As luck would have it

>> Nada Surf’s guide to lasting popularity

AVENTURIERS: Nada Surf

by ERIK LEIJON

Scientifically speaking, one-hit wonders have an average shelf life of 1.2 years, with the median value being the Baha Men. Occasionally a miracle of science occurs, such as New York City-based rock trio Nada Surf, writers of the accidental 1996 talk-singing hit “Popular.” Twelve years after the release of High/Low and their subsequent dumping during the great record-label purges, Nada Surf have settled as critically acclaimed indie rockers with a loyal fanbase spanning two decades. Someone ought to write a dissertation on the unlikely survivors, who recently released album number five, the appropriately titled Lucky.

“We still play [‘Popular’] once in a while—I actually like playing it,” says Nada Surf frontman Matthew Caws. “I’ve noticed on this tour that a lot of people actually don’t know the song. We did some in-stores in France, and everyone there was 16. We have a great spread of all ages at our shows, and it makes it feel like they’re there for the music. It’s not like it was during our first tour, when it was all about the video. Basically, someone had taken a big ladle, dipped it into the MTV audience and dumped them in a club.”

Not surprisingly, “Popular” was an anomaly and never reflective of their musical tastes. One listen to Lucky, their most polished effort yet, demonstrates the group’s uncanny knack for catchy hooks and honest, often gloomy lyrics. Nada Surf today sounds like the precise moment where ’90s alternative became ’00s indie, sliding perfectly in between. The generational switch has meant even if “Popular” remains attached to mid-’90s lore, their new material has been featured on current-day high school dramas The O.C. and One Tree Hill, alongside many ephemeral bands du jour. There are few quadragenerians like Caws who can write relatable songs for two generations of music fans.

“I guess we’ve never been successful enough to be deluded into thinking we could rest on our laurels,” says Caws. “You wonder how a band can release a bad record when they’ve had success in the past, but it’s easy to have your judgment coloured after a while.”

After their follow-up record to High/Low, The Proximity Effect, was rejected by Elektra Records when the group refused to write another “Popular”-type hit, the group developed a larger fanbase in Europe, where listeners knew them more for ballads such as “Inside of Love.” They made inroads in France, in no small part due to Caws’s ability to speak French. He spent two years and a few summers in France as a child, and his mother was a professor in French literature, translating French surrealist poetry. Caws also attended the Lycée school in New York City. As a result of their popularity in France, the group has done a few area-specific covers, including Indochine’s “L’aventurier” and Françoise Hardy’s “Au fond d’un rêve doré.” Caws even wrote a French song for the France-only edition of Lucky.

Caws thinks the album title reflects him more than the group itself, which ultimately resulted in Nada Surf’s most positive and immediate album yet. “The songs are all trying to end up happier than they started. I know I’m in danger of getting into Hallmark territory, but I have a lot to feel lucky about. This album is like a photograph of those moments, to remind me of that.”

With Jealous Girlfriends at Club Soda on
Tuesday, April 8, 8 p.m., $20, all ages