From The Desk Of Nada Surf’s Matthew Caws: Big Dipper’s “Heavens” And “Craps”

Nada Surf’s Matthew Caws isn’t big on organized religion, but when the spirit does move him, it always has a soundtrack. And that soundtrack has come a long way over the last 16 years. You’d be hard-pressed to discern so much as a whiff of snarky 1996 hit “Popular” amid the bracing, impeccably crafted power pop the trio hammers out with breathless efficiency on its new release, The Stars Are Indifferent To Astronomy (Barsuk). The transportive power of music is something Caws touches on quite frequently on Astronomy—that is, when he can tear himself away from more pressing concerns for our fucked-up planet. Caws will be guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our new Q&A with him, and check out our cover story on Nada Surf in last month’s issue of MAGNET.

Caws: If Merge hadn’t put out a Big Dipper anthology, I would have wanted to save up money to do so myself. Incredible Boston band. I went to see them whenever I could. Bill Goffrier (one of two guitarist/singers, along with Gary Waleik) put stencils of helicopters all over his shirt. They had a song that was a conversation with Abe Lincoln. They had a song called “Ron Klaus Wrecked His House,” about a friend whose house had been condemned and who had a demolition party (“Who threw the doors out the window?/Who threw the windows out the door?/Who brought the outside to the inside?/And the ceiling to the floor?”). Their harmonies were haunting, their guitar playing was thrilling. There are some moments of fretwork that I am still trying to figure out all these years later. Essential albums: Heavens and Craps.