In the window around the release of their new album, Brooklyn indie rock mainstays Nada Surf are staying plenty busy. Yesterday, they not only dropped the nostalgia-soaked clip for “When I Was Young,” but they also stopped by Late Night With Jimmy Fallon for a pair of performances. Watch the video and performance clips of “Waiting For Something” and “Hi-Speed Soul” below.

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Veteran Brooklyn indie rockers Nada Surf will release their new album The Stars Are Indifferent To Astronomy later this month, and we’ve already posted their song “When I Was Young.” Below, you can use the widget to stream or download another track from the album, a sparkling power-pop chug called “Waiting For Something.”

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Brooklyn indie veterans Nada Surf have a new album called The Stars Are Indifferent To Astronomy coming out early next year, and they’re now offering up an early preview called “When I Was Young.” It starts out as a delicate acoustic flutter and gradually builds into a more muscular crash-rock song. And just like every other recent Nada Surf song, it shows absolutely no sign that these are the guys who showed up in the MTV Buzz Bin with “Popular” nearly two decades ago. Enter an email address into the widget below to download the track.

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When Nada Surf announced their all-covers album if i had a hi-fi, it seemed like it would be a low-key affair for the band, especially since they were touring their own material and doing shows dedicated to playing their own discography front-to-back (that’s almost like doing a tribute show for yourself, right?). Their covers album isn’t out until June, but it looks like their current tour (which ends on the 30th at Sasquatch) has actually been all about if i had a hi-fi. Photographer Andrew Youssef says the band reasoned that they took so long to record their covers record, that they might as well tour with it. Youssef also notes that with covers like theirs of Depeche Mode’s “Enjoy The Silence,” the band was able to, as they say on American Idol (R.I.P.), “make it their own.” Former Walla-BTW Telekinesis opened the show and even did a cover of their own, Teenage Fanclub’s “The Concept.”

Nada Surf are releasing a covers record, and this Bill Fox cover indicates that they’ve got pretty great taste. For those who don’t know, Bill Fox was part of legendary ’80s Cleveland band the Mice. After some solo albums he stopped doing music entirely. An article in The Believer‘s 2007 music issue (with a CD put together by some dude named Brandon Stosuy) revealed that Fox was working as a telemarketer in Cleveland. The article’s author never met Fox, and Fox asked that the story not be republished on the internet (which means, technically, that it doesn’t exist). Nada Surf’s cover of “Electrocution” keeps pretty close to the original, because it’s kinda hard to top the fuzzy AM radio/powerpop vibe that permeates Fox’s version. if i had a hi-fi also includes covers of Kate Bush, Arthur Russell, and Spoon. Here’s the Bill Fox take:

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Popular Brooklynites and Pete pals Nada Surf buzzed our day party on Thursday with a three-man acoustical jam. We showed you images earlier … now we bring you the sounds. Here’s Let Go‘s “Happy Kid” and its “I’m just a happy kid / stuck with the heart of a sad punk / drowning in my id” sloganeering. They might’ve released that record way back in 2003, but we still felt the same way when they played it.

Interested in filling a rock club to the rafters? Simple: Just have Nada Surf and Destroyer play back to back sometime. People were stuffed asses to elbows at Volume night club for the first day of the Stereogum/PASTE party, although the free libations helped ease the heat. Nada did it unplugged-style, Destroyer most definitely did not — and both destroyed. Peter Morén rounded out the day with the more blissful moments of the prematurely approved The Last Tycoon (how good is “My Match”?), with the help of some local Austin musicians on strings.

Later in the night was Islands, which is looking like top contender for best set of South by Southwest. More on that in a few.

The best reason to skip dinner yesterday was the Lou Reed tribute at the FADER Fort at dusk: this was the only place in Austin you were gonna see Yo La Tengo, MMJ, Mark Kozelek, Joseph Arthur, and Dr. Dog cover Lou Reed songs, with Lou Reed in attendance. Not only that, though — the man himself graced the stage, at one point duetting with a newly resurgent Moby (his DJ sets have been the talk of the town this year). We’ll have some video of the Moby-fied “Walk On The Wildside” later. Huge thanks to Abbey Braden for photographing the FADER festivities. Her pics and ours this way..

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If you’re a party hopper, today is your day. Well if you allow us to be biased for a minute … you probably should head to Volume for our party (My Brightest Diamond, Nada Surf, Destroyer, Peter Morén, et al) and not leave until they stop pouring the free SoCo. But if you have something against those bands and free liquor, we suppose there are some other ways to while away your time, and we’ve got the picks of the latter waiting below. (Motorhead’s playing the Vice thing(!), Robyn’s playing the Filter party, etc.) If you’re plotting the perfect day, stay at Volume ’til Peter Morén closes it down, then head to the FADER Fort for their tribute to Lou Reed featuring Mark Kozelek, Yo La Tengo, My Morning Jacket, Moby, Thurston Moore, Dr. Dog, and more. It won’t be too tough to get in or anything.

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So, we’re pretty excited.

Three days, great bands, free drinks all day, new club on 6th St. (right next door to Emo’s). There go all your excuses not to be there. More info? This way…

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Every week, we dig in the archives for videos that we find noteworthy, memorable, or just unbelievably stupid. And then, Jon McMillan breaks ‘em down for you. Why Video Hangover? Because when you watch as many videos as we do, you’re going to feel it afterwards.

“Popular”
Nada Surf, 1996

Nada Surf explores the fine line between nostalgia and post-traumatic stress disorder.

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