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: My parents had colleagues and friends over for dinner relatively often, and sometimes, if there was a lull in conversation or if someone had said the wrong thing to the wrong person and there was tension to be diffused, I would be called in from my room to entertain the company with whatever rudimentary bit of guitar playing I could muster. This is how I came to play “Stairway To Heaven” (probably just the intro a few times) for Jacques Derrida, the famous French philosopher and father of deconstruction. My mother gave him his first job in New York, a guest professorship at the city university, so he was a regular visitor to our home. On another occasion, my sister presented him with a copy of the Scritti Politti single bearing his name. I can’t pretend to understand his work. I did go see him speak once, and the event consisted of his talking about the title of the lecture for an hour. I was confused, but it was very impressive.
Video after the jump.
