So…..I have a story about how I learned about Wild Nothing.  My son called me a couple of weeks ago to tell me about this new band, Wild Nothing, that he was super excited about. I consider myself to be relatively hip, from a musical perspective, so I was shocked I had never heard about them.  The excitement in my son’s voice convinced me that I needed to check them out.  Here is a transcript of our text messages from a couple of days later.

Me – I bought Wild Nothing on Amazon last night (MP3 download).  Listened to it yesterday at work and am listening again this morning.  I couldn’t tell you what any of the songs are about but I can tell you that when I am listening I feel like I am just floating through space in a happy little bubble 🙂

My Son – I know….right!  My only complaint is that the songs run together just a lil.  But they are all super pretty. From what I have heard of his first record (live versions of those songs) it’s killer too.  The songs running together makes it a lil much sometimes to listen to the album as a whole.

And that, my friends, pretty much tells you almost everything you need to know!  Notice I said almost……here is the rest of the story and some music to go with it.

Wild Nothing is Jack Tatum  (with a backing band for live performances).  Jack has written and performed music that some people refer to dream pop since 2009.  Confused about what dream pop is…..think British 80’s synth pop and that will get you close.  Wild Nothing’s latest album, Nocturne, is the one that I have been listening to and it’s where I would suggest that you start as well.  Here’s a short excerpt from the Pitchfork review of the album that will provide you a little more insight.

Entire labels and local scenes are dedicated to preserving the era Nocturne evokes– lacquering the malaised vocals, getting the right reverb plates, and hoping that aesthetic identification is more important than writing melodies that stick. Tatum, however, is a songwriter first who just happens to work in this medium. His vocals are put to the forefront to give the listener a clearly marked place to return, and his melodies are smoothly curved, like a small divot at which the rest of the arrangements can dig deeper. The hopscotch verse melody of “Shadow” works in tandem with an insistent, four-note motif doubled on lead guitar and violin. On “Counting Days”, a simonized harmony serves as the chorus, but the little guitar countermelody that darts around it is the hook. Tatum understands the semantics of this stuff.

So, with Pitchfork as an introduction, here are a couple of songs from the album: Shadow and Counting Days……

Brilliant…….yes?

I hope you are convinced……..but if you aren’t aren’t I have a special surprise for you.   You, my loyal readers, can listen to the whole album (see below) before you decided to buy it.  You will eventually decide to buy it….music this pretty doesn’t come along every day!

As always….let me know what you think!