, based on your selections. anyway, i started out with just one band, my all-time fave, guided by voices. i figured anything that their algorithm said was similar to GBV had to stand a decent chance of being good. and, sure enough, most of it was. then along came this song by nada surf called "imaginary friends". and i was like, "damn, who knew these guys rocked?" i did some reading up on them on-line, and saw that their last two full-lengths, let go and the weight is a gift, had gotten a lot of good reviews. so i went out and bought weight, and damned if it isn't the catchiest slice of power pop i've heard in ages. reminds me of the posies, although i'm not super-familiar with that band's catalog. anyway, check it out.

postscript - in the process of researching this post (read: looking up nada surf's URL), i learned that they are playing at the aladdin theater in portland on 2/24, along with rogue wave. hot damn!