The Nadas
Transceiver
© 2003 Apollonian Music (827848234523)
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The Nadas blend touches of jangley folk pop and straight ahead rock and roll
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"The fans, the fans, the fans," says Mike Butterworth, when asked what has kept his band going a remarkable 10 years. "The fans... and a lot of coffee," adds Jason Walsmith. Certainly, it has not been easy, but The Nadas have carved a thriving career out of their college pastime, consistently filling clubs across the country and selling more than 50,000 albums through their own Authentic Records.
The Nadas' latest achievement is "Transceiver," their fourth studio album and sixth overall. Produced by Todd and Toby Pipes of Deep Blue Something and mixed by Stuart Sikes (The White Stripes, The Promise Ring), the record is the band's best yet blend of Butterworth's rock 'n' roll intuitions and Walsmith's alt-country roots. If John Mayer and Ryan Adams collaborated on an album, it might sound something like "Transceiver."
From the opening "Drowning," a Beatles-influenced gem (and one of few Nadas songs written by Butterworth and Walsmith together), to the closing "One More Chance," a tearjerker with a numbing pulse, "Transceiver" is easily the band's most entertaining and compelling record to date.
"The Pipes had fantastic energy and great ideas, well, except for the whole kazoo through the Marshall episode, " jokes Butterworth, recalling the three weeks spent in the Dallas studio owned by the hit-making brothers. "Even though it drove us partially nuts, they were able to realize the finished song before the pieces were all in place. Our attitude ended up being, 'OK, we'll try it and see how it turns out.' We didn't rerecord anything."
The adventurous sessions yielded an impressive variety of songs. There's dance floor ditties, like the groovy "Feel Better" and the bluegrassy "The River," next to tender relationship tales, like "Now That I Found You," a duet between Walsmith and his wife Stephanie, and "California II," a sequel to a classic from 2000's "Coming Home."
And, like all Nadas albums, "Transceiver" features a few instant hits, most notably "Diner" and "Hold On." The latter includes a melody played on an antique Casio keyboard, just one example of the bold sounds found on the record. The best, though, is the CB chatter heard at the beginning of "Drowning," which was accidentally recorded when vintage amplifiers picked up muffled conversations from truck drivers crossing a nearby interstate.
The album's title comes from that recording tidbit, as in a "Transceiver" is a device that both transmits and receives. However, one could say the same about The Nadas. Since Butterworth and Walsmith joined forces a decade ago in Ames, Iowa, the band has been both transmitting (music) and receiving (motivation -- from the fans, the fans, the fans).